Please visit our new website

The new home of the Notting Hill Shopping Bag online can be found here

http://www.thenottinghillshoppingbag.co.uk

 

Notting Hill Shopping Bag donates £1000 to local charities

French fashion blogger Valentine Vanesse

It has been almost a year since the Notting Hill Shopping Bag was launched, and the project has now raised £1000 for local charities and good causes.

One of the key aims of the Notting Hill Shopping Bag is to raise money for Notting Hill and at the start of this year, £500 was donated to local author Hermione Cameron who is walking from Notting Hill to Paris to raise money for the RNLI in the memory of her partner who had recently died.

This week, £500 has been donated to the Notting Hill Salvation Army. The money will be used to buy toys for the children’s drop in centre.

The Notting Hill Shopping Bags feature a range of images drawn by local school children, with each image depicting a certain aspect of Notting Hill. So far, pupils from Bevington School have drawn maps, pupils from Oxford Garden’s School have drawn market stalls and pupils from Colville School have drawn Notting Hill’s famous coloured houses.

The Notting Hill Shopping Bag has also caught the eye of French Fashion blogger Valentine Vanesse (pictured) of the website www.helloitsvalentine.com and bags have been sold to visitors from as far afield as Canada, Australia, Japan and New Zealand. Notting Hill Shopping Bags are sold from stalls and shops along Portobello Road.

What should be out next good cause? The Notting Hill Shopping Bag will soon be donated another £500 to charity, and we’d like to hear your thoughts on who or what should benefit. Email Natasha@natashacourtenaysmith.com with your ideas, or tweet us at @nottinghillbag

Notting Hill Shopping Bag loves Valentine Vanesse!

With her fantastic photography and funky look, French fashion blogger Valentine Vanesse has become the face of the Notting Hill Shopping Bag.

This week, Valentine is visiting London again and has taken some wonderful photos of herself walking around Notting Hill with her Notting Hill Shopping Bag.

Valentine will be featured on our Notting Hill Shopping Bag poster which will be up in Notting Hill Gate underground later this year. To find out more about Valentine and read her fashion blog, visit www.helloitsvalentine.com

Notting Hill Shopping Bag featured on Lookbook.nu

One of the trend-setters on lookbook.nu

We were thrilled to spot that the Notting Hill Shopping Bag is featured on the style website lookbook.nu – twice.

For those not familiar with Lookbook, its a global style network featuring ordinary people who upload their ‘looks’ for other members ‘hype’.

It’s great to see the bags featured on the website, which has helped launch many a fashion trend. We think the Notting Hill Shopping Bags are very stylish too!

Another trend-setter from Lookbook.nu

Fantastic displays by Notting Hill Shopping Bag stockists

If you’re visiting Portobello Road Market today, check out the impressive displays of Notting Hill Shopping Bags by our stockists.  Mo’s household goods stall (situated in front of the Spanish supermarket Garcia) is currently stocking a number of different designs of Notting Hill Bag, including the cupcake design, the Travel Bookshop design and the fruit stall design. You can also find a full range of Notting Hill Shopping Bags at Fusion Fashion. We love the way they display their bags both hanging outside and as you walk in to the shop.

You can’t miss the bags on Mo and Jay’s household goods stall

Notting Hill Shopping Bags in the entrance of Fusion Fashion

Oxford Gardens’ School bag goes on sale today

The fantastic design on 9 year old Ava’s bag

We’re thrilled to announce that a new bag in the Notting Hill Bag series goes on sale today. The new design features a fantastic image of a fruit and vegetable stall set in front of Notting Hill’s famous coloured houses, as drawn by 9 year old Ava, a pupil at Oxford Gardens’ School.

 

Ava’s bag is on sale now, available from our usual stockists along Portobello Road.

 

You can also buy the bag online from The Travel Bookshop. Next week, Ava will be presented with her certificate, congratulating her on winning the art competition held at her school.

Notting Hill Shopping Bag makes first charitable donation to @HermioneCameron

Hermione Cameron

Over the past few months, we’ve been asking our Twitter followers and bag stockists to vote for which local charity/good cause should receive our first donation.

The clear winner was Notting Hill based author Hermione Cameron, author of ‘Notting Hill, Behind the Scenes’, and today we donated £500 to her fund raising efforts.

On 30th March 2011 Hermione set off on a daunting 700 mile walk all the way from Paris to the Mediterranean in order to raise money for the Royal National Lifeboat Institute (RNLI) in memory of her partner Steve, who died last year.

Hermione’s book on Notting Hill

Her journey will take her along rivers, roads and even over the foothills of the Alps. She’ll arrive in Monte Carlo between 18th May (Steve’s birthday) and 29th May (his favourite event the Monaco F1 Grand Prix).

Hermione says: “I’m walking 700 miles from Paris to Monte Carlo  from March to May 2011 in memory of my partner Steve Thorogood.   The River Thames ran in Steve’s blood. He loved the open air and the sun’s rays and walking for miles along the Thames.

‘When he died last September I was overwhelmed by huge waves of emotion. All I could do was to walk and walk and walk, thinking I would see him again in all our old familiar haunts. He’d always wanted to be beside the water, to live in a houseboat or flat with a waterside view. Now I hope that his spirit can live in a Lifeboat on the Thames and help save lives on the water.

We will soon be opening a poll to choose which local charity/good cause should receive our second donation. If there is someone or something you’d like to benefit, send us a Tweet on @NottingHillBag or email natasha@natashacourtenaysmith.com

Middle Row School’s ‘Trellick Tower’ bag on sale now!

Chanay's fab design of the Trellick Tower

We’re thrilled to announce that today, a new design of Notting Hill Shopping Bag is on sale.

The new bag features a fantastic image of Notting Hill’s iconic ‘Trellick Tower’, drawn by 10 year old Chanay, a pupil at Middle Row School.

The level of entries from Middle Row school was our highest yet, and despite the Trellick Tower being a complicated building to draw, we recieved some stunning designs.

So, a huge thanks to the school’s head of Art, Mr Price, for organising the competition there, and after much deliberation, Chanay’s was chosen as the winner! Today, she received her certificate to celebrate her success.

Chanay’s bag is currently available at Notting Hill Bag stockists along Portobello Road. We think this will be a hugely popular design, so get yours quick!

@NatImbruglia gorgeous Cupcake bags featured by OK magazine

We were thrilled today to see a write up on Natalie Imbruglia’s lovely cupcake bags on the OK magazine website.

The limited edition cupcake bags are currently on sale at stalls and shops across Portobello Market, but stock won’t last long! Get yours before they go!

Next week, we are taking delivery of our first Trellick Tower bags designed by Middle Row school. The eye-catching design features a red London bus in front of the Trellick Tower as the sun sets behind. We hope you like it as much as we do!

The house bag is back!

The popular house bag is back!

We’re thrilled to announce that the hugely popular ‘house’ themed bag, drawn by 11 year old Kemi from Colville Junior School, is back!

We also have ‘map’ themed bags (drawn by 10 year old Rron from Bevington Primary School) on sale too.

Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘cupcake’ themed back will be returning next month and following that, we’ll be launching two new designs. First up will be a ‘Trellick Tower’ themed bag, drawn by a pupil from Middle Row School, and that will be followed by a ‘Market Stall’ themed bag, drawn by a pupil from Oxford Garden’s school.

Later in the year, we’ll be launching a carnival-themed bag, and an ‘Electric cinema’ bag too!

If there’s something about Notting Hill you’d like to see on a bag, let us know. And don’t forget to vote for which good local cause should benefit from bag sales.