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The Duchess of Cambridge was spotted carrying her speech notes in a Smythson of Bond Street folder as she attended the ‘Back to Nature’ Festival at RHS Wisley in Surrey today.
And it appears the upmarket quintessentially British brand, founded in 1887 Frank Smythson, has become the go-to stationary and accessories name for royals.
Just a month ago the Duchess of Sussex sent personalised thank you gifts to British Vogue contributors, in the form of a personalised black leather notebook engraved with ‘forces for change’.
The Duchess of Cambridge was spotted carrying her speech notes in a Smythson of Bond Street folder as she attended the ‘Back to Nature’ Festival at RHS Wisley in Surrey today.
And today Kate, 37, was seen carrying a navy leather folder, engraved with a gold monogrammed ‘C’, complete with a crown.
Smythson has long been a favoured brand among the upper rings of the social circles.
Its brightly-coloured, hand-embossed diaries, notecards and travel wallets are beloved by everyone from Madonna, Dame Helen Mirren and Samantha Cameron – who was once an adviser to the company.
The brand holds three Royal Warrants, a mark of recognition of those who have supplied goods or services to the Households of HM The Queen, HRH The Duke of Edinburgh or HRH The Prince of Wales for at least five years, and who have an ongoing trading arrangement.
The Monarch decides who may grant Royal Warrants.
Just a month ago the Duchess of Sussex sent personalised thank you gifts to British Vogue contributors, in the form of a personalised black leather notebook engraved with ‘forces for change’
The team at social enterprise Luminary Bakery received a handwritten letter from Meghan, 37, alongside a black leather notebook emblazoned with ‘forces for change’, both pictured
The company’s first shop was opened in 1887 by Frank Smythson, a silversmith by training, on New Bond Street.
It supplied London society with high-class stationery, but it was the featherweight diaries that really made Smythson’s name.
The calf leather Panama Diary was created in 1906, and has been a best-seller ever since.
Katharine Hepburn and Grace Kelly had Smythson diaries – Hepburn’s was stamped ‘London, New York, California’ in gold.
Samantha Cameron, then the firm’s creative director, launched the ‘Nancy’ and ‘Daphne’ models in 2007.
Today Kate, 37, was seen carrying a navy leather folder, engraved with a gold monogrammed ‘C’, complete with a crown
Mrs Cameron began working at Smythson as a window dresser in 1996, the same year she married David Cameron.
Smythson was bought in April 2005 by a group of prominent City figures for some £15.8million, by which point Samantha had worked her way up to the company’s creative director.
By 2010, at the beginning of David’s six-year reign as Prime Minister, Samantha was working for two days a week as the company’s creative consultant.
Speaking in 2014, Samantha said the company have worked hard to stay true to Mr Symthson’s vision while also moving the collections forward with modern touches.
She said: ‘When I arrived, we honed the aesthetic. We did a lot with colour and certainly expanded the women’s products, relaunching handbags, as they’d always been a strong part of [founder] Frank Smythson’s original collection. I went very much back into the archives.’
According to a report by The Guardian in 2015, Mrs Cameron would have received £1,589.20 for each of her 275 shares, giving her a lump sum windfall of £437,000 before tax as a result of the sale.
Samantha left the company in 2016, the same year David Cameron stepped down from his role as prime minister.
Samantha Cameron, seen in 2016, was creative director to the brand from 2010 to 2016
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