Princess Reema brings her personal style to exclusive Baraboux collection for Harrods

The Baraboux clutch collection, made exclusively for Harrods, is truly striking. Members of the press had the opportunity to see the stunning craftsmanship at first hand this week at a special launch event held in the famous store. Arab News was delighted to have an opportunity to meet the founder and creative director of Baraboux, Princess Reema Bandar Al-Saud.
Princess Reema knows exactly what makes a handbag work for every occasion. The demands of her own lifestyle as mother, high level businesswoman and leading charity activist mean that she must combine practicality with style and elegance.
As she explained: “The idea of the whole collection is how you allow a woman to be elegant and organized and not compromise on beauty or style. When you go out in the evening, normally you have a beautiful little evening bag; it’s stunning, but you can’t fit everything in it, which is ridiculously frustrating and defeats the point of actually having a bag.”
The Reema clutch is ingeniously designed with its two separate curved compartments, allowing this style to be super sleek but capable of holding the everyday essentials of a busy life, including a mobile phone.
The two separate compartments are fastened by an elegant cuff, which slides easily so that each side can open.
The design is ingenious because it allows a woman to adapt her look to every occasion. The clutches, hand-made in Florence using the highest grade skins and beautifully crafted Italian enamel hardware, come in a wonderful color palette of jewel tones; ruby, sapphire and emerald, as well as this season’s sophisticated neutrals.
The versatility of the cuffs is a real bonus. They can quickly be placed on a favorite clutch to instantly change the look, whether to complement a particular outfit or add a touch of special glamor. For example, you might select the cuff embellished with Swarovski crystals or exquisite lapis lazuli.
Princess Reema explained that designing the exclusive Harrods collection entailed a close collaboration with Harrods’ General Merchandise Manager of Fashion Accessories, Simon Longland.
“Working with Simon on this specific collection was phenomenal for us. When he came in and saw our bags, he said, ‘I want this bag, but I want it exclusive for Harrods in croc’; he specified the leathers and the exact croc he wanted and the colors that he knew his clients would want. We worked with him closely on the stones and the Swarovski and he was part of the whole creation process, because this really is their (Harrods) story and we are very honored to have been selected to work with them,” she said.
Princess Reema explained that the focus on combining style, elegance and practicality can also be seen in the wider Baraboux collection of totes and travel bags. These feature neat pockets designed for the modern accoutrements — two phones, business cards, a space for an iPad or tablet, and so on — as well as a slender envelope-shaped “pochette” that neatly slots into the top as a useful pocket for the day, and slides out as a glam clutch for evening. They come in everything from canvas to snakeskin to sequins.
Princess Reema was herself carrying a neat little pochette, which she had quickly extracted from her tote to carry to the Harrods launch.
She commented: “For example, today, I am here for just 24 hours. I have a tote bag in the car that has this pochette which sits right in it. So I can leave everything that I have for the airport in the car and just take this — it’s two soft leather goods together with you — almost like space preservation.”
It’s clear she understands that a woman today, with so many roles to juggle, needs practical but elegant accessories that make life simpler and easier.
“I am a mother of two; I work, I travel, and I need things right where I need them — my business cards, my phone, my pen — immediately — I don’t want to claw around to find them,” she said.
She observed: “If you are a mother and you have got the kids in the car, and you have got everything in your tote bag and are going into a supermarket, you don’t need to lug everything with you. You just pull out the pochette: credit cards are in there — there is space for everything you need, and it sits on the back of your bag — there’s even space for a lipstick.”
The pochettes come in many designs and colors so you can mix and match according to mood or occasion.
“If you are feeling pink today — put a pink one in the tote, or if you are going for an evening event, put an evening one in — because you don’t always have time to go home and change. If I am at the office and I have my laptop and everything I need for work in the tote bag but I am going out for a lunch meeting and I really don’t want to take everything with me — so I can just pull out my little pochette — go and come back,” she said.
Princess Reema is passionate about every detail of the Baraboux designs.
“When I decided to create the collection I had the choice either to be hands-on or passive, and if I was going to be passive there was no point. I love it — the best part is being there. I’m in Florence at least six times a year. We have design meetings twice a year where we either upgrade products or introduce new lines. We work with a designer called Georgia Scarpa; I am the creative director — she is the designer. We are in the tanneries four times a year for each collection. And that is the fun part — choosing the leathers — bringing them back — trying to see which bag fits with what,” she explained.
Arab News also took the opportunity to ask Princess Reema about her charitable and business projects. Her campaign to raise awareness of breast cancer included the climb to Everest Base Camp in 2012 which, she said, was a fantastic experience but not one she would want to repeat.
“I will never go up a mountain again! I don’t belong on a mountain — that was very clear to me once I got there! As much as we practiced and trained and got ourselves ready — it was one of the hardest and most humbling things I have done. I am thrilled that we did it, but rationally I can say I should not do that again. One of the girls in our group, Raha Moharrak, actually went up and summited Everest the following year — the youngest Arab in the world to do so, and the first Saudi woman to summit Everest, and I am ridiculously proud of her,” she said.
Other campaigns to raise awareness of breast cancer are being planned — and include another Guinness Book of Records challenge next year.
Her other passion is working to develop education and promote employment in Saudi Arabia with a special focus on opportunities for women. She is currently helping to equip young people in Saudi Arabia with the skill sets they need to succeed in business. “What I found back home is that you have the technical skills, but the soft skills around those which allow you to become successful at your job are lacking. So we are creating an Academy to meet that need. Our pilot programs will begin in February and run through to September and we will have a hard launch in October,” she said.
The focus she said is on readiness for work skills and to support the creative community.
“We have got phenomenal entrepreneurs; we’ve got art galleries starting, we’ve got artists, and what they find is that the foot soldiers that will fulfil the dream are not there with the skill sets that they need. So we are targeting the front line. It is the people who keep your business going. It’s all well and good to be an accountant, but if you don’t understand your role and your position and how it interacts with everyone, there is no way you will be a successful business. It is accountability, empathy and follow-through that we are trying to teach. Also engaging people so that they understand their role in an organization.
“We are breaking this down from the point of view of ‘I’ myself — ‘What do I need in order to be a successful employee?’ to ‘How do I help someone else in the organization be successful?’ and ‘How do we all succeed?’
“So it is this three-level readiness for work skills.”
Our interview came to end and Princess Reema was back to the airport ready to take on the next business and charitable challenge and focused on sharing her knowledge and expertise with the upcoming generations in her homeland.
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