CoutureLab

Whenever I had to get from point A to B in town, I'd just battle the masses going in the opposite direction from me along Oxford Street. Today however, J let me in on a nice alternative that was more scenic, less crowded (much), and which led to my discovery of this amazing and wonderful store, which delighted me infinitely. 

CoutureLab's beginnings require some explanation. Two years ago, the website was set up by Carmen Busquets (who is also co-founder of Net-a-porter) to bring the exquisite finds she had acquired from her travelling to the network of luxury clientele she had built up from over 20 years of working in the retail industry. 

Fastforward to the present, two months ago CoutureLab became a physical presence to allow existing patrons the opportunity to touch and feel the luxury and quality of its products before purchasing, as well as make a more intimate acquaintance with walk-in customers. And boy was I blown away at the items that were in there. 

Drawn into the store by the Charvet ties and amazing Alexis Mabille bowties on their window display, my feet led me to a shelf with handbags beautifully arranged together, and their brilliance was breathtaking. It was then that Zeeshan, the shop manager appeared and suggested that I look around and to let him know if I needed any further information about the items. What a darling! 

So I proceeded to pick this handbag(below) up, and while it was lovely to hold and behold, it was what I found out that made this creation incredible. This handbag is on display at the store as shown in the picture below, standing on two opposite points with nary a supporting stand in sight. It hadn't occurred to me that this was impressive until Zeeshan pointed out that before the bag is even designed, every bead and crystal is weighed so that their positions are allocated, resulting in a bag that is balanced in weight, and will not be heavier on one end when held in your hand. I held it, and it was true! Isn't that amazing? 

Bea Valdes is an accessories designer from the Philippines, and she works with artisan techniques and exotic stones, beads and feathers to produce such amazing investment pieces. The black Gio Evening Bag would set you back by £1,895, but you'll know it'll keep forever, for seasons and generations.. Did I also mention that the method by which the individual beads and crystals are sewn on guarantees that if a bead were to fall off, the rest would remain secure? I'm just saying...

Black Gio Evening Bag by Bea Valdes

 Then Zeeshan disappeared for just a moment and returned with some pieces that had just arrived and were not yet on display, including this one: 

 Maharlika Evening Bag, £4,375 by Bea Valdes

To quote the description on the website, 'The intricate beadwork of Bea Valdes' handmade bags illustrates remarkable skill. She calculates the space between each bead, sequin, crystal and feather, accounting for their varying size, shape and angle.' You'd really have to hold the masterpiece in your hand to appreciate every detail.

CoutureLab doesn't just stock handbags of course, no matter that my raving makes it seem so.  Their selection ranges from understated mens sweaters by Tomas Maier (the creative director of Bottega Veneta's own label) to ethereal dresses by Isabel Toledo, to homeware and jewellery and even impossibly adorable items for baby. All the items are arranged tastefully in the boutique, almost as if each is given its own space to shine. With an L-shaped shop layout, the womenswear and accessories occupies the main length of the shop, with menswear, homeware, babies’ accessories and the sales counter taking up the remaining decently spacious floor.  

It was quite an uplifting experience, if I don’t consider the fact that the items on sale are a little out of my reach at the moment. Carmen’s idea of a business that would transcend seasons and celebrate workmanship, quality and mastery of materials is created for a niche market of people who value individuality (by owning hard to find or one-off pieces), support creativity and artisanal techniques. Since time is the ultimate luxury for many, wouldn’t it be clever to own such timeless pieces?

CoutureLab

37 Davies Street 

London

W1K 4LS

SHOWstudio at Somerset House

So I booked a ticket for the SHOWStudio: Fashion Revolution exhibition at Somerset House a few weeks ago, expecting to be able to view the photoshoot that Nick Knight was going to do with supermodel/supermom/super-activist Natalia Vodianova (omgomg!) that day. But to my dismay, when I arrived that evening after class, I was told that the shoot had ended many hours earlier than scheduled, mainly because they found *the shot* ages ago before that. Oh well, I was offered a complimentary ticket for another day where they would be having a photoshoot, and I decided to go on the 20th.

Observing the shoot was a little underwhelming, mainly because there was a lot of waiting going on while the makeup artists worked on the lone model's face. And because it was a face shoot, there was nothing going on in terms of any cool garments either :( The rest of the exhibition made up for it though.

viewing the shoot from a one-sided mirrored window (but if you went quite close to the window pane they were able to see you, as J and I found out when one of the hairstylists waved at us haha)

Transformer: The Bridegroom Stripped Bare 

Alexander McQueen, 2002

Nick Knight has realized many really creative projects with SHOWStudio and it's rather inspiring. I still remember stumbling upon the pattern for a kimono jacket designed by McQueen on there, with free download and instructions, and getting really excited about how that made higher fashion accessible to the masses who might not be able to afford typical designer clothes. The exhibition featured pieces submitted by people who gave the pattern (among others) a go with their own interpretation of fabrics. Awesome.

