Archive for the ‘Alex’ Category

What day is it? Oh yes, beginning of March, I must be in Paris again!

Paris in the Spring!

(it’s cold, but lovely and sunny)

It’s Paris Fashion Week again. The days are quite long, from 8AM to 8PM. Having to speak French, Italian, Japanese etc so my brain hurts a bit. Day two today and a really busy day so it went very quickly. Lots of Japanese buyers to keep us busy. The stand looks nice and we’ve lovely new collections so all in all, I’m pretty pleased.

Buyers at the show

New collections

Just had Sushi with some French friends so I’m all frenched out. Dying to chat in English again! I’ll report in properly with all the news when I get back to London.

Alex

Marmalade is one of the best things in the world, but there are a few rules;

1/ you have to make it yourself,

2/ eat at least a jar a week.

Curiously enough, although Japan is my food heaven, I’ve never had nice marmalade in Japan, so I’m posting this on my Japanese blog as well. Hmm, might have to ask Mayo to translate… (have a look here)

Anyway, it’s marmalade making time for the sad old  stay-at-homes (that’s me), so I spent last night boiling up my second batch. And may I say it’s one of the best ever. I used my Mum’s recipe, easy and failsafe. Here it is with translation into plain English…

Recipe: 3lbs Seville oranges, 2 Lemons (plus anything else? Grapefruit, lime etc??) 6lbs Marmalade sugar. 1/ Scrub the fruit, put in a pan with 6 pints of water, boil for 2 hours, go watch some t.v., cool. 2/ Cut the fruit in half and remove the insides, pith and all, put insides into a muslin bag, tie it up. Cut up the peel thinly. Put peel and bag back into the liquid and boil for half an hour, more t.v. Cool. Remove the bag and squeeze it out as best you can. Chuck the rest away. 3/ Add the sugar, stir until dissolved, then boil very fast for about 15 mins or until the liquid begins to set when you drip it on a cold plate. Turn off the heat then leave to cool for 20 mins. Then pour into jam jars.

Boiling it up

The finished product!

It doesn’t get any better than that!

Alex

Just to let you know, Jutta at Little 15 is running a competition, kind of a Prize Draw,for our upcoming Trunk Show. Just click on the pic below to enter…

Little 15 competition

We did a great press breakfast at Harrods this morning. All the gorgeous glam press girls and nibbles and chat. I looked suitably scruffy as usual, eating all the nibbles I could get, and stayed around for the ‘Meet the expert’ day. Bought some fab chocs for Valentines day from  Holdsworth. After trying a few (!) I couldn’t resist. Besides, they’re hand made in Derbyshire. We like hand made in the UK. Yummie.

Holdsworth chocs in Harrods

Daniella behind the counter at Harrods

Stopped off at Panter and Hall on my way back and bought this print. Couldn’t resist it.

(’Gus’ by Helen Fay)

Hello All,

Just a quick note to let you know that we’ll be doing a FAB Trunk show at Little 15 in the city on Tueseday 9th February (just in time for Valentine’s Day). We’ll be there from 12 ’till 3, but the Special Exclusive pieces will be there all day. Jutta is in charge at Little 15 (we’re old friends and she’s always chatting on our blog), so whatever time of day, pop along if you can and say ‘Hi’. We all take time to put together these amazing one off pieces for our trunk shows, our on-line trunk show shop has been going really well, but there will be a whole new selection of pieces in Little 15! Oh yes, if the boyf. has trouble knowing what to choose, send him this link of Emma on how to buy a gift…..

Little 15 trunk show

Hi All,

Rakhi came in this morning and said she saw our jewellery on ‘Material Girl’, that new series on the bbc; “Drama about dreams, love, clothes and how we all use them to run away from who we are and towards who we should be …” so we thought we’d do a little guide to AM jewellery on the box. I loved the one when Emma was asked for an interview on ITN, about how to buy your loved one a piece of jewellery. Very apt with Vally day looming. Get your boyfs to check it out, I think it’s great. Also we love Emilia Fox. And we love Silent witness. And she always wears our stuff. Keep your eyes peeled and let us know, we recently spotted Annie Lennox on Jonathan Ross, Angela Griffiths on ‘Angela and friends’, Gabby Logan on an advert for Five Live?

And Jo Whiley wears AM all the time! Let us know if you spot anyone else!

Emma in ITN

Silent Witness

Material Girl

Berlin.
Yowzer it was cold.

Cold Berlin from the plane

Silly me just took a thin top and light jacket, and it was -13 degrees at night! My bones have only just started to warm up. But I loved Berlin. The main point of my trip was to see the Adamsky Caramia girls Kristin and Monica, check out the show we were doing, and also to check out Berlin. I got the 7a.m. flight out (sooo early I treated myself to BA posh class), dropped off my things at the Ellington and hit the show. I was really impressed. The show looked great, was packed with buyers and full of interesting stuff. Our stand looked best and the girls had displayed my jewellery in a lovely bird cage. It looked great. K and M were lovely, of course. I hung about for a while then headed off to check out the city. Out for supper with the girls, very nice Italian (Monica is from the South of Italy).
Friday off out into the city for a bit more research. KaDeWe and Gallerie Lafayette etc. A bit of sight seeing.

