19 January 2012 - posted by: Andrea

Who knew we’d have the same problem as Anya Hindmarch..?

When I first started my business in late 2005, within 6 weeks of opening I had my first burglary, Christmas Eve no less. 2 weeks later we had yet another one. Hasten to add the police never actually found our clothes or the thieves. My first collection.. as you can imagine I was mortified!

Roll on 5 years.. and we had a really lovely lady who came into our Highgate showroom this morning. She tried on 4 pieces of clothing, and chatting as we do, we asked her if she had been in before. “No” she said, she had seen our clothes in a pop up shop on Brick Lane and had bought in her words “a lovely split neck top with 3/4 sleeves”. She went on to say she had lived in it and worn it and always got really fabulous compliments.. it had taken her 4 years to find us.. she said she couldn’t read the logo and thought it said something like ES.. Note to branders…

Anyway dectective Andrea and Niv put 2 and 2 together and on my travels today, I decided to venture down Brick Lane and see what I could find. Obviously once I got there I decided that I was wasting my time as it was 5 years ago and my clothes would be long gone. I decided to give up on my detective work and get back to the showroom.

On my return Niv put it all into perspective. She said I guess you know you’ve made it when your clothes are nicked and the customer is coming to find the original brand as they loved it so much. We may have had our clothes nicked 5 years ago but have at least gained a new client in the process!

06 June 2011 - posted by: Niv

Hi all!

I've been away from the blog for too long I think.. I'm sure the number35 community must be missing my words of wisdom!

I was away on holiday for about 3 weeks and came back smack in the middle of wedding season. Seems like everyone I know is either going to a wedding, organising one or getting married themselves. Must be a stressful time! I should know, I've just come back from attending a very close friend's wedding where I was a bridesmaid. And yes, before you ask, my dress wasn't the most flattering and was made of this highly flammable sort of turquoise poly-silk material which meant I was dangerously close to going up in flames for most part of the day..but, strangely enough I didn't care (Not about going up in flames but about looking borderline hideous).

The wedding was absolutely beautiful and I was incredibly happy to be surrounded by so much love that I felt content and at peace. Everything was all right with my world. Surprisingly, considering I looked like a turquoise cupcake, I got a lot of compliments that day with people telling me how I seemed to be glowing.

It really got me thinking that no amount of expertly applied make-up, stunning shoes or impeccably tailored clothing(even if they are number 35) can substitute for that one magical ingredient that makes us all look like a million pounds - happiness.

It's a mantra we at number 35 try to communicate to our clients as well. Inner peace, contentment and happiness are the vital ingredients to looking fabulous always. It is also one of the messages that Andrea and Lisa will be communicating through our first ever Body Forum by number 35 session in July.

We're quite excited about it and will let you know how we got on.
Wish us luck!

03 June 2011 - posted by: Andrea

I’ve kept this fabric safe for 3 years and never really wanted to use it. Its funny how attached you get to fabrics and clothes. Do you remember when you were younger when your mum always used to make you keep your clothes for best, or was just me as I was a messy bugger. I always had to keep things looking nice and new for when they were needed.. well I did this with this fabric. I kept it for a special production run!

Its made from a silk weave which has been waved on the surface and netted on the reverse to keep it in place. Its the most perfect top for any occasion, whether it be for jeans or for a great pair of trousers. Its one of those tops that can be dressed up or down and travels exceptionally well.

I hope you like it as much as I do.. I love the fact that in my job I create the most fantastic clothes, and our clients enjoy them, what more could anyone want.

18 April 2011 - posted by: Niv

Hello everyone!

After my last cribby post about the dreary weather - the sunshine is back and here to stay (according to the BBC - but I'm not sure how much faith I should put in that)! Anyway, it's easter weekend soon and the royal wedding weekend after. So it looks like the next few weeks are set to be quite relaxed with everyone away on their holidays.

Speaking of the royal wedding, we at number 35 have been discussing how exciting it would be if Catherine Middleton (apparently we're not supposed to call her Kate now, again according to the BBC) were to wear number 35. She would look quite amazing in our black/white shift dress that has just come in to the showrooms or even in our quirky violet coat dress. If anybody needs simple elegant clothing that makes a statement, it's her! Hmmm..who knows..she may walk into our Fulham Road showroom soon. Speaking of which, will we be supposed to curtsy to her? Oh dear..

Anyway, I can't believe I just spent that much time talking about the royal wedding when I actually wanted to talk about our High Summer collection. Our spring/summer collection has proved so popular that we have run out of sizes and completely sold out of some styles. Not that we're complaining, this is great! But it is only mid-April and now we have to think about what to introduce in the showrooms over the next few months. So we thought we'd do a capsule high summer collection, full of easy pieces to wear that you can take away on holiday, or just throw on as part of your summer wardrobe.

