Experience Guide · Scotland and London
The Islander Bag Experience: What to Know Before You Book
A girls’ day out where you each build your own handbag is the best excuse going to add another one to your collection. You all walk out with a bag that’s yours and a story to go with it.
Islander is a classic Scottish handbag maker that’s just recently opened up in Covent Garden. At their workshop you build your bag out of Harris Tweed or tartan and pick every colour from the base up, so it ends up looking like you.
They run quite a few slots through the day but I’d book the one just before lunch so you can head off for a glass of wine after, because what’s better than that on a girls’ day out?
The hard part is the choosing. You’ve got your lid, your body, your straps, your handles and the big tartan or tweed call to make in 15 minutes. My friend told me to piss off at one point because we kept checking each other’s picks, since we know exactly what each other’s into. The clock was going tick tock so we had to get cracking.
Then you all head out with the bags you made on your arms and that’s a day you’ll be yapping about for a good while after.
Spend
£70 for the mini plus a booking fee, see the table
Booking
online, before you go
Where
Covent Garden, London
Works for
a girls’ day out, a souvenir you take home
Fact check
The prices are the shop’s own pages and what I paid on the day. The shop hours are from the Covent Garden directory and the shopfront. All of it is as of 30 September 2026 and I’m not Islander, so have a look at their booking page before you go.
Worth it and who it’s for
The bag goes into your wardrobe as one of those pieces you look back on and remember where it came from, which is how I build mine out of my trips, same as my things you can only buy in London list.
Mine is made from pieces I really like, so it’s designed to my likes and my style and I can’t wait to wear it out.
Anyone 12 or over can join a class, so the whole group can come along.
Worth It
It’s worth it but be aware there are extra costs if you want real leather or a bigger bag. The website wasn’t clear about what you were signing up to, so here’s your pre-warning.
What you pay and what you get
The price you book at gets you the vegan mini and everything on top of that is an upgrade you pay for on the day.
I paid £73.50 all in, which was £3.50 on top for the booking. Everything we’d seen on social media made it look like you get a leather bag, so there was a lot of debate in our room when they started explaining the pieces. The booking page doesn’t say what the bag is made of and the shop’s workshop FAQs call it microfibre leather.
Upgrade on the day | On top of the mini |
|---|---|
Mini Leather Satchel | +£45 |
Medium Leather Satchel | +£55 |
Medium Satchel or Medium Backpack | +£10 |
Backpack Satchel | +£20 |
Washbag or Mini Barrel | +£0 |
Going leather in the class takes it to £115 on the shop’s list before the fee goes on. Staff walk you through every upgrade on the day.
If you like a challenge, the wash bag costs nothing extra and has 21 screws, so it’s the hardest to build but probably not one many people end up picking. No one in our class picked it.
You can buy extra pieces too, so if you can’t choose between two lids you can take the second one home and swap it over. And if you’d rather skip the making, you can walk into the shop and buy a bag.
Before you book
With all those extras on offer, the smart move is to book the mini and upgrade on the day. If you book a bigger bag and drop down you get store credit or an extra piece rather than your money back.
That’s what I did and starting with the mini is definitely better, because the medium was a lot bigger than I wanted. Going up is easy since every bag takes the same time to build. They even tell you as you walk in to have a quick look first and then decide.
We sorted ours from the couch the day before when we realised we were all free and we still got a 12 o’clock class. The shop recommends booking four weeks ahead though. The shops in Scotland are the ones that sell out, so the busier it gets the earlier you’ll want to book.
What happens in the hour
On the day you tell them at the counter you’re there and someone ticks off your name. Then you’re put in a room with your friends so you can all sit together.
They start by explaining what each piece is and then you pick yours. After that they walk you through putting each part together with screws that are easy to do. Someone comes round to check it’s all screwed on properly and you’re done.
The shop’s workshop page says around an hour and its FAQs say 60 to 90 minutes, while ours was done in an hour.
Choosing your bag
The choosing is where it turns into your bag, because you pick the bottom, the lid, the handle, the straps and the carry strap in any colours you like and mix them however you want.
The lid is the big call, so it helps to know the difference between tartan and Harris Tweed before you’re stood at the wall of lids with the clock going. Staff told us all about the history of the lids while we were there, including that the Harris Tweed colours come from nature and animals, so the black and white one was sheep.
A tartan is basically coloured stripes that cross over and repeat into a check, while a clan tartan is one the clan chief has signed off on. There are no laws about who wears which one, just traditions, so you can pick any lid you love.
Harris Tweed has its own Act of Parliament, so it has to be handwoven by islanders in their homes in the Outer Hebrides from wool dyed and spun there. The Harris Tweed Authority says it’s woven on foot-powered looms without electricity, so the Orb mark on the cloth is how you know it’s the real thing.
If you want to spot a vegan bag, look inside, because the lining has a flower print and the edges are black, while the full leather ones have a different lining.
Mine ended up with a pink magenta lid with a blue and green check in Lochcarron wool, purple straps and a green body and handle.
The one thing I did wish I’d thought about was my family tartan, because I got to move to the UK through my Scottish grandparents and it would have been nice to carry something around that matched it.
It wasn’t an exact match on the wall but there was definitely a similar one, so if you’ve got Scottish heritage and know your tartan it could well be up there and it’s worth getting those pictures out before you go.
Looking after it
Looking after it is easy once it’s built, because they give you spare screws to take home in case you lose one off your bag.
Staff told us that for a spill you can take the lid off and get it dry cleaned, while for marks a soft cloth with a little water does the job if it needs it.
Where, when and how to book
If you’re going for the slot before lunch, this is all you need to find the shop and book it.
- Address: 29 Shorts Gardens, London WC2H 9AP
- Tube: Covent Garden, two minutes
- Shop hours: Monday to Saturday 10am to 7pm, Sunday 12pm to 6pm
- In Scotland: Islander’s other nine shops are all in Scotland
- Book: online, on the Islander workshop page
FAQ
And if you’ve skipped straight down here, these are the quick answers.
Is the standard Islander bag real leather?
No, the shop calls it microfibre leather and real leather is an upgrade on the day.
Can I buy an Islander bag without doing the workshop?
Yes, you can walk into the shop and buy one.
What do I take home?
Your bag and your spare screws.
The Pivot
I wouldn’t do anything differently, although next time I might buy a second lid that goes with my straps so I can change it up and it’s a new kind of bag when I’m going out. But would I really faff around changing it? I don’t know.
What I do know is this has started a bit of a theme for us, because we’ve lined up a perfume class and a make-your-own-lipstick class next, so there’s already another day out with the girls on the cards.
