Charming, ebullient and baffling at times, (and that’s just the dog) life never fails to amuse on a daily basis – despite me feeling my fair share of despair. This is my blog about my life on the East Sussex coast with The Hairy Houdini as I build my fashion accessories business St Leonards, get stuck into married life and make new friends in a crazy bohemian seaside town.
The rough and tumble of life building a fashion business with a Slovakian rough-haired Pointer
Today it’s pouring down. After a week of scorching heat the garden breathes a sigh of relief as the rain has been quenching it since 07:30. The Hound and I dripped our way along the beach at low tide, and then jogged back home, tired and damp but happy.
Now I have to knuckle down to some work. Today is receipts and number crunching. It’s something I dread doing at the beginning of each month but get a huge satisfaction from.It’s like the dreaded Latin homework or a Monday morning Maths test. For some reason design students are never taught how to balance the books or given any kind of business studies workshops to help them get ahead in business when they graduate and I think that’s a crime. What use is creative genius if you can’t plan your business and take the right steps towards earning a decent living doing, what you’re great at?
Setting up St Leonards has been a huge learning curve in terms of how to run a creative business. I have found that I spend 80% of my day working on improving the brand’s marketing profile and updating and maintaining the website, closely followed by working out what money I can spend on new products and production.Very little time is actually spent on new designs and this is something I hope to address as the business grows.
St Leonards, home of understated British accessories is a lifestyle brand that is growing daily and I hope you’ll enjoy seeing it evolve. This week I had my friend and press guru ML spend a morning connecting with the fashion editors of The Telegraph and I hope something will come of that wonderful conversation soon. I’ve been working on some new concepts for another British manufacturer to make up for me so I can have a different style of product available soon. And finally, as if this hasn’t been enough, I’m working with a Highland weaving company on the Isle of Mull to develop a winter scarf collection.
So, even though I have been sitting on the sofa, with my lap top close to hand, feeling very relaxed and almost like I’m on holiday, I’ve actually achieved a lot and am feeling pretty smug.
It’s always exciting when large cardboard boxes arrive at Seaside HQ. Yesterday I had a delivery from the London workshop and the fresh stock has arrived. Delicious rustling of plastic bags and paper ensued, followed by a gasp of pleasure from me, and a sneeze from Oscar. The alluring smell of new leather and the pleasure of holding a simple, beautiful, understated leather accessory is a feeling that’s hard to beat.
See what you think:
Made from Italian saddlery leather and made in England.
To see more of the exciting delivery, please take a look at the Facebook business page: “St Leonards British Accessories” I hope you like what you see.
Over the weekend, I’ve been indulging in a cabinet reshuffle – a shake up and re-jig – my office has undergone a major facelift and finally it feels like a Design Room rather than an anonymous “somewhere” to shove boxes, receipts and handbag components – Like any room in the house I wanted it to reflect who I am and what’s happening with the business – and now it’s reflecting the positve mood and excitement of the business’ growth. Despite its’ modest size (approx 7ft wide x 10 ft long) I now have everything organised in a really wonderfully ergonomic way – it all works together well-it’s cosy and feels professional at the same time. Apart from painting a couple of walls, (one a gooseberry fool colour, the others a warm slate grey) I’ve bought a set of second-hand stacking fruit crates for my piles of magazines, some large zinc bakery tins with useful handles for heaving stock around, and 2 new desk from Ikea. I’m now able to keep my laptop and paperwork on one desk and my pattern cutting and design work on another, I that still leaves me ample space for packaging up any orders that come in during the week too.The prototype samples are now hanging in full view on the walls alongside older ideas and sketches. The grey pinboard I bought months ago with the Hastings new business start-up grant has finally been screwed to the wall, and is rapidly filling up with postcards, inspirational magazine clippings, shards or ribbon, leather and other bits and bobs.My “To Do” list has nowhere to hide now, and has it’s own bulldog clip on the board. St Leonards has a proper working office and at the same time, it really feels like home.
