I have just returned from a weekend in St Mawes, one of my most favourite seaside towns in the UK and the place that has inspired me most, over the years, to launch my brand Bridie & Bert.

As a child, we stayed in the South Coast of Cornwall every year.  Come rain or shine we would play on the beaches, never noticing the weather nor caring how cold or how warm it was.  I am number three of five children and I will never forget the fun we had.  As we got older, school friends would come and and stay too and so it went on. 

Oh the excitement of it all, simple pleasures at their absolute best!

What I also remember is how my mother dressed us.  We had stripey, hooded tops made of the softest towelling.  They were shorter than the ones you can buy at 
Bridie & Bert but they were still cosy and always kept the chill out on those windswept beaches.  Back then, I think they were called Parkas.

More than fifty years later, I still have mine;  it is Red, White and Blue and even though the label is very faded now, I can still just see it was made by Ladybird. (For those of you who might remember, they also made the sweetest dressing gowns with Ladybird buttons.)

My children wore my parka and it was then that I decided to have more made but this time a bit longer and snugger, still made of the loveliest, stretchiest, cotton towelling.

So Bridie & Bert, named after my son and youngest daughter, was launched during lockdown and so far, so good! It is still early days but I have fun plans for its future, never letting go of the past, the nostalgia behind the brand and how I wish to take it forward.