London Fashion Week’s hottest new accessory is a cold jar of mayonnaise thanks to Emma Chopova and Laura Lowena-Irons. Around lunchtime today, the design duo in charge of Chopova Lowena dropped a cryptic teaser on their Instagram account: a three-second video of an iPhone receiving a call from the iconic mayo brand Hellmann’s. Though confusion soon followed, all was revealed this evening at the label’s SS25 show, when the pair sent a snow-white shoulder bag down the runway with a fresh jar of mayo strapped to it. As the bag bobbed into view on three different models’ shoulders, onlookers on the frow smirked and glanced at one another, quite surprised to see their fave condiment on th LFW runway.
Before the crowd descended onto the Chopova show space in Shoreditch, Dazed caught up with the designers to unpick the reasons behind the seemingly bizarre collab. According to them, “it all started with our Sofia bag”, a piece inspired by the insides of vintage travel cases that acts as a ‘girlhood survival kit’. “That sparked the idea to create more bags with different themes,” they continued. “Our research began with antique spoons – we love the intricacy of their design and wanted a fun product to pair them with, and honestly, we just love mayo! It all fell into place from there.”
Each bag comes stocked with a small jar of Hellmann’s mayonnaise, so that you will “never leave home without something tasty”, according to this season’s tongue-in-cheek show notes. Named after Magaret Hellmann who masterminded the recipe back in 1913, the Margaret bag also comes with a charm and antique spoon, and despite the eccentric collab, has real designs to become your next It-bag. “We didn’t want to make a novelty product,” said the pair, hours out from the show. “We wanted a cool bag that you would want to wear, which happens to have a ridiculous function. It’s weird and cool.”
Despite the serious approach to the design process, Chopova and Lowena-Irons seem to be aware that the collab might be alienating to some, or receive a confused reaction from some parts of the press. “One thing we love about mayo is how polarising it is, so i think that will also be the reaction to the bag,” they said, before doubling down on their obsession with the white stuff. “When you love it you love it – and we love it.”
The Margaret bag will be available in limited quantities from Dover Street Market London.