One day, Gerald turned up carrying his grandmother’s old shopping bag. It was simple, practical and completely unpretentious, but I loved it immediately. Gerald clearly had incredible taste, because that little bag stayed in my mind and eventually became the inspiration for one of our own.
And that is how the Gerald Bag got its name.

I love naming our bags, and some of our dresses, after people who have crossed my path and left something behind. People I have loved working with, people who have inspired me, or simply people I want to remember. Gerald is one of them. We worked together during the lockdown years, and although I don’t know where life has taken him today, his name is still very much part of Nala.

Now the Gerald is back. It is reversible, wonderfully uncomplicated and one of those bags you end up using far more than you expected. Throw it into your suitcase when you travel. Keep one in the car. Take it to the market, the beach, the supermarket or on a weekend away. Somehow, it fits just about everything.

I think of it as our old-fashioned answer to the Shupatto. Long before foldable shoppers became clever little objects of design, there was the humble grandmother’s shopping bag: useful, generous, reusable and made to be carried again and again. The Gerald comes from that same spirit.

A very practical bag, inspired by a very stylish contractor and his grandmother.

Launching in all stores on the 3rd of Oct.

We got completely distracted by the museum shop.

We’re always looking for beautiful presents to bring home from a trip, and this is one of the best places we’ve found in Shanghai. There are wonderful photography books, prints and reproductions of photographs that you would actually want to frame and put on your wall. Proper presents, rather than another souvenir that says Shanghai on it.

Then there’s the food. The Fotografiska Café Bar is integrated into the art bookshop, and downstairs you’ll also find MONA by Fotografiska, their beautiful Mediterranean-inspired restaurant with Asian influences. Think black glazed tiled floors, cameras everywhere and tables outside overlooking the Suzhou River.

We had an amazing artisanal Chinese kombucha and incredibly delicious spicy fried mushrooms. But perhaps my favourite entertainment was simply sitting outside and watching the running clubs stream past. Shanghai, it turns out, takes its running very seriously. Groups and groups of runners kept appearing along the river while we sat very happily with our kombucha and mushrooms, doing absolutely no exercise whatsoever.

And one final, very important detail: perfect toilets.

A great museum shop, great food, a beautiful place to sit by the river and, apparently, there is also an excellent photography museum upstairs.

We’ll get to that next time.

Fotografiska Shanghai
127 Guangfu Road, Jing’an District, Shanghai

These particular images are from a collaboration between Bendang Studio and Saudagar General Store, but for me, they are really an accolade to Ifzan, whom I have known for a very long time and whose creativity I have always adored.

If I remember correctly, Ifzan started experimenting with flower arrangements during lockdown, and since then he has turned it into an art form very much his own. He has an incredible eye for colour and composition, and that rare ability to look at something completely ordinary and see something else.

Here, Bendang’s beautiful handmade ceramics become part of the arrangement. Bowls, cups and plates are filled with flowers, foliage, vegetables and fruit, while humble produce is stacked and balanced into strange little sculptures and miniature totems. It is floristry, still life and sculpture all at once.

Ifzan is married to Miwa, the Japanese cook behind Masak with Miwa, so perhaps it is no surprise that food, colour, flowers and creativity seem to live so happily under one roof.

I have wanted to create something with Ifzan for years. With our new shop opening in April, I am hoping this might finally be the moment.

For now, I am simply very happy I stumbled upon his Freakebana.

Bendang Studio × Saudagar General Store

The Aloha collection has taken us from Penang to Kuala Kubu Baru to Pulau Kapas, with drawings inspired by things I noticed along the way.

One began on Pulau Kapas, a place I have been going to for years and still absolutely love. It was there that I noticed the Putat Laut, or Barringtonia asiatica, also rather wonderfully known as the Fish Poison Tree. Despite the name, it has the most extraordinary fragrant flowers, with long, delicate stamens that look almost like tassels. When they fall, they scatter across the sand like a beautiful carpet.

That flower became one of the new patterns, in the prettiest light blue and yellow. Once again, I was amazed by the colours you find in nature. Combinations I might never have thought of putting together are already there, growing happily side by side.

Other illustrations came from The Sticks in Kuala Kubu Baru, including plants spotted around the waterfall, and others from our time in Penang.

I love how something you notice for just a few seconds can end up in a sketchbook, become a pattern and eventually find its way onto fabric.

Here are some of the original illustrations, the patterns they became, and the finished prints from our second Aloha drop.

Happy Times is our world online, an archive of the stories, newsletters, launches and special moments we’ve created over the years. But it is also becoming the place where you’ll find something else: special Nala pieces, made in small quantities and sometimes available only online.

This weekend, two new stories are joining Happy Times.

First, our beautiful Kinchaku Bags. Inspired by the traditional Japanese drawstring bag, each one is handmade using fabrics selected from the Nala archives, giving past patterns a completely new life. Finished with a leather strap, every bag comes with a little coin tucked inside for good luck. So when you give a Kinchaku Bag to someone, you’re not simply giving them a bag, you’re wishing them luck in abundance.

And then, it’s game on. Our Nala tennis rackets are arriving in classic Wimbledon purple and green. There are only eight pieces of each colour, making this a very small and very special release.

This is also a little sign of what’s to come. We’ll be bringing more exclusive pieces, limited editions, archive discoveries and special launches to our website, often in quantities that won’t last very long.

So if you want to know what’s coming before it’s gone, sign up for the newsletter.

That’s where the Happy Times begin.

When we moved into our Great World pop-up, we inherited someone else's design decisions. Dark walls, black fixtures, an atmosphere that simply wasn't Nala. At first, I told myself it didn't matter. It was only temporary.

But every day I walked into the store, something felt off.

Our brand is built on one simple belief: we make our universe beautiful. If we expect our team to live that philosophy, then the spaces they spend eight hours a day in should inspire them too. Customers may not always be able to explain it, but they feel it. Our team certainly does.

The moment the black walls came down, the entire shop seemed to breathe. It felt lighter, warmer and finally like us.

The experience reminded me that beautiful spaces don't need enormous budgets. They need thoughtful choices: better lighting, the right colours, carefully selected materials, fresh flowers and the courage to remove what doesn't belong.

I'm incredibly grateful to the Great World team, our contractors and our own team for making what seemed impossible happen in less than 24 hours.

Is it perfect? Not yet. I'd still change a few things. But waiting for perfection is often the best excuse for never starting.

This renovation reminded me of something much bigger than retail.

Compromise has a way of quietly becoming the standard we accept. Until one day, we realise we've stopped creating the world we actually want to live in.

Sometimes the biggest transformation isn't building something new.

It's simply deciding you're no longer willing to compromise.