Our Ethos
Designer, Emily Cheetham’s love of bags started early in life. Visiting her Granny was an opportunity for some serious dress-up fun - she’d don all of her grandmother’s kitten heeled shoes and matching bags (pristinely kept in their original boxes), adding satin gloves and then piling on colourful jewels to totter around her garden as if on the set of period drama. For a be-speckled little girl this was pure joy, escapism and where her love of accessories really began….
Emily firmly believes that the bag you carry is in fact your personal style signifier and speaks of your individuality and taste. It can be both the jumping off point for an entire outfit or it can take a more subordinate role, and act as an accessory by perfectly pairing with a look.
Emily designs bags that have chameleon qualities - whether that’s the capability to change the strap length/remove it altogether or the option to interchange with a more playful strap option; bags that give you multiple looks, with bow/without and two-faced bags that have a fanciful frilly scarf on one side and scalloped leather details on the other. Each Elyse & i bag will delight from the inside as much as the outside - hidden pockets, sweetheart shaped insides or simply our brand coin tag on the zipper. The coin is designed to bring good fortune to it’s owner!
In any scenario, Emily believes her designs’ originality will be a talking point, that their exquisite craftsmanship will be admired and that her customers connect with Elyse & i as an alternative to ubiquitous big bag brands.
Elyse & i Wins
Founder and British designer, Emily Cheetham, started her brand in London in 2005, before moving to Singapore in 2011. With no formal training in fashion, only technical courses and a natural artistic flair, Emily designs by instinct. Her eye for detail that turns an ordinary bag into something to treasure has been felt from the humble home-made bags she sewed herself in the early days to the varied collections of bags she now offers.
From early on, she accomplished a great deal - by winning the Best Accessory Designer award at her inaugural trade show which led to a collaboration of bags and belts with chain boutique HOBBS. She was then approached to become a young Designer at Debenhams and had a successful line of mens bags and accessories at the high street department store, lauding her much press and celebrity endorsements from TV’s Ben Shepherd and Gethin Jones as well as rugby star, Will Greenwood. Her signature knot bag the ‘NELL’ was short listed for the New York Handbag 101 awards two years in a row in 2009 & 2010. She was on the wholesale circuit in Europe and sold her bags to stockists in the UK, Europe, Japan, the USA & Canada as well as representing the UK Government in Japan on two trade missions.
Elyse & I bags have been carried to film premieres and Royal weddings (Prince Harry & Meghan Markle’s by guest Caroline Greenwood) or worn by influencers or actresses such as E! News Presenter Vetty King, Emma Thompson, Mel ‘Sporty Spice’ C and Jenni Falconer. The bags have appeared in fashion articles on the pages of Vogue.com, Grazia, Harper’s Bazaar, The Times, Style Magazine, Marie Claire, Glamour and many more besides.
A Commitment to Quality and Sustainability
With almost twenty years of production experience, Emily was lucky to strike up a partnership with a small, female-owned atelier in Indonesia who have made the majority of her bags for the past decade. Using time-held traditional techniques, their skillset and prowess enables Emily’s designs to be transformed into exquisite pieces of arm candy. Be that the tactile, sculptural knotted bags - the Nell, Amara, Noa, Wilbur - or the scallop trimmed Bella & Dawn purses. Even the simplest of bags like the Luna or Agnes have exciting insides and the quality of craftsmanship is astounding.
There is great pride in the brand's endeavour to be more sustainable and to practice responsible manufacturing. Their focus is on small batch production to minimise waste, avoid overstock, and above all, ensure that each piece is as unique as the person carrying it.
Elyse & i bags and accessories are packaged in reusable bags and plastic packaging is kept to a minimum. The brand has partnered with GlobalAPI and Sprout so that every $50 spent on the purchase can contribute to planting a tree. Furthermore, leftover leather is also repurposed into charming tags and bag charms that all together minimise our environmental footprint. The brand's commitment to originality aligns with our customers, who appreciate limited-edition pieces that stand out in a marketplace of mass-produced designs.