Yesterday I spent a lovely afternoon at the gorgeous home-studio of Icelandic handbag designer Hedi Jonsdottir of DAUGHTER OF JÓN. I’d been invited over to check out her new collection ‘Market Collectables’ available at Chatsworth Road Market for the month of April… 

Launched just last spring, DAUGHTER OF JÓN has a very strong, simple but beautiful aesthetic combining raw textures, classic designs and unusual materials (take a look at these stunning fish skin purses and shoppers). Hedi, a fashion design and tailoring graduate, found she felt constrained by designing for the shape and size of the body. One day discovering fish leather bags at her aunt’s, she turned her design talent to handbags. Having lived in Barcelona and Vienna before London, she picks up fabrics from different cities incorporating the flair and colours of Europe’s many cultures.

Needless to say, Hedi’s Clapton studio is absolutely stunning – filled with gorgeous design detail and decor – and flooded with incredible light. I had a new (to me!) camera – the Olympus PEN EP5, a lovely retro design in silver – to test out and so went a bit snap happy while Hedi very sweetly entertained Gus, who spent most of his time chasing down’s Hedi’s shy but beautiful cat Ronix and banging a cool robot nutcracker on the floor (I’m still mortified as he actually managed to break the handle…). Hedi, wonderfully serene in white, also let me photograph her at work, making a new bag for the market collection – each bag is one-of-a-kind and I completely fell in love with this striped flouro yellow one which I got to take home, thank you Hedi!.

The Market Collectables collection is bright, super practical and very desirable (keep this a secret, but Myles grabbed mine off me as soon as I got home to take grocery shopping) and will be available on the website at Easter, but you can get one on Sunday, and every Sunday this month, at Chatsworth Road Market for special market prices – from £18-£35. Snap one up!

Find Hedi on Twitter here and as you can see, she has a fabulous eye, so definitely check out her Instagram and Pinterest.

Hedi laying out fabric sourced from Reykjavik

If only my desk looked as perfect as this!

The Icelandic fish skins Hedi uses for many of her main collection designs

Gus had great fun playing with these toy horses, a gift from Hedi’s friend’s kids

The fated robot nutcracker…