Vogue.com’s Fashion’s Night In!
We’re delighted to be taking part in Vogue.com’s Fashions Night In and have a whole host of treats planned!
Everybody loves a discount and we do too, so to thank everyone for the phenomenal response we had, we’ve extended our offer and are givng all customers a lovely 10% discount off ALL orders placed between 6pm and Midnight on the evening of the 1st November 2010! Simply enter the code FNI10 at checkout!
Win! Hands up who would like to win £150 worth of jewellery of your choice from our boutique? To enter, simply register your details on our website before 11.59pm on the 1st November, and you’ll be entered into our prize draw. You can choose from both our Objet Trouvé mainline range and our Trousseau Wedding & Bridal jewellery range, so its entirely up to you! The lucky winner will be announced on our blog, Twitter and Facebook and will be notified by email the following day and asked to choose their favourite item (or items!) upto the value of £150. Good Luck!!
We’re also launching our extra special Limited Edition Hellebore Necklace just for one night, before it actually goes on sale one whole week later. This rather romantic necklace is a layered chain beauty, with a gorgeous Victorian heart and beautifully detailed bow (there’s a hint of this little treasure here). We’re delighted to be donating 10% of the proceeds from the sale of every Hellebore necklace to the Kid’s Company charity.
International Jewellery London 2010
As soon as all the wedding preparations were done and dusted, I started straight on all the prep for this years International Jewellery London, held at Earls Court 2 from the 5th – 8th September. This year, as I was basically changing the entire range from mixed metals to precious metals, (more on that in my next post) I had rather a lot of work to do, but thankfully the range had been designed earlier in the year, so at least I was able to concentrate on the manufacture of the collections and stand design.
I was delighted to see that the label had a fantastic amount of interest – even after the success of last year - as I’d changed the range from base to precious metals I didn’t know how it was going to be received, as there are just so many fantastic designers competing for buyers! But I was quite overwhelmed with the success of the show this year, and buyers were even placing orders once the show had closed and we were packing up the stand!
So again it was a pretty good experience. Lots of interest, a stack of brilliant orders and loads of new contacts, which is the whole idea. I bribed my OH to help out again, as he’s a bit of a showman and it was all I could do to stop him from parading up and down the aisles shouting ‘Roll up Roll up’! The show is definitely quite social - I again bumped into a load of old friends and colleagues whom were either exhibiting or visiting which was lovely!
The one drawback to the show this year was the completely unnecessary tube strike, which really affected visitor attendance on the Sunday and Monday. Happily this didn’t seem to affect the placing of orders, and the show certainly recovered on the Tuesday and Wednesday, but its the last thing a small business needs when you’ve invested so much time and money in preparing for the trade show. Having said all that, I was delighted with the show this year and International Jewellery London will certainly be on our show schedule for next year and I’ll have to see what else we can also get up to!
Rock n Roll Wedding!
Oh dear, I think I have rather alot of catching up to do! Its been completely manic (in a good way!) here for the past few months. I got married earlier in the year, and being a just a little bit of a control freak and not being able to account for a Claire Pettibone frock or top class wedding planner in the miniscule budget, arranged pretty much everything myself!
As the vintage theme seems to pervade everything I do, and my OH lives and breathes music it seemed totally natural to have a new vintage rock wedding, and where else to get married than Marylebone Old Town Hall!
Uh Oh Its Nearly Christmas!
There’s been so much to do after the IJL trade show {see my previous post, ‘Showdown’ for the nitty gritty} that again, to my great chagrin, I’ve been playing my usual game of catch up. Oh to be one of those super organised people who were probably girl guides, boy scouts or something in their youth and have everything ready three months before absolutely neccessary; whether it be trade shows, Christmas Shopping, birthdays, or whatever. I’m afraid I have never been ~ and clearly by now, never will be one of those peculiarly talented people! I have a theory that I’m privately a bit of an adrenalin junkie {after all, I must like to live dangerously as I ride a motorbike and work with sharp implements, although admittedly not simultaneously}, and actually enjoy the pressure of problem solving within a very short space of time. True to form, I do seem to work very well under pressure…
I have just uploaded the new Autumn- Winter 2009/10 Objet Trouvé range onto my website. I’ve been fascinated for some time by Art Deco Illustrators such as Georges Barbier, Umberto Brunelleschi and {of course} Erté, so used their sumptuous visuals and inate humour of the foibles of fashionable society {@ you Monsieur Barbier} as my inspiration.