Brandenburg Arch

Back to the show for an hour or two, then off to check  out some of our stockists; LaLa on Mulackstrasse was a super place near Mitte, then on to Konk which is another beautiful shop in Kleine hamburg strasse. They made a great little shopping guide to the area, so make this your first port of call and it’ll help you navigate this lovely boutiquey area. I bought some bits and bobs for the kids. Check out the amazing in’t veld choccie shop!

Pressies for the girls

By this time I needed some serious warming up so I did it German style with a massive slice of cake.

Coffee and cake

Really pleased to see some of the lovely shops that stock us in Berlin (stockists info). A quick nip to a couple of museums then off to the airport. Easyjet this time. Back to the real world eh?

Hi Everybody,
Well, the New Year has certainly got off to a flying start. Here’s how it goes for me…
Friday; Emma’s birthday. Too much cake.

Emma cutting the cake.

Saturday PM; Emma’s Birthday party. Karaoke in Clerkenwell. Need I say more?

Me and Suzy A's Nigel. I love Karaoke!

Sunday; Nieces confirmation. I’m not a big Church goer but I’ll always step up if I’m needed, and I was. My niece Edie needed to be given away for her confirmation so me and the kids went up and did the business, all followed by a slap-up lunch at Lemonia in Primrose Hill. Nice because the Bishop did the service.

The Bishop and all

Us lot in the church

Monday; Mayo had a bit of fun working on a new collection…

Mayo working at her bench

Tuesday; Negotiate new lease on workshop. All went OK.
Wednesday; Big New Year meeting here. All very positive. Big expansion plans which I’ll talk about soon. Treat curry for lunch! Cinema with mates in the evening. The Road. It’s seriously depressing so only see it if you’re in an OK mood.
Thursday; Teaching at St. Martin’s. I love it there. The students are fab and sooo creative and it’s just great. Teaching a Charm, and a Ring project. My nephew Mario came round and we ended up meeting a few mates in the pub, should have learned by now, too much too late…….
Friday; Headache. Teaching at St. Martin’s. Still love it. Got our samples ready for Germany and sent them off. Visit from Southwark health and safety (yurgh).
Saturday; Day, time to think about tidying up my shed. I lit a fire and pottered all morning. Did a bit in the garden too.

A fire in my shed.

Last day for the Turner exhibition at Tate Britain. All very nice. I hold the world speed record for exhibitions, I managed the whole thing in under 10 mins. Perfect.
Monday; TV  company visited. Want to do a documentary with me talking about wills…. Not sure about it but would be great to get a will done.
Tuesday; Season strategy meeting with Harrods. All very exciting. They want to really step things up so we’re scheduling loads of great deliveries throughout the year. I think we’ll more than double our stock, space and sales. Can’t wait to get going on it all! But had to; Connie had exams at Alleyns School so I had to drop her off really early then whizz from Harrods to pick her up, Libby’s teacher called saying she was ill so raced over to get her, organised babysitters and wasn’t back at work ‘til 5. Ah well, it’s going to be a late one tonight!
Just saw that Susie has put the new pages on the web-site. One for ‘Valentines’, and a great new ‘Trunk show’ page. Only one available of each of these pieces!

Off to Berlin tomorrow, for ‘Premium’, part of Berlin Fashion week. Looks like it’s that time again….Berlin, London, Paris, then Tokyo . Doesn’t time fly?!

Alex

Yikes! It’s Christmas already, where did it creep up from?

We’re still terrible busy here at AMHQ, but I’ve been making the most of the nights getting in the festive spirit. (Actually I’m having trouble remembering what I’ve been doing each evening!). Friday luch was the Goldsmith’s Hall Christmas lunch, I took along some friends and we had a rare old time. Friday night work Christmas do (I’ll leave that for the girls to report on. Suffice to say I got home in one piece by midnight). I took a quick nip back to Suffolk on Saturday night in the snow! Driving down the A12 in a blizzard was brilliant. Some old mates from school met up for some grub and a drink or two at the Old Ipswichian dinner. It was the first time I’d been back since I left all those years ago. A couple of pints in the pub beforehand eased the process!

Old boys!

Here we are from left to right; Joff (friends since we were about 4, clever), Luke (lovely, and useful, a funeral director), Richard (lovely), Simon (a right pain, he’s just grabbed my nuts as the shutter fell), Me (in pain), Rob (a great mate recently rediscovered).

A slow but beautiful drive home...

Then we did the tree, I love doing the tree and can get rather greedy, the wife and kids had to get rid of me so they could have a go. Anyway, the end result was sufficiently gaudy. I say ‘No!’ to minimalist Chrismas’.

Christmas tree

And on Monday we did our Annual do with the Salvation Army. They come and play Carols outside our house and all the neighbourhood come along and we make mulled wine and hot dogs. It’s a great way to get that Christmas feeling (followed by everybody popping indoors and jollying away the night with a wee tipple or two!)

