Who, what and wear

I can’t quite believe the last time I actually put pen to paper ( fingers to keyboard) and blogged was in July!

Wasn’t being lazy, just incredibly busy and it’s amazing how once you let time slip it snowballs before you know it.        So I am making my New year resolution now at the end of November, no point waiting, and it is to make sure that I no longer have such long lapses.

I guess first thing first, to get back into the swing of things, a quick recap of what we’ve been up to since July, and also what and wear??

In August we won the runners up award for Most innovative Business at the London FSB awards, what a night! what a surprise! we’ve not looked back since , it’s been a whirlwind.

In Sept we updated our on-line shop with the new Winter 2015 lines. And our best-sellers?  Crystal skulls and midi totes

 

October was show season again, we were back in full swing at Scoop London previewing our Summer 2016 collection

November seems to have come and gone at the blink of an eye. So, SO much went on, so where do I start?

Soprano Aylin Perez, twitted photos of her with her Nadia Minkoff London delivery

And a week later of her wearing her ‘delivery’, our Crystal Shard statement necklace  during her grand Finale at the Dallas Opera House

 

Nancy Dell’olio stepped out onto the West End stage wearing her bespoke Nadia Minkoff London necklace for her One-Woman show

 

And to top it all? we  found out we are up for another award! The Dot London award for Best London Lifestyle Indie retailer, woohoo!    And if you think we deserve it pls give us your vote, it takes 2 ticks, just follow this link put in your name and hit yes when you get the confirmation email.

 

Will be back soon, x Nadia

 

Challenging works of art, catwalk living and Blogger madness…how we do the things we do…

There is always a lot of interest about what goes on when it comes to the creative industries: how we party, where we party, what we wear, who we met, where we went, what’s new? What’s in? What’s out?
And with show season upon us- Oscars, Brits and London Fashion Week all back to back, there is a lot going on and a lot to follow.

So how did we at Nadia Minkoff London do the things we do??

Our season kicked off on Feb 1st with the first preview of our AW2015 collection @Scoop International in the Saatchi Galleries at the heart of London’s Kings Rd. The chosen 100+ brands who get to exhibit, get to have sole access to the gallery which is closed to the public for the duration of the show and open only to designers and registered buyers. It really is a case of art meets fashion as the gallery exhibit stays put and we, the designers, have our collections ‘slotted’ around the art.
Expect the unexpected- last season there was a whole exhibit on the theme of death, yup I’m not kidding here, it was pretty heavy going.And this season? Well, all in all it was a fairly tame affair but there were some, how shall I say, rather alternative works of art to be managed…

Making a grand entrance at the Saatchi Gallery

 

 

Inside to a beautiful floral welcome

 

Hello cow…

 

Next London Fashion Week was here before we even managed to pause for a breather, the volume of fashionistas this show attracts these days is quite phenomenal, mental in fact as Central London turns into a catwalk on the official runways and also on the sidewalks. Friday Feb 20th was kick-off day with endless parties to attend. Us lucky girls from NM HQ celebrated with the lovely, quirky lot at Wolf & Badger, in London’s uber trendy Dover Street Mayfair. Beautiful clothes, beautiful people, great music, and a special choice of drinks

Party, party, Wolf & badger celebrating 5 years in business and London Fashion Week

 

and what will you drink?  an Arbikie vodka cocktail

 

Or raw pressed juice? how about coconut water with charcoal???

 

Finally, on Tuesday 24th it was time to wrap up, not before a Bloggers Love session in trendy Shoreditch. To say that we were mobbed is no exaggeration, turn out was definitely larger than anticipated, in fact there was a serious bottle neck which lasted the best part of an hour if not longer just to get from the front door to the main room. Hats off to all the lovely bloggers who braved the swarm and kept smiling and to the celebs who didn’t let it put them off.