Take a look at some of the products that I decorated the room with:
Baileys home and garden is a wonderful store that sells online and they have a changing selection of French apple crates that can be stacked in a variety of ways. I bought mine from a local store called Eras of Style who supply all sorts of amazing antique and post modern furniture and are often hired by interior decorators to fit shops and homes. They’re based in St Leonards-on-Sea, but are due to move to larger premises in Bexhill-on-Sea very soon.
http://www.baileyshomeandgarden.com/mail-order/storage/info.php?id=514
Eras of Style: Sandringham Fruit crates
http://www.erasofstyle.com/royal-fruit-farm-sandringham-apple-crates-royal-fruit-farm-sandringham-apple-crates
My desk tops and legs came from Ikea- I always dread going to this store- you never know if there stocks there, or if the queues will be horrendous, so it’s a 50 mile journey which is pure pot-luck – you might just come back with a hotdog for all the effort, or a blue bag full of teatowels and picture frames you didn’t know you needed…But on this occasion, I was lucky and picked up two great white table tops and matching metal tubular legs to create a sturdy L-shaped workspace to fit along one half of the room.Take a look HERE.
Today, Tim and I drove into Bexhill and we stopped off at The De La Warr Pavilion. Apart from being the venue we got married in, it’s a fabulous gallery space with panoramic views of the sea. The current exhibition, A Nod to Cage is wonderful. The American writer, composer and artist has a large number of prices on show as well as installations and audio visual booths.The drawings are created by seemingly random shakes of a dice and a grid like pattern on the page which determines where the elements are placed.I liked the sparse and unusual compositions of the artworks and didn’t realise until the end of the show that he had created them this way.He let a craps game be the conductor of his work.
After we left, it got me thinking about shapes and voids – the areas outside the subject matter and how beautiful this can be and how in a way, this can be more important that the key subjects. So when I took some snapshots, it seemed the “nothing” were my focus.
I like the way the cloud wisp cuts diagonally across the rectangle of the photograph, and the crisp bold walking cane of the street lamp is strongly contrasted against the blue.
New product for St Leonards. www.stleonardsonline.com
It’s so pleasing when a new product finally makes it into 3D life. My designs begin as sketches, usually on the page of aSeawhite cartridge paper notebook, or on a scrap of envelope, and I love to draw using a MUJI fine line black pen (0.5 mm) I usually buy my Seawhite sketchbooks from my local art shop but they can be bought all over the country and starting a brand new one always feels exciting and a little bit extravagant. Once the sketches are complete I make a paper pattern and template to check the proportions are right and that the corners aren’t too tight and can be turned on a machine by someone else. Once I’m happy with it, the paper pattern gets copied and one set gets sent off to the workshop – either in London or China.
Both set of makers then translate my paper pattern into a card version which is longer lasting and sometimes a knife template is created so the shape can be copied time and time again. The template can then be used and repeated like a cookie cutter over and over and this makes greater commercial sense when lots are being made. When the workshop has completed the first prototype, I see it, go over it, and make comments – we then resolve any technical issues and make any necessary changes to the design.
Only when I’m really, really happy with it, from all angles, does it get the OK to go into a production run and even then, the St Leonards runs are very small and special. So when you finally get to see a product like this Fob, you’ll be pleased to know it’s taken several months to come to fruition.
The Fob will go on sale in 10 days time. Please keep checking in at www.stleonardsonline.com
Alas, the Hound has a poorly. We call it “a poorly” because he has hurt himself but refuses to behave in a fragile or unwell manner – He cannot be categorised as “sick” – He’s still bounding around but then drops the floor, obsessively licking his wound. He pulled his dew claw after a romp on the beach and it just wouldn’t stop bleeding. We bathed, inspected and wrapped it in bandage but after 5 days it just wasn’t healing up. He’s somehow smashed one of his front dew claws so that it’s split and oozing – Like a parrots beak with a squashed worm trapped inside. Not a pretty sight.Shudder.
