A Bristol-based designer who grew up within a stone’s throw of Glastonbury hopes to tap into the summer festival market with an innovative new foldable travel mirror.
Liesel Corp has set up Magic Mirror, with offices and studio in Bedminster, hand making the acrylic –and therefore festival legal – product from a workshop on the city’s Harbourside.
Launched at the Love Saves The Day festival in Castle Park last month, Magic Mirror has already received celebrity endorsements from Radio 1 DJ Annie Mac, as well as 4Music presenter Arielle Free, who tweeted that the mirror was “the best thing ever invented”.
Ms Corp, aged 33, grew up in Shepton Mallet and first went to Glastonbury when she was 6 months old, visiting at least one festival every summer since.
More recently she worked as a freelance set and costume designer and says she fully understands the need for the new product.
She said: “I have searched high and low for this product, because I’ve worked at so many festivals and I have experienced countless situations where I’ve seen the need for it.
“Nothing exists like this on the market. People don’t understand what it is until they see it and when they do they realise how amazing it is.
“There are three settings so you can have it full length for an overview, standing up in a pyramid so you and a friend can apply make-up together, or in vanity mode so you can check your hair style from every angle.
“I have plans to develop other travel accessories for people who live that kind of lifestyle – people who go to festivals, who travel, touring artists, performers, stylists and creative people – that group which we are surrounded by massively in Bristol. Hopefully this is the brand for them”.
Assisted by a £9,900 loan from the SWIG Start Ups, the regional delivery partner of the Government-backed Start Up Loan scheme, Magic Mirror has produced an initial stock of 1,000 of the mirrors, which retail at £38.
The reflective surface is made of shatterproof acrylic, made in America and cut by Bristol-based Amari Plastics, while the covers are ethically made in India and assembled at Bristol Old Vic Scenic Workshop.
Ms Corp said she was grateful for the support from SWIG Start Ups, which has enabled her to launch the product in time to tap into this summer’s festival market.
She said: “When the bank says no and then you find out that there’s another way to get some funding, it’s a big deal. So I’m really grateful because it saves me another three months of looking elsewhere.”
To find out more visit www.magicmirroruk.com
This article first appeared in The Bath Magazine