Sallie Army carol singing

Anyway, more fun to come, can’t wait for Christmas itself. But right now it’s back to work for all of us here.

Happy Christmas!

Alex

Hi Everyone
And Happy Christmas! Not long to go now. And I think we’re going to have to put a stop to internet orders in a day or so, we’ve been so busy!
There has been so much to blog, but Emma wanted to keep the blog free for news about the sales we were doing on the run up to Christmas, so this is the first chance I’ve had to catch up. What have we been up to…?
Well, there’s the rest of my trip to Australia, which seems like a distant memory now I’m freezing my butt off in Kennington. Anyway, it was all fab. Where did I leave off? Oh yes, Melbourne.

Me with the girls in Chadstone

We did a great trunk show in Morrison in Chadstone, then I wizzed off to Sydney where I met my friend Mike at the airport. He kindly offered to put me up, so he flew in from London, me from Melbourne and we were met by his wife Lisa and whisked off to a little patch of paradise in the Northern beaches. I had the cabin at the end of the garden and was gently woken each morning by the parrots and kookaburras in the trees.

Mikes Cabin

The beach is a few hundred yards away but the pool was right there so I completely relaxed into it all. And Mike’s kids were lovely (must get them to meet mine and some of it might wear off!) Rachel and Maggie. They devised a dangerous and difficult challenge called ‘The 5 beach challenge’. Our task was to swim, play and relax in all five of the best beaches in the area in a single day. It was hard but we did it. I was presented with a certificate to prove my achievement which now hangs on my kitchen wall. Thanks to the Bullen family, I had a most fantastic time!

5 beach challenge

By the way, I texted this pic to Denise in the UK and she bounced me back a snap of her and Susie surrounded by celebs at the Emeralds and Ivy Ball. We donated a fab necklace for Yvonne Keating to wear, which was auctioned off and raised loads of money for Cancer research.

Then Sydney for our massive press party in the Ivy Sunrooms. A great success thanks to all. Then more trunk shows, shop visiting etc (but we still had to lunch didn’t we?)

The Ivy Sunroom Press reception, all ready...

For the last bit I rented a little apartment in Bondi. My morning run was round the point to Tamarama and back, a swim, a coffee and off to work. That’s me almost Native!

Bondi to Tamarama run

Anyway, it does me no good to dwell on the beautiful sunshine and great food and sand and… enough already. Back to England it is.
The first thing I did when I got back was to rush to the ceremony at Goldsmith’s Hall where they made me a Freeman of the City! Make the most of this, you won’t see me in a suit too often!

I am a free man! The Freeman ceremony at Goldsmith

Then we were into Trunk show/ Christmas sales territory proper. Actually, while I was away Susie and Emma already got things going. A mad busy sale by Susie L. for the girls at Vogue House, they nearly bought everything we had! Thanks girls. Then a super trunk show at Liberty where we also previewed A/W 2010 ‘The peacock and the crow’ collection, (all sold out on day one I’m afraid!) and a great collection of one off exclusive pieces. Silverado in Brighton by Suzy A. Cerise with Emma. Studio sale here at AMHQ, my brother’s church fundraiser and I think that’s it! I’ll be glad to get a week-end off.
Oh yes, while I was gone a film crew was shooting in our yard, they made it look so cute! Helena BC, Colin Firth and the gang were out in force.

Our lovely yard in the movies!

And Emma has done a facebook page for us, (I’m not really a facebook sort of chap but trying to keep up I promise) Check it out here

Just to give you an idea of how mental it’s been here at Alex Monroe HQ I took this snap of the daily post run. I think our daily record is about 7 sacks full!

Piles of Post! A dash to catch the postman!

Here’s a nice e-mail from Jamila who I met at our studio sale. Aw. Lovely.

Dear Alex
I came by the studio today and bought two beautiful rings - I’m not sure if you remember me - i bought the buttercup ring for my sister as a wedding present. I just wanted to say it was very nice to meet you and see the face behind the name. Your designs are truly original and are just beautiful - i keep admiring my bird ring whilst i type this email!
Keep up the good work, thanks again
Jamila

That’s it for now, back to work for me.

Alex

The last of our Christmas sales is this week-end. (actually, I’m rather pleased it’s the last. Got to have some time off to do my Christmas shopping!)

We’ll be in Primrose Hill this Saturday 12th December. It’s one of my favourite. Held in my brother’s church (well, not his but you know what I mean) it’s a real family affair. My mum makes the soup for the lunches, daughter Verity will run the stand, brother Roddy organises it all, Sister-in-law Jo does the vintage clothing etc. etc. I’ll be there with the family, there’s lots to see and super tea rooms if you just want to come for a cuppa!

St Mary the Virgin Church, Elsworthy road, Primrose Hill. London NW3, 10 ’till 6. Saturday 12th December.

It’s the start of Christmas for us!

Primrose Hill designer sale