Rinventions? Roger Saul had several. Not many people can boast a career that spans luxury fashion, homewares, hospitality, food and farming, but Saul has done it all – he’s a jack of all trades and a jack of all trades.
The TikTok generation probably doesn’t even know that he founded Mulberry – the fabled but currently troubled British handbag brand loved by Kate Moss, Angelina Jolie, Oprah Winfrey and the Princess of Wales.
Saul is not a man to blow his trumpet, however loudly he has reason to do so. However, he is a man of pragmatism. That’s why she’s auctioning off her private archive of handbags, shoes, clothes, furniture and personal memorabilia next month for her upcoming move.
Speaking via Zoom from his home in Somerset, Saul looks much younger than his 74 years, his zest for life evident across the screen. He is sanguine when I suggest that it must be hard to part with this treasure trove of things.
“Yes, but it seems we’ve spent our whole lives creating something and then moving on, either under pressure or because we wanted to. We are pretty good at retreating as we are at advancing. I just embrace each new piece of life that comes.”
In 1971, he launched Mulberry, making bags, belts and smaller leather accessories at a factory in his native Somerset – a pioneer of the ‘made in Britain’ movement, as it was for many others.
The history of its pioneers includes selling fashion as a lifestyle concept (Le Style Anglaisas Mulberry was called in the French press in 1975, global franchising (used to finance rapid international expansion in the 1980s), fashion as homeware (1990) and the reinvention of the ‘It’ bag (2002’s Gisele).
The fact that she also owns a Michelin-starred restaurant in an award-winning hotel (Charlton House), a designer outlet mall (Kilver Court) and a 270-acre farm that grows the UK’s only spelled crop (Sharpham Hall) begs the question of whether, for example, Beyoncé , has more than 24 hours in a day.
At the turn of the 21st century, the brand was riding high. In 2001, British designer Luella Bartley asked Saul if she could collaborate with Mulberry on a bag for her New York fashion show. Before you could say “Jane, who?”, Brazilian supermodel Gisele Bündchen stepped out with a bulky strappy leather bag – and Britain’s ‘It’ bag to rival the Birkin was born. At £500, it was considerably more affordable than Hermes’ iconic bag, which only added to its fame.
The coverage was global and universally abundant – making what happened next somewhat shocking, even in the fashion world. Less than a year later, Saul’s 33-year run at Mulberry came to an end after a coup by his new Singaporean investor Christina Ong.
“Almost as soon as Christina Ong bought her share, it was very clear that she wanted me out,” says Saul. “We made a big mistake, which is easy to say in retrospect. We negotiated a lot in Japan and experienced very difficult situations with bankers and corporations.
“You learn in Japan that it’s all about respecting each other and being angry or tough doesn’t work at all. Big mistake working with the Chinese. You don’t negotiate – you take a position, hold that position, and try to move on from it. We made the mistake of thinking that the Japanese negotiating tactic would be correct: ‘How can we accommodate what you want?'”
It was an attitude that would cost him everything. “I guess we did [them] too much space early on in the belief that it is a good relationship. And instead they just kept testing the edges to see where our weakness was so they could try to get through.”
Ultimately, Saul was ousted after Godfrey Davis, the company’s vice chairman, switched allegiances and supported Ong.
“We should have known better; Before we brought her in, we did some more research into Onga’s past. It was our fault. But Godfrey was something else. It was hard – and quite devastating.”
And so Saul made the almighty center from fashion to agriculture. Sharpham Hall came up for sale in the same year, for the first time in a century. He took it as a sign and started organic farming. “I think [the Ongs’] the biggest fear was that I would re-emerge as designer Roger Saul as a brand, and that would destroy Mulberry. But a friend told me to never, ever go back. Once you do something, always move on to the next thing.”
That he is remarkably non-bitter is partly because he believes he was extremely lucky to work in fashion during its golden years, when creativity was high and anything was possible. And while he’s only a cursory watcher of the catwalks these days, he has strong opinions about why his baby is currently in the doldrums.
“Mulberry’s biggest mistake was trying to be luxury and not aspirational. They left their core customer base when they went from a £350/£500 handbag to a £750/£1500 handbag. Would a Hermes, Gucci or Prada customer suddenly want Mulberry? That’s a tough question. You have to be very smart if you get into that zone to be able to succeed.”
He also believes that the definition of luxury has changed. “Today, luxury is almost a bad word. It should be more about the weird and wonderful. People tend to look for favorites and vintage – treasured pieces rather than necessarily having the latest and greatest. When you look at what’s happened with Covid, Brexit and wars around the world, it’s just not the right time to look conspicuously fabulous.”
If he were to buy a new handbag for his wife, which brand would it be? “I just wouldn’t want to. I still have so many in my closet. Monty [his wife] they won’t let go of most of them. We probably have six more sales to go. [worth] in our closet here. If I were to buy a handbag, I would probably do it in Italy, where creative design flourishes, or potentially in Spain, because those are two great leather countries.”
He is married to Monty, a former Dior model, for 47 years. What is their secret?
“We are good friends, good lovers, good enemies,” he beams. “Monty is wild. She is the most amazing lady – the glue that allows me to do what I do because I do too much and get away with it. But at the same time, he loves me, so I’m very lucky.”
After being forced to abandon spelled farming during Covid, he is now focusing on walnut production. “It takes about 20 years for walnuts to mature and produce,” he says, as if that’s a good thing. “Our first big crop we sold through Riverford last year and we’ll get a lot bigger this year as the trees grow.
Are those walnuts enough to live on? “Oh no. We’ve been lucky enough to make enough of what we’ve made to survive. But it’s going to make a nice return and keep growing. I’d like to see us make walnut oil and all kinds because we have about 300 trees altogether.’
How symbolic that Saul’s latest – though certainly not last – passion project should involve walnuts, one of the hardest nuts of all.