‘Happy’ New Year all.
Feeling happy?
Sometimes hard on these cold, grey January mornings. Waking to a house that feels less ‘twinkly’ with all the lights and decorations down. Feeling the January blues? I’ve got the cure if you’re a fabric fanatic like me! Hop on the train to London for 12 hours out! Just had a wonderful day at The London Textile Fair in Islington. Awoke the senses again with a plethora of colours, textures and cloths. My aim for the trip was to source new cloths and suppliers. I went armed with requests from clients who were after something different and also with my own ideas of what I’d like to be offering clients in 2018/19.
Kids to school and raced to Crewe station. Grabbed an obligatory coffee and hopped on the train from Crewe to Euston. One and a half hours to myself (ignoring the other 70+ people crammed in my carriage!) Some head space, despite lack of arm and leg space! Time ‘out out’ from the showroom felt invigorating!
Armed with my A-Z – yep I still have one of these and I know I’m probably one of the few people that still use them to navigate London! Off to Islington where I went hunting down the Business Design Centre.
(Entrance off Upper Street, Islington, not Liverpool Street as my Google Maps tried to take me – knew my A-Z was the best option!)
Gorgeous building, full of suppliers from all over. I managed to find larger scale gingham shirting for John, funky knitted jersey for Claire, tweed at a cracking price for Russell, beautiful leather for Tom and some fluffy bits for Rachel. I saw a few familiar faces and met some interesting new people, including two lovely costumes designers who just happened to be looking for a tailor. These ladies were fabulous. They design for various actors on TV. I really hope they get in touch as they sounded like they’d be a lot of fun to work with! We got chatting after bumping into each other on several stands! We must share good taste!
I sourced some beautiful accessories that I will be using on my ladies capes in 2018. Funky, chunky zips, faux fur trims. Watch this space! Currently sat at Euston (wine in hand- obvs- creative juices and all that!) scribbling the ideas down from all the inspiration today.
All inspiration was from the show despite a trip down Savile Row and Jermyn Street, I saw nothing very exciting. The designers on New Bond Street were a lot more fun. Alexander McQueen’s window was fab.
All in all a great day. A 2018 kick start tonic.
Will be back again in the summer to see what else is on offer.
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