IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME

Ahhh! Back in the driving seat at the office upstairs in the universe of The World According To... and Shop At Maison Bertaux. I feel like I was away for a zillion years, but really I just spent the last weekend DJing in Hamburg. I had been a long time since I was with my Hamburg Homies, but it felt like only yesterday since I saw them all there. The reason for me hopping over there was to DJ at the best club in Europe [actually de:bug magazine listed it as second in like the first time in 5 years this year...] and you may think "Oh wow! What the hell can the best club in Europe look like?" Well folks... Here it is:

The Golden Pudel.
This place is like a little charm on the bank of the Elbe river that from the outside looks like some crappy shack. Well actually it is kind of a crappy shack. But that is just how everyone likes it.


Here are two of my best friends, Superdefekt and Booty Carrell. Booty Carrell is one of the coolest dressers on hear but for proof check my whole flickr set from Hamburg. Total white trash pimp style.
I played on Friday night with Prokoller and Booty Carrell and then on Sunday with Superdefekt and my good buddies from Dresden, Mash Gordon also did a live gig.

Unfortunately I missed most of their set cause I ended up helping out behind the bar which had been a fantasy job of mine for some time.

Anyway the other thing other than The Golden Pudel to check out in Hamburg is THE BUNKER:

It is right on Feldstrasse - you can't miss it when you come out of the U-Bahn at the Feldstrasse stop. It still stand because apparently the only way to destroy it would be to use a huge amount of explosives cause the walls are so thick. Unfortunately, this would also take out half the surrounding suburbs.

The other thing you gotta have when you are in German is a freshly baked pretzel!

On Sunday morning we went over to a Bavarian friends house for a Bavarian traditional brekkie - white sausages cooked in hot water and loads of beer. We even ate the sausage in the traditional way where you have to score the skin of the sausage, then peel it off before you can eat it. But it has to be the weirdest faux sexual experience of my life - you are left with something uncannily like a condom in one hand and in the other you have a warm semi solid phallic object that you then have to put in your mouth and eat in front of a lot of half drunk Germans who think it is cute and funny to make the girl from London do this at 10am in the morning. Blurgh!


The other thing you might want to check out in Hamburg is the Reeperbahn. Just for all the weird things you might see for sale in the shop along the way:



In other news, the other week I went to 7 Year Glitch vs Dirty canvas - but only cause Paul was Djing. Ruff Squad MC'd and then Tempa T turned up for a go.


Tempa T has the coolest fade but a shame he only has one jumper. For more pics from the night check here.

Finally - I bought: THE NEW A.P.C. GREY DRESS, THE A.P.C. YELLOW LEATHER WALLET, THE A.P.C. STRIPEY LOGO T, THE A.P.C. KNITTED RAFFIA BAG BUT THE A.P.C. SIZE 40 DOLLY SHOES IN BLACK DIDN'T FIT SO SOME OTHER LUCKY GIRL IS GOING TO GET THEM. ARGGGGGHH!! Gutted.

xx Emma

Fantasies realised......

Ok, I've got a new camera now but had no time to blog as i've been too busy living it up!! OMG not once but TWICE this week I met heroes of mine.....first on a more sedate and high-brow note at the V & A on Saturday i only met the genius behind Biba, Barbara Hulanicki!!!! I missed most of the lecture as i was trailing around the LCF building looking for the 60's lecture...wondering why i was met with blank stares and then Hannah our Saturday girl at the cake shop rang me and told me it was at the V & A...what a twat!!! (me not her) At her insistence I jumped in a cab across town and i'm so glad she shook me out of my bad mood because I arrived in time for tea, watched Paul Gorman's contribution to the proceedings and then seized my opportunity for a photo-op with the woman who's probably influenced my taste since an ill-informed brown lipstick purchase as a teenager and still lingers in an obsession with crepe widow dresses with puffed shoulders, berry hues, smokey eye make-up and platforms be they concealed or cork. I have a beautiful pair of over the knee suede sexy high heeled original Biba boots which I picked up at camden when i was a student and still wear today and a high-waisted crepe pair of trousers that make me feel soooooo glamorous!

She was lovely too which is always a relief when you meet someone you've admired for so long and was even kind enough to say she liked my look!!!! MY look!!!
The same night I'd just locked up at the cake shop and if you've ever seen me do that you know what a production it is - trap-door and all - and walked headlong into Simon and Gordon from Obey who'd brought the womenswear designer and two other lovely guys from Obey America to check out the store. So I turned right around and we crammed back down into the shop which I think they liked pretty well, and ended up taking a whole load of stupid photos of ourselves before they headed off into Soho......

