Have you seen this?

A lot of you already will have seen this if you are fans of Lektrogirl's blog but I wanted to post it anyway because I love it so much!


Madame x

Mad (Wo)Men

So, Sarah was rather impressed that I looked very Mad Men, that lovely looking series on BBC4 about an ad agency in the 1950's which I really love when I remember to watch it...in fact you can watch it with the sound off and it's pretty great to look at, not least the super handsome Jon Hamm, the lead....

This is definately the decade that works for him though, I've seen some red-carpet-designer-stubble type pictures of him in real life and don't feel a THING.

So....quite thrilled to be told i was giving it Mad Men Realness:

But then something happens to me around Sarah Lee and her camera of truth...before long I'd lost my neck, shattered all illusions of icy repressed housewife cool and was kicking up my heels like Dick van Dyke meets Mrs Overall...

Then Emma got hold of the picture.....I give up!

You will note from the pile of dirt that I was actually working rather hard with my colour co-ordinated broom....

I'm not a doggy person (apart from in the pic above!) but I met Lucy's dog Raisin yesterday and I've fallen in love with him...

He's so gentle, soft and beautiful and you can put your face right in front of his without any fear, also he puts his head in your lap and is so lanky he can't sit up straight, he tries and then his little feet slide down like this...

And just look at them together!

They make each other look even better!...Lucy here in pistachio Tocca sari dress.....
Then her husband David who's a musician arrived, you can find out about him here

And the whole family looked so colour-coordinated! Some people make you sick! Did they decide over breakfast that today was all about caramel and chocolate.....?

I prefer to accessorise on my own, my Eley Kishimoto mary-janes seem to go with EVERYTHING!!!!

Socks back on again today....I predict next week we will see the sun again.....

Madame xx
,

We have a winner!!!

Lovely Nina is the winner of our competition to photograph yourself/have someone photograph you, in one of this season's pieces purchased at Shop at Maison Bertaux!!!!

Well done Nina! Your Madame A Trois trio is boxed and ready for you to pick up and we'll throw in a cake of your choice to pop on your cake plate! - a drink's too wet without one after all! - Thanks for your entries, we'll do this again I reckon, it's very difficult to choose, but for now Nina will be showing off her Sonia by Sonia Rykiel top on our home page!



Apparantly this is her at "work"!

Madame xx

Isis is...

...my friend John Marchant's new gallery. I went to visit last week having missed his grand opening (as it were) and had to share with you...

It's at 20 Hanway Street, that marvellously seedy little home to Bradley's Spanish Bar and numerous tapas bars and after hours drinking dens, record shops and being just off Oxford Street it's surprisingly stayed pretty much the grubby same apart from the incongrous Hakkasan chinese restaurant round the corner on Hanway Place, a super sleek high-end eatery. When you get to number 20, go to the end of the corridor, turn left up the stairs and come upon this beautiful oasis.....

I've known John for probably close to twenty years frighteningly enough, I met him on the Body Map stall at Camden Market where he used to work on Saturdays as a youngster, we'd bump into each other every few years, he's been working with some incredible artists in New York, Paris and London but always wanted to have his OWN space...and Isis is it!

His first exhibition by Ruth Marten is called Histoire un-Naturelle and the initial assumption is that these are beautiful antique prints, then you realise that she has minutely doctored, rearranged and collaged them to alter and play with the original engravings. Some of them are hilarious..

"Canapes"

"Angry Men"
...and a lot of them are beautifully hand-coloured as you can see. I loved this one called "Ladies Goods" which I thought my ladies would appreciate! :

I was feeling very covetous as I walked around the gallery, the scale of the pieces really makes you want to own one....but I did leave clutching the book of the show, a limited edition which she has hand-coloured, so if you can't stretch to an original work, the book is very special. What's really fun when looking at the actual works themselves is trying to see exactly where she has made the incisions or re-drawn parts. A lot of you work in and around Soho and I urge you to pop along, it took me five minutes to trot round there from Maison B, you could definately go in your lunch hour, for opening hours and a map go to their website http://www.isisgallery.org/. There's some exciting shows coming up, John gave me a sneak preview of Alice O'Malley's portraits and there's an exhibiton of Antony Hegarty's drawings coming soon.

Get yourself down there, I insist!

