Seeing our bags on he net

Why the wrap skirt is everything!

Available on etsy with a Free Makeup Bag Click & get a further 10% off with this CODE 2020 gave us the space and time to contemplate the larger meaning of existence and so naturally reevaluate our own lives. Many people I've spoken to ended up making life altering decisions. 3 families I know have left the UK for greener climes and another 4 are leaving the big cities for greener spaces where the pace of life is slower and their vistas wider. Normally I am a special occasions seamstress, but not anymore. As the months indoors wore on and everyone started gardening, home schooling and working via zoom I was asked for not just informal wear, but comfortable to absorb and disguise the new spreading waist line while reflecting the clients own tastes and long buried under work clothes desires. No one cares about what was in the magazines anymore or the season's colours. What I was being asked for was classic lines, flattering lengths and disguised roominess. The 50's a...

Fulani Jewelry wholesale & retail

I started selling Fulani jewelry in the early 1990s. I bought my first stock from Ghanaian and Malian glass bead traders I would meet at the Ghana Trade Fair center. I was fascinated by the intricate work and the bright shine of the brass. I had sold brass and silver jewelry from India and Thailand since the late 80s but had never come across any other people who worked brass that thin or that shiny. My customers were equally as fascinated. It would be more than 10 years I would go to Mali and meet Malian Fulani brass jewelry makers for myself. The origins of the distinctive earring designs is shrouded in a bit of mystery and many stories. The one that rings true to me is that 1000s of years ago the Fulani peoples left the areas of modern day Senegal and became nomadic. They followed their cattle and traded from the Western coast of Africa all the way up towrds he North, some even going as far up as Egypt. Along the way they would trade with the other peoples they incounte...

Spring Fair 2017 Birmingham NEC

I was lucky enough to spend a few days with Jonathan, Vicky and Steve from Rainstick trading at this year's spring fair. The show is the largest gifts fair in the UK and happens twice a year, in February and September. I have traded in New York and Ouagadougou trade fairs and wanted to see what a UK trade show was like and I wanted see how Rainstick trading run their wholesale business, especially in these uncertain times. Johnathan Wells founder of Rainstick trading is an old friend from the UK music festival scene and I love the fact that we cant work out exactly when we first met, but we have lived parallel lives going back to Camden market in the 1990s. For a number of festival traders who regularly traveled to Bali, Indian and parts of Africa, wholesale has become the natural progression as we have got older and had children. There also comes a time when the British weather starts to make festivals a bit too much like hard work and festival organi...

My Local DressMaker

Search This Blog