STRANGE IDEA OF LOVE

So I made a new video - this time of Pippa's band All About Eve Babitz. One night they performed at Paul Gorman's Lost Society party and Superduck and I filmed it. And another night I chased Pippa around Soho and then left it a few months. Finally yesterday I edited it all together.

This is my favourite All About Eve Babitz song. And I am really pleased with the video. I was on the phone to Superduck last night while he was stuffing envelopes at his high flying desk job and he told me that to edit the video's we shot together would be easy. I didn't tell him that I was actually trying to sync the live performance to an MP3 studio track and that the songs were at different tempos. FYI Nick Abrahams. Then he went on to tell me about bee keeping in Iceland...

xx Emma

Laugh?

Ok, if you don't come to the Lost Society next month you're MAD!!! I don't think I've laughed so much in AGES...just one of those nights where the fun starts and you can't stop until you realise you've laughed yourself onto the floor of the cab on the way home...eh, Sarah?

so if this is how the evening ended, what on earth went on in the lead up to this?

Mr Mark Eley and I nearly got into a scrap behind the decks...can you see the tension brewing? But I love a good battle and really it was only the pina colada talking....

...and there were better things to do like DANCE!!

..even in your Westwood prostitute shoes, the music was too fantastic to sit still!

Especially when I was on the decks!!!!

There reallly is nothing so wonderful as dancing around your handbag in good company to fantastic music, and though it doesn't look like it here, this was a drug-free high-on-life (plus some fine wine...) kind of a night...

In fact, the only thing to do was make like a monkey (sarah's idea...thanks for that..) swing from the beams and get friggin FUGLY!!!! Even with the special effect light effects which Sarah taught me there's no getting away from the fact that this is one of the scariest picture of me that has ever been taken.......mother of two, how proud the boys will be of me one day....

Forgot to mention House of Boing who did a delightful performance using the whole room, twirling in beautiful frocks and generally bring a bit of class to the proceedings......then it was back to this...


Do come down next time...you know you want to! madame xxx

I lost the will to blog....

....for a couple of weeks there. How British of me to be so affected by the weather but sad to say I was. I felt like Chicken Licken waiting for the doom-laden sky to fall on my head!

I think I'm over it now...which is why it's always important to remember....

Reasons to be cheerful:

1. We now do bespoke name-necklaces! And I've already got one!!! Here's mine....they can be custom-made to suit the personality of the wearer, so instead of an "o" you could have a flower or a mother-of-pearl heart for instance, or as I did, a little shard of coral (one of my favourite colours in the world, especially when it's a YSL lipstick!) instead of an "i" or a star for an "a", in fact whatever the hell you want! We've done a Mel with a star for an "e"! The idea is to mix the gold and silver theme up too, so the letters only come in silver but you can have on a gold, silver or oxidised silver chain if you wanted to go a bit goth....We're taking orders now, a silver chain name necklace will set you back £69 and a gold on £89, half up-front please and half on delivery, allow 2 weeks for them to be made up! Get creative people!


2. Jack, the student studying fashion in Brighton who helps me in the shop sometimes over the summer hols, and I have a mutual obsession with Armistead Maupin's Tales of the City books. I read them when they came out I hate to admit cos that makes me ANCIENT, but anyway, he's just written another one called "Michael Tolliver Lives", and I had mentioned this to Jack and the fact that he had been appearing in various bookshops for readings and signings etc...(Jack's only 20 and I've found myself waxing lyrical about all kinds of counter-culture gays, your John Waters', your Andy Warhols, your Armistead Maupins, like some old friend of Truman Capote's or something...)...anyhoo, there he was wandering through the streets of Brighton and who should be signing that night but Armistead Maupin HIMSELF!!! Long and the short of it is he only got the author to sign a book to me as follows "To Pippa at Maison B" !!!! Made my month!!! I'm trying not to race through it too quickly, to savour it, but I CAN"T!!! All the old friends are there....if you loved the Tales of the City's, it's COMPULSORY reading!!!


3. Emma's husband Paul took part in the shoot for Katharine Hamnett's website which Duke and Joe also popped by for, and although when we arrived late in the day, he looked his usual scrubbed-self, earlier in the day, he'd got a little experimental with a little make-up and edgy styling.....and he sent me a shot!!! How fantastic is this?! Paul love's a garish jacket or a pink trouser, but here it's like he's discovered an alter ego - who sweats glitter and goes out on the town in his smalls!!!! Never send me a pic like this if you don't want it to end up public!!!


