Scrambled Head and The Lost Society

Not sure why but I feel like my brain's been whisked briskly with a fork....or something...I keep putting things down then forgetting where, and I've got a ton of things to do, but it's that one step forward two steps back thing going on......

So I think I'll just post some pics from the last couple of weeks in no particular order. There's been lots going on, celebrations, birthday parties, my boys turned five, Nick turned forty...but still undresses in public with the vigour and vim of a teenager...

Sonja took all the photos except this one which I love because Sonja and I look like very expensive dominatrix's..

It was upstairs at the Betsey Trotwood and very victorian sitting room...

and the impromptu photo-session was a right laugh.
I also went to Ronnie Scott's for the first time to see Jimmy Scott with Nick which was wonderful...at least it was in the second set when we asked to be moved as we noticed some people left and promptly got seated at the very front! So that's my Ronnie Scott's tip...lie in wait for the early leavers! Suddenly we were on intimate terms with Jimmy and he seemed to be singing to us alone...Motherless Child made me well up indeed, such a beautiful voice out of such a frail frame, in fact he really is delicate, can't stand to sing anymore......GO AND SEE HIM IF YOU EVER GET THE CHANCE!!!! If you don't Nick'll have something to say about it!!!

Our friend Emma Forrest came by the other day out of the blue which was a lovely surprise! Haven't seen her for what seems like years, we've spent some wonderful times in LA at the Formosa or just hanging out at magic hour, shopping at Trashy Lingerie, getting tattoos, in fact we all shared a hotel room once rather memorably.....Anyhoo, she used to live in London and used to come to the first Shop where we met when she was barely out of her teens and a rather accomplished rock n roll writer, following the Manic Street Preachers and Wu Tang Clan amongst others. Now she's a screenwriter in Hollywood if you please and about to have her FOURTH novel published, called Damage Control - out soon!!!

Here she is getting into a bit of Andre the Giant.

Duke and Joe turned 5 last weekend which would have been more fun if we weren't indoors due to the freezing cold and flash flooding! However James kindly lent his house and we had a party all the same, picnic and pass the parcel on the kitchen floor....probably still covered in glitter thanks to Joe and his glitter wand!

Duke made his share of mess with the water-filled canary warbler!

I like those Antony Gormley figures on Waterloo bridge and the south bank, they look lonely, sad, optimistic or post-apocalyptic depending on your mood as you walk by or trundle past on the bus....they're quite friendly too, Nathaniel struck up an interesting conversation on the way home the other night.....


Next Thursday do come to the Lost Society in Clapham for an evening chock-full of entertainment! Not only are the wonderful All About Eve Babitz playing but Kevin Rowlands is djing along with Paul Gorman, Max and Pippa, should be marvellous! Get your glad rags on and come south of the river, this bar is fast becoming THE place to hang out!


see you there!
madame xxx

Les Matins de Paris

Yes ladies and gentlemen, it is a long time since I made an appearance on Madame's blog, but it seems Pippa has been going hammer and tongs all over the place! I've still been around tho' like Pippa said in her previous post - helping out with the VAT returns etc... FUN! Last time I was in tho' our Naomi came in to size up the APC sunglasses for the second time. As part of our formidable customer service I took her picture so that she could get an objective view as to how fantastic she looked in both:

Naomi as Joey Ramone in black APC sunglasses

Naomi in Brat Packer style.

Naomi opted for the Brat Pack steelo. Well done her!!

In other news, last weekend I went to Paris to see my friends Goon and Koyote at the last Diamond Grilling event for a while. I bumped into Teki again from TTC who told me the video for his latest solo single is out Les Matins de Paris - a duet with Lio [you know the teenie star who sang Banana Split]



The song was summing up exactly my mood as I walked down the street on a sunny Saturday morning eating a rose petal flavoured macaroon from Ladurée.


I took this picture for Pippa. It reminded me very much of her new-ish tattoo!


And those of you who may recall if you peeped on Pippa's myspace, last time I was in Hamburg, I found a picture of Pippa doing some secret modelling on the Reeperbahn:

Well this time in Paris I found more evidence of Pippa's secret modelling career. Under the layer of pigeon poo, that face is definitely Pippa Brooks modelling for SUNSHINE Pret-a-Porter Feminin:


Then finally - I was a little concerned after snooping around Goon's appartment where I was staying. Is this a case of confused identity? Do Mark Eley and Nick Abrahams have a mysterious past? Who is the father of DJ Goon?

