Bubble London is in a couple of days

Oh dear, Bubble London is in a couple of days !!!
Should I be panicking ?! Probably yes !
How did this happen ??? I was so well organized this season ! Had all the samples made very early on.... but little did I know how unreliable and untrustworthy people can be !

Now with only days until the show, the collection samples are nowhere near finished, the stand not yet designed and I am starting to get a bit stressed, which is exactly what I wanted to avoid by starting the collection early..... Argh !

Anyhow, I have to remain calm to make sure everything gets done and try not to panic.... It will all be fine ! Right ?

Do please come by and see us..... whether we will have our collection samples to show you or not !

Ps. And if you mention my this blog, I may even give you some extra "lovehearts".

Our first feature in Japanese Publication.

Look what Helen, a fellow Tokyo Playtime exhibitor sent through to me today ! A very nice surprise.
I can't understand a word of what it says but still...
Our first feature in a Japanese publication. May there be many more to come !

PS. Our S/S2010 is due to arrive. First shipment is due to be going to Harvey Nichols in London early next week. Very exciting in deed. Full stockists list will be posted soon.

A/W2010 Photoshoot

It is that time again, to get the photo-shoot done so all publicity material can get printed.

Last season, we did it at an allotment in North London, which worked really well. The LOs were able to roam and just do their thing and the fact that it was a sunny day really helped. Apart from a couple of minor tantrums, all went according to plans.

We drove around looking at a few locations the week prior to the shoot. Found some pretty amazing locations (one of them being Rye in East Sussex) but due to the weather conditions and the short days, we were somewhat limited to where we could go.

After lots of stressing about, we finally managed to find the perfect location on board Bluebird of Chelsea, a beautifully restored yacht form the 30's which is conveniently moored at Cadogan Pier, just a few minutes from our office.

What we did not foresee was what it would be like to have a bunch (well, three) over-tired toddlers in a cramped space ..... quite chaotic to say the least and very messy ! However with lots of patience from the team (and models) we managed to get what we needed before it got too dark.

Only thing left to do now is designing the printed material and website......

In the meanwhile, here is a little preview.

November is here !

Can not believe it is November already !!! Where did time fly ?! I remember, like it was yesterday, that I still had months left until A/W2010 had to be ready but now we are only a few weeks away !

So what have we done during the past few months ?! We have designed and redesigned. We have sourced fabrics and trimmings. We have finalized all choices and found out some items are already out of stock, so had to re-make choices. We have started working on our accessories range. We have contacted photographers and stylists to get them booked in for upcoming photo-shoot. We have contacted web-designers to start working on our new website. Well, the list goes on.... but yet, it feels like we haven't done a thing !

Moody, sophisticated, playful.... and fun. That's how I would describe our next collection for now. Delicate trimmings with chunky wools, heavy velvets with soft cottons, silk and felt... it is all about mixing colours, textures and to have fun.

Collection will be launched at Bubble London on 31st January.

Look forward to hearing your comments then.

Day before leaving

It is almost 2am and I am still working, trying to finalize A/W2010.

It is quite a few months until I have to show the collection but want to get organized this time, partly because I want everything to be "perfect" but also because I will be away for the whole of next month.... and by the time I get back, I really need to have everything finished and ready to be sampled.

We are flying to Hong Kong tomorrow, trying to meet with some potential buyers, as well as spending some time with my family. Dropping kids of in Hong Kong and off we (DH and I) will go to Japan/Tokyo for Playtime Tokyo. I have never been to Japan and am very excited about getting some feedback about Jakeandmaya.

Would be so great if one didn't need to sleep..... There just isn't enough time in a day to get everything done !

Will keep you all updated from Hong Kong and Tokyo.

Ps. had a meeting with potential client to design their private label collection for S/S2010 today. When it is all confirmed, I will let you know who they are... but in the meanwhile, I will not jinx it and keep it secret for now. Wish us luck and you may see us in a top quality shop very soon !

Jakeandmaya at Bubble New York

We had not brought with us a lot of props for the show but thanks to the kindness of Barbara, The director of North American Bear Company, who lent us some gorgeous stuff, we managed to put together a rather cool stand (I think anyway...).

The show as a whole was very nice. The venue (Cedar lake) was very cool and atmosphere was great. It was very calm and relaxed ... unlike some other shows that tend to get a bit manic. I am still in two minds about whether that is a good thing or not. Sometimes it did seem a bit too quiet but then at the same time, the quality of buyers were good so does it matter if traffic is not huge ?

We had a lot of interest from the press during the show. A lot of buyers (including some "important" ones) also came by and really liked our collection. Not many orders were placed during the show but we then had quite a few promising enquiries/orders since !

And guess what ?! Due to the success we have had during Bubble London and Bubble New York, we have managed to negotiate lower production costs with our factories. We can now offer all our products at 20% lower price !!! This is great for our future retailers, cause they can now be a bit more flexible with their mark-up and hopefully achieve better sales.

We are currently in conversation with some very cool stores but I better wait until everything is confirmed before revealing it all.....

Big Day for Jakeandmaya

Things have been fairly quiet at Jakeandmaya in the past 10 days, just catching up on e-mails and trying to finish our website mainly, so I can send our details to interested buyers.

However, had a very important meeting with a very important buyer today. Could not believe it when they contacted us a few days ago to set up a meeting ! To my relief, she was lovely to deal with and didn't make it too hard for us.

What she expertly picked out was in my/our opinion the strongest pieces and also the most "commercial". Talking to her about customers buying behaviour was not only interesting but also very useful. She was able to give us very good insight in what people buy and what they don't. Not that we want to design a collection that is entirely commercial but it is all very useful information.

Meeting was reasonably short and very to the point. She knew exactly what she wanted and that was it ... She will try out S/S2010 here in UK first and if it goes well, she will place us in other stores worldwide. So let's pray that it will all fly off the shelves !!!

Now just have to wait for their final order confirmation and in the meanwhile work on getting some other cool stores on board.

Watch this space !

PS. Bubble New York confirmed our stand for August today ! Look forward to testing the US market !