We are self confessed stationery geeks here at TWR, as you know, so when we stumbled across Sally Leonard-Morgan, who runs Undercover UK, a stationery company that makes fabulous notebooks, paper goods and other wonderful leathery-things, at a press day last week, we knew we were going to get along. And she was wearing sunflower yellow tights to brighten up her grey jersey tunic dress too, so it was practically love at first sight.
All around us, beautiful young things urgently discussed hot new fashion designers and strutted about looking carefully fabulous as Sally and I enthused about my current interest in decorative erasers and her vintage Hello Kitty pencil range. Sally has been a paper guru for a long time (she sells to Paperchase, Liberty, Designers Guild to name a few) all her products are made in the UK and she is passionate about what she does.
Hot trends in note books for next year include these absolutely wonderful metallic gold, silver and bronze finish A5 size ones with metallic elastic! I know, exciting eh? I was all for grabbing the samples and bolting out the door (they are not launched until spring) but by this time I liked Sally too much.
Neon fluoro is still massive and the highlighter-orange and yellow diaries would certainly brighten up your day. Also bugs are big, the note pad below has (if I remember right) graph square paper too which is an added joy.
The silky soft, slightly squidgy iPad case is also a more relaxed alternative cover from the super chic ones I’ve seen around and it comes in a multitude of colours. Undercover UK has a website where you can buy dairies, notepads and even ‘squeal’ leather covered erasers! all in every colour you could ever want. The temptation to order an A5 leather-covered notepad in every hue is very hard to resist and you can customise lots of the notepads too, which would make for an excellent personalised present.
There’s also recycled leather and wood covers for the eco-concious and a very smart travelling backgammon set that might suit a teenager going off on a gap year, although perhaps a big note pad/diary might be a better option.
Make a cup of tea, sit back and enjoy a potter through the website here.
Oh I love a notebook too – and I’ve met Sally a couple of times, she’s lovely.