I always miss the stars...

Mark Eley just raced down the stairs with a rather dashing new hair cut [to look Ooh La La for Paris Fashion Week next week] to say hello and to check up on business. He told me that Sophie Calle was in here the other day!! I love her work and wished I could have been around to say hello - she was a big inspiration when I was at art school. But maybe I was saved from just making a tit of myself. They do say meeting your heros can be a disappointment. One time I literally bumped into Tom Baker [THE Dr Who of greatest note IMHO] on Brewer Street not far from Fresh and Wild. When I looked up from the pavement to see who this person was I had just wacked and found myself face to face with DR WHO!!! all I could muster was an "Ahhh errrr ueeergh" not sure what so say and he moved swiftly onward. Maybe it was a double trauma - faced with a hero and the images rushing back from the TV series of the episode with the giant maggots that had me running down the hallway in the dark to reach the switch taking giant leaps when I was a young girl. Okay... So I'm starting to sound like the other day when I was impersonating the difference between a laserjet and inkjet printer to Pippa over the phone...

xxx Emma

Priddy Lady!!!

Well, i wasn't going to write anything today but i had a hankering to try to do one of these AND insert a picture without calling emma halfway through for technical assistance!!! Then my best friend Lucy sent me this amazing self portrait and i just had to publish it via our blog!!!! Isn't it fantastic?! And with no plastic surgeon in attendance!......

Mark and Max - done it!!!

Here is Max in a Katharine E Hamnett t-shirt and Mark Powell the night we spoke at Borders for Paul Gorman's The Look: Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion book.

I'll give it a go....

Right, i'm learning something new every day here....

this is from the other night when we did the q and a at Borders with Paul Gorman but i thought this was a particularly stunning pic of Mark and Max....let's see if this works

settling in...

Emma just taught me how to do this, she has the patience of a saint at times....
So, our first week at the cake shop was mental in all the best ways. Fashion week usually passes us by but we were sucked into the whirlwind and came out the other side covered in creme patisserie - i highly recommend it! emma's already documented the party and our heated debate in border's giving good soho!! That was so fun, it was great to hear Mark Powell's history told by himself, i've known him for years but never asked how he got started. I was also horrified while chatting later to find out he dresses casually at the weekend!!! - i have NEVER seen him anything but totally turned out with watch chain and all the trimmings!!! It's still quiet here, only the devoted and the faithful have ventured down, but it's so great that people are making the effort to seek us out - and we still don't have a sign yet. Denise van outen just popped down with my mate charlie condou, word's spreading fast! I love being down here, there's something special about the atmosphere here i can't explain and i love the combination of sugar/caffeine rush upstairs followed by the buzz of a dress purchase!!! what could be more perfect!!?? Emma's husband paul just dropped by and he wants to show me the funniest thing he's seen all week on YouTube, so i'm going to sign off and probably speak soon....pippa xxx

The Look: Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion

Paul Gorman is a London writer who has recently released his revised edition of The Look: Adventures in Rock and Pop Fashion. The first version had Pippa and James Dearlove from their old band Shopgirl on the front cover. As part of London Fashion Week, Paul Gorman held a talk, Q&A, book signing at Borders on Oxford Street talking specifically about the history of Soho in his book.

Pippa and Max talked about the new shop and the reason why they started in Soho 11 years ago. Max really defended his corner about the struggle of independent business at the moment with the globalistion of culture and the fact that any city you go to, on the main street now will be all the same shops - H&M, Starbucks, Zara and a gang of mobile phone shops. OR guerilla stores set up with the backing of large businesses as a way to tap into "urban culture." Later on I learnt Max had never been to Belgium - he was trying to pour himself a Duvel beer and ended up with just a glass of foam. I'm gonna take him to Brussels one day.

