Former Joules designer launches Harrogate handbag brand Barkworth Reeve from her kitchen table

Jennie Parker knows exactly what women want and need when carting around the trappings of their lives. After two decades designing accessories for big brands, she went solo a year ago and launched handbag and accessories brand Barkworth Reeve from her kitchen table in Harrogate.

What has emerged from her sketchbook and mood boards is a cleverly designed collection of bags for every woman – a blend of old-world luxury and contemporary flair, sprinkled with modern practicality.

After gaining a degree in footwear and accessories at Cordwainers at London College of Fashion, where former graduates include Patrick Cox, Linda (LK) Bennett and Jimmy Choo, she worked in design and product development of accessories for 20 years. For the last decade she was a senior designer for Joules, working on bags, belts, hats, scarves, gloves and socks.

She left just over a year ago to work on her own. “I owned the domain name for ten years but had not immediately been brave enough to get started.” She had a son, followed by divorce in the meantime.

Barkworth Reeve is named after her two grandmothers, who were very different characters. “They were like chalk and cheese,” she says. “It’s ironic that their names sound so good together, and it is a love letter to them too. My maternal grandmother, Gwenda Barkworth, was a personality with a big perm and red lipstick, who loved rich food, drank straight whisky and was a proper party animal. My paternal grandmother, Norma Reeve, was a homemaker who baked, made jam, loved Songs of Praise on a Sunday night and loose-leaf tea, gardened and had dachshunds, like me.”

On cue her miniature dachshund Bertie bounds into the kitchen as we speak – a design icon incarnate. Jennie knew she wanted a shape which was clean and fluid, with no strong angles, for her bags. “I had messed around sketching various shapes, Bertie kept jumping and whilst stroking his velvety head it just clicked, I sketched out the shape of his little nose and the design evolved from there. The plate shape was designed, and Bertie’s nose has been immortalised.” He was also the model for a sausage dog pencil case in the collection.

Why did she want to go it alone? “I wanted to help other women of all ages by providing beautiful and functional accessories, which look good and don’t date. During my years in the industry, I got frustrated when I looked at these incredibly expensive handbags that were glorious but weren’t practical or functional,” Jennie explains. “When you look at handbags that are pushing four figures in price, you expect them to work on every level.

“I was determined to deliver high quality products which are practical, which is non-negotiable, with a timeless aesthetic. William Morris said, ‘Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful’.

“I think products must work hard and my premise is to design out the frustrations and make life easier. I design asking ‘what does my customer need?’ Bags also must be multi-functional, to take you from doing the school drop, where you are running across the road grabbing the hands of children, to be beautiful enough to use when you are having lunch with girlfriends to having dinner.”

Frustrations she hears include super-thin shoulder straps that dig in, and the less dexterous might struggle with little zip pulls. “Most women want to look stylish and sophisticated but need practical features too. Bags have to be your faithful companion.”

Everything is designed at Jennie’s kitchen table in Harrogate. She uses mood boards, a legacy from her design days in the industry. “My motivation comes from stomping across the moors and walking my son to school in the morning – and what I need in a bag.”

The Bramham rucksack was in response to her frustration that baby bags can be unattractive and big. “I see women scrabbling around in the bottom, so I designed a zipped frame top you can open like a doctor’s bag to find things easily – compact enough for a weekend break in Paris, but you could use it to hike up a hill.”

In full grain leather with a suede interior, it features a concealed pocket. You can zip up the top for security or if you are running after a toddler, you can flip over a magnetic clasp, put a phone into a zipped pocket, another zipped compartment lies against the back for valuables, plus there are elasticated pockets and another zipped compartment. You can wear this as a rucksack or a large cross body bag.

She was a horse-mad teenager and travelled to equestrian shows. “Brands like Hermès started as saddlery makers with equestrian references, which I love,” she says. “I want to elevate the everyday into the extraordinary.”

Barkworth Reeve collections in leather, or leather and tweed, include Belton saddle bags, smaller Hackthorn cross body bags, a Bramham rucksack and a Doddington tote with multiple compartments – all named with a nod to her formative years at horse events and the countryside.

Materials from Leather Working Group (LWG) accredited tanneries are manufactured in “an incredible family-run factory” in India, who she says are brilliant employers with integrity and high ethical standards who produce quality products at a price that is affordable and economically viable at the prices she can charge.

“My aim is to produce bags that will be used for years. If you feed them with saddle soap, like you would tack, they will last.”

The latest addition to Jennie’s Barkworth Reeve collection is the shopping and commute-inspired tote bag, designed with her sisters in mind – one a barrister, Sally Faulkner, and the other a CEO, Charlotte Goy. There is space for a laptop, a pen slot, a travel mug and a key strap with a karabiner fitting means keys are always easy to locate.

Gifts suitable for Christmas include Jennie’s sausage dog pencil cases and matching keyrings, plus scarves, gloves and hats.

Barkworth Reeve’s main outlets are horse trials, country and county shows, including the Great Yorkshire Show 2024, and online.