Madame x

GOOD MORNING

You know it is going to be a good day when a YouTube video lands in your inbox from a mate in Denver miming a long to Betty Boop. Meet Sara T!

xx Lektrogirl

P.S. Madame did her first sing song at the George last night! I'll let her tell the tale! xx

Jayne County would be proud.....

Some friends just GET you so don't they? My friend Andy has lived in Hollywood for god, must be about eight years or something crazy....we used to live around the corner from each other when I lived on Greenlanes and he in Finsbury Park, talked on the phone pretty much every day and he can make me laugh probably like no-one else. Both have a tendency to full volume around each other with the excitement levels going off the radar and have more than once been told we were like the male and female versions of each other.
In fact, here's an embarassing photo of us taken about 17 or so years ago! He's on far left and yes, there I am in the middle!


Anyway, now we go months without speaking or being in touch which miffs me but we're both guilty of crazy busy lives and when we eventually speak all the bad feeling dissolves away. So, after months of silence he sent me an email to find out if I'd received the package he sent about a month before.....I was gutted that it must be lost but then the other day I went to pick up a package being held for me at the post office, I assumed it would be records or cds then it was the wrong shape....

Andy had been to an auction at a 78 year old nightclub singer's house and bought me her nighties!!!!!! They're late sixties early seventies, nylon, lurid...and wonderful!

I've seen Jayne County play many times over the years and when she's doing a rock n roll show with a band, her act would often centre around removing nylon nighties throughout the set, she must've had about eight one on top of the other - my point is that these are exactly the kind of nighties she would've been wearing!!!! I love them and I love Andy for knowing me so well!!! (and he's been known to get gifts slightly off the mark like the mink ring he sent a vegetarian friend for example!!!)

This one is pale blue with puff sleeves and a double layer of nylon at the front for modesty and lovely lace trim.
I'll call her Edith (for Edith Massey).

This one is ankle length and flourescent pinky-peach and I definately feel like Sylvia Miles when I wear it, so she's Sylvia.

This one I think I'll name for Ann Margaret, but not in the Elvis period, after she fell off the stage onto her face in Vegas, but then got her career back because she's such a trooper, it's also a baby-doll length and Ann has the legs to carry that off.

And the last is Just Jayne for the genius, inspirational STAR that is Jayne County!!!!

Madame xx

Art in the Tearoom

I'm always getting enquiries about Tania's exhibitions upstairs in the first floor tearoom/gallery. At the moment she's got thel legendary Nobby Clark"s exhibition of photographs he took on the opening night of Noel Fielding's "Psychedelic Dreams of the Jelly Fox" painting show. Nobby Clark has taken pictures of rock n roll greats the Stones, Al Pacino and many more and these limited edition photographs are for sale and going fast!!!

Talking of the Jelly Fox show, Tania has a few more of the signed posters (below), so if you're a fan you'd better be quick because when they're gone that's it!!! Give her a call on 07985 395079 for any art enquiries...


Madame x

I'm into ESCAPE!

Yes, it's definately the way forward! Spur-of-the-moment, jump in the car, never mind about spare knickers and off to the sun and sea! I didn't think we'd be going anywhere this weekend and had a lot of chores planned (oh joy), but Nathaniel was doing the Canterbury, Whitstable, Sandwich bootfair trawl and promised to go to Wheeler's for crabcakes if we'd come for lunch. I didn't believe him when he said it was blazing hot in Herne Bay but sure enough six miles outside the sun was RAGING! Now, Nathaniel has only cooked for me properly twice or maybe three times ever so I was shocked and thrilled to see this spead in the back garden on our arrival:

Wheeler's is like the fish version of Maison Bertaux and is in Whitstable. They have three tiny dining tables out the back where you can bring your own booze (I recommend champagne if you're going to have oysters - so decadent! Even a half bottle from the Threshers across the road) You can get takeaway from the front bar....OMG, the best crabcakes, dressed crabs, oysters, fish flans, cockles.....all brought in at the dock around the corner so SUPERfresh!!! It's slightly ramshackle with faded pink paint on the outside and is our favourite treat when we're there.

To walk off our fantastic lunch I went with the boys on a walk to Reculver castle with Nanny Van and Grandad Ray...Nathaniel went to bed, the combination of up at 5am and preparing potatoes and egg mayonaise took its toll! It was soooo beautiful, we walked alongside the most luminous rape field....

Looked over the cliff and vowed to search for crabs next time....