There was another guy there whose background is that trained on Saville Row but in his fathers tailoring business on the floor above the Spanish Tapas Bar on Old Compton Street as it is now, they made the first new suits for The Beatles, without the lapel and the round neck. As worn in this video for Love Me Do. Paul Gorman said that this record went to number 18 in the UK charts, but I have to say that I checked the Guinness World Records Hit Singles 14th Edition which says that Love Me Do actually reached position 17 and sat there for 18 weeks. I only had to check cause I really hate The Beatles and couldn't remember the name of the song to look for a film clip. This guy, who's name I can't remember busted out a GANG of mega celebrities names that he and his father made the suits for. But they were all celebs I don't really like so I can't remember. Sorry for being a loser. :(

What I did remember was Mark Powell, world famous tailor to the stars, dropped he had been working with Usher for his latest video with the 30's inspired suits. I always like Usher even though he is a bit smooth and he looks great in this video here which we now all know was down to Mark Powell.

Paul Gorman's book The Look: Aventures in Rock and Pop Fashion is a great read - it covers all kinds of weird and amazing stuff. Next time you are in your local book shop you should check it out. And even better - BUY IT!! [Or even order it straight from amazon.com]

xx Emma

The Secret After Party

Yesterday was my first day working as shopgirl in Shop At Maison Bertaux - only it didn't feel like working cause Michelle from Maison Bertaux kept running down to check I was okay and bringing me some gorgeous asparagus quiche for lunch and tea and coffee through the day. My new friend Lauren dropped in to see me [she was modelling for Katharine Hamnett through the week and that is how I met her] and DJ Mollywood called in as well. Loads of customers came in just to check out the new boutique and I was marvelling with everyone about the concrete door on the fitting room. It is an Eley Kishimoto frill print on a sheet of concrete screwed to the door - and while girls were trying stuff on in the fitting room, their blokes and I were on the outside of the door saying "How does that work? The concrete is only about 8mm thick and those screws are near the edge. Why doesn't it crumble??"

As promised, here is the video from the afterparty, heavily edited I have to say ;) - but starring in order of appearance:
Pippa - Business woman, playboy model and super DJ [who can't see]
Crowd - Fiona from Eley Kishimoto is the one with the headband
Nervous Stephen and Paul B. Davis - Nervous Stephen played the marching band music!
Abbie and Lee - girls from Lektrolab
Lucy - Her wig has a name and cost £14.99. She also told Mark Eley he smells of lettuce. You won't meet a funnier girl.
Paul Frecker - He deals antique photos and looks like the people in the antique pictures.
Mo and Jo - I just like that their names rhyme. Mo is a great Italo DJ and Jo Apps sang for Venetian Snare amongst others.
Max, Paul Long and Tania - Max is a business man and Playboy! Paul Long is the man responsible for the refit of the new boutique and Tania is part of the family running Maison Bertaux.
Paul B. D. - spinning
Paul L. - spinning [a yarn]
Chris O.C. - telling it like it is [and check the tattoos]
Alex - Gorgeous!
Pippa - keeping cool - but you should have seen her later dancing to "I've got a loverly bunch of coconuts"
Nervous Stephen and Me - discussing DJ or Print Gocco machines
Max and Mo
Katrina - our Saturday girl who is going back to Australia soon
Max - his turn on the decks
Paul Gorman and his lady - Paul wrote "The Look" and his lady is also from Australia. You should have seen these two going for it when Pippa played Ying Yang Twins!!
Paul B.D. - it was a long night...

xx Emma

Videos and Secrets

Well I told you that there would be some video from the party and here it is! This is the first night I have had a chance to check out what Chris O.C. recorded on my DV camera. Chris only managed to record 5 minutes worth at the beginning of the party. I guess the bottle of Whiskey he hid under the turntables along with the fact he was lovin' the party may have had something to do with forgetting later on...
This is just from the first half of the party that took place at the official opening in the new room next door to Maison Bertaux and of course Shop At Maison Bertaux underneath. Michelle from Maison Bertaux served champagne and little strawberry and fruit tartlets la famille de Maison Bertaux had prepared earlier that day.

