Posts Tagged ‘alex monroe’

They call this a soft launch in the trade I think, but nevertheless are very happy to invite you to come and visit our brand new and very first Alex Monroe Jewellery Boutique in 37 Snowsfields, London SE1 3SU.

If you are a husband/boyfriend who is still desperately looking for a piece of beautiful jewellery for your sweetheart this Christmas then give me a ring on 020 3117 0640 for further info, stock availability or just directions to the shop.

We’ll be open 10am – 6pm till Friday 23rd December and then again of course in the New Year.

Our classic pieces are available in the shop as well as some very unique 18ct solid gold jewellery such as our very adorable Eyebright rings.

And because our 12 Days of Christmas Calendar was so successful Alex, Mayo & team have re-created a real working calendar and all the special jewellery for the shop too. So if you missed out online on any of the 12 Days jewellery come on down to Snowsfields or call Jutta on 020 3117 0640 for a telephone order.

The official launch for the boutique will not be until Spring 2012 now when the cladding is finally installed on the building, but we’ll be keeping you informed in the usual way with our newsletter, blog and facebook updates.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!

with love from all of us at Alex Monroe

x

I don’t know about you, but we can’t quite believe it’s nearly December!  And that means it’s time to think about Christmas shopping…….

We have lots planned to help you out, the only trouble will be deciding where, and when to start!

First up, is this Thursday, the 1st of December, when we have two events planned:

Head to Harrods to “Meet the Masters” from 5-8pm. Say hello to Alex and a whole host of other amazing designers……

Come and check out Harrods' amazing jewellery hall.

While this is going, we will also rather excitingly, be holding our *only* Trunk Show this Christmas at Ede & Ravenscroft in Chancery Lane!

Members of our team will be on hand to advise, and I believe the lovely ladies at Ede & Ravenscroft will be keeping you refreshed with champagne…… The Trunk Show runs from 4-8pm and Alex will be calling in to say hello here too.

Trunk Show delights at Ede & Ravenscroft.

Following on swiftly from this is our open studio event in Iliffe Yard, on Friday 2nd, Saturday 3rd and Sunday 4th.

This is a great opportunity to visit lots of designer’s studios around the Pullens Yards, and we will be selling off slight-seconds at bargain prices. (please note that there will be no first-quality stock available at this sale)

Find us at number 9a Iliffe Yard.

Next up is the launch of our *exclusive* Black Chrysanthemum collection at Liberty, which makes it’s debut on Friday 9th December. Alex will be in-store, alongside members of our team to advise and help you pick your dream piece. (The AM team will also be around on Saturday 10th)

It’s a darker twist on the sophisticated Chrysanthemum collection, making the pieces a bit more edgy……I think these pearl earrings might be my favourite:

Sneak preview from our Ruthenium plated Chrysanthemum range.

For our North London residents, Alex & Family will be at the Primrose Hill Designer Sale on Saturday 10th December, from 10-6pm.

This is held at St Mary-the-Virgin Church on Elsworthy Road, and again, we will only be selling seconds here.

This is a really cute little sale and great for pressie buying!

For all of our fans who aren’t residing in London, be sure to keep an eye on our website, as for the second year we will be running our ’12 Days of Christmas’! This was a huge success last year, and very exciting, as it really is a case of being quick off the mark – numbers are very limited……

It’s all very top-secret, and I haven’t even seen all of the pieces yet, but here’s an ultra-sneak preview that happened to pass my way……

(.....just don't tell anyone I showed you!!)

We will also be launching new Trunk Show pieces soon, with a magical wintery theme.

PHEW! Think that’s about it……oh and somewhere in amongst all of that we will be opening our FIRST EVER SHOP!!

Number 37 Snowsfields.

We have yet to set a date, so keep your eyes firmly fixed on our website for news.

Finally, we have been doing some celeb-spotting, and it seems like Feathers are the way to go this party season…..

Zoe Ball recently opted for our Little Feather Necklace…..

Zoe Ball on 'Strictly'.

And the ever-glamorous Elle Macpherson went for our Peacock Feather Earrings to complete her 70′s chic outfit at a thanksgiving parade in New York…..

Elle looking stunning in our Peacock Earrings!

Be sure to let us know if you spot anyone wearing Alex Monroe……or even if you want to share your own outfits with us! Either way, it’s always great to see Alex Monroe jewellery being worn and loved.