Off to the vets we go, a 20 minute car ride and he’s momentarily excited by the thought we might be going to a walk he loves with new sniffs and fresh views, but as we approach the car park his ears slump and he’s no longer eager to leave the car.
20 mins and £100 later we have anti-inflammatries, and anti-biotics and instructions to do salt water bathes twice a day…Oscar’s enthusiasm has buckled and so has my purse.
Bunting. Bunting, BBBBB Bunting!
Suddenly, a day before the Royal Wedding (capitals seemed necessary today) I am all a-flutter with bunting. I have been eyeing up Ebay’s rather expensive offerings and reluctant to dig out my sewing machine, but today, I spotted a bargain length of the patriotic red and white and blue fabric flags in my local Co-Op.Having bought the 5 metres of fun for £2.99 I have hot-footed it back home to pin generous swags and festoons to my front door. The Hound has eyed me suspiciously, as I rip open the packaging, drawing pins gripped fiendishly in teeth, teetering on an unsuitable chair, but there’s no stopping me.I have wedding fever.
For a satirical memento of the big day, why not buy a limited edition screen printed poster from my friend Chris Steele? It’s a royal wonder…
Check it out online: IDLE HANDS DESIGN http://www.idlehandsandco.com/
Chris Steele's Royal souvenir - Idle Hands design copyrighted Chris Steele March 2011
I forgot – I totally forgot to update you with news about my Country Living Magazine retail fair in March. Well, in a nutshell, it was pecan fantastic – I got a great response from my new collection despite the selling prices in some cases, being double what they were when I launched in November last year -The reason for this? Well apart from the VAT increases and postage costs going up I have increased my prices so I can start to wholesale the styles to independent retailers and boutique stockists.
And I was rewarded by 3 great new enquiries about stocking my wares AND a repeat order from another one. It would seem that in March, most of the 28,000 women who careered through the Business Design Centre, Islington, were hell bent on buying something for themselves – whereas the Christmas Fair, was full of moochers and present buyers.
So, I sold almost all my stock and have now gained some new fans. I also had to take orders on styles like the Burton Bag and The Pevensey Tote. so there’s currently a waiting list for these beauties. So it would seem there is a gap in the accessories market, for understated and stylish design.
The Burton Bag shown here in Tan and Earth, made from Italian bridle leather and made in England with brass fittings. Go to www.stleonardsonline.com to see more and buy. The Pevensey Tote in full grain saddlery leather makes the perfect all round tote for Summer and Winter – it can be stuffed full of beach clutter, vegetables or even your laptop. See www.stleonardsonline.com for more details.
This week a royal hubbub has been bubbling. People may swiftly deny their interest in the Royal Wedding this Friday, when quizzed ” Will you be watching the wedding? ” but, there is an optimistic, slightly giddy romantic fluttering amongst those over 30….those who were 11 in 1981 with Charles and Diana’s wedding, who are now old enough to be married themselves and are appreciative of the pomp and ceremony after a wearing, dreary, financially straitening few years. Just the extra Bank holiday seems exciting, and a perhaps even a little excessive.
Commentators, journalists and blogs abound with questions about what Kate Middleton will be wearing, and who’s sitting with who, but I don’t care, because I’ll be enjoying my ring side seat in the living room whilst feverishly sewing my Big Fat Royal Wedding ball costume for the evening.
I’d love to see her in a huge dramatic Vivienne Westwood parchment rustling, crumpled and 3-tiered, corseted gown, a la SJP, but the favourite choices are Alexander McQueen and Marks and Spencer. Jigsaw, Kate’s previous employer offers a few suitable wedding guest outfits- perfect for an English Summer wedding, but nothing grand enough for the bride. if they really want to reflect the sobriety of the nation’s recession, she could always wear a demure M&S cotton nightie and add a veil for drama….
Possible designer for Kate Middleton to wear?
Versailles metallic brocade dress, by Jigsaw
Top:Carrie SJP image taken by Richard Corkery and from http://www.nydailynews.com/index.html Middle: Jigsaw website, Bottom: Marks and Spencer
