Kempton & Co.: Déjà Vu Certainement

Finding a great bag line is tricky for boutiques. Bags are such a personal item and finding a collection that speaks to women in our area can be challenging. When Kempton & Co. landed at TSALT, the price had us holding our breath…for about a week. Then the bags started selling without as much as an introduction. Lucky me! I get to introduce a bag line that has already become a bestseller, thus my job has become more of a cheerleader at this point!Back in February, a group of us went to the shows in New York. In an effort to divide and conquer, we split up and hit shows as well as showrooms, reporting back in the evening on what we found. Tamara and Erin took the DNA (Designers and Agents) show and stumbled upon Kempton & Co., where they wrote an opening order. Then mid April the first bags arrived and sold within two weeks. The collection feels very beach-y while the signature stripe grounds the collection in a bit of East Coast prep.I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but there was something that seemed familiar about this bag collection. Kempton & Co. consists of backpacks, totes, and cross-body styles constructed from perforated leather, suede, and waxed canvas. The details all tell the story of the designer’s influences: beach-size totes, horsehair tassels, and brass bridle-influenced hardware. Make no mistake, they are even better in person. If you are anything like me, the more you find out about the collection, the more you want to be a part of their story.The designer is Fiona (I’m already in love…Fiona!! Love that name!) Kempton who was raised in a home by the sea in southwest England. Her parents owned a SCUBA diving business…these may be my long lost relatives…SCUBA, seaside home, and Brits! Fiona watched her father stitch up wetsuits and canvas fly fishing bags and was inspired to start her own business as a young girl, creating makeup bags from vintage clothing. She studied fashion design in London’s Kingston University. After graduating she moved to New York and designed for major fashion companies until she launched her own business in 2010: Kempton & Co., out of Brooklyn, NY.The hardware on the bags stems from her father’s other career as a racehorse jockey. The distressed leather and heavy waxed canvas of the horses’ rein rings are the "yang" to the ocean inspired "yin." Fiona still lives in Brooklyn with her husband and daughter and spends summers in the Hamptons. The urban beach bag collection will quench your desire for the ocean even when you’re hundreds of miles from the surf.So what about my déjà vu experience with the collection? To satisfy my own curiosity, I went back through my thousands of images in my iPhoto and found pictures from the first trip Tamara and I took to New York back in February of 2016, more than two years ago!! There in the archives were images from the Kempton & Co. booth where we had taken notes (and pictures) of these incredible bags. Fate has most certainly had a hand in this effort.So why didn’t we write the bags then you might ask. It was probably a little steep for the onset of TSALT back in the early days. Knowing your market has a lot to do with the success of a boutique business. I love how destiny was at play for Kempton & Co. to find its way to TSALT. It’s quite evident that we all agree, the collection has sea legs! You can be sure I’ll be placing a personal order before the end of summer!