We are heading towards the final code and clearing off September. This has been a big week for me, internally, externally.
I didn’t mention it till Wednesday but the headmistress of my old school,
Cranbrook, asked me if I would like to make them a silk scarf. It was such a
privilege, and the headmistress, Dr Anne Johnstone, was very pleased with the
result, we took the Cranbrook rugby logo of C and S and placed it in a diamond
pattern. The result was slightly Gucci-esque but really it had it’s own
personality and with the deep rich navy and red finished with a heming line
border in red, it became its own. Took a while for us to get it right, the
motto of the school, ESSE QUAM VIDERI, to be rather than to seem to be, it was
problematic getting resolution, we had to find the Goldilocks size. The end
result and the samples, all of it I gave to Cranbrook as a gift as I really had
done nothing at all for my old school over the years, and I was just pleased
that my skill set could be useful to them. In the end they placed an order with
us but the magic was in the process of going through their design files
criteria and working to something that would result in a scarf I am happy to
wear as a four in hand myself, the red isn’t overpowering and the navy fits in
with so much navy that I wear these days.
Then later in the week Peta Davidson from Treats By Pete dropped off the new
cookies for Studio visitors and VIPs which feature our scarves printed on the
cookies. And you know what, they taste delicious. I don’t like the word
delicious to be honest. I was reading my old journals this past week and every
time I read the word I cringed. I am coming to terms with it. I wonder why some
words make me cringe.
Later in the week owing to a wonderful order I decided to buy you people two
new perfumes to use in your parcels. My God, Creed is so expensive! I bought
the very new Iris Debonair and then I lost it when I put my nose to Wild
Vetiver but to be honest, over the ensuing days I find the Wild Vetiver too
pungent, small doses are required, but it has a lovely linger to it and seems
to be a stayer, you pick it up in your clothes over the days after.
I will leave my little post from Instagram about it below. Iris is one of those
ingredients I make by hand in the Studio, but its a really sticky substance and
so despite being so fresh and wonderful, I fear spraying it on the silks when
heading out.
Anyway, I am here if you need me, be ready for the final day. Still so many
little treasures are about to get realised and more are arriving next week.
The perfume of aristocrats. It has an unusual place in the
history of perfume. The iris we refer to in perfume doesn’t come from the iris
flower, it comes from the root, the rhizome, it takes time to cultivate, then
it needs to be harvest, peeled, dry aged, then distilled into orris butter. And
in this comes to the compounds of ironies, the gold of it all, fine iris, that
powdery, cool, violet, wood, slightly earthy. I remember the first great iris I
smelled, in the Parisian perfume house of Serge Leutens, a limited edition I
coveted, afraid to use, and when it was gone I had no idea how to replace it,
only I did once I started making my own perfume. The crème de la crème of this
is iris pallida, that scent that is associated with the Florentines, with Catherine
De Medici, who, through marriage, took it to France when she married King Henry
II in 1533. It’s so famous as an ingredient that it marks a great deal of
Florentine heraldry. And it is the basis for the fleur-de-lis. At Versailles is
was championed by Louis XIV and by Marie Antoinette. Look, I didn’t want to do
it, but it had to be done, we needed to give you something to look forward to
in your next parcels. As for the Vetiver, and Indian root plant, well, it’s
very fetching, the original was exceptional, this wild one is … much more
jungle sweet. Me likey. Keep and eye out in your parcels. Thank you to my
customer who indirectly paid for it.
