The Measure of a Madame....

Proud I was to be brushing up against the likes of Nick Knight, Claudia Schiffer, Giles Deacon and Jimmy Choo in my cardigan at the launch of The Measure by Louise Clarke on Thursday night.... As I might have mentioned (and might again.....), I was one of the contributers to a cracking book which explores the influence of London as a creative hotbed and dream destination from the point of view of many different voices from the world of fashion. I've been dipping into it and LOVING it! Here I am with editor Louise Clarke who's first book this is and who has become a great friend since she first walked into Maison B about a year ago to ask me if I'd be interested in writing something (would Eva Herzigova wear a push-up bra?!), and Alex...

And here's Paul Gorman who's written a fantastic Soho history for his contribution with Nigel Waymouth of Granny Takes a Trip fame and John Pearse the tailor who of course features in Paul's piece and still has a shop on Meard St from which he kits out your Dennis Hoppers and Mick Jaggers to this day....

The eats and drinks were deeeeelicous, here's Max with a mini mushroom risotto and champagne...

What clever friends I've got, Tania's been working hard getting the Noel Fielding show together for the 13th December upstairs in the Maison Bertaux gallery....mostly it's a breeze but you can see there are stressful moments for all of us...

Check out my flickr for the rest of Sarah Lee's pictures, so hilarious, of Tania and me involved in some mis-en-scene which looks like we're involved in some sort of lesson.....and I'm not taking instruction properly!!
And Stevie Stewart's always doing something amazing but this costume for the Michael Clark Stravinsky project which was based on an Yves Saint Laurent wedding dress rendered me speechless....

Good to see you taking advantage of Madame's festive offer, hope to see you all over the next few weeks.....can't wait for Maison Bertaux to start baking mince pies!!!!

Madame x

Musings...and a recipe!

Maybe you thought life had become boring in the universe of Madame - and I suppose if your idea of boring is VAT returns and sick twins you'd be pretty accurate! - but sitting quietly in the office entering data can be quite meditative....Emma comes to help me in the dotting of the i's and crossing of the t's which I really look forward to because we get to catch up, squeeze in a couple of snack breaks AND get to feel self-satisfied that we've got the job done. I'm a pretty fanatical list-maker, LOVE crossing things off as done, and there's something quite beautiful about the Sage columns getting shorter and shorter as you tap tap tap away.....or maybe I should get out more!!!

These kind of accounting duties are completely new to me but on her leaving Emma agreed to coach me for which I will be eternally grateful, empowerment can happen in much more dramatic ways but getting a handle on the "boring" aspects of your business has definately been a confidence boost for me. I've learned tons since we opened at Maison Bertaux....didn't know what a blog was when we started!....and I realised for the first time in my life I'm surrounded by a group of fabulous women and we all support the others in whatever way we can. You might be thinking "big deal", been going out on "girls nights" for years etc etc...but apart from one or two best girlfriends, I've never had that experience. I've always been more of a gay man's lady. I was looking at muesli packaging the other day and I mused as my eye ran over the healthful list "no added sugar, no wheat" and so on that I can never look at "no GM" without reading it as "no GDM" however hard I try! So Quentin Crisp (and Gina X) are never far from my tiny mind.....strange your points of reference though isn't it? I also can't read "shopfitting" on the side of a van without thinking it says "shoplifting", and I don't know what that says about me!

But as I was saying, all these ladies have something amazing to bring, and we've kind of become like a repertory company, inspiring each other and using our various skills be they photography, editing, making music, performing, whatever it takes! It's interesting what a location can do, and the combination of clothing and cakes has definately done wonders for the creative juices.

And the fact that we actually hang out and have "girls nights" is such a new thing for me. Nahid and I were talking about it the other day and she said it's the same for her and we came to the conclusion that when women have been around the block some, had their hearts broken a few times, maybe had kids or whatever, they really do become excellent company!!

At Sarah's flat recently, all wearing APC of course, and with me on chef duties, the walls echoed with female cackling well into the night - nobody minded that my paella never left the al dente stage as we were having such a good time you see. The trick is to make a cracking starter which I did, an amazing frittata if you please, and to knock 'em dead with the best pudding in your repertoire and mine was DIVINE! I'm even going to share the recipe (as much as i can remember) with you lovely people. I nicked it from Nigella, don't get me started on her though (obsessed!).







Anyway, as much as I can remember, this is how the trifle goes.....

A bought sponge cake (I had a madeira sponge I think)
Blackcurrant jam
Fresh blackberries
Lemoncello (lots)
Mascarpone cheese, I had one of the really big pots
Amaretti biscuits
Eggs, two I think

So, cut the cake in half and spread with blackcurrant jam then cut into bits and put all over the bottom of your glass bowl. Pour a load of lemoncello over it. Leave. Put the blackberries in a pan with a little sugar just to break them down a bit and get the juices flowing. Put them on top of the sponge.

Separate the eggs, whisk the yolks with a little sugar til creamy, add to the mascarpone cheese, add a little lemoncello to it because why not, then whisk the egg whites til not too stiff and fold into the mascarpone. Pile on top of the fruit and sponge, crumble amaretti biscuits on top of that and put in the fridge, at least for a couple of hours, preferably more.

Good luck if you make it!

I'm off to the party for The Measure by Louise Clarke tonight which I have incidentally contributed to....you know there'll be a blog tomorrow.......!!!!!

Madame xx

Director's Cut!

This is the full-length version of the trailer I posted last week! Don't madame's girls look H.O.T?! I felt priveleged to be involved in a small way with Andre the Giant's London takeover. Seems like Shepard Fairey didn't sleep much, in fact Andre and Zapatista women are now staring out from many a location, some defy human involvement, I heard Shepard telling of a near-death mission last week where the bricks he was using to scale a wall started sliding out and he realised why there were only a couple of ancient tags to keep Andre company!

Go to the exhibition if you get a chance...it's only someone with BALLS who could be like "yeah, sure, I'll fill this space the size of a CAR PARK with my art, no problem...." I think most would feel intimidated by the enormity of such a quest! Not Shepard Fairy! You can't buy anything as it's all sold pretty much but go and be inspired to follow your dream people.....

Anyhoo, the ladies:

Thanks so much to Simon, Gordon, Roams and Furlong for a great week and to Shepard for letting me lurk about with my camera pre-show, what a long way Obey has come since I was handed a pile of stickers back in 1991 on Denmark Street.....

madame x

For future presentation....

I haven't finished editing my movie but I decided to do a trailer and finish it over the weekend.....! What a week! Obey asked me to art direct a shoot of their spring/summer 08 womenswear with my "girls" which we did on Tuesday and then I got to take a peek at the work in progress of Shepard Fairey's Nineteeneightyfouria show at the Truman Brewery AND I went to the preview last night...the gallery space is IMMENSE, the show is AMAZING and there's not many artists who could make such a dramatic impression on a place of that scale. Seriously people, you have got to go to this show...i'll tell you more later but i'm just about to run out of the door to go to the official opening...as I said, here's a preview:


madame x