ENGLISH heritage brand Mulberry has a past embroidered with tumultuous times and ownership tussles. But for fashionistas, there are probably only two periods in the label's 39-year history that matter - the one before Emma Hill, its creative director since 2008; and the one after.

It's Hill, after all, who got Mulberry out of its mud-coloured rut and injected its traditionally muted palette with hues that popped; Hill who produced the Alexa satchel inspired by style icon Alexa Chung that geeks and glamazons alike have gone wild over; and Hill who has led the brand into the realm of 'serious' fashion contenders with her chic yet cheeky creations that have snagged hearts and wallets worldwide.

With all that to her name, one would expect the designer to be quite the diva, or at least sprinkle her conversation liberally with 'dah-lings'. But when BT Weekend met her over dinner in New York recently, she was gushing over Mick Jagger's private bits as any other woman would (or any other woman who has chanced upon them, that is).

Somehow our conversation had turned to undecipherable men's and ladies' signs on toilet doors - 'you know, the kind that's designed to make those who haven't been there before feel uncomfortable because you don't know where to go; I hate that,' said Hill, as she recalled the one time this worked out to her advantage: 'I chose a door at random and pushed it open and there was Mick Jagger standing at the urinal.'

Evidently, Hill is still very much the down-to-earth designer she was when she started out in the industry in 1992 as a fresh Ravensbourne Fashion School graduate. (She later went on to design for Burberry, Marc Jacobs, Calvin Klein and Chloe). And that's partly what has contributed to her success at Mulberry.

While her designs are undeniably beautiful, they are also very sensible - all the bags, for example, are lightweight with minimal hardware and come lined with functional interior pockets, and the ready-to-wear is, well, ready to wear. 'Women always understand what other women need better,' Hill says.

'I aim to do things that give great pleasure and are amazingly beautiful, but they must be things that don't require someone to get you in and out of.'

Together with her clean aesthetic, Hill's philosophy is striking a particularly timely chord with post-recession consumers who are seeking a quieter sort of luxury and heritage pieces: in June, Mulberry reported a substantial hike in annual profits, including a 200 per cent increase in revenue from Asia.

It is also, announces the designer proudly, 'the last luxury house to manufacture in the United Kingdom'. She adds: 'We have a factory in Somerset in England and our cashmere is made in Scotland; for last year's Fall collection we had Scottish grannies knitting chunky sweaters for us.'

This season, the grannies have taken a break, but what Hill has come up with doesn't go clickety-click any less. Mulberry's Fall-Winter 2010 collection - the bag range is now available in its Singapore stores - is inspired in part by the 1967 film 'Valley of the Dolls'.

It's about 'Hollywood glamour gone wrong', says the designer, and that means lots of fun pieces shot through with a glitzy Sixties vibe that has been nudged off kilter by wacky prints and colours - think short frocks, skirts and jackets in vivid shades of bright blue, tomato red, plum and camel that wouldn't look out of place topped with a shock of crazily teased hair.

There's also a fresh harvest of the bags the label has become so well-known for, including updates of favourites such as a slouchy hobo version of the Alexa, and the classic Bayswater newly dressed in bold giant leopard hair-calf and a series of metallics.

On top of that, the collection features a couple of new shapes, such as the Margaret, which bears an English crest with two bulldogs and the saucy slogan, 'We believe in tea and cake.' ('There's always a bit of royalty in what we do because I find it endearing,' says Hill, who met Queen Elizabeth II at a function at Buckingham Palace and asked her if she goes to fashion shows, to which the queen replied: 'Not anything current, but I do like Hardy Amies.')

Mulberry's strength is obviously its bags, which means Hill often gets labelled a bag specialist. The forthright Brit, however, has no qualms about it. 'I was going to be the next big designer of the moment, but then I fell in love with bags and began designing them,' she shares. Of course, it helps that bags make good business sense too. Says the designer: 'My nose starts itching when I see a good bag; I can smell the money.'

This article was first published in The Business Times.