Please call Madame now, the London representative for Interpol, on 05601 151 584 with any leads you may have.

xx Emma

The Art Blog....

What an exciting day for madame!

There was a spring in my step this morning on my way to work as I was DYING to see my new Obey installation in the dressing room!!!!! As my bad luck would have it I was over in the office with Emma doing those pesky VAT returns when Simon from Obey turned up to surprise me with his paste bucket, Andre the Giant and wallpaper!!!! (I know his tricks, he figured I'd be on his case with my camera, documenting his progress every step of the way - AND HE'D BE RIGHT!!! He's a bit like me, i.e.camera-shy!)

Here's just a detail, but the best thing about it is that it's on the inside of the dressing room door so is a treat for those who enter there to try on the delights we have on offer! I thought we needed a figure in there, just for scale you understand, never let it be said that I'm self-obsessed!

Cos clearly I'm NOT, just wanted you to see how thrilled I am - A big thankyou to Obey!!!!!

Talking of art, has it escaped your notice that there's art history being made next door upstairs at Maison Bertaux??!! Matthew Buckham's show has only been open since 28th March but what a HIT!!!
http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/emerging_artist_of_the_week/Tania has transformed into art agent extraordinaire, whisking the great and good of the acting and art-worlds around the upstairs tearoom, only to leave a coffee and pastry later proud owners of a painting from art's next big thing! Sorry to name-drop but you know Turner prizewinner Jeremy Deller? Well he bought this one:

Bernard Hill and Duncan Roy (director of the remake of Dorian Grey) have bought and I saw Ralph Fiennes having a butchers yesterday, whether it was at the art or the other goodies on offer I'm not sure....!!

Teach Your Children is my favourite.
How wonderful, not only is Maison Bertaux now a boutique, it's an art gallery as well!
(Enquiries re Matthew's work to Tania Wade 07985 395079)

So you can feed your mind, your tummy and your insatiable shopping habit all under one roof!!! Doesn't get much better than that does it? See you soon friends,

madame xxx

Happy, Hate and the competition......

Ok, I said I'd be posting more often but this week my life's been fabulously hectic so this is gonna be pretty long...........
The boys spent the weekend in Kent by the sea on the bank holiday with Nanny Van and the horses, the weather was pretty dismal but stick on a body warmer and you can see that no sunshine can still mean fun..

We had one of the best nights at our All About Eve Babitz residency at the George and Dragon that we've ever had. Everyone was in such a great mood, just look at the sheer glee on EVERYONE's faces in the following photos which sum up the evening really well.



I would've put a photo of Max who was happy happy with the rest of us, but he's pulling nutty faces in all his shots and I know he'll kill me if I do. It has to be mentioned that Max's selection was hot, especially when me, Sefton and him did a relay on the decks, trying desperately to trounce the record preceding. How we laughed! I don't think I've laughed so much in ages, especially when Richard came back at the end of the night with his parents, still bearing a little jade green eyeshadow from his first performance of his and Johnney Woo's new show...more of that later when I have more details, I'm DEFINATELY going and they're even talking about a possible matinee becuase I know Duke and Joe would like to see Richard on stage. Anyhoo, the ensuing lock-in was filled with much hilarity and stories of Richard's youth, his parents are fantastic, hilarious, lovely people, and I went to bed very very.....very late, as anyone who received my mail yesterday will have noticed!
But Rebecca brightened my day by breezing in with her freshly cut bangs looking incredible! She even seems to have grown some freckles which took another few years off, then she slipped into some APC and you will see that the result was working very well.,,

Not bad for 58 is she?
And then (phew!) last night we had the honour of performing at Henry Hate's art show at Fortress studios, they've got a gorgeous little bar up there. Here's the proud artist himself:

And one of his sexy photo-montages which are great, and indeed for sale, I'm sure if you call him at his tattoo parlour, Prick (0207 729 9545), you can find out more.

There was a rubber-clad Suicide Girl keeping everyone warm with sambuca shots, the champagne flowed, and unfortunately I got completely upstaged by Henry's dog, who sat in front of the stage like a tart. When everyone started taking photos of her she glanced triumphantly at me as only a bitch can.......I'm smiling in this picture but you'll notice not with my eyes:

Best t-shirt of the night prize has to go to Mr Nicholas Abrahams:

Hottest ladies:

Hottest mangina:

James is apparantly the band's "babe-magnet", according to Henry, and drew many an admiring glance from both sides of the fence.
Finally, a big thankyou to Lili for bringing the batman glasses from Mexico for Batman and Batgirl (apparantly), guess who's who:

Speak to you all soon, a very happy madame xxxxx

Deep breath...........

