Tips please!

I am quite new to blogging, so any tips on what you would like to see or read on this blog would be great! Leave a comment here, or email me at info@anzu.co.uk

Have a great weekend!

A festive summer

The sun has been shining for most of the week, everyone is wearing pretty summer dresses, the air is full of butterflies and birds and I am busy painting Christmas cards and trying to get into the wintery feel of things! Buyers start wanting to see the new Christmas cards around this time, so I usually paint them now. When I finish I'll be sure to give you a preview here! Above is our Snowflake bag card from the current collection.

Inspiration no.2

PAUL POIRET

Continuing my inspiration posts, I would like to add Paul Poiret. One of the first couturiers working in the era of the belle epoque, Poiret created sumptuous clothes. He also designed interiors, threw indulgent often eastern inspired parties, had amazing illustrations done of his work by such artists as Raol Dufy and George Barbier, and was the first fashion designer to add perfumes to his range.

This out of print book is especially inspiring, Poiret by Yvonne Deslandres. It was quite hard to get hold of and in the end, I had to have to have it shipped from a book dealer in New York, but it was well worth it as you can see from the pictures in this post,  which are from the book.

I even love the design of the labels of the clothes, which were illustrated with his trademark signature, the rose.

Poiret recommended that clients spray perfume on the hem of their dresses so the perfume would spread as they walked. This is an illustration of this by me for a private project.

New bridal cards

Wedding season is in full flow and following the success of our bridal notebooks, we have decided to bring back these images on a collection of five cards in England (US to follow soon!). Each of the five cards features an illustration of dresses worn by five iconic brides from Audrey Hepburn to Carolyn Bessette Kennedy with their story on the back. For me, Grace Kelly is the quintessentially iconic bride - see this amazing footage of her wedding below. Call us or your local agent if you would like to see the full collection of cards!

Couldn't resist posting these!

I think I might walk into the offiice like this every morning. I know this is a film, but were fashion shows in the 60s really like this? From Vanessa Redgrave and Candice Bergman's serious faces I'm guessing so

Is this the cool world?

Why not? (no.8)

Why not buy shutters to display your cards? This is especially great for a Summer display filled with cards suggestive of the beach, bikinis and summer dresses। Just looking at the display above makes me want to go on holiday!

Inspiration no. 1

PERFUME BOTTLES

I received a comment from a French reader of my blog, asking me what my inspirations are, and I thought it would be nice to do some blogs on a lot of things that inspire me and that I love.

So my first blog on this is on scent bottles. I love scent bottles, the mystique and art of the perfume world, and these images crop up in my paintings repeatedly (above is the anzu perfume card).

image courtesy of flickr

I love Lalique crystal, classically simple Chanel, innovative Schiaperelli, and elegant Guerlain bottles. Guerlain have always produced decorative, indulgent and distinctive bottles and I was delighted when they and Aqua di Parma asked me to do this illustration for them, which they later used for their invitations (see below).

I also like going to Les Senteurs in Elizabeth Street, London, which has a great selection of scent and reading books on perfume. Reading I would especially recommend are 'Alchemy' by Mandy Aftel, recommended to me by a perfumier, 'Perfume bottles' by Judith Miller, the scent chapter in Diane Ackermann's excellent 'A natural history of the senses', and the blog boisdejasmin.typepad.com

Marilyn book

I am starting work on expanding my icons or 'So' range and was very happy to get a catalogue of the Marilyn Monroe auction that Christies held in 1999 today. I bought it on ebay so I wasn't sure what it was going to be like, but it is just jam-packed with beautiful photos and pictures of Marilyn Monroe's clothes and possessions from her feather boas to her white grand piano. It's going to be great to work from - I especially like the broderie anglaise dresses below

Pulse photographs

Here are some photographs of our new stand at Pulse. Thanks for everyone that visited us - it was a really great show!

Why not? (7)

If the cards you are selling feature hand-painted images like anzu cards or are hand-made why not emphasise this quality by making a little display of them with paints or hand-crafted materials that they can also buy? This should draw your customer to their unique quality and perhaps even inspire them to get creative themselves.

Pulse trade show starts today!

The Pulse show starts today and we have been so busy all week preparing for it and the new look stand. We customized these trunks found in a cheap hardware shop (they were a very nasty shade of brown before), gilded tons of frames, and worked from morning until bedtime.

Below, Jasmine amongst the daisies in "Operation Goldfinger"

We still had time for some treats though! If you would like to visit our stand, you can find us at stand number, F28