Watched about thirty mods tearing it up (until one broke down) past the mobile homes....and realised they were mostly over fifty - even better!

Then decided, sod it, we'd stay overnight so we could go and visit Charlie the horse and the little ponies and put the chickens away for the night....

Hugo can hypnotize the chickens by stroking their beaks-it's amazing!-and Duke was fascinated so had a go....

And did pretty well, in fact he and the little grey chicken ended up best mates!

There's woods all around the field so we had a little wander and found some English Bluebells, I was watching a programme on tv the other day and apparantly the Spanish Bluebells (which are paler, less luminescent and sort of open) are taking over, I was very excited to find a thoroughbred!

You'll notice I was still rocking the A.P.C. even with wellies, although I've got an enormous mosquito bite to show for it!


But the CUTEST sighting of the whole day was this little baby hedgehog that's been living in the field!!!! LOOK AT ITS FACE!!!!! Who knew they were so pretty??!!!!

No one messes with hedgehogs...only man, squashing them by the thousand I guess.

Then we went to give Nanny Lee's grave a bit of a tidy....she was the boy's great grandma and we always used to stay with her when we went to Herne Bay, the boys adored her....in fact Duke wanted to go in and find her, but we convinced him she'd prefer it if we just did a bit of weeding...


And Nanny Van even had clean knickers - still in the packet if you please! - for me!

Escape......escape.....and come back to London and love it all the more!!!

Madame x

Thank Goodness....

....some of the girls were available on Saturday, including Sarah of course with her proper camera! We cracked off a few new pictures for the website, revelling in the sunshine and even partaking in the odd ice-cold glass of wine and even a creamy slither of chocolate gateau!

Of course Lisa is our Saturday girl so there was no escaping for her! She can carry off almost anything, legs that go on forever and pneumatic body, she's our Saturday Babe and here she is in a couple of A.P.C. pieces:

I love this one in the madras playsuit, she looks like Soho's Daryl Hannah!

And this one has become one of my favourite Maison B pictures, she looks so great in the A.P.C. crochet dress and amongst all the clutter...

Caz had her first experience of the mayhem that is a whistlestop photoshoot at Maison B, in her favourite A.P.C. cheesecloth dress. You tend to relax after we've all cackled at the duds, especially when Sarah helpfully zooms in on a fugly facial expression or boss-eyed moment, and she looks more than fantastic!

Emma's energy levels were a wee bit low when she arrived but a teacupful of nuclear orange nectar later and she was raring to go!

We sat her behind the till out of respect for her tiny hangover and she worked it like a pro in the A.P.C. tiny check shirt:


This photo I think sums up best the lunacy of the day though!"

Keep laughing when I look at it, a couple of nutters! Well done Sarah!

Madame xx

And Sonia....

So also here's some of the hot tops from Sonia....

I posted the dress version of this but the top is soooo lovely...even with jeans, and I never really wear jeans, but I would with this!

Oversize polka dot tee here is great, a nod to the eighties....

How come Sonia do stripes every summer but we never get bored of them? Also comes in pink and red...



And a twist on a t shirt is always good. You can't really go wrong in my book with stripes and polka dots....or cherries.....or broderie anglaise......or crepe de chine.....

Oh, and the stripes with a heart also comes in a tank. Jolie, non?

Madame x

Cake stop....

Time for a cake break. This week's favourite Maison Bertaux cake is the Plum and Almond Tart:

We usually go for creamy or really dry, but this is between the two, the right side of moist with glossy pllum topping and again, delicious with coffee! Love to know what your favourites are....

Madame x

You need to know....

...about some of the new spring summer stuff we have, especially my ladies overseas who keep asking for an update. So in the interests of keeping you all informed, Emma and I did possibly the fastest photo shoot anyone has EVER done, in the shop yesterday. We started outside but got rained off pretty quickly so got cosy on the floor...

First up we have the new Obey t shirts...

One of my favourites is the little girl playing with a grenade.

Disco ball is great and the t shirt is a lovely shape with a shirt bottom

"Peace" which you might have seen flyposted around the eastend around the time of Shepard Fairey's exhibition.

Femme Fatale is one of those lovely Obey faded t's which feel like you've had them for years, super cool graphics....

Proud Parents is classic Fairey, he did an enormous piece based on this at the Truman Brewery.

Lurid. Lovely.

Eighties logo on stripes, on the softest cotton tee.

