7th July 2010 - posted by: Nicci

It has been over a month since we last blogged – how time flies and what have we been up to? Working on the Autumn/Winter collection, which I think is great – strong colours and luxury fabrics as always.

Some other great news – one of our dresses went to Parliament and to the Palace, how cool is that!

Andrea made some classic white shift dresses that sold out the same day! She has decided to make some for our A/W collection which will be lovely.

We have also had requests for a complete capsule wardrobe for our clients in the Fulham Road showroom.

Andrea has also been working on the Body Forum workshop and has had a great deal of interest in this from our corporate clients and will be sending out details of this soon.

So next will be the Sale – so we are all getting prepared for that, so don’t forget to come in and grab those bargains. Enjoy the rest of the Summer and hopefully we will see you in one of our showrooms soon.

18th May 2010 - posted by: Andrea

Every quarter I am asked to write an article for a magazine called “Women in Banking and Finance” which caters for women working within the banking industry. The theme for this quarter’s magazine is “Ambition!” Quite a tough word to use in today’s economic climate. I have followed the theme very loosely and put another slant on ambition and goals. We all need goals and ambitions to drive us forward. Have a read and let me know what you think!!

Read the article (in PDF format) here

17th April 2010 - posted by: Andrea

It has been a really funny beginning to the month and now it’s culminated in a real sense of displacement with the volcano in Iceland erupting on Thursday. So many people being in the wrong place at this time! Son a really good friend and client is stuck in Boston, not a bad place to be stuck I may add. Another client is stuck in California and another close friend stuck in Hong Kong, I suppose we just have to let go and let nature take its course and know that everyone will get back when the time is right.

Back to the world of fashion and number 35, we are starting the summer season with a tie up with a great milliner Lizzie Pocock. Every year at this time we have clients planning their social calendars like Ascot, Henley and weddings parties. Once they have found the perfect dress which they invariably do at number 35, they then have problems finding hats and shoes to match. So we have taken one problem away. Lizzie’s hats are absolutely fantastic, when I first saw them I was even tempted to have one made for me, just to have, as I don’t have anywhere to go to wear it YET.. If you want or need a hat Lizzie will do a special commission and can meet you at one of our showrooms where you can choose a hat of your liking in your colourway design and style to match a number 35 dress.

As I have said so many times, we work very hard at number 35 and as soon as one season designing ends another one begins. The Autumn Winter collection has already been designed and most of the fabrics chosen and believe it or not I am now working on Spring Summer 2011, how scary is that. We are looking to expand the brand so it is important for us to be ahead of ourselves and work to the industry norm which is 1 year ahead of the current season. The beauty about number 35 is the flexibility with have with our designing, so if any new trend comes along that we want to work with we have the ability to put a new design into production within a 4 week period!

We are working hard to improve the fit of our designs, and we have started to analyse our conversion rate from our clients trying the clothes to their making the decision to purchase. In Highgate 75% of clients that try on the clothes do purchase and in the Fulham Road the rate reduces to 68%. This is extremely high compared to the industry norm and this does tell us that we are doing a good job on the whole. We know there are always improvements to be made and we encourage our clients to give us feedback. The one think I have learnt in retail, is that once you stop listening to your clients you stop growing. So to conclude if anyone wants or needs to say anything about our clothes, designs, quality or fit please, please come and see us and let us know, and if we don’t listen please make us!


Have a great sunny April and see you soon.

18th March 2010 - posted by: Andrea

It has been a great month for us here at number 35, we are really feeling very positive about our future. I do feel like we have come through the really tough trading times and a light is definitely shining on us for the future. All of us have worked so so hard over the past 3 months and it’s great to see that the new collection has been so welcomed. Mind you it is a great collection…

We have had a rethink about our branding message and I have been lucky enough to spend 4 hours with a great branding expert who steered me in the right direction as to what message we should be getting out there. You will start to notice a different message in a couple of weeks, so let us know what you think.

