Origins Of Vida Vida
Over the past 7 years, Vida Vida has become a leading world-wide retailer of beautifully hand-crafted leather satchels, laptop bags, travel bags and handbags as well as a range of other classicly stylish items. But of course, it was not always like that.
Vida Vida was started in 2005 by husband and wife team Matt & Andreya Townsend who wanted to combine their passion for travel with their flair for design and style.
Discovering new countries, new cultures and new adventures was something that pulled Matt and Andreya together when they first met each other in Fiji, whilst exploring with friends. When they returned to the UK their romance for travelling (and each other) blossomed and they soon knew they never wanted to return to a regular 9-5 job. They wanted to continue travelling, exploring and creating so Vida Vida was started.
Branching out on her own was something Andreya had always dreamt of. With a solid background in fashion, working for global brands such as Diesel, Ghost and Replay, creating her own brand, Vida Vida, was a dream come true.
The aim of Vida Vida was to partner British design with beautiful workmanship from around the world. To achieve that, Matt and Andreya work alongside incredibly skilled craftsmen where they add their own original British style to local designs to create truly unique fashion ranges of the highest handmade quality.
Luxury Leather Satchels & Bags on Display
Vida Vida Founders - Andreya & Matt
Initially, Matt and Andreya would travel during the cold months of January to March in search of new and interesting fashion and accessory ideas and expert artisans who they could work closely with for the manufacturing of their exclusive products. This meant many wild adventures along the way such as being robbed at gun-point in the middle of the Amazon jungle or eating frozen meat in Tibet! Although they now have a baby boy, Herbie, Matt still gets to go off in search of new treasures for a couple of weeks each year, any longer and he misses his baby!
Ethical sourcing and friendship with their craftsmen are the basis of all their business relationships. This ensures ‘happy’ products and 'happy' suppliers - something that is increasingly rare these days. All Vida Vida products are handmade with care and attention to detail, which then means the customer will be happy as well!
Vida Vida now stocks leather bags, leather satchels, leather belts, glass jewellery and silver jewellery as well as a constantly changing array of new handmade products from a large number of developing and developed countries where ethical sourcing is paramount.
In the last 7 years Vida Vida has developed from a stall on London's famous Portobello Road market and “pop-up” shop sales in London and Brighton, to supplying 30 shops and running 5 stalls at fashion markets all around London as well as running a thriving online store.
Welcome to our website and our company. We really hope you like what you see.