What’s in your bag, Donald Robertson?

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If you don’t already follow him on Instagram, you’ve likely been hearing the name Donald Robertson a lot lately. The Estée Lauder creative director by day, illustrator by night has been an industry heavyweight for quite some time (he was one of M.A.C.‘s OGs back in the 1980s) and is now on his way to becoming a household name, thanks to a 153k-strong social following. That and his prolific drawing career, which most recently led him to publish a children’s book, Mitford at the Fashion Zoo, the lighthearted cautionary tale in which Mitford, a bespectacled giraffe, embarks on a fashion internship.

Zoo comes to life this fall, with Robertson’s takeover of Holt Renfrew‘s fall campaign (aptly renamed Colt Renfrew for the occasion). Mitford and the rest of the gang appear everywhere from in-store windows to tote bags to the cover of the retailer’s latest digest. While he was in town to celebrate the launch, we did what we do best---creeped his bag in efforts to reveal his secrets.

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Photography by Lyndsey Constable

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Donald Robertson Bag 001

“The tote is an LL Bean bag that actually got a paint pallet stuck down on it, upside down on it by accident. It looks super pretentious like I did fake painting on it, but it’s the real deal man, it’s the real deal. It’s my signature and now it’s near and dear to my heart.”