So we hope to have that in the showrooms by mid May, fingers crossed! Andrea's also found some lovely orange leather for our debut accessories range. I personally am looking forward to bright fuschia leather accessories with our signature orange lining. Very exciting!
Happy Easter everyone :)

02 April 2011 - posted by: Andrea

What a great week. I have just returned from Dublin on a trade mission which was sponsored by UK trade and industry. It was quite a couple of days. Private viewings of Harvey Nichols department store (great little shop). Exhibitions at the British Embassy and a chance to meet some of the top buyers and journalists. Some great other small designers there and some bigger brands! One which was a lot of fun was a menswear brand called Elvis Jesus, what a cool name, check them out at Harvey Nichols in London- if you want to impress your kids that will be the way to do it!
Back down to earth with a bang, phase 3 of the collection needs to be started and we do need to look at getting some pieces done for a high summer range. So if anyone has any needs let us know.
We are starting on a rebranding exercise and I in half mind as to whether the logo typeface should change, one minute I think yes the next I think No. Would love to know your opinion.
Check out the promotions page in the next week or two as we are going to be doing some mid season promotions! We always love to get feedback so any comments just email us!
See you soon.
Ax

30 March 2011 - posted by: niv

Rainy rainy London! I really hoped that last week's beautiful sunshine would last through the summer..alas..I was just too hopeful!
Anyway, this reminded me of something that Andrea kept on bugging me about last summer. She wanted to do some summer rain macs - she fashioned a rain mac one fateful day out of some dodgy plastic and insisted it was the BEST thing ever! I wasn't so sure then but the idea seems to have grown on me now. Esepcially considering that we have been thinking about doing a lovely little range of number35 accessories - little orange leather coin purses, book covers, credit card holders to begin with and who knows, perhaps we can expand into shoes and bags at some stage! Wow, I'll be permanently nicking stuff then..!
Anyway, let's keep our feet on the ground for the moment. I do think number 35 is ready for an accessories range! In our signature orange colour.. perhaps patent orange leather? Ummm.. I can see it so clearly in my head!!
However, we would love to know your thoughts on this. If you have any ideas, or any thoughts on what our accessories range should involve.. do email us and let us know. Send us pictures, links and ideas!
We look forward to hearing from you.
Happy brainstorming!

18 March 2011 - posted by: Andrea

What a great month. As Niv said we have been working flat out to get our collection ready for the showrooms and also to get me ready for my many speaking engagements. Last week I sat on a panel for a new women's networking organisation called Women in Technology. It was interesting to see so many great young women on the start of their careers.
One of questions that we were asked was: What advise would you give to your younger self? I have to say I was quite shocked at my reply, I said, enjoy every minute of the journey as the destination isn't always the answer, if you don't live the journey you actually don't learn anything enroute. i gave the example of when I set up number 35 and I had given myself 10months and 15days to learn how to design a collection, find pattern cutters, manufacturers, fabrics, branding agencies, a new showroom and... write a business plan. I opened number 35 Highgate on October 19th and I deemed myself a failure as I was 4 days late. I have no recollection of what or how I did what I did. From here on in, for us, its about enjoying our journey together at number 35.
That was a bit heavy but for me a great lesson. Hope you see you all soon, in one of our showrooms.
Andrea xx

24 February 2011 - posted by: Niv

Andrea's got quite an exciting month lined up in March! An alternate career in public speaking is beckoning!
First up, she's sitting on a panel at a two-day women's business conference in RBS where she will be discussing successful women in business. After that, she's off to Ireland on a UKTI (UK Trade and Investment) trade mission where they're taking a group of fashion/footwear/accessory designers on a 2 day market visit to Dublin. There are a few other speaking events that haven't been confirmed as yet but will most likely go ahead.
Anybody who knows Andrea, knows she's definitely got the gift of the gab and it seems like she's finally putting it to good use! She is a bit nervous about speaking in front of so many influential women but knowing her, once she gets into the flow of things, it'll be hard to get her to stop! More importantly, we need to get her wardrobe sorted for all these public appearances she's doing. Nic and I have been trying to get her out of her comfort zone of trousers into skirts and dresses. It is an uphill task!
We'll put up more details of the events as soon as we have more information. Watch this space!
x
PS - Almost forgot, the new spring/summer collection is in store today! I am IN LOVE with our new coat dress which is in such a great shade of blue! Actually, it's in a controversial shade of blue - because Andrea insists it is a purple whereas I'm adamant that it is blue. Eitherway, it is THE perfect shade for summer! Why don't you pop in and help us decide?
We look forward to seeing you soon!

