The ✨Magical✨ Tale Behind The Loungefly x TruffleShuffle Cinderella Castle Mini Backpack

BIG news here at Truffle Towers!

We’re BEYOND excited to be launching our first ever TruffleShuffle x Loungefly exclusive with our stunning new Cinderella Castle Mini Backpack, designed in conjunction with our favourite fandom label.

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Packed with stunning details we have spent months and months carefully bringing together, we can't wait for this to finally be available to buy at the strike of 12pm this Sunday 21st!

Want to know more about how this truly magical creation came to be? We caught up with our founder, Claire to take us through just what was involved in dreaming up and creating this latest addition!

How did this get off the ground?

TruffleShuffle has stocked Loungefly backpacks and wallets since way back in 2008 (yes, really!) so we’re huge fans of the brand and love being a part of the amazing community around it.

I have a big collection of bags personally as do lots of my colleagues and having seen and brought so much amazing products from them to the UK over the years, we’ve always dreamed about being able to spec out our very own truly perfect design. We’re lucky to work really closely with the fantastic team at Funko, who owns the brand, so when the opportunity to do just that came up, we knew exactly what we wanted to create.

What was your inspiration?

Loungefly covers SO many fandoms now but it was their Disney bags that really started everything for us all those years ago so we knew that’s where we wanted to focus our attention.

Although our final design takes its inspiration from Cinderella’s iconic castle – it was actually created as a tribute to our childhood memories of trips to the most magical place on Earth.

Anyone who has visited the Disney Parks will remember that feeling the first time you see the Castle’s lofty spires and ornate turrets on Main Street and we wanted to re-create that wow feeling with our bag.

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How did the design get finalised?

We looked back at some of our favourite bags to decide on the profile and settled on the classic mini backpack shape that we know our customers love.

We then looked at tonnes of photos of the castle so that we could capture all of its magical details and had the idea to add glow-in-the-dark ink to the clock and windows so they glow at night and purple glitter to the turrets to capture the way they sparkle in the sunlight. We specced out every detail from the glass slipper enamel zipper charm to the embroidered quote on the back to the pockets which re-create the details of Cinderella’s dress.

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We knew we wanted an all-over print lining so we picked out classic Disney icons so that Loungefly could create it and we made sure to choose a pearlized, glitter-fill Loungefly plaque as these are always a big hit! This all went into a brief which went to the design wizards at Loungefly who turned our vision into a CAD design so we could really begin to visualise how the final bag could look. We then went back and forth a few times, tweaking Pantone's to get the colour palette perfect and adding the quilted detailing to the sky to give it more depth. Then it was time for a sample to be made!

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What was it like seeing the first sample?

SO exciting – it was wild to see all these ideas which we’d put down on paper come to life! Although we loved the sample, we weren’t 100% happy with it so we tweaked quite a few details with the (very understanding) Loungefly design team.

We tweaked the colour palette, we had some stud detailing in the sky which didn’t translate as well as we thought in real life so we removed these. We changed the technique used to create Cinderella’s dress detail on the pockets to make them prettier – we literally pored over every detail to make sure everything was perfect! The bag was then re-sampled and when we saw that second sample we were just all completely wowed so we knew we had something special!

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What was your favourite part about creating the bag?

Sharing it with the Loungefly community for sure! The whole process took so long and was such a labour of love so getting to the point that we could finally share what we’d been up to was so exciting.

We teased the bag through our own social pages and profiles and through the Loungefly Collectors, Buying & Selling UK & 🌎Facebook page - a community of Loungefly fans that we love being a part of.

It was even more exciting when we finally revealed the photos of the bag in full because the feedback on the design was just so wonderful that it made all the hard work totally worth it.

What’s next?

Well, the bag finally launches this Sunday 21st of August (although we will have a second drop next month for anyone who misses out) so we’re all on tenterhooks to see how it does. This bag is so special to us that we’ve also developed a bespoke display box which we’re giving away with every bag so we’re looking forward to seeing lots of customer pics.

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As a result of such lovely feedback so far, we’re already working on our next exclusive – it’s going to be very different to this one but equally as magical so watch this space.

It's been a dream to work with one of our absolute favourite brands so a HUGE thank you to the whole team at Loungefly and Funko and to our awesome customers for all the support so far.

Thanks so much Claire!

Take a look at the design in all its glory over on the website to discover all the stunning details that really make this that extra bit special.

Loungefly TruffleShuffle Cinderella Castle Mini Backpack

Are you excited for this? Get ready for the big launch by adding yourself to the waiting list.