The beautiful Jess Impiazzi of Towie and MTV fame seals the show for us with our new season Kensington clutch bag! happy, happy 🙂

All together now…all together now

Today, The Beatles song ‘All together now’ is permanently stuck in my head because today is the last day before we set up our show at Scoop International, in London’s Saatchi Gallery. Today is the day when months of planning and development come together and when we have one last look to see if our bag and jewellery range are really working together.

Today is also the day when we pack it all, ready to be collected and delivered tomorrow

From inspiration to realisation

Way back in October 2014 I posted a blog called ‘The stillness within’ all about my day at the Swarovski trend and presentation launch.  I did decide there and then what my Autumn/Winter 2015 range was going to focus on and having reviewed my notes, the images I took as a reminder, my new bag collection (which I’d already made a head start on )I felt my first inspiration was still the one I was drawn to.

Like a child who gets offered a large box of sweets and is then told they’re only allowed to pick 3, the final decision making process is a tough one and also, it’s vital to feel you’ve chosen your favourites.

Might sound odd but even the simplest pair of earrings requires much thought and preparation- settings need to be made, plating colours need to be chosen, chains need to  selected, co-ordinated styles need to be thought of and there is always the issue of affordability, will this sell or is it too costly?

 

In October’s blog I outlined my vision for this collection to be as follows:

The keywords being:  retreat, escape, unplug, simplify, tranquillity.

The colour pallete- right up my street- neutrals, opalescent whites, hints of blue and shards of grey. Frosty but sparkly.

 

When I looked at it all laid out today, I felt satisfied- inspiration realised.

And the winner is….

During our last show (Sept 2014) we previewed a new clutch for Summer 2015. We called it ‘The Hoxton’ simply because the inspiration came from Hoxton, a district in London’s East End , considered by many to be the trendiest district of London. A place where bankers and city workers meet artists and skinny jeans trendies.

Seems our Hoxton, with its smaller proportions and versatile use, was set to become our new winner. So, we’ve continued with it for our Winter 2015 collection and it will be available in what we think is going to be the biggest colour for winter 2015- Cognac.

It makes a perfectly proportioned clutch

A perfect hand held mini shopper

And for those on the go, it also comes hands-free, yes it has its own detachable strap-cross body or shoulder bag is entirely up to you

 

So good it even made it to our show invite

 

Oh, and I just thought I should say that as of Winter 2015 it now has a sister, The Shoreditch

wonder which one of these two will come out tops???

 

New Year, new season, new workspace

Some 10 days before Christmas I decided (or should I say the impulsive side in me decided) to take the plunge and get the ground floor of my office building refurbished. I’ve been wanting to do so for ages but having never had luck with London builders, I kept putting it off.

So happens that this festive season I had a window of opportunity to get some work done when the office was closed, a 10 day break between Christmas and the New Year. On the other side of this break I knew I had a 4 week countdown to our first show of the season at London’s Scoop International. I also had a builder willing to work over the holidays who assured me the work would be completed and on time.  So I agreed, the day before Christmas Eve work commenced at 13:00, by the time I left the carpet downstairs had been taken out, as had the shelving units and cupboards, my office had morphed into a complete building site at the blink of an eye.  Next morning, Christmas Eve I was already wondering what I had let myself into with the realisation of what a big job it really was: a partition wall to take down, a floor to lift and then redo, doors to remove, windows to remove, a breakfast bar to build, a lot of painting work, shelving, re-wiring and all other ‘hidden’ pleasures that come out of the woodwork as soon as you strip the top layer.

No sooner was Boxing day over I spent my time tooing and frowing to the office, progress was on schedule but it still was a complete building site ,not to mention the state of our upstairs offices which had become a store room for the downstairs contents.

 

The building work was completed on time, a day early in fact, when we returned to work on Jan 5^th all was in order. And our new working space? Well it’s bright, comfortable, functional and as for the breakfast bar?  It now has a coffee machine- best thing if you ask me apart from the  fact that we are now eating too many biscuits and drinking too many coffees.

 

 

Our new collection is inspired by our new space,  less than a week to go before the show begins, we’re on schedule!