faq
We make sure to only use tracked (and environmentally responsible) shipping methods. When your order has been dispatched you will receive an email with a tracking number and a link, allowing you to make sure you know exactly when your parcel arrives. If you’re based in London, your order will be delivered by bike and you’ll get a two hour slot on the day of your delivery.
Yes we do! All international orders are shipped by DHL and are delivered within 7-12 working days. You can follow the entire journey of your order via the tracking number in your shipping confirmation.
We offer free shipping to all UK orders over £200. Additionally, all UK orders are delivered within 3-5 working days. Orders delivered within London zones 1 to 3 are delivered by bike or an electric car thanks to our friends at HIVED. The rest of the UK and all international orders are shipped using DHL and are guaranteed to be with you within 7-12 days, although often they arrive much sooner.
UK Delivery (Standard 3-5 Days) - £4.95
Europe - £14.95
USA and Rest of World - £19.95
Find out more about our shipping methods here
Of course! Collections are free and can be chosen as an option at checkout. Your order will usually be ready for collection the following day, but do drop us an email at yourorder@been.london if you have any special requirements and we will try our best to accommodate.
We thought long and hard about our shipping partners, taking into consideration both their service and sustainability credentials. Our London orders (zone 1-3) are delivered by bike or an electric car by HIVED, a zero emissions parcel service. We hope to soon be using this service nationwide!
Rest of UK and international orders are delivered by DHL, see their sustainability policy.
Please note, as of 01/01/2021 additional taxes and duties may occur that are not included in the shipping rates at checkout when shipping to countries within the EU. As a small company, we sadly cannot take responsibility for any customs fees or charges for EU orders. These customs charges are the sole responsibility of the customer.
Most definitely. Please add your request when adding a product to checkout or drop us a note with your order number at yourorder@been.london.
Please let us know straight away on yourorder@been.london and we will try our best to accommodate.
Of course. Our gift cards come in a whole range of values from £25 to £300, available on our gift cards page.
When you buy something from us, we hope you love it. However, should you change your mind (it happens to the best of us), you have 30 days to send it back to us.
To arrange a return, you’ll need your order number and this link. View our full returns policy.
Your return should take a maximum of 14 days to reach us and be processed. We always try to be as fast as possible, but during busy periods (such as holidays and sales), it can take a little longer. Once we have processed the return you will receive a return confirmation email.
We make our bags to last and will do everything to make them serve you as long as possible, just drop us an email at yourorder@been.london. All repairs within the first year are free.
For items beyond repair (although we really don’t think this will ever happen!) we can take care of recycling your bag. Every BEEN london bag is designed with end of life and recyclability in mind meaning it can be taken apart easily - giving every material another chance in life.
BEEN London was founded in 2018 by a former BBC News journalist Genia Mineeva and grew thanks to the support of hundreds of women in our community, most of whom are now co-owners of the company. We are now a small all-female team living and working in East London. You can read more about our story.
It's quite simple, really. We want to give absolutely everyone an opportunity to be part of the solution to both the climate crisis and the waste problem. By choosing a BEEN London bag over most bags available on the market, you not only help rescue waste from ending up in a landfill but you also cut your carbon footprint by 87%. This is the equivalent of leaving the lights on for almost a year.
When BEEN London was just an idea, we had so many conversations with people working in the accessories industry - from high street to luxury fashion houses. Whilst we knew that most leather goods are made in South East Asia, it was a shock for us to learn that more often than not, all these totes and crossbodies are FLOWN across the world to reach the stores. Just imagine the added CO2 emissions of those flights! It’s also very important to us that we have full visibility of our supply chain to avoid any possible human rights violations.
We now work with one of the last remaining leather workshops in East London and will continue to do so for as long as possible, read more about our workshop
Our studio is located in East London, just a stone’s throw away from Victoria Park. The address is Studio 1, 121 Monier Road, E3 2PS. This is where we design everything and work from every day. It’s also a shop, so you are very welcome to stop by and say hi!
Yes! We are open during the week, just email us at hello@been.london or DM us on Instagram when you’d like to stop by! We’ll make sure the kettle is on.
Studio 1, 121 Monier Road, E3 2PS.
We also occasionally do sample sales and run popups in various parts of London. Sign up to our newsletter to be the first to know.
Sign up here to be the first to know about limited edition collaborations, sample sales and an occasional peek behind the scenes at BEEN London.
Oh, and did we mention 10% off your first order?*
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*Please note the discount may not apply to certain collaborations.
We’re a tiny team and unfortunately at this stage we are unable to answer all education requests. Hopefully you can find your answer on our materials or ethos page but for anything else feel free to drop us an email at hello@been.london and we will try our best to answer.
For all press inquiries please drop us a line at press@been.london or a DM on instagram. View our contacts page.
That’s an easy one. Just by choosing one of our designs over the highstreet you cut your carbon footprint by 87% and rescue beautiful materials that otherwise would be discarded.You will also be supporting our wonderful artisans who work in one of the last remaining leather workshops in London. Most of all, you’ll join our incredible community who chooses to care and do something about the waste we’re all creating. Oh, and our bags are timeless and gorgeous too (in our opinion).
We’re really proud of the beautiful range of certified recycled materials we use. It’s the impact and the stories behind every one of them that get us out of bed every morning. We’ve devoted an entire page to them so that you can dive deeper into the world of materials that are kinder to the planet.
