About Us
Our Interior Design Studio is part of GSK BESPOKEDESIGNS LTD, a Woman led Business based in Greater London, United Kingdom.
GSK BESPOKEDESIGNS LTD is also the company behind multiple award winning sustainable handbag brand The Morphbag by GSK.
Our Founder, Creative Director and C.E.O. is entrepreneur Giovanna Sessi-Knott.
Giovanna Sessi-Knott
Here is a personal introduction by our Founder and Head Designer, Giovanna Sessi-Knott:
"Interiors and Fashion have been constant influences in my life since childhood.
Born in Italy, my interest for interiors and fashion started at young age, as my family run a business that was retailing in furnishings and ready-to-wear fashion for men and women.
My family later moved to Austria and I was raised and educated in Vienna, where its rich history, architectual contrasting styles and cultural vibrancy inspired and nurtured my creative spirit.
I worked in Fashion alongside my studies (Master in Economics and Business), helping out in tradeshows, learning about textiles and their different uses and appreciating the use of textures in design. My main task was putting together colour-coordinated collections for boutiques and gaining work experience during the summers in both Italy and Spain.
My studies and my fluency in five languages led me, however, to an international career in finance that took me to London, where I ultimately also met my Canadian husband and started a family.
Motherhood and the inevitable challenges of being a working mother with two small children and two step children, made me realise that running a family while working an average of fourteen hours a day, was not sustainable in the long run and was affecting my health.
This led me to re-evaluate my professional path and lead me to quit my banking career.
The new direction did not require much pondering; I decided to study interior design part-time while caring for my family.
In 2008, I retrained as an interior designer, set up my own company and, finally, my destiny took the course it was meant to take in first place.
I have been working as interior designer since and have never looked back.
Since then, I have been living the dream to be busy with something I so passionately love to do, that it does not feel like work.
My entrepreneurial spirit, however, is never not put to rest and I started a business alongside my main interior design activity.
As a multi-tasking woman juggling family and work, I got frustrated with my every-day handbag not being versatile enough for my styling requirements and all different activities I pursued in a single day.
I needed a laptop bag, a hands-free bag to run after the children on the playground, an evening bag and all these needed to accessorise with the one outfit I would put on in the morning and wear from work to after-work. As I could not find a solution in a shop, I decided to re-create the "every-day" handbag.
This resulted in the creation of The Morphbag by GSK, a set of colour-coordinated handbags that adapts (morphs) with the liftestyle and wardrobe of the busy, modern women. The colourways of the collection are based on colour-analysis so that they perfectly coordinate with our individual wardrobes.
The versatility of The Morphbag makes it a great travel bag, so it is my regular companion when I travel abroad for my interior design projects.
Life taught me that in order to lead a sustainable lifestyle, we need to simplify our lives, declutter our homes and our wardrobes and make conscious choices.
It is essential that we create spaces and buy products that reflect our individuality and serve our specific individual needs, which is where our personal style lies.
This is the philosophy I invest in all my designs."
