Ok, I won’t bury the point. I got a new bag. That’s it, above. Orla Kiely.

But the story’s in HOW I got it.

On my recent London trip a British blogger friend and I decided to meet up at the Fashion and Textile Museum. The featured exhibit was a designer named Orla Kiely. I’d never heard of her.

She’s an Irish designer with a 60s vibe. Known for her bags and her iconic “stem” prints.

Linda and I did meet up, which was way fun. And so was the exhibition of her many distinctive looking products. I fell in love with the look.

These images will show you why and why I wanted one of her bags. So I looked online and found them.

I put them in my shopping cart and took them out. Several times. You can relate, right?

A month went by. And then a client walked into my office wearing one of the stem print bags. Now, I’d never seen ANYONE wear this bag. Ever.

She was even surprised I recognized it. Synchronicity. I took it as a sign that I needed to buy the bag that night. So I did. I’m sure that makes perfect sense to you, right?

So here’s more of the exhibition:

Happy prints, right? We NEED more happy!

These were gigantic, hanging outfits. Very eye-catching display.

Not my favorite print but still evocative of the 60s. But these were fun:

Turn to mix and match. Cleverly done. And this retro radio flipped my switch for sure:

I would have loved it. It was £149.99 when on sale but not sure it’s currently available. And that’s rather pricey for a radio. Still, I love it.

I swooned over this book cover.

This raincoat was my favorite of her display pieces. Gosh it might have been 15 feet tall. But so cute!

And yes, this is a dachsund bag:

So that’s just a little taste of what I saw at the museum in London. I’m sure you would also conclude that after seeing all these great designs, I needed to buy that classic 60s stem bag. Right?