We believe in a slow, thoughtful and transparent approach to making fashion and ensuring all our artisans are paid fairly. All our bags are made entirely by hand in a small workshop in Stratford, East London, just a quick bike ride away from our own design studio. Find out more about the workshop and the people making our bags.
Our bags are crafted entirely by hand by our talented artisans with decades of experience. Rolls of materials are carefully cut, stitched and edge-coated by our small team in East London led by Jana and Galia. What we can promise to you is that we don't cut any corners. Even the structural parts of all BEEN London bags are made from beautiful recycled materials. We believe in zero-waste design which means all panels are cut square or rectangular for a reason, we also start our design process asking questions about what happens to our bags at the very end of their life.
We offer embossing on our limited edition Mel x BEEN London crossbody and we are also able to paint initials and take custom requests for our other products. Please add personalisation when adding a product to checkout or email your request to us at yourorder@been.london.
Stay up to date with our new releases and limited edition pieces by following us on Instagram and by subscribing to our newsletter!
Yes! Most of our large bags comfortably fit a 13” laptop. Did you know we also sell laptop cases?
We would LOVE to hear your suggestions. Email us any ideas at hello@been.london
We design our bags to last a lifetime and be easy to look after. To clean your BEEN London bag, simply wipe the surface gently with a damp cloth.
The recycled leather we use has been rigorously tested for colour steadiness and wear and tear. Please note that some of our metallic leathers might naturally wear over time, but this shouldn’t affect their functionality in any way.
All our products are either waterproof or water-resistant, making sure all your valuables are protected from the rain.
No it isn’t, read more about our materials and view our vegan collection.
We’re absolutely convinced that it is possible to be ethical whilst having a supply chain that has both a positive environmental and social impact. From the materials we use, the transparency all throughout the journey of our bags, to measuring our impact - we aim to create the most sustainable bags possible.
In our case sustainability is most definitely not an afterthought. Our approach is based on a genuine desire to empower as many people as possible to choose beautifully crafted products that are better for the planet. We constantly update our impact figures which includes everything from our C02 savings, amount of waste rescued to our reforestation work in the Amazon. Make sure to sign up to our newsletter or follow us on Instagram for the latest impact stories as well as new styles.
Read more about our approach
Our approach to choosing materials is very straightforward. It’s important to us that everything we use needs to tick several boxes:
- Rescued from landfill
- Have a low carbon footprint
- International certification
The materials come from a few different places around the world. Some are made from discarded KLM uniforms in the Netherlands whilst others help reduce plastic bottle waste in Turkey. Find out more about our materials.
We've always tried to keep the climate change causing CO2 emissions to a minimum, whether that means only working with recycled materials or offering zero emission London delivery. Having measured everything we found out that on average our bags have a carbon footprint 87% smaller than anything else on the market... but we couldn't help but think about that remaining 13%. As of May 2021, our friends at Terra Neutra have linked our website to their incredible offsetting initiative ranging from rainforest conservation and restoration to providing low smoke cookstoves in conflict zones. So you can now shop knowing that your next bag is carbon neutral! Read more about our carbon footprint
Yes! We currently track a few metrics including CO2 emissions and savings (through LCA analysis and tools created for us by Terra Neutra) and waste diverted from landfill.
Our newsletter and Instagram are a good source of up to date impact figures.
Every order automatically plants a tree in our forest in the Amazon. Read more about it on our blog.
Thank you! It would be great to hear more, please email us hello@been.london
We hope Our Ethos will answer all of your questions but for anything we’ve missed we’d be more than happy to answer, drop us an email hello@been.london.
We offer personalisation of initials up to 3 letters on certain products.
At the moment our bespoke embossing works with only a handful of our certified recycled materials and styles. As we continue to innovate we hope to expand our collection available to emboss. View our current collection.
Our personalisation is available in one size and font suited to the bag. All initials will be in capitals and will be blind embossed with no colour. Sadly non-English characters cannot be used for this service.
The position of the bespoke personalisation is determined by the style of the bag and where its best suited, sadly this cannot be changed.
Personalisation will add 2-3 business days to our delivery times.
Our bespoke personalisation service is £10 for up to 3 letters.
Once personalised, we are unable to offer refunds or returns. Please see our Returns Policy for more details.
We are able to offer bespoke personalisation using hard-wearing acrylic pen which is painted by hand and is available across our whole collection. This process requires finely tuned skill, experience and expertise. For more information and prices on this service, please contact us with more details.
You will need to provide your email, shipping address and card details. Allcommunications will be sent to your email address, including details of how to cancel and any updates of your pre-order.
Purple Dot accepts all the major card networks - Visa, MasterCard and AmericanExpress.
You can cancel at any time, follow the cancellation link in your pre-order confirmation email. You will receive an email confirming the refund and should see the moneyback in your account in 3-5 business days.
Yes! Send an email to <your CS email> with your updated details and amember of the customer service team will get this updated for you. You will thenreceive an updated pre-order confirmation email.
Payment information is processed securely by Stripe. No card details are transferred to or held by <your brand name> or Purple Dot. All transactions take place via connections secured with the latest industry-standard security protocols.
Once you have cancelled your pre-order, your refund will be processed within 3-5 business days.
Refunds are issued back to the debit or credit card used at checkout.