Journal

On old favourites, beautiful things, and the next chapter of Tuttabankem.

There are some things that seem to belong to a family almost as much as the people themselves. Tuttabankem is one of ours.

I grew up with it — amongst rolls of cotton, parcels waiting to be wrapped, conversations about prints and fabrics, and the wonderfully individual clothes my parents chose and created. It was never really about fashion in the conventional sense. It was about finding beautiful things and keeping them for years; about colour, pattern and the pleasure of dressing individually.

Now, rather wonderfully, Tuttabankem has come to me.

Taking on a family business with its own history is both a privilege and a responsibility. I don’t want to reinvent it into something unrecognisable. Quite the opposite. I find myself looking backwards as much as forwards — rediscovering old pieces, returning to natural fabrics, and thinking about what made Tuttabankem special in the first place.

There has always been a certain freedom to the clothes. Kaftans worn barefoot in summer and over trousers when the evenings turn cooler. Crisp white cotton nightdresses that somehow become more lovely with washing. Silk velvet brought out year after year. Jewellery collected because it caught someone’s eye rather than because it belonged to a particular season.

I like clothes that have a life beyond the moment they are bought.

And perhaps that is what this next chapter will be about.

Tuttabankem will remain a little eclectic. There will be English gardens and Mediterranean colour; old-fashioned cotton nightdresses alongside extravagant silk velvet; one-off necklaces, unexpected prints and pieces that don’t necessarily follow the rules.

There will also be stories.

The Journal is somewhere for those — for the provenance of a fabric, an old Tuttabankem piece rediscovered in the archive, houses and gardens we love, books, travel, women with wonderful style, and the occasional glimpse behind the scenes as I find my way through this new chapter.

It won’t all be perfectly polished. I rather hope it isn’t.

After all these years, Tuttabankem is still a family affair.

And I’m very happy to be its next custodian.

Isabella x