Emma x

A few months ago, we were invited to participate in a showcase for British companies in Vienna by the UKTI office there. As it’s been so busy here, we’ve hardly had chance to even think about it, so last Monday it was suddenly time for Jutta and I to board our plane!

Here’s some of the things we saw on our travels……

Arriving on a very sunny Monday afternoon.

Off to explore.....

Sound sculpture.

"Artist Unknown"

Walking through the park.

Vienna was quite a peaceful city, with lots of beautiful buildings.

Seeking out our dinner!

Relaxing over a nice glass of wine....very nice!

Day 2 - off to the Ambassador's residence to set up the show.....

Inside was quite special......

......with so many lovely details.

Sadly there weren't any Ferrero Rocher at the Amassador's reception - but there were lots of lovely canapés!

And at the end of the day we finished with a well deserved drink - although admittedly, not one quite this big!

We made lots of contacts at the event, and if all goes according to plan, we should have new stockists in Vienna and Prague….

And an important part of the trip was to choose suitable treats to take back to the studio.....

Apparently we chose wisely, as these didn't last long!

Back in London, yesterday we went to visit our building to see how it’s coming along…. There still seems to be a little way to go, but apparently we are only weeks away from moving in now!

Looking up to the top.....

Our shop doorway.....

Watch this space for more news on our move, and the opening of our first ever shop!!

Emma x

After a busy month of trade shows, and preparing for them, we are well and truly back in the office….and dare I say it, bracing ourselves for the run up to Christmas! So it seems strange that two weeks ago, we were baking in Paris…..

Every March and October Alex goes off to Paris with our new collections to take part in Premiere Classe, which is an amazing accessories trade show. This time, Alex had handed the job over to Suzy.A and myself, which we were really excited about…..although having done the show once before, I knew what hard work it was……!

But when we arrived the weather was glorious, so we quickly set up our stand, then headed out into the City and off to Le Marais…..

Arriving on Thursday Afternoon.

Attracted by the Swallows on the wall (very Alex Monroe!) we had a quick coffee at Comme A Lisbonne……

Comme A Lisbonne.

Then it was just up the road (Rue du Roi de Sicile) to visit Valentina in her lovely boutique Joy…..

Suzy chats to Valentina....

Valentina takes great pride in creating such cute displays!

We loved how our pieces were displayed on props Valentina had found.

This was a favourite little touch found sitting on the floor!

Me and Valentina outside the store.

We really wanted to visit all of our stockists in Paris, but sadly ran out of time……but if you are in Paris you can also find Alex Monroe in Saïki Bijoux and Avril Gau. If we’d had more time, we would have also visited Merci Merci – which is a charity shop with a difference…..they pick a different charity each year which they ask the designers they stock to donate their profits to. We’d heard so many great things about the store and their displays…..

One of Merci Merci's infamous displays.

But then it was time for a beer.....

Friday was the first day of the show, so we were up very bright & early!

Busy at the stand.....sharing out our breakfast pastries!!

We had lots of lovely visitors, including some of the gang from HP France in Japan…..

Suzy.A and some of the HP gang!

HP France have been doing very well with our ‘Heritage’ collection of wedding rings, and Misato told us that lots of couples in Japan decided to get married after the tsunami, including herself, which was very touching. If you’re ok with Japanese, you can read Misato’s blog here.

The weather was amazing, but it was sooooooo hot in the show! It was lovely to have a break and try and get some air in the Jardins Tuileries, but then very difficult to step back inside the show!

Lunch in the park.

We were also very happy to spend some time with the lovely girls from Laura Lee Jewellery, Dominique and Rea…..

Dominique, Suzy and Rea.

We had especially great fun at the designer’s party, which was held on a boat on the Sunday night……

So after all of that, we were pretty tired, but very sad to leave Paris!

Emma x

We were sent this lovely pic of Eliza Doolittle at London Fashion Week. She’s looking lovely wearing our owl-on-a-perch earrings. My daughter LOVES Eliza so I might even get a teeney tiny bit of respect when I tell her (even though I’ll continue to play my old Bob Dylan albums much to her dismay)

Eliza Doolittle

Thanks to everyone who came to the London Fashion Week-end sale. The girls had great fun, but poor Jutta had to take Monday off because she was sooo exhausted, they were incredibly busy again! Thanks to you all.

