The Name Game

You might know, or might not, I’m sure we’ve mentioned it once or twice before, but here we go anyway.

Most, but not quite all, Lady K Loves items are named after some lady in our life…Be it a family member, friend, old friend we’ve not seen for years, wonderful new person, model, fellow business girl. This sort of came about from one dress. One of the first items we did was out Shirley dress, shortly after the design had been worked out and colour combinations, trims etc finalised, I saw a picture of my Gran in something very similar. It made me smile, my Gran’s called Shirley (or this one is anyway…..) so the Shirley dress was born.

Before Lady K Loves was even Lady K Loves, I was asked by a very lovely lady who runs a wonderful café in Brixton called Rosie’s Deli. Rosie herself asked me to make her the deli uniform, there was two items, a shirt, plain red with leopard contrast cuff details and collar, and a lovely little bodice. These two were a couple of the first items which formed Lady K Loves. 

Since then we’ve had all sorts of styles named after various people. It’s always a certain amount of encouragement from the person who helped to inspire the item,. For other items there’s also a combination of real person and imagined. A fictional woman, character who I’m dressing, so our Rodeo Queen shirt was for a sassy, Dolly Parton-esque, southern belle, who rode show horses by day and danced till dawn at night. 

A couple of the new styles coming out have been named after friends, there’s a new style of trousers named after my mum Wendy and a much tighter version named May. We’re looking forward to sharing these with you!

Golfing In The Jungle

Way back in October, I went for an adventure in the Jungle, Jungle Rumble in Bristol to be exact, it was time for a little adventure golf!  It was for my brothers birthday, and along with my family and his friends (of which many are very talented musicians such as Emily Woods, Herons, and Hot Feet)

The golf was a lot of fun, much easier than when I've played it in the rain or wind on Hastings beach front. And the environment was really well set out, plus there was a bar, what more could you want!

The Prince Albert Stroud

If you follow Lady K Loves on twitter....you'll probably see us talking to The Prince Albert regularly. It's a wonderful pub about 5 minuets up the hill from me. It manages to be lovely welcoming local pub, fantastic music venue and a great real ale pub, which is quite an odd and delicate balance.

So here's what it looks like for those that have been intrigued by the random conversation we have on twitter.

It's full of curios, odd bit's, music, mismatching everything. But this isn't a contrived, how-lovely-to-be-so-twee-shabby-chic sort of place, this is genuinely a wonderful mix of the sort of things the owners love. There's this, that and everything becuase they love it. Recently the pub had a bit of a re-vamp, it meant nicer toilets and a recovering of the chairs in the 2 fabrics above. Personally I find the best thing about the Albert, is that everyone is welcome, and it's the diversity which makes it such an exciting place to be.

Bristol Lanes

Recently we did a shoot with model Miss Jessica Holly, photographer Holly Matthews and a more than a little help with the hair and being generally awesome from Eeva Splendid-Harryman. It took place at The Lanes, the wonderful 50s/vintage styled bowling alley in Bristol. It was for new styles which will be gracing our web site over the coming months. Here's a couple of the behind the scenes photo's and a few of styles which are now in pre-order on the web site. 

The jeans in these photo's are our new Le Wild jeans and pre-order has just started, they come in 2 leg lengths 31" and 35" The jumper is a new bit of knit called Sarika, but more about that a little later.  

Corinne Hockley's The Thirteenth Tree

There is a very good local art space where I live. It's called SVA or Stroud Valley Artspace, it comprises of a collection of artist studio's, exhibiting spaces and a bar/venue. I've had some great nights at the SVA...they tend to end in lots of alcohol consumption and dancing to not-really-my-kind-of-music with more enthusiasm than is really necessary.

So the other Sunday I wandered down to a private view of Corinne Hockley's The Thirteenth Tree. It was held in a space called The Goods Shed, or Brunel Building (it's next to the railway line and was designed by I K Brunel of western trains and architecture fame.) It's freezing in there which suited the exhibition beautifully.

Corinne works in a variety of mediums, I'd seen work years before of lovely miniature corsets made out of paper. This combined some of that sort of style along with creatures and people made from cutlery, scissors, pegs, little houses and wings, all lovingly adorning trees gave this a slightly creepy yet really sweet air. It had a definite breeze of Tim Burton, but being based on a train journey through Russia, children's fairy tails, and the narrative of the three aspects of women hood it's hardly surprising.

Adding A Little Cheer

One of my best friends came to see me today in the Lady K Loves studio, it's been raining all week, again, and even though Christmas is just a breath away, it's still easy to feel a little down in the dumps at this time of the year. One of my techniques to battle this is to wear something which cheers you up, normally for me something shiney will help, but fringing, pom poms, and fun prints can all help.....
But back to my friend....who's been a little down today and arrived in a lovely black cardigan with black beading down the front, informing me that it worked! And had helped keep her up beat all day.

So here's my 3 top tips on dressing to cheer yourself up.

1 - Shiney!
See above....shiney, tassles, anything which will catch your eye every so often and bring a smile to your face. I find shiney works the best becuase it also gives the suggestion that you're super glamours, which helps you feel better.....I normally go for a beaded cardigan option here....or a Lady K Loves Bernie jumper (new lurex knit in the pipe line for next year too!)

2 - Heels!
Now I guess this doesn't work if you struggle to walk in them, I learnt by doing all of the hoovering and washing up at Uni in heels....it made me feel less like someone's mum cleaning up after people and meant I practised in the house where no one could see me trip and with something to hold on to! I find even a small heel gives you that little bit of swing to your hips as you walk around making you feel like you stepped  out of Hollywood, for extra boost, add some seamed stockings, they never fail to make you feel fabulous.

3 - Red lips!
Now this doesn't always work, becuase for me as I'm sure many of you, red lipstick is a daily thing. It was in fact the first bit of make-up I started wearing daily, before even mascara and eyeliner! But it still does the job, taking that little bit of extra time to get the shape just so, or maybe it's the case that you use a slightly different colour, add some gloss...whatever it is that gives it that special feel to pick you up.

So what helps you keep feeling cheery and a little on the glamours side?

Time To Relax

So recently I've been so busy I'm struggling to fit everything which needs to be done, done and more so, struggling to find time to relax....So I'm trying to find new ways to switch off so I can have some mental space....rather than staying awake until 2 in the morning!

The thing which always works for me is running...this of course is pretty time dependant as you can't always fit it in. However nothing helps focus the mind and relax the body as much as running with or with out some music.

Previously yoga is another one which has worked for me. But again this is really something which you need some time to be able to do.

Sometimes all that is needed is a lovely hot bath and a book....though the last time I tried that I woke up afterwards and couldn't sleep until really late!

What's your tips and tricks on relaxing?