I have also started working on our next 2 collections AW10 and SS11. I spent 4 hours in the library looking at the trending files to see what trends are going to be key, I did laugh to myself as it’s the longest I HAVE EVER spent in a library. At college you’d be lucky if I knew where the library was!! How the years do change us.

5th March 2010 - posted by: Nicci

Well we had our photo shoot this week of the new SS10 Collection - a long and tiring day, but what a huge success it was. The day flowed like clockwork – it’s so good to see professionals at work – Andrea, the model, the make-up artist and of course the photographer – it was such a good team, who all did a fantastic job in making the day run so smoothly.

The Collection looks amazing – The delphinium dress in Tasar silk and the navy cotton stretch cropped trousers have to be my favourite.

Even the sun came out for a few days this week and the evenings are getting lighter – after a long and cold winter, Spring and Summer are just round the corner! So at last we can put all our winter woollies at the back of the wardrobe!

So many of you, are coming into the Showroom, looking for dresses for Weddings, Summer Parties and Ascot. Well we certainly have a great choice of designs and colour in the Collection.
So for more inspiration for all those important events coming up, do take a look at the new Collection that will be here on our site next week.
I guarantee you will love the simplicity and elegance of Andrea’s designs, her choice in colour and luxury fabrics.

In the meantime have a lovely and hopefully sunny weekend.

20th Feb 2010 - posted by: Niv

Hi everyone,

As Andrea has kindly given me the unlikely moniker of ‘online marketing strategist’, I figured it was only fair I should do a blog post and prove my credentials. February is always a month of transition for us, as we rush around finalising the Spring Collections and gearing up for our big changeover into Spring. Soon you will find us on our hands and knees sprucing up our Fulham and Highgate showrooms in preparation for new stock...can’t wait! Our colours for spring are fresh, easy and perfect to be paired with your existing wardrobes.

Number 35 is a particularly exciting place to be at the moment. We have big plans for this year and have spent the first two months of the new decade working towards them..a good start! Marketing is a priority for us at this point and we are trying to achieve more of a presence online. We have so many little projects on the go at any given point. The internet is a such a potent force and the Fashion Industry (including us at Number 35) is only just waking up to the power of Social Networking. Did you know that over 25% of the world’s population (and growing) is online? That’s an intimidating thought!

Andrea, of course, has become quite the pro at tweeting. If you aren’t already, do follow us at no35couk, where you can catch up on all our happenings and daily news. We are working on making our website more interactive and very soon, you will be able to leave comments to our blog posts. It will be fascinating to hear from our present and future clients! Our Facebook page needs a bit (okay, a lot) of work and I need to sit down and chain myself to the laptop at some point over the next week!

It is all the more crucial to get everything up to date before our Spring Collection is in store! I’m particularly eager to see our dresses – we have quite a selection this year. We’re shooting the collection in a few days and will be sharing some photos with you soon so you can be inspired and start planning your summer getaway wardrobes.

If any of you have any suggestions, or would like to see Number 35 on any other online portals, please do drop us an email at info@no35.co.uk or even better, pop into our showrooms and have a chat with us!! See you soon..:)

13th Feb 2010 - posted by: Andrea

Can’t believe it’s been a nearly a month since I last blogged and what a month it’s been.

We have put together our capsule collection which is perfect for new clients that need a complete useful wardrobe of clothes in one easy shopping experience. These pieces are being photographed next week and will be available to see on the site shortly. We will be launching these to the press next week and hopefully we should get some great feedback.

Number 35 has applied for a competition, mad aren’t we!! The competition is called “Brands for tomorrow” it is created by Walpole luxury which is an organization run to forward the cause of potential luxury brands in the UK. If we win, we will be mentored by some of the top entrepreneurs in the country. It would be a great opportunity for us to gain more knowledge and help us to move the business forward for the future.

