Designer Creates Handbag for Frontline Workers

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR: This is really a handbag for our times. Tell me about it. What is it called? What does it do?

ANYA HINDMARCH, FASHION DESIGNER: So, it’s called the Holdster with a D, like a holster, but with a D. I had a call back in April from Professor Hugh Montgomery, who is the chair of intensive care of UCL and various other roles as well. And he said that he had been working on something to help the sort of front-line workers in intensive care, which is a sort of a holster that takes all the things they need for their daily work, so their glasses, their pens, their coffee money, and indeed now their phones. And, because, actually, with scrubs, of course, things fall out of their pockets. And it means that they then can’t have their phone with them. And, actually, that’s quite stressful their everyday life. They can’t ring their kids and check in with their parents. So, he asked if we could sort of expedite the design ideas and have it ready for the sort of the peak of the pandemic. So, we redesigned it, made it work. And we sampled it and donated 400 to various ICU units across London and the southeast. And the great news is, it’s really worked. It’s really helped them, I think. And it’s also good for infection control and all the things that they need when they’re working the long shifts.