I'm not sure I can post the video from the "secret" after party at Soho House anywhere online! I'm going to have to show it to Max and Pippa first cause it is pretty mental. A brief description: First Max, Pippa and Paul B. Davis played a ping pong DJ set. Then Nervous Stephen [of red bearded fame] played a weirdo set of carousel music, square dancing and old English pub songs. Everyone in Soho House went insane and were dancing to bongo and brass bands like they all didn't have to get up early the next day [I for one had to get up at 7am to be at London Fashion Week at the Natural History Museum... but that is another story.] It was like everyone was getting more and more revved up - like wind up toys all about to burst a spring. Then the staff at Soho House had a word with Mark Eley and asked us to leave. Mark made a big declaration, "We've been kicked out from our own party for having too much fun!! Come on!! We're all going to Trisha's!!!" And so they all did. [FYI - Trisha's is the basement bar "somewhere in Soho". Or maybe it should be called a drinking den? I don't know - but it is a fabulous place. Pippa had her last birthday party there.] I did not go to Trisha's and nor did Pippa but we sent each other a text along the lines of "I'm SO tired" and something about champagne.

That's enough from me. I got to get up for work tomorrow.

x Emma

Open Sesame!!

This isn't going to be a long post - I'm too tired to write more than a few lines. I just wanted to write that last night's opening party for Shop At Maison Bertaux was a BLAST!!! There were so many people we ran out of glasses, but then it didn't matter cause then we ran out of drinks. It was a fabulous street party out on Greek Street with the throng of guests that came for the opening, the Coach and Horses drinkers and the Somalian mini cab drivers. Phew!! All the work was totally worth it! Pictures and video from the Shop and the after party at Soho House to be posted soon and I'm sure Pippa will have a lot to write from her first day as shopgirl in Shop at Maison Bertaux.

xx Emma

P.S. I had to get up at 7am this morning. Urgh.

Champagne and Eclairs - Here I Come!!!

I just got a phone call from Max. He is in Soho at our new Shop at Maison Bertaux with one of the builders finishing up for the opening day tomorrow. He must be as nervous as I am anticipating the launch cause he just rang to tell me what records to play at the party tomorrow night.



On the way home the other night I visited the Shop at Maison B and couldn’t believe the transformation when I stop and think how the shop looked last time I visited it! Paul Long and his boys have been working non-stop!!




Everybody has been working so hard to get this shop open. Pippa has been on the phone ordering building materials, getting phone lines connected and searching for new staff. Mark at Eley Kishimoto has had his team in Brixton delivering wood and wallpaper and printing the cake boxes we will use for packaging. The doily logo for Shop at Maison Bertaux was also designed especially by Wak. Michelle at Maison Bertaux, the famous Soho Patisserie, is still serving her customers with all of us running under her skirts. Every time I see Max he is covered in sawdust or plaster… Who said working in fashion was a glamorous life?!



In the last week, I have been working furiously on the Shop at Maison Bertaux website and booking in all the stock from Eley Kishimoto that was delivered – so many fantastic things. I always get a bit excited when there is new stock! And new boy, Chris, he has been covering our other shop The World According To… on Brewer Street, listening to either The Pogues or Morrissey at any available opportunity. Chris is from the REAL O.C. in the USA and is totally covered in tattoos.



Check out the wallpaper and printed wood we are using - all from Eley Kishimoto!


So the party is tomorrow night! Monday 18th September from 6pm to 9pm with cakes and champagne. Nicky and Louise from Village Press who do all our press, came into The World According To… on Friday and picked up some Eley Kishimoto frocks to wear to the party. Louise picked up a vintage Stag and Roses print dress that made her look like she was out of Virgin Suicides and Nicky left with a orange and yellow floral silk number that looked fab with her A.P.C. shoes. Speaking of A.P.C. – the girls freaked when they realised that we were also carrying the full A.P.C. range and not just the jeans. We even have some of the exclusive piece that the A.P.C. store is not selling. Louise couldn’t resist one of the red checked smock dresses.
All that is left for me to do now is pick my records and decide what I am going to wear to the party!!! I’m super super excited!!!

xx Emma