Its a theme I can see myself pursuing for the next couple of seasons as theres alot of life left in it yet ~ I haven’t begun to scratch the surface, and the colours and overall feel of the illustrations lend themselves to a whole host of beautiful colour mixes and palettes. I’m currently finalising the images for the new Trousseau range, which will be uploaded in a week or so. Of course I’ll post images and links when its done. There’s a distinct vintage pearl theme running through it this season…
Its just hit me, of course, that its mid October, which means that for all the self employed designers, artists and crafts people out there that uh oh, its nearly Christmas! That thought, if nothing else should give me the adrenalin fix I need…
The Exhibition@London Fashion Week
This season LFW moved to Somerset House and its environs. Its a gorgeous setting for the designers fortunate enough to exhibit within the Somerset House grounds themselves, but only about 30% of the designers (fashion, accessories and jewellery) are actually sited there, and the remaining 70% were at 180 Strand, an imposing converted steel and glass office block 100 yards down the road. Somerset House featured exactly who you’d expect to see, Mawi and Erickson Beamon sparkled edgily and Laura Lee twinkled delicately, while at 180 Strand Jacey Withers did his usual stunning display and Alex Monroe continued his au natrel theme, complete with grass, of course. It was only a whistlestop visit and unfortunately I neglected to take my camera with me, but imagine if you will, Ostrich feather wigs, giant bows, frilly lacy colliers, a pearl encrusted top hat all juxtaposed with a cherry fascinator wearing mannequin and you’ll get a flavour of the Top Shop sponsored New Generation designers offerings. Un Nouveau Ideal over at Typepad illustrates this admirably! I love going to have a look, its much more exciting than the usual trade shows. Its a veritable visual feast and an aural cacophony, but I wouldn’t miss it for the world. And never mind the fashion, the people watching is just sublime…
Top Drawer
A week after I’d recovered from standing {and not to mention smiling} for 96 hours straight, I popped along to have a look at Top Drawer at Olympia, London. Its usually a nice little show, with a good eclectic mix of product, mostly geared towards homewares, accessories, jewellery, cards and gifts.
Now I fully admit I’m rather hard to please when it comes to jewellery (as the OH would undoubtedly testify to!), but years of industry brainwashing have certainly left their mark, and so I was rather unimpressed {if not depressed} by much of the jewellery on show. However, I was delighted to discover Ridley and Dowse; a small company from Brighton, UK. They’ve taken the current trend for nature inspired jewellery (think Alex Monroe’s lovely but ubiquitous sparrows etc) and turned it on its head to produce a great range of contemporary jewellery using non-traditional materials such as stainless steel. Just lovely!
One can usually rely on Top Drawer to offer a whole raft of glorious homewares and accessories, and this year was no different. Following a rather simliar nature theme, the 1st prize has to go to Lulu and Nat, whom make the most covetable bedlinen and soft furnishings. Already a favourite with trend hungry department stores such as Liberty, Descamps has a serious rival!
Top Drawer is probably the one show in the UK at which you can find a decent selection of cards and paper gifts. I was delighted to discover Rosehip, a UK company who are producing the loveliest cards and accessories from recycled card and paper. I was particuarly taken with their Angel paper doll banner ribbon, out in time for Christmas ~ oh so cute!
Besides the obvious advantages of identifying at emerging trends and all that (old habits really do die hard), I’d actually gone to Top Drawer to check out the show itself and not the product offer. I was considering exhibiting in February, and wanted to interrogate the sales team (ha! I should have known better) with regard to what was happening with their smart jewellery show, Collections. This was a show that ran in tandem with Top Drawer at Earls Court for two years, and featured names such as Stephen Webster as the main draw. Clearly it was less than successful as Clarion Events (the people behind Top Drawer & Collections) have now decided to absorb Collections into Top Drawer, as a distinct section of designer jewellery within the show. This concerns me for several reasons: One: Its a tiny section (with approximately 20 stands at most). Two: This ‘premium’ section also has to sit alongside the general jewellery offer – which also includes wholesalers and that may well confuse buyers. Three: Your brand is also vying for the buyers attention with a whole host of other product types, which your buyer may well have just blown her jewellery budget on. So I think I may well visit and see how the show works before I make a committment that will cost me an arm and a leg (not to mention my bank managers goodwill!), as it seems a little ill though out at present. But here’s hoping they prove me wrong!
Showdown
The biggest sparkliest jewellery show in London is undoubtedly International Jewellery London, held at Earls Court this year from the 6th-9th September. I always visit (good idea to keep ones hand in, so to speak) and so this year I had decided to take a stand and see what level of interest my label raised.
Susie Warner ~ International Jewellery London 2009
Objet Trouve AW09/10
It was quite gratifying to see that I had loads of interest – you never know what kind of reception you’re going to get in a public arena, as its one thing retailing in shops, and quite another showing a wholesale collection. I’d be forewarned to expect some odd questions {and downright silly}, and was used to the idea of some visitors not actually getting the concept of a trade show and wanting to purchase immediately {very flattering but it’s a trade show, people!} but the one thing I didn’t expect was that the frames would prove very attractive to importunate jewellery store owners, as I got as many compliments over those as I did the jewelery ranges! I fully expect next year to have been responsable for influencing the visual merchandising of contemporary jewellery shops the length of the UK! If only I could have charged a consultancy fee on that concept! I was very fortunate as those lovely people over at Retail Jeweller Magazine were doing a pre-show guide in the September issue of the magazine, and had invited selected exhibitors to send in images, so I’d sent them my Nightshade necklace, a lovely big ostentatious necklace that was undoubtedly my showiest!
So all in all it was rather a good experience. Lots of interest, lots of buyers and a load of new contacts, which is the whole idea of these jamborees. I’m glad my OH helped, it could have been quite deadly if you had to do it on your own, although it actually proved quite social ~ met up with a load of old friends and colleagues, by complete accident, which was lovely! The one word of warning about doing trade shows is that they are very expensive. If you’re determined to do one ~ and lets face it, if you want to grow your business they are essential to being taken seriously ~ Make sure you’re certain it’s the right one for your business and be prepared for money to flow from your bank account like the river Thames in spate, as the stand costs are just the start! Having said all that, I’m delighted we showed at International Jewellery London this year and am now checking out which one I will do next (with a bit of help from the OH of course!).