See you,

Alex

If you are looking for ideas of what to get up to over the next couple of weekends, how about a trip to Lewes or Brighton?

One of our favourite stockists, Silverado, are having some summer celebrations, which anyone who’s come along before will know that they do so well!

This Saturday, the 2nd July, Silverado’s in Lewes will be throwing open it’s doors.  Lewes such a pretty little town, it’s well worth a visit, and you can click Viva Lewes to see what else is on.

Panorama of Lewes.

Silverado in Lewes.

I would also suggest you pop into Wickle who are a Lewes based company making gorgeous fragrances, and have their own ‘mini department store’ – so cute!

Wickle!

If you hang on a week, until Saturday the 9th of July, Silverado will be launching ‘Chrysanthemum’ at their Brighton store.

Whichever event you pick, the Silverado girls definitely know how to look after their customers, so there will be lots of Champagne and cupcakes, one-day discounts, and a raffle entry and goodie bag upon purchase.  This means that anyone making an Alex Monroe purchase will be in with a chance of winning a Chrysanthemum Necklace!

Raffle prize at the Lewes event.

Raffle prize at the Brighton Event.

You may have noticed that we are a bit quieter on the Trunk Show front this year…….and this is because we are just soooo busy!  We would usually be heading down to Silverado for these events with some special Trunk Show pieces, but sadly this summer, our workload here at AMHQ just won’t allow it.  We know that this is very disappointing for everyone, but because the Trunk Show pieces are all completely one-off, making them takes a lot longer than designs from our collections, as every aspect has to be carefully considered, and then put together.

As always, watch this space for future events and announcements, as we do plan to get back ‘on the road’ before Christmas!

One last thing, it’s the Pullens Yards open studios this weekend – we are based in Iliffe Yard, part of the estate.  Again, because of our workload, we are not taking part, but why not come down to SE17 – there are lots of other designers and craftspeople to check out…..

Have a great weekend, whatever you decide to get up to!

Emma x

Well London Jewellery Week seemed to come and go in a flash!

There were lots of events all over town, but we were of course launching our ‘Chrysanthemum’ collection at Liberty.  Our newest team member Jutta was on hand to offer advice, as were Susie Lee and Suzy.A, and they were pleased to report that everyone loved the new pieces.

Alex helping out at a very busy counter!

Also that week, Alex and myself were lucky enough to be invited to the launch of Basil’s Beach Bar at The Goring Hotel by Mango PR.

Welcome to Mustique in London!

The garden of the hotel has been turned into a mini beach complete with a bar shack for the summer, so there was rum punch and lots of delicious barbecued food on offer…..

Barbecued fish and prawns with mango salsa - yum!

And mini fondant ice creams for desert.

The garden has been given quite a transformation, from it’s normal traditional English appearance.

Even the garden's statue entered into the spirit of things....

Can't say we spotted any though!

Although I wore a tropical dress to fit in with the beach theme, it was a bit too chilly to take my jacket off!

The Goring is a very historical hotel, just over 100 years old, and still being run by the founding family. It of course shot to fame recently as the hotel of choice for the Middleton family the night before the Royal Wedding – so we were excited to see them in attendance!  It didn’t really seem appropriate to start trying to chat to Pippa about Alex Monroe jewellery, but she did look lovely as ever……

Pippa looking radiant as she left the party.

We have a project with the hotel in the pipeline, it’s something a bit different, so watch this space for news on that……!

We are still waiting to move into our new building and shop – we are really looking forward to what will be a new era for Alex Monroe, but at the moment have no definite news……

But we will of course keep you posted…..thank you for your patience!

Emma x

I was lucky enough to have a little trip to Dublin last week, which was organised by the UKTI – who run lots of schemes to encourage and help British companies to export.

It was quite a whirlwind trip, so I will share it with you in pictures!

Arriving on a nice sunny morning at Bewleys Hotel.

First thing was a trip into Dublin city centre……

Spotted this amazing Louis Vuitton window in Brown Thomas - a dripping gold shelf with a swarm of Bees!

Stephen's Green Shopping Centre is a beautiful building - like a giant decorative greenhouse!

