Ciao bellas. I thought I’d do a round up of the last week and what I’ve been up to….It’s been a busy and mostly London-based week, so I’ve been torn away from my beloved fields and mud and thrown back into the Metropolis.

Concrete

Last week I went for business drinks in London, and decided to check out the fairly new ‘Concrete‘ bar at the Hayward Gallery on the Southbank. Finally! A building on the Southbank that is delightfully self-referential…By day, a cafe, by night a bar. Despite it being a Thursday night, it wasn’t particularly busy, but had a nice enough atmosphere. The service was decent, not especially chatty or engaging, but the bar was rather cool inside, and had a very fetching cement mixer outside.

On the plus side, we got two for one on our wine, and the lychee martini was absolutely delish, but I found the place to be a little soulless; not what I was expecting from the usually buzzy and cheerful venues on the Southbank. Dishoom Chowpatty Beach Bar, you are sadly missed. I wandered the Southbank afterwards to soak up some atmosphere. Oh – the other plus point was seeing Philip Glenister, aka Gene Hunt, near Waterloo. I got a bit overexcited.

 

Pure Fashion Trade Show

I went to Pure for a bit of networking, both for Lady M Presents and for my new fashion project, Jean et Jupe. I’d been there once before, when I was working in fashion buying, and found the whole thing quite an ordeal. As it’s a trade show aimed at buyers, it’s really hard to push past the initial ‘are you in buying?’ ‘no…but I do work in fashion!’ conversation. One guy literally just went back to taking a phone call the second I said ‘no, I’m not a buyer’. Rude!

I actually found it more judgemental and closed off than London Fashion Week. At Fashion Week, everyone’s actually pretty friendly, and it feels like no one has a point to prove. It’s more easy going, in my opinion! Anyway, I did speak to a few friendly people – shouldn’t give the impression it was all ghastly, but it certainly isn’t for me. The best bit by far was hearing talks on social media by Liberty London Girl and Warren Knight of Gloople. I found the tips really interesting, and the speakers were really insightful and knew their fields inside out. You can read the tips in full on our company blog for Jean et Jupe here.

Chelsea

After Pure on Monday, I went along to the Chelsea Day Spa to  a Hydropeptide Facial and New York Pedicure for Lady M Presents. Oh my goodness. I haven’t been so relaxed in…well, a very long time. Usually when I  have facials I just lie there thinking of everything I’ve got to do, and feeling even more stressed because I can’t actually get up and do them. But I’d strongly recommend the Spa, as I had a fantastic beauty therapist named Elize who really looked after me, and the whole experience was lovely. They also do heaps of really good deals, so the prices are surprisingly reasonable.

Alice Temperley for John Lewis Preview

I got to go to the preview for the very exciting new diffusion range from Alice Temperley for John Lewis, again to cover for Lady M last night. A small crowd of fashion bloggers and writers (I wonder what the collective noun for that is?!) descended on The Golden Bee in Shoreditch, really close to Old Street tube. It was a fab venue, and we quickly claimed a comfy sofa on the roof terrace, and started the cocktail drink in earnest. I know! On a school night as well…We had mojitos, Strawberry Collins, and Passionfruit Collins. I was also childishly delighted by the special goviral packs of Smarties on the tables.

I’ll be reporting on it in full for Lady M, but it was a really lovely night. The girls from the goviral team were lovely, and I also met people from Catwalk Queen and Styloko, as well as the founder of the Aussie equivalent of ASOS, Musstard. After the experience at Pure, I definitely got my networking mojo back. It’s going to be a beautiful collection, and will drop in stores from 4th September.

Haven’t really had too much time to write lately, life has got very hectic lately! Will check in again soon.