Barbie movie features hand-made washbag made by Clophill businesswoman

A textile designer who makes classy silk wash bags is over the moon that one her products was picked by Warner Bros to appear in the new blockbuster Barbie movie.

Janey Whitehorn founded her small home business Whitehorn Modern marbling in Clophill, and hand dyes silk using an ancient marbling technique to make stylish wash bags, lampshades, cushions and scarves.

She was processing orders earlier this year at her home when she noticed the address of one of them was the Warner Bros studios in Leavesden, Watford.

"I assumed that someone who worked there had seen my products online and ordered a wash bag to be delivered to them while they were at work,” she said.

But, as soon as the wash bag arrived, Janey received an urgent call from the studios.

"They said they wanted to use it in the Barbie movie and they needed another one, to keep as a back-up, as soon as possible. I was amazed!” she said.

Warner Bros immediately sent a motorcycle courier to collect the bag, which sells for £18.

Surprisingly, the design chosen was the Bergen Coated Cosmetic Bag, which is not Barbie pink as might be expected. Instead, it’s a sophisticated blend of red, grey, black and white, finished off with a red tassel.

This week Janey, 51, went to see the Barbie Movie at Bedford Cineworld with a friend, studying the screen for a glimpse of her bag.

"When we saw it we let out a whoop! I was so excited... There it was, on the reception desk in a scene showing the Mattel HQ. It was actually really visible and I was thrilled,” she said. “The colour theme is the HQ is red, grey and black, so I can see why they chose my design. It fits perfectly.”

The bag is shown with star America Ferrera, who plays the character Gloria in the film.

Janey, who is also a trained art and textile design teacher and now lives in North Crawley, is taking her whole family, including her three grown-up children, to see the movie to celebrate.

Meanwhile, she’s busy making lots of identical wash bags to prepare for a surge in sales.

"I have no idea how Mattel found my website out of the thousands of much bigger companies that make cosmetic bags. But I very honoured that they did,” she said. “As a small business owner working from my kitchen table, I am so grateful for any opportunities to increase visibility of my product.”

Janey studied textiles at Winchester School of Art in the 1990's, specialising in weaving and dyeing.

A love of fabric and texture, combined with a deep understanding of colour theory and appreciation for design, led her on a path to discover and experiment with the process of marbling, which is an age-old method of floating ink onto the silks.

• The Barbie movie, starring Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling, was released on July 21 and is already taking cinemas by storm.