We have also started our online marketing campaign which seems to be having a positive effect on the traffic being driven to our site. Poor Nivindya has been given the job of our “online marketing strategist”. She’s the most technically aware and having just completed her MA in fashion entrepreneurship, it seemed to fall naturally to her shoulders.

I know most of you may laugh at my writing skills, but I have just completed an article for the “Women in Banking and Finance” magazine, as its say on the tin.. it’s a magazine which is targeted at professional working women in the banking and finance industry. I have enclosed a link to a pdf file should you wish to read it! We talk quite candidly about how we as women feel about ourselves and our bodies, and how if we want to change something about ourselves, just give it 21 days, and its as simple as that!!

I had a fantastic meeting last week with a genius communications expert. As we are slowly expanding the business it’s important to us that our clients and potential new clients understand our message. As we have so many selling points, the collection, service, alterations and made to measure, to name but a few, its sometimes hard to express everything is one short communication sentence. He took me back to basics and now has left me with the unenviable task of putting the message down on paper. He had kindly agreed to see me again and will do what he calls a “sense check”. So lets wait and see what I come out with.

PHEW.. its been an amazing month and we have all worked so so hard and even though its been stressful for everyone, I think we will all agree, its been great fun. It great for the girls to see me so motivated and raring to go.. last year was a tough year, but this year we are going to make it count.

We are adding a comments section onto our blog so we would love to get your feedback on our blog and any other comments you have to say about us!!

12th Feb 2010 - posted by: Christine

Hi everyone,
Well, it seems that design and production for S/S 2010 is coming to an end for us after a lot of work! I love the new collection which is being made as we speak and I am so excited to see the finished products in store, it truly is so special to see a garment go through its journey from being designed to being sold! The colour of this season is NAVY, a classic alternative to black and is on trend to be paired with soft pinks and baby blues. I think the piece of the season has to be our new patent leather navy jacket - which has detachable pieces making it 3 jackets for the price of one! Genius! Another of my favourites is the blue delphinium silk split neck dress perfect for a summer party or a dressy event such as Royal Ascot - a real must have!

I cannot wait to see what you think of it - so pop in at the end of February when it all starts to trickle in! Also, stay updated to our website for the new collection, special offers and news updates. Alternatively, if you want to be informed of any changes join our mailing list by joing club35 on this very site.

I am not only excited about our new collection but the idea that summer is just around the corner and its away with the polo necks and in with the linens! Ironically, we will be back to working on the winter 2010 collection and this season we are going to really be pushing the boat as we will be designing for S/S 2011 as well! Wish us good luck!

9th Jan 2010 - posted by: Andrea

I am quite chuffed with myself today as we have just entered into the 21st century of technology, slight exaggeration, but we have just started twitter and facebook. Twitter seems great fun and our address is no35couk, so if you want to follow us just visit our page here http://twitter.com/no35couk. We have 2 followers how great is that! One is The Times and the other is a magazine call “More Magazine” based in NY. Quite amazing how it all works; we have some great companies to follow like Business Elle and Hilary Alexander. Not sure about Facebook and the benefits of that, so at the moment I am claiming the 5th!!

We started the sale on Tuesday so the showrooms are looking rather un-merchandised and messy but I know that’s how most customers like the showrooms to be when the sales are on, so I’m not going to get precious about it!

We have also started working with some new PR’s Emma and Daniella, whose job it is to get us out there to the press! Poor things, working with me isn’t easy! But thank god they like the challenge. We will keep you updated on how they are getting on, and if there is anything to tell you, we will.

Meanwhile we are finishing the final pieces for SS10, it seems to have come together over the last 24hours. Now it’s a mad rush to finalise fabrics and get the patterns perfect and graded. I will blog next week and give you a low down on the styling and colours. In the meantime have a great week and I hope the snows been fun and not a hindrance.