There was also a video on playback featuring the creative process that McQueen undertook to transform a model dressed as a bridegroom into a 'bride'. Even if they did dress it up a bit (I doubt he usually works with wind and sequins?) it was still nice seeing him in frenzied cutting and painting action.

Gareth Pugh made his face up several times before he was satisfied with his Halloween get-up...

There were also conversations with Vivienne Westwood and other fashion luminaries that were fun to watch, a dark room with dark but beautiful illustrations by Julie Verhoeven, and sections dedicated to Rei Kawakubo and John Galliano.  I really liked it.

If you haven't already been to this one, do make a booking! Nick Knight's doing photoshoots with various creative celebrities from now til December 20th. See here: http://www.somersethouse.org.uk/fashion/showstudio/1067.asp

And while you're at it, you might as well book an evening at the ice rink too! With the Tiffany tree.

Somerset House - Fashion

Vintage Fashion Fair, on Sunday Nov 29!

The next Vintage Fashion Fair in London is coming up next weekend, and it'll be held at the Byam Shaw School of Art in Archway. If you go to their website, there's still a link to get free tickets for it! Otherwise, tickets are 3 quid at the door, students get away with paying just 2.

photo from http://blindpony.blogspot.com/

I've never really been to one of these, but during a recent talk at school given by a designer called Kristian Steinberg, he mentioned that vintage shops were a great source of inspiration and it sounded like a good idea.

So, see you there!

Vintage Fashion Fair | Sunday 29th November
Byam Shaw School of Art
2 Elthorne Road, London N19 4AG

11am - 5pm | Tickets £3 on the door | Students £2 (with a valid card)

Sticky Toffee Pudding

Around Easter earlier this year, I made my way up to Cumbria for a week of work experience with a Savile Row tailor who is now based there. On my last night, the tailor very generously brought his fiance and myself to dinner at Sharrow Bay in the Lake District, the establishment credited with either having invented the original Sticky Toffee Pudding, or at least come up with one of the nicest versions of it. It was my first time trying sticky toffee pudding, and while the rest of the dinner was very good, I have been reluctant to try any other sticky toffee puds, for fear of ruining that glorious memory. Until...

Recently, I was leafing through one of my favorite cookbooks and came across.. the recipe for Sharrow Bay's sticky toffee pudding! It was a very nice surprise and I went out and got the requisite ingredients as soon as I finished my school assignments. And this was the result...

The process was almost as enjoyable as savouring it afterwards, if you don't keep tabs on the calories.

Recipe found in: Cook Simply Everything by Paul Gayler

Bocca Di Lupo

Met J for dinner for the first time not knowing what to expect, but it turned out to be a rather nice evening getting well acquainted with interesting morsels brought over from several parts of Italy to titillate our tastebuds.

For starters, we picked out what we felt would be a nice introduction to what this establishment had to offer: the raw sea bream, langoustine and scallop with rosemary oil (top, left), fried artichoke a la Guida (above), and the foccacia with lung & spleen simmered in lard and smoked ricotta (top, right). All very exotic sounding and made for good conversation.

The scallop was noteworthy, tasting quite sweet and succulent. I had expected the artichoke to arrive fried in batter as I had had it in Rome, but this was an equally nice version as it was crisp on the outside and juicy in the middle, with the tang of crushed sea salt hitting the tongue every now and then. Foccacia, ricotta and spleen was a very tasty, creamy arrangement, and only the lung required some effort to consume due to its unusual springy texture.

Next we shared the roast suckling pig, which had melt-in-the-mouth meat, but a slightly dismal crackling that made me look less demure sawing at it haha. This was accompanied by some sauteed girolles. Sorry, in our efforts to savour it while it was hot, I had forgotten to take a picture of it!

Dessert comprised of two hits and a miss. We had the bombe calde - a freshly fried donut filled with chocolate cream, ricotta cheese with fragolino grapes and wet walnuts, and chocolate and marzipan balls filled with rum raisins (below).

While it tasted like a typical Italian dessert, that much marzipan was probably more than a non-italian (or two) could handle. But this was more than made up for in the fragolino grapes! Fragolino means little strawberries in italian, but it hardly came close to describing the amazing burst of summery flavours it produced in the mouth. Supermarket-bought grapes will never taste as good again... Cracking the wet walnuts posed as a challenge to two amateur nutcrackers, but it was quite rewarding getting the last few out in one piece (below).

photographs taken on J's DSLR

Will definitely be going back to familiarize ourselves with the rest of the menu. Reservations are recommended!

Bocca di Lupo

12 Archer Street
London
W1D 7BB

Because we had this assignment at school...

October, 2006.

That's the date this blog was set up, with all the best intentions of letting the world know of my daily musings and adventures. But due to said adventures that did occur, as well as good measures of procrastination, writing about them got relegated to the sidelines...

It's all set to change though! As an avid www. surfer, I suppose I have more than my fair share of goodies to share, and it's about time. That, plus the fact that we had to set up a blog to publish a couple of assignments as directed by my course tutor, hehe. So until then, I might as well put up a few entries about other things I am also crazy about, and live for.

Nice to meet you!