Live Beautifully – Babu London

I met the lovely Hannah Shucksmith, founder and creative director of Babu London at Fashion with Compassion, a couple of weeks ago.

When I first saw her friendship bracelets (pictured above) I knew I wanted to own one, two or maybe several! I loved the contemporary bright coloured cords and engraved message each bracelet brings: Be love, peace, patience, freedom, goodness or gentleness, to name a few. Each bracelet is made of 18ct gold plated vermeil or sterling silver with a coloured cord which can be adjusted to fit the wearer.

Hannah’s background is in interior design, but she had always wanted to run her own business. Her Christian faith has played an important role in the concept of the jewellery brand and the fruits of the spirit – love, peace, patience etc. – were the inspiration for the friendship bracelets. Her main focus is to develop a brand that is encouraging, spreading hope and empowering the women who wear it. Each of her collections encapsulates this; the Cove collection features an anchor pendant, a symbol of hope and stability.

Below are some of my favourite items, the Cachet pendants. Each pendant is embedded with precious stones, emeralds, rubies and even sapphires. The word cachet means ‘the state of being respected or admired’*

Hannah has created a wonderful and unique jewellery brand. The ethos behind Babu London is to help us think about others, to “be blessed and be a blessing”. Before Babu launched in April 2014 she handed out Bless you cards. These were designed to make someone’s day brighter by a small act of kindness, be it a present or just an encouraging note #DeliberateDailyBlessings. One of my favourite stories Hannah recounted was when she wrote a note thanking her postman and he wrote back “You made my day, thank you!” She also left some wine out for her bin man.

With each purchase of jewellery from Babu you receive a ‘Bless you’ bracelet to give to somebody else. My husband bought me the Be peace bracelet for our wedding anniversary (was he trying to tell me something?) I now have the surprising difficult task of deciding who to bless, as when I stop to think about it there are so many people I’d love to give it to. But what a lovely problem to have!

For more information about Babu London please visit www.babu-london.com

* Oxford Dictionary