Nelson's hat

Walking through Trafalgar Square today, I was surprised to see that Nelson had a hat on! Reading later, I realised it was a project curated by milliners Stephen Jones and Phillip Treacy. Hats had been surreptitiously placed on various iconic scupltures in the middle of the night! Nelson's hat was created by traditional hat makers Lock & Co. who actually created hats for Nelson when he was alive.

Sir Henry Havelock sports a hat by Philip Treacy

George IV wears a Stephen Jones hat inspired by the Brighton Pavilion.

Franklin D. Roosevelt wears a war time Spam hat. Nice to see it's clearly amusing the pair of them.

This turban designed by Noel Stewart and worn by Beau Brummel was unfortunately pinched, as was Shakespeare's in Leicester Square. Perhaps the thieves had been inspired by the policeman helmet stealing in Wodehouse's book Code of the Woosters!

Anzu in Guardian's top 100!

Anzu's pop-up shop, Pomp, is in today's Guardian newspaper as one of London's top 100 things to do in Olympic London!
Read more of their other recommendations (lots of cool tips) over on their website

Anzu Pop-up shop opens!

The Anzu shop is open for business. It's been great so far!

2 Hoxton St, London, N1 1DG
Mon-Sat 10-6, Sun 11-6


Candle teacups, Anzu limited edition prints, Liberty print chairs, butterfly necklaces and more!


Do stop by...

Anzu Pop-up shop opens next week!

Antiques market

Earlier this week, I got up at 4.30 and set off on an early morning train out of London in the search of some antique finds for a Pop-up shop that we will be hosting in our studio.

It was such fun looking at the all the different antiques, which ranged from junk to the finest silver.

Carpets and crocodiles,

very sad looking toy lions just waiting to be taken home,

shop signage and old tennis rackets. Look forward to showing you some of the items we'll be selling in the shop and telling you more about the shop next week!

Made in Shoreditch, Anzu interview

Thank you to Made in Shoreditch for featuring us. You can read the full interview here The website generally is a great resource for all things in the East End and a must go to for all Olympics visitors!

Have a beautiful weekend!

Apologies for not blogging much of late! We've been very busy so we are just dreaming of these stunning, tranquil pictures of lakes. They can look amazing in good and bad weather but hopefully this weekend the warm weather will persist. Enjoy!

images via pinterest

Piles of rings, part 1

We love the recent trend for piling on both bracelets and rings. As you can no doubt tell from our cards, we're very much into jewellery in the Anzu office! Above is our rings card, which is hand-decorated with Swarovski crystals.

This Massai jewellery and skirt looks amazing.

The English eccentric poet, Edith Sitwell wearing her piles of rings in the 1930s. She was ahead of her time! And below, Daphne Guiness, a modern day English eccentric with her armory of jewellery

National Gin Day

Today is National Gin day! Above is our French 75 cocktail card complete with recipe. So just add Champagne, gin and lemon to the mix and you're away.

I read recently about Gin palaces, and I must say it conjured up a very decadent image. Somewhere with indulgent decor where ladies would sip gin cocktails and eat ice cream sundaes in lace dresses.

Although Charles Dickens did speak of the lavishness of the interiors I think the reality, sadly was rather different and was rather closer to a den of iniquity/pub! Above are two images which even though they are very pub-like, certainly do have a touch of decadence to the design.

From the illustrations of the time they also look quite raucous. There is a great description over at this blog, just click here

Gin was also very much associated with speakeasies, and in the Prohibition the name Bathtub gin was born, where people would make alcohol at home. I bet it tasted awful.

Here's Cagney making some, but we wouldn't recommend it! However, you could visit the new rather more glamorous speakeasy in New York called Bathtub Gin.

So if you are making gin cocktails tonight, click here for the BBC's top gin recipes, and try one of our favourite brands Monkey gin made in the Black Forest.

The sporting gentleman.

Don't forget that Father's Day is coming up on the 17th June. We have lots of cards to choose from. Today we thought we'd suggest a card and gifts for the traditional sporting gentleman. You could send our Kennedy's golf clubs card (above),

buy a vintage volume of some of PG Wodehouse's entertaining golf stories,

one of the traditionalist gifts such as this cricket sweater on Mr Porter's fun Father's Day gift guide,

an Oyster the Rolls Royce of boats (secondhand ones available here)

with the perfect accompaniment this Fortnums West country hamper.

Lorenzo Duran

These Lorenzo Duran laser cut leaves are so beautiful. We really like the Arabesque geometric style motif,

the tree is a beautiful idea,

and the intricacy of this circular design.

Happy Jubilee weekend!

Hope you all have a lovely time,

Anzu x

(image above Anzu Royal crown card, hand embellished with Swarovski crystals)

Celebrity desks

I'm currently thinking about what things I need for my desk in the new studio, so have been looking at some images. I love seeing where people work, and what things they have around to inspire them. Can you guess from looking at these desks, which celebrities they belong to? Answers in small print at the bottom of this post! And what does your desk look like?

1. Marie Antoinette, 2. Woody Allen, 3. Albert Einstein, 4. Ernest Hemingway, 5. Martha Stewart

Day of the triffids

On another hot day, just a random selection of pictures of plants taking over buildings. Some deliberate, some not...

Balenciaga on Instagram

We're really loving Balenciaga's feed on Instagram. When they're not posting current collections, they have these classic photos from their archives. Just stunning.