On Thursday I met a lovely freelance journalist, Ruth O’Connor for a cup of tea at The Shelbourne Hotel, to show her the collections. She recommended I head to the Avoca store, which is along the lines of Anthropologie, to have lunch as they have a great cafe there……

Roast Vegetable Salad with Pecorino Cheese.

Tea at The Shelbourne.

Next up was a showcase at the British Embassodor’s Residence, for all of the designers on the trip. I was really glad to have Ruth from fellow jewellers Zoe & Morgan to keep me company – and we managed to have a bit of fun too! The Residence is a really impressive building….very beautiful.

Ruth outside The Ambassador's Residence.

Our display at the showcase - it was so sunny!

On Friday morning I visited Dolls, who we have sold to for quite a while now.  It’s such a lovely store, and has an adjoining cafe called Bibi’s. The perfect way to shop I think.

Dolls and Bibi Cafe.

Inside Dolls.

Finally I was back to The Shelbourne to meet up with Faye, who works on Irish Tatler and U magazines, who is a BIG fan of Alex Monroe – so thank you for your support Faye!

Back at the gorgeous Shelbourne Hotel.

I felt very much like a tourist taking this snap, but I couldn’t resist…..!

Brilliant!

Thanks to everyone involved with this great trip , we hope to be more widely available in Ireland soon…… Feel free to drop us a line if you have any suggestions for possible Irish stockists – we’d love to hear from you!

Emma x

Well, it’s as hectic as ever here at AMHQ so it’s been tricky finding a moment to write a blog post!

As you all know, our new HQ is well underway now – we can’t believe we’re actually going to have our own shop! Now all we need to do is organise it all…….but we have some exciting developments on that front, which I hope we can tell you about soon…..

February seems ages ago already, but that was when we launched our Autumn / Winter range, ‘Chrysanthemum’ at London Fashion Week.  This time, it’s all about grown-up glamour, and although still very much nature inspired, it’s a very sophisticated collection with Pearls and lots of statement Rings and Earrings. This is my absolute favourite piece:

Cupped Pearl Ring

We really enjoyed setting the scene for the collection on the stand, the focal point of which was a gorgeous 1950′s dressing table…..

At the stand......

Looking down on the dressing table.

We displayed the pieces with trinkets and old ring boxes.

Lovely Pearl and White Topaz pieces.

Everyone loved it, so we were really pleased – it was exciting to be showing something so different again.  We will be launching ‘Chrysanthemum’ at the new shop in June, then it will start to head out to our stockists in July.

Sometimes our pieces are cute and quirky, other times they are more glamourous, and sometimes they meet somewhere in the middle…. But it’s great having this mixture, as it means the jewellery can be so much more personal and individual – it’s about how you wear it!

We always thought of our black Crow Feather pieces as being a bit more Rock & Roll – certainly by Alex Monroe standards, but actually they can look incredibly sophisticated too. I love this image from a shoot Stella Magazine did at the end of last year…..

Crow Feather Stud Earrings.

These particular earrings aren’t available on our site, but you can find them on-line at Net-A-Porter.

‘Daisy Bell’ has been hugely popular since it’s launch, we’ve already added more into our selection on-line, and Liberty are just about to receive a top-up too.

The Daisies will especially get you in the mood for spring, they are perfect for a lovely sunny day like today…..Net-A-Porter sold out of the Earrings in TWO DAYS but they will be receiving a new delivery soon, and still have the Necklace – as modeled for them by Alexa Chung.

Alexa wearing our Daisy Necklace

We are definitely having a happy Friday today, as we are off to the Oxo Tower for a special treat from Alex. They do something called ‘Not Afternoon Tea’ which is four little puddings and a cocktail, it sounds gorgeous – so we are going to try it out……thank you Alex!

Have a great weekend,

Emma x

We have many friends, fans and customers in Japan. Our thoughts go out to you all, and we hope for the safety of everyone’s families and friends.

The recent, terrible tragedy in Japan has caused widespread damage and left many thousands homeless. Aid and rescue teams have been working on the ground since the disaster began, and there are a number of ways you can make donations to help the relief effort.

For every item sold through our website over the next 4 weeks, we will donate £5 to the Japanese Red Cross ‘Japan Tsunami Appeal’.

You can find out more information about the appeal by visiting the Red Cross website, where you can also make a personal donation via the website or download a postal donation form. You can also donate to them over the phone by calling 08450 53 53 53.