Nook&Willow

High street dreams are made of this....

2010-05-18T07:35:00.000-07:00

Sooooo have any of you crazy lot been watching High Street Dreams on BBC1 9pm Mondays?? Bit of a rubbish name I reckon but there is a reason Im asking .

You see a few weeks before last christmas we received the email that was doing the rounds asking creatives if they wanted to apply to be on this new show with Jo Malone......so being the shrinking violets that we are we did..... we only then went and got offered an audition a few days later. So off we drove to a hotel in Manchester and sat and waited along with lots of other lovely creative people all clutching our wares......it was a bit like XFactor with props. We eventually were called into a room and had to stand on an infinity wall and look into a big studio camera...we were then asked some questions about our business by 2 lovely young men and then we had to pitch to Jo why we needed her help......I immediately resorted to blackmail and offered her a free bag if we went through.

Well it seemed to work as we got to the semi finals if you like....the last 15 in our category (which by the way fell under giftware....oh dear)...we were assured that we had all beat thousands of businesses and had done amazingly well.....we only went along in the hope there would be free cake. We then had to go to Kent and stay over....we were going to spend the day in a studio.....a real proper one!!!

We were picked up in a car early in the morning...and taken to the studio along with a guy who made lovely clocks, a family who invented a chic bag to carry dog poo in (obviously for when you were walking your dog) and a lady who made quirky shelves that looked like hands.......it was very random!

There was lots of waiting around....we were shown the studio which looked like the weakest link, we all had plinths to put our products on and the idea was we would stand in a line behind our plinth...then Jo and Nick would come and speak to us one by one...the aim being to convince them to choose our business to work with for 3 months and get us ready to pitch to a high street retailer.

Being filmed was great fun....we loved the whole experience.....the staff were lovely, the other creatives were all lovely, Jo and Nick were extremely lovely.and gave us some amazing feedback and tips......one big inspirational and extremely insightful day.

Did we get picked....well watch next Monday at 9pm to find out......if we didnt we will pop up at some point near the start..........hopefully not trying to bribe Jo with a handbag.

http://www.mirror.co.uk/tv-entertainment/tv/todays-tv/2010/05/10/high-street-dreams-bbc1-9pm-115875-22246698/

shoooz baby

2010-05-10T08:56:00.000-07:00

I decided to have a browse around Topshop last week. I went to visit the shoe section.....where I was in instant heaven. I came across these little beauties.......

They are from Kurt Geiger and are £160...... what struck me was how well they match our Tiaga Fold over clutch or even our Birch Mini fold over clutch, the colour and style match perfectly. Just thought I would share that with you!!

Tiaga Clutch £450

Birch Mini Fold over clutch £250

Available to order directly from Nook&Willow Studio@nookandwillow.com

Roadkill

2010-05-09T15:12:00.000-07:00

Ok...so one day I was walking my son to school and there was a dead hedgehog in the gutter...not squashed...just dead. We glanced at it and said awwwww thats sad...then went on our way.

Later at the studio I was feeling very experimental...I decided to work on an idea I had for some shoulder embellishments, like jewelry for your shoulders that can be removable. As my design progressed I realised that I had been heavily inspired by the hedgehog....albeit subconsciously.

It really goes to show that as a designer you can get inspiration from ANYTHING around you....even roadkill.

Available to order in most colours direct from Nook&Willow....studio@nookandwillow.com

Our new ethos

2010-05-06T08:37:00.000-07:00

We decided a few months ago that we were goin to scrap doin seasons  
and just have one collection.
 
Sounds mad? But it's really not. We handmake bags that we want people  
to buy and use for years to come...so doing 2 seasons a year was  
actually going against this ethos. Our handbags have a vintage look  
and feel so they will always fit into every season.
 
Also we are more desirable to stockists who don't need to put us in  
sale. It frees up our time to make and develop new ideas.......
so why didn't we do it sooner??
 
Because we like to do things the hard way..

Our new stooodio

2010-05-05T14:20:00.000-07:00

Ok well a couple of months back we decided to move studios. We just  
never felt at home in the bluecoat...lovely building and studio but  
the wrong kind of vibe.
 
Anyway we searched and found a quirky little place literally a min  
walk from our old studio. It has a real retro feel about it almost  
like Brick Lane in london or a New York Loft...its really cool in a  
non obvious way and is filled with real characters and lots of  
creative vibes....we love it, its much more 'Us'!