4. Duke and Joe did a shoot for i-D!!! A fashion shoot if you please and Henry Holland made special "Hang on a min, that ki-D's a twin!" t shirts for the occasion which they were allowed to keep!!! Look out for the kid's issue in Octber!


5. I get to dj at the next Look Presents...on Thursday night AND Pam Hogg's djing and performing AND Poppy and the Jezebels are playing. You've GOT to get down there, it's like a continental oasis down south, with the best talent, the BEST cocktails and it's once a month. This one's "Girls' Night Out" but boys are also permitted...


6. Two of my best friends, Jonathan and James, got married at the weekend, and we partayed from 10am til the wee hours. So much laughing, dancing and champagne with your favourite people will banish the blues in a second! Great potato salad too!


7. Bev and I have been going to Power Plates! If the image of us two in the nearest thing to workout gear we can pull together out of our decidedly un-casual wardrobes, vibrating with teeth a-chattering doesn't make you break into an involuntary smile then there's no hope for you.......!

Cheerful lists are a very good idea. I've already thought of loads more, I'll save them for another rainy day......

madame x

Freestylin' down south....

What fun we had!

The Look at the Lost Society on Thursday was such a blast! Paul Gorman came into work last Saturday to discuss finer details but we all got totally sidetracked by Rita, who I hadn't seen in ages...

She's so lovely and always steals the show...good job she didn't turn up on the nite, you know my history of being upstaged by dogs!

Birthday boy Michael came down to show me his new birthday trainers with Lucy and Sefton on Saturday too...they'd all been having a tea-party but didn't want me to be left out.

Snazzy!
Here's a very romantic picture of the bride and groom-to-be:

Is that a banana on your t shirt or are you just pleased to see me?

So, I know you all want to know what went down down south at the Lost Society on thursday nite....it is SO worth the schlep, and if you don't come next time you're just lazy lazy lazy!!! First of all the venue is so fabulous, a barn that was a hang out for hippies in the 70's and still has all the old beams, a little courtyard which is a joy now the summer's here and a STAGE which pleased the Babitz's no end!

Max and Pippa warmed up proceedings playing as eclectic a mix as ever,

and All About Eve Babitz did a song every half hour, and if you're a fan of their George and Dragon evenings you'll know this is their unique, trademarked format - very avant-garde!

All wonderful so far....then things got H.O.T! Kevin Rowlands hit the decks playing a blinding set, old soul classics, Bowie, Roxy Music and began singing over the fade-outs.......and as you know I don't need much encouragement to have a go as it were, and when he invited me to "freestyle" duet-style with him up I hopped! This lady knows no shame! It was the best fun...especially to the tracks I didn't know - you had to be there!

Here we are giving it some! And here's me hoggin the mic!

That's the first time that's EVER happened I assure you!!!
I gave Paul Gorman a few tips on his djing technique....

....gave Nathaniel a quick cuddle in between my vox-spots!!....

...gave Sefton a supportive squeeze while warning him not to smile too hard...

...watched Jasmine dance for a bit....

...had a photo face-off with Caz....

....had a laugh with the bearded ones....

...oh I could go on and on about the good-times but I fear you might get too jealous.....

So instead I'll show you a picture of Michelle's Birthday cake!

And what a cake it was.....and within 10 minutes Mentorn had expertly carved it into THIS!

I can tell you it tasted DIVINE! But by then the boys and I had been for a picnic on Clapham Common with the Gormans, finishing up with double scoop ice cream cornets, grazed on mounds of mini-eclairs, tarts,not to mention croissants at Michelle's do BEFORE the grand entrance of the cake! There's only so much sugar a body can take.....

Here is Duke hitting the sugar wall (not in the Sheena Easton sense! More in the euphoria brought on by excess consumption sense!). I haven't eaten anything sweet since although I do find myself this evening experimenting with rhubarb fool.....

Oh yeah, Jasmine had her hair cut and it was as shiny as GLASS!!! Lookit!!!


madame..xxx

P.S. This week our sale starts early for the mailing list members!!!! As ever, just mutter "madame" at the checkout and you'll get a scorching 20% off all A.P.C., Sonia by Sonia Rykiel and Eley Kishimoto!!!!! Run like the wind while stocks last!!!! xxx

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