Did I mention my friends Ian and Leah who now live in Lisbon now came by last week? Look how effortlessly chic they look together....makes you sick! Not really.....and they brought their friend Sandra down too who's in an amazing band called New Connection. Her voice is MENTAL in the best way, we were listening to Lolipop in the shop....which rhymes....


Now there's only a few bands that drive me to distraction and I have Sasha from Hyde SK to thank for turning me on to Eagles of Death Metal, who are one of my favourite bands IN THE WORLD!!!!!! If you haven't checked them out GO ON!!!! They were playing a Ladies Only night on monday at the Raymond Revue Bar - how genius is that?! - surely the brainchild of singer Jesse who's a one for the ladies to say the least. I went with Alex who'd never heard them before and had had a pretty shit day, and got swept along (even onto the stage!!!) with their fantastic sexy sweaty infectious fabulousness!!!! Jesse's like a cross between a 70's porn star/clone and a sleazy greaser which equals sex on legs in my tiny mind, with a sort of falsetto voice...you've got to check them out they're so amazing. Can i say that a ladies only gig is the best night out ever!!
Lots of hotties down the front shaking their hairdos, loads of screaming and singing along and no aggro AT ALL!!! Best gig i've been to oooooooh in AGES, haven't had as much fun since Peaches dry-humped me on stage.....

This is me and Alex with Jesse, pleased to meet you! Maybe I was a bit too excited and squeezed him too hard, but that's what rock n roll is all about right?????


Alex as usual looks beautiful, calm, and not at all like a nutter, in her picture....I must take some tips from her.....

That was one of my favourite weeks in a while....and i haven't even told you about the APC shipment we just got in...I might have to save that for another day....you can only take so much excitement........
madame x

News from Style.com

We were very pleased to hear that UK fashion designer Sophia Kokosalaki has listed Shop at Maison Bertaux in her top ten great places to chek out in London!! You can visit the original article on style.com here and check out everything Sophia thinks is hot in London while the link lasts. Or just read the piece about us that we are hosting on our own server here.

Other internet cruising has led us to this picture on Paul Gorman's blog:


As Paul says on his blog "The new purchase from Shop At Maison B to go with the jeans: Marimmeko's classic unisex stripey t, just like Andy used to wear. Can't wait to get me hands on the Uniqlo black cardy now..."

And searching deeper on the net, one might come across this picture from the dark ages:



From the left, it is yours truly, Davide and Molly who used to work in The World According To... when it was still called Shop back in 1997 on New Years Eve. A bit like that line in the Dannii Minogue song "I begin to wonder..."

I look like something out of that kids band Hi-5. Til Later!

xx Emma

East for a feast!!!

Max and i were playing records at the George and Dragon last night and it was quite a party as Jonjo was celebrating his birthday so the tables were groaning under quite a spread, including those hedgehogs of cocktail sticks with cheese and SAUSAGES, not your traditional pineapple which was lili's twist on a classic!

Here's Daryoush taking his role as boyfriend/host very seriously and offering the guests cheesy canapes!
I was there from early so helped spear a few cheese cubes then warmed things up with a little cilla black and pp arnold....I hadn't realised Jonjo was having a party so it was a treat to see him, i remember us giving Jonjo the birthday bumps at Smashing YEARS ago when he was a scrap of a 15 year old and we had to bump him 18 times in case the bar staff clocked that he was under age!!!!

And it was great to see him sitting between his mum and nan in a purple glitter wig, grazing on his nibbles!

Max turned up fashionably late and proceeded to liven up the proceedings with banging house, his first record was "that's the way i like it" by Dead or Alive and it wasn't the last time Pete Burns made an appearance on the wheels of steel! Max is the only person Richard lets mix at the George - although i've seen Nathaniel burn up the turntables with some inspired mash-ups - which puts him in the category of dj as apposed to chancer with an interesting/eclectic record collection which is my forte...

Then towards the end we were doing one-on-one-off which is always fun as you can run with a theme or completely kill someone's vibe man!!!! I like killing the Scissor Sisters with Noel Coward or Carol Channing and Max likes to murder Lil' John with Madonna!!!!! Then we shared a cab home and talked all the way home about what a GREAT set we played!!!! Aaaah, the sweet sound of self-congratulation!!!! And the other thing that has happened is that I usually have to dj in my glasses now as my eyesight deteriorated due to my advancing years!!! Still, they're Cutler and Gross and i love 'em! Speak soon, madame xxxx