I have been exhibiting at the Top Drawer trade show at Olympia over the last 3 days and on Sunday a lovely personal customer who bought one of my red leather shoppers came along to see me. She brought a couple of friends along with her to show them my collection and they all started enthusing big time!

My customer was using her red bag and she told me about the time she went shopping with it in Brighton. I knew what was coming next because I had already heard the other side of the story…from the stockist in Brighton!

The customer’s story: I was in a lovely shop in Brighton when the shop owner suddenly asked me – ‘is that an Easton bag?’. I said yes and he told me he stocked your designs. He was very impressed with the design and I think he was going to call you to place a new order!

The retailer’s story – on telephone call to me a few weeks ago: Hi Shona, this is David from Porta in Brighton. I need to order some of your new leather shoppers. I had a customer in the shop recently and she had one – they look great. How many colours and sizes are there?

He then proceeded to order as many colours as I could deliver!

Magic: customers selling to customers!