Studio 7a Seel Street Studios

36 Seel Street

Liverpool

Illness

2010-05-04T15:20:00.000-07:00

Ok so im givin this blog thing another shot, i love reading other peoples and it inspires me to try it again.
There is a theme though..I set this up last year while suffering with swine flu...now ive got pleurisy and here I am again..blogging away. I assure you im not a hypo or a bloke and Im pretty well most of the time.
Anyway moan over, as Im stuck at home I thought I would do something productive... Ive been tweeting away and trying to get more fans on our facebook page and now Im blogging...all from the comfort of my Iphone (im such a geek).

From iPhone

Back again

2009-08-10T09:32:00.000-07:00

Well havnt blogged for a while, doesn't mean things have been quiet though..oh contraire. Lots of changes are happening in the studio but all very exciting. New collection looking fab but up against the clock..thank god we have fab interns who help us so much. We have a lot of paperwork to do this week booo, but hopefully we are one step closer to our shop and collab with the boys. Will keep you posted x

From iPhone

Jammy fingers

2009-07-23T15:34:00.001-07:00

Well it's been another hectic day at the nook and willow studio. Still workin on collection whilst having ideas for next collection and gathering inspiration for collection after that...... oh why do we have to do two collections a year and work a year ahead??? No wonder I get mixed up with days/ months/ years...time is flying as I'm always in the future, it's crazy!
Sharing a studio with the boys is never dull. Today I brought my oldest son Lewis into work. He soon got stuck in helping the Jam team with their jars and developed a talent called weeding...picking out the annoying cut out bits of the sticky labels for the jamjars, a horrible jobthat he completed with skill. I took the leftover letters and stuck them on my hand..thought it looked rather cool so I snapped it to share with y'all, just the way we roll at N&W. xxx

From iPhone

Stockists

2009-07-20T07:33:00.000-07:00

Well we have decided that our products are best viewed in person...people need to feel them, touch them, open them up and appreciate the attention to detail that goes in to each and every one of our handbags. We have sold them online for most of the time we have been up and running but we need them to be stocked in boutiques. As we make them to order ourselves we have decided that two stockists in London and Manchester/Cheshire is probably the best places for us at the moment.
We have a lovely intern helping us at the moment called Danielle who is currently studying fashion promotion with styling at Uclan....she is looking for some lovely boutiques for as as we speak...think maybe a research trip to London is maybe needed???? Its really hard because the wrong shop is no good to either but the right one could really push our label...the search continues!!!!

Recovery

2009-07-20T01:28:00.001-07:00

Well I think I'm finally back in the land of the living, decided to work from home today as I still feel quite tired, apparently once you have had swine flu you are immune making you more healthy than you were before..forget the gym, swine flu is the way forward !

From iPhone

Bows from squares

2009-07-17T08:10:00.001-07:00

I've developed a new bow from a square of leather, it sits fab and is easy to attach to bags, shoes etc,

From iPhone

Shapes

2009-07-17T07:14:00.001-07:00

Here is a sample of shapes being used in our new collection

-- Post Fro

SICK

2009-07-17T06:46:00.000-07:00

Should fill you in a little as to what is going on....Nina is currently on maternity leave as she has just had her 3rd child since the buisness started, she is as you can imagine up the wall so I'm holding the fort at N&W for the moment. Unfortunately I am at home ill...but rather than wallow in my own perspiration, I am putting the rare oppurtunity of being in my house to good use and have created our blog.
Now Im feeling back in the land of the living the rest has done my creative juices the world of good and I'm currently jotting ideas in my sketch book. The new collection has taken a slightly diff approach as I'm playing around with new 3d shapes...a result of all the pleats, folds and crazy shoulders that are appearing on the catwalk.......as the collection is inspired by the film Troy (crap film, dodgy Brad Pitt blonde surfer hair but fab costumes) the shapes are fitting in nicely. Im also playing with the shapes for some eyecatching leather jewellry...something we have played with in the past and a passion of mine from way back in college. Loving Balmain at the moment.

Helloooo

2009-07-17T06:21:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone and welcome to our blog. This is where you can follow our progress as 2 accessories designers/makers in the crazy world of fashion. As Liverpool based designers you can join us in our trails and tribulations....are we creative geniuses, or two fish out of London water bumbling our way through 2 seasons a year...who knows the answer, but this is where you can catch our highs and lows, and insane ramblings... but we do produce some rather fab pieces along the way.

We hope that you enjoy following us...things can get rather hectic in our crazy studio that we share with 2 illustrators and a product designer, but amazing things are happening.....we will indeed keep you posted.