19th December 2009 - posted by: Andrea

As you can see I’m not great at doing this, hence the date today. Great intentions but get waylaid! We have been so busy working on our SS collection and getting our second samples done that everything else seems to get forgotten. I get to this time in the season and go into panic mode that the collection may not be ready in time or the fabrics won’t get here on time. But we always seem to get it into the shops every March.

Changing the subject slightly - I hope you all got your £40 vouchers as a small thank you from us to you for your continued support throughout 2009. It has been quite a tough year, but thanks to you all, it hasn’t been a total write off.

Anyway I just wanted to say have a fantastic Christmas and a very Happy New Year and we look forward to seeing you all in the SALE..

10th September 2009 - posted by: Andrea

I’ve not really had time to write the blog as we have all been so so busy finalizing the new collection and ensuring that’s it up to our standards in fabrics and manufacturing. It’s now starting to come into the shops and thankfully it has been very well received, especially, what I call the “Robin Hood jacket”, which is the fitted jacket with the gathers on the sleeves and at the back. it does look fab and is already selling really well.

But enough about the collection for now! Things have changed quite dramatically over the last couple of weeks. Anthea is now heading around Europe before going back to Oz for Christmas. Nicki has started in the Fulham Road and she is really lovely, she is a little nervous as Anth is a strong act to follow, but I think she will be great.

We are now organizing our photoshoot so we can get the website updated and then I want to spend some time developing “club 35” before I have to jump straight into Spring Summer 10. We would love to feedback on the collection so if you have any time please do send us an email.

28th July 2009 - posted by: Andrea

Well, we’ve just about finished the design and pattern cutting stage of the Autumn Winter collection and I have to say I think this winter collection will be the best yet. The fabrics are incredible as are the colours. I’m sure you have noticed that we have been a lot braver with our colour palette and the A/W colours will be as strong!

We have all worked so hard this summer as usual, and we have had another pair of hands to help out. Jayna has been with us for 3 months doing an internship in London as part of her retail degree. Poor thing she was very much thrown in the deep end, I think she thought that she would have a restful summer chilling like most retail assistants do, but oh no, she been traipsing back and forth to Martins to pick up clothes, analyzing our size ratios so we manufacture the right proportions of stock, window displays blue peter style and merchandising daily, and been driven mad by Anthea. Her last day is today, Sat 25th of July and Anthea and I have decided to lock her in the Fulham Shop so she can’t go home!! We will all miss her so so much, and we have to do yet another goodbye next month when Anthea goes back to Australia. It’s the end of a small era and number and the beginning of another.

26th July 2009 - posted by: Jayna

I am American student called Jayna, from Austin, Texas, and I have been in London for 3 month doing an internship as part of my retail degree, yes there are degrees in retail.

I was lucky enough that Andrea accepted me to do my internship at number 35 with her, Anthea Christine and Niv. I wanted to learn about how small retail designers work and learn about all aspects of retail and customer service. I was really surprised when I saw the commitment that everyone has to number 35 and to their customers. I have learnt so much and at least now I can go home knowing what I want to do and go some way to know how to do it. Number 35 has made my time here in London a truly wonderful experience.

20th July 2009 - posted by: Andrea
Not sure this is a good idea, this blog thing- but we will have a go!
For those clients who know us really well, I’m sure you will find this very entertaining, for those that don’t forgive us in advance. It’s been a rather amusing 6 months to say the least. Only number 35 could open our second showroom 2 days after the fall of the world finance industry. I have never been one to shy away from a challenge and that it’s certainly been.

Not only did we open a new showroom we also decided to completely redesign our website as well as commencing the Autumn Winter collection. I’m sure I think I have 12 staff but in fact I only have 3. This blog is about us, the clothes, you and anything else anybody may want to add, but be warned if you want your trousers to fit you better be nice, otherwise you may find that you have one leg shorter than the other… Apart from that be my guest…

12th July 2009 - posted by: Andrea
Hi, welcome to the new blog part of the site. Here we'll keep you up to date with all the goings on in Number 35, watch this space!