I always leave it until I've got SO MUCH TO SAY!!! Must post more regularly but where the f*** did April go???!!!! My life is flashing by like a speeded up recap on America's Next Top Model....without any top models!!!!

A week or so ago, Obey took the other shop for a couple of press days and made it look GREAT! When I went down to visit Gordon in between appointments I was so impressed! Made me nostalgic for the old gaff even though I love my new life as resident madame. It was also a great opportunity to look at the A/W Obey again, really looking forward to getting that gear in....

Been putting up bunkbeds in the boys room and unearthed a load of old photo albums and found another Obey shot, this time when Max and I were in Japan, must be at least 8 years ago...!

I think the next pic was taken on the same outing and I thought I'd throw it in to make sure you're concentrating....

Dean Chalkley, rock n roll photographer came to visit the other day, he's shooting a Levi's lookbook and on the lookout for "manly cowboys and vintage-faced girls" between the ages of 20-30 who can give good bombshell and would like to come to a casting tomorrow (4th May)! If you think you've got it going on why don't you email nina1cowan@hotmail.com and shake out your denims and slap on a bit of slap for Levi's!
Here's Dean giving good geezer, he's djing in southend-on-sea on Sunday night and when I've finished writing this I'd better try to sort out a hotel....

Then Mark and Jason drove by...they must have started on the Gumball Rally by now....in the red and blue g wizzes which looked so cute parked next to each other. The traffic wardens just wanted to ask them about the crazy little cars, unusually friendly for once....

My sister Sally and Ben McLaughlin the artist who she met in India and I went for a slightly boozy lunch on Monday at The Boot and Flogger which of course I've written about here before and is one of my favourite old boozers (the old boozers old boozer!) It's perfect for a long lunch actually because they only stay open until about 8pm, being peopled by quite alot of city types, politicians and the like who like their lunches long and liquid but perhaps an early night, probably nodding off during Newsnight... We laughed alot, particularly when Ben did an impression of a nun on iron supplement - you see this is funny because my sister's writing her doctorate on GM foods, particularly rice and one field of research is these nuns in the Philippines who get iron supplemented rice and can be observed I suppose because they don't get out much - anyhoo it was a bit like the Terminator singing "a wil o the wisp, a flibberdigibbit, a clown...." and you probably had to be there..........

Then a spot of "modelling" on Tuesday night (who said my life's not like ANTM?!) at the Cochrane Theatre for Paul Gorman's Clash Culture presentation where the women who designed the stage/street clothes the Clash wore from the late 70's to Combat Rock talked through some of the surviving outfits. Michon and Kolowska read from their diaries written at the time when they were late teens caught up in the Clash mania, sewing outfits right up until the minute before the boys ran out on stage, which was great.

Nathaniel got to wear one of the original t shirts made for the security guards at Clash concerts, this is him getting into character: "Thug Mrs"

Here's Jen from the Priscilla's and the other guys in the very recognisable zippy primary against black outfits..

Then Bernie Rhodes, notorious Clash manager got up on stage to make a "five minute statement" which ran on much longer and veered between moments of hilarious clarity, to a fashion audience primarily "I'm surprised to see you all here, I thought you'd all be at Topshop!" and great glimpses of a heady insane time, to slightly directionless rants about how we're all on the Titanic but he's good friends with Scorcese who wants to document his life....and in many ways we ARE on the Titanic metaphorically speaking.....Anyhoo, he calls himself a Punk Philosopher and he's right enough....

I love those situations when there's a polite yet terrified silence.....time to sink some free booze and sigh with relief afterwards....

Last thing to mention which I'm so excited about it that I've managed to lay my hands on some original 70's t shirt transfers which are amaaaaazing! So if you come and leaf through the file I've got some fantastic ones, these are two of my favourites, both featuring apples, but one with a glamour model pouting within it and the other with the tag "taken" attached. I've got some plain tshirts so you can choose the one you want and I can have it ready in a day or two for collection, or indeed if you have a garment you want the transfer to be put onto we can do that too!!! £39.95 with a t-shirt, £20 without.


I've got more of some than others and it's a case of while stocks last, but do come down and have a look....madame xxx