Grandeur

Love these images of leafy grandeur

I first came across images of this Danish apartment via the designersblock blog (the one image just above and two beneath), and I've been drawn to similar images ever since.

And below is one of Yves Saint Laurent's places.

Images: Denise Bonenti, unknown but of Topeka gatehouse, Joanna Maclennan via designersblock.blogspot.com, YSL winter garden - unknown.

Paul Smith

I am a real fan of Paul Smith and in particular his whole attitude to life and I liked this quote that I read on Vogue.com this morning, "My top tip is to take it slow. Life is a joy. You don't have to be rich and famous straight away. Take it easy, grow gently and you'll have a lovely life".

I like everything about his attitude - his quirkiness, his sense of humour and fun, his down to earth attitude, the way he always mentions his wife and how they've worked together as a team, and the way he shows that you should take fun and inspiration from your work, not be serious and dull about it. As Vogue reports, "I don't think of work as work - it's just another part of life. THe artist John Coulson said once 'It's not what you take out, it's what you take in' and I like that saying."

I also always like the way his shops look - whether it's the apothecary shop he had refitted for his Covent Garden shop or his more rustic style Parisian shop, which I have to say looks much better in real life.

Always like the groups of pictures that he has in the shops (above is the Westbourne Grove shop).

Above is his antique/home shop on Albemarle Street, London. I love the way it looks too.

And there are always quirky objects that he finds that are fun too. Above is a robot created by Mr. Matsumoto that was in a Paul Smith shop exhibition (there's someone out there who I know will especially like this!).

So if you would like inspiration for your day, click here to listen to this talk that he gave, it's well worth it and if you haven't already read his book 'Inspiration in everything', what are you waiting for? Get it on Amazon here

Images: Vogue.com, all others Paul Smith

Who's that man?

Yesterday we went to visit our crystal supplier. We had so much fun, as you can see from this anzu team member, who would prefer to remain nameless!

The glasses had previously been worn by this mannequin as part of the Blackpool ballroom dancing trade show. The costume was inspired by Lady Gaga and is worth £5,000!

Inspiration boards

About to start working on an inspiration board for some of anzu's new collections which we'll be launching next year. Love doing these, so it's a bit of a treat for today, and I thought I'd post some pictures I found of other people's inspiration boards.

Like the big frame on the picture below:

This is also a cute way of compiling your inspirations:

Images: via apartment therapy, unknown, Domino, Bellechantelle, unknown.

Scarlet and white

A colour combination I never get tired of painting with - scarlet and white. So simple, so glamorous.

On a separate note I can't believe nearly a week has gone by again. I promise to be better blogging next week... Have a good weekend!

Images: unknown, 2nd image Joan Bennett smoking, if you know the sources please let me know!

Books of hours

One thing I have always loved are these medieval books of hours.

A collection of illustrations of seasonal daily life, texts, and prayers they are lavishly decorated and were made for wealthy patrons.

Often they have illustrations showing the activities in each month. I always like the paintings for May - they never seem to be doing any work, and the illustrations always depict people having fun on the river, courting scenes or just general all round frolics!

October, on the other hand was clearly not a month for ANY fun and just consisted of ploughing the fields under a gloomy grey sky.

One day I would love to do one myself, but as they no doubt took a team of monks years to do, it's probably unlikely!

Images: Bruges circa 1515 source unknown, Belgian circa 1440 source unknown, The Gold book of hours via www.moleiro.com, Les tres riches heures source unknown, and image via tideblog.

Anzu at Top Drawer Autumn

Anzu at Top Dawer Autumn

Stand F119

12-14 September 2010, Olympia

Come and see us!!

Loulou's birthday

Yesterday was Lou-lou's birthday, which she kept very quiet, but we still managed to rustle together a little something. So here's to you Loulou and wishing you lots of

and

and

in the year ahead, with love from everyone at Anzu xxx

Images: Anzu, unknown, unknown, Mario Sorrenti and Camilla via souvenirsofagirl blog

Guest blogger: Lou-lou

I am really interested in the way smells can evoke memories. The first book I read about smells and memory was 'Swann's Way' by Marcel Proust, where the scent of a Madelaine cake reminds him beautifully of his early days.

Last year I was doing a research project on this topic and luckily many olfactory artists were happy to share their experiments with me. Maki Ueda, www.ueda.nl was one of them.

She extracts odours from all sorts of natural ingredients for exhibitions and her artistic practice, and runs workshps of perfume making.

We talked about her exhibition of memory evoking smells that was on in the Netherlands. This aromatic journey was all about Maki's memory of Japan, with odours of miso soup, cherry blossoms, and cedarwood. Each of these bottles contains some of these scents/memories.

I guess we all have some similar experience with our unique olfactory senses. What are your scent memories?

Images: Madelaine cake www.kirbiecravings.com, other images Maki Ueda.

Creative spaces - fashion designer's studios

Continuing with my creative spaces posts, I thought I'd do a little blog on some grand fashion designer's studios. Above and below are photos of the founder of haute couture, Paul Poiret's studio. I always like the decorative look in a creative space, and the fun stripy wallpaper is a nice touch.

Above and below Christian Dior's studio, which apart from the chairs looks surprisingly practical. Even though we have something similar in the Anzu office, I'm not too sure about the fluorescent lighting.

Above and below Karl Lagerfeld's amazing office full of books. I love the industrial look, but get off the table Karl!

Yves Saint Laurent's studio (above and below). I love Yves Saint Laurent's decorating style and if you haven't seen this book of his interiors, you absolutely should. Click here to get it from Amazon.

And finally a close up of Yves Saint Laurent's desk. I also really liked this post over at Sara Gilbane interiors, all about fashion designer's homes. It's interesting to see their design style carried through to interiors I think. Click here to read it.