Haven't got around to photographing the jewelry yet but it's already been popular, rings in the shape of sunglasses, skeleton key lucky necklaces, lockets and the like....

Madame x

What Heaven!!!!!!!!

Okay, so already we're sitting in the circle at Wilton's Grand Music Hall which is I think the last surviving Music Hall, built by John Wilton in the 1850's, a glorious, crumbling, peeling building where circus acts, original burlesque, opera and choral were performed until 1880. So, good.....in fact fan-freaking spine-tinglingly AMAZING already......

Onstage walks, in fact oozes, Little Annie, who I've heard of but never heard and was a REVELATION to me, like Liza Minelli, Shelley Duvall, Eartha Kitt and Carol Channing wrapped all in a 40's suit and sequinned shoes with this VOICE which is smokey basement bars in New York personified. OMG, please check her out, Nahid's seen her loads of times and was already a fan. In fact talking of Nahid, let me redress the balance from yesterdays pee pee picture and give you a bit of Nahid resplendent in her finery last night B.A.B.E.!!!!!!!!!!

In fact a SNARLING babe!!!

Of course Paul, Nahid, David and I were all there to see Marc Almond, in probably the most perfect setting you could choose....but also we had the one and only Baby Dee, who Superduck introduced me to about a year ago, but I've never seen live and who performed this song before accompanying Marc on HARP and accordian and is GENIUS GENIUS GENIUS!

Wilton's is a wonderful historical relic which they're trying to save I believe from demolition, it is so great that music is still performed here, there was a girl called Celine as first support who performed some original music hall bawdy numbers with no accompanyment at all and it was amazing, the acoustics were perfect.

If you want to do something to make sure this precious music hall doesn't die, find out about making a donation at http://www.wiltons.org.uk/friends/.

I have to say Marc Almond was looking incredible. The last time I saw him sing live he came on stage at the Royal Festival Hall to sing a song with Antony Hegarty and looked so frail, it was his first performance after his near-fatal motorbike accident, but last night he gave his ALL, was in amazing voice and seemed so thrilled to be surrounded by such an ensemble.

Can't wait for his new album......or Baby Dee's......or Little Annie's!!!!

Madame x

Ponystep.com

I trotted along to Sketch last night with Nahid (actually I took the tube and she glided up in a taxi, she's such a lady!), for Richard Mortimer's launch of Ponystep.com. It's his new project after Boombox and is an online magazine which I think goes live at midday today, so be one of the first to log on!! I think I remember him saying that Ponystep comes from either the catwalk style of Honor Fraser or Iris Palmer, they had a very individual lollop.

Anyway there'll be lots of fashion news and more besides and if it's Richard you know it'll be FIERCE! Here is my favourite picture of the night:

I love Nahid, she's so game!!!! We kept pointing out the cracks and flaws in the pod loos, neither of us has been to Sketch for years, I think the last time I went was for the Zoltar launch! But i think the amenities need a little sprucing up...

Bumped into lovely Pam, I'm singing a couple of songs in her "Slinky Salon" at Valbonne on Thursday night, she has the best hair colour of anyone in London....


I've got to run as I've got a power-plates booked and I'm meeting Sarah and Sonja there, we are going to have buns you can bounce pennies off by summer!!!!

Madame xx

DRESSES IN MOTION

And OOOHHH what would you know, I wrote GREET Street! You all know I meant Greek though right? While anyone with any sense has been out in the sun feeling the good vibes from the change of season, I have turned into a creature of the night and been up all night wandering around with a drink in my hand and asleep all day...


Wastemen. And look at the lovely guy in the background who thinks so much of us!

I'm just glad I didn't have a moment as unfortunate as this:



No - that isn't a spur of the moment impromptu pussy cat fancy dress outfit. Believe me. It is what you think it is.

But I blame Madame for starting off this weekend of debauchery - I followed her to the George and Dragon on Thursday night 'just for one' [after making the video above of the A.P.C. and SONIA by Sonia Rykiel slinky dresses] and it was all down hill from there. Nervous Stephen's exhibition, Molly's 21st birthday party, the Real Gold magazine launch... Cava, Warm Kir, drinking from teacups and £2 Whiskey and cokes. I have had the best weekend in a long time tho'!

Despite all that, I haven't been able to get Madame's A.P.C. silver dress out of my mind. Apparently there is a gold one too!



xx Lektrogirl