04 February 2011 - posted by: niv

Hi Everyone

Well, Andrea’s away skiing and so now the rest of us here at Number 35 can have a bit of a breather. Put our feet up and while away our time, maybe even *shock horror* sit down for lunch and perhaps manage to get some nutrition! Well, no such luck, because we have just started production for our Spring Summer collection and I’m knee deep in ensuring the right pattern reaches the right manufacturer who uses the right fabric with the right lining to make the perfect dress! It’s like putting a very complicated jigsaw together. But we love it (or so we have been brainwashed to think), which is why we do it season after season.

We have had such misadventures with the fabrics this time – from not being able to find the right colours to finding the print we want is out of stock to not being able to order because we’ve missed the deadline - but as always, we have somehow managed to end up with beautiful fabrics and a great collection. Yes, you do need nerves of steel to work in this business. Everything comes together only at the last minute!
I have to say, I think this collection is quite adventurous for Number 35 – we have many new silhouettes and shapes and more excitingly, we have not one but TWO prints! Spring at Number 35 this season is bright, structured but very flirty. The shirts have puff sleeves, skirts have hem ruffles and dresses have fun appliqués. A bit of fun is what we definitely need after the gloom of winter!

The collection launches in March. But if you can't wait till then, do pop in and have a browse in the SALE. We still have some great bargains including the beautiful black leather jackets and the gorgeous structured Mugler Jackets.

Right, I better sign off and slog away at sourcing the perfect zip. See you all soon!
x

19 January 2011 - posted by: Andrea

Happy New Year to everyone! We don't seem to have been very communicative recently, so we are now going to make up for it.

I wanted to write an update on what's been going on behind the scenes at number 35, and its been pretty eventful. We are finally at the end of designing the SS11 collection and I have to say, I have actually scared myself with sailing very close to the wind.. its taken me till January to decide what fabrics to use this year. For me, Summer is much harder to work with, as the fabrics aren't as luxurious as the Winter ones are. However I do believe I have surpassed myself, by finding a fantastic new "cool wool" designed by one of the top Italian mills that make amazing menswear fabrics. We always get complimented on our fabrics so the bar has been set really high and I'm sure you're all going to love them!

At the end of 2010 I sat down for 6 weeks and did a full Vision and Strategy for number 35, where we are and where we want to be in 3 years time, and some extremely interesting ideas have come out of it!

As some clients already know we are organising The Body Forum which is designed to understand what our body image is and why as women, we give ourselves such a tough time just not being "good enough". We will be working with a fantastic Clinical Psychologist to discuss the issues and look at balancing and creating positive anchors to change our learnt negative behaviour. We will be doing the initial Forum with our regular clients and then spread it out over the course of a year. We will keep you informed as we go!

We are also looking at creating an online virtual wardrobe, which will help our clients build their "Intelligent Wardrobe" and our clients will be able to build in the garments that are missing! Made to measure items will also be available to order through the wardrobe.

There is so so much more but I will leave that for another day. We always love your feedback so please send us your input with what pieces you would like to see in our collection and any other information we may find of interest!

We aim to get the SS11 collection into the showrooms around early March, of course we will send out an email letting you all know.

have a great January and February and we will see you very soon.

Andrea x

03 December 2010 - posted by: Andrea

Sooo its December its snowing its cold and to be quite frank a little bit miserable, and therefore we needed something to get our teeth into. Niv decided to read the Daily Telegraph and low and behold we found... "The small shops competition" The prize is a 3 day workshop with Mary Portas aka Mary Queen of shops!! What fun would that be.
I decided to nominate number 35 and i set about making us sound brilliant, although i did get a bit stuck when we had to write one of weaknesses, number 35 with a weakness, thats un heard of!! Anyway i persevered and eventually found one! Believe it or not, it was not getting enough PR... So the form has now gone off, i emailed all our of clients and thankfully so many of you voted for us, hopefully we may get ourselves noticed and out there!! So if anyone hasn't voted and wants to vote please follow the enclosed link and vote for us!! We will keep you informed as to how we get on...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/7992321/Telegraph-Magazine-The-Best-Small-Shops-in-Britain-2010.html

27 November 2010 - posted by: Andrea

On Thursday Nivindya and I attended a talk hosted by an organisation called Fashion Business Club, I suppose its name speaks for itself. The talk was with Yasmin Sewell who was instrumental in re-shaping Libertys into the innovative store it is today.
It was interesting for Niv to hear her take on retail fashion and what makes a success story and what doesn't. She mentioned that they were loads of great designers that come onto the high street but without true substance they will never make it.
She felt that the most important elements in any business is to primarily know your customer and as important, is offer them service, flexibility and an experience together with a great product you should have a success story.
I did have a wry smile on my face, as these are the most important elements of my business, and if we ever stop doing this, you all have the right to send this back to me!
We always love feedback so if anyone has any input they feel will be of interest to us please please email us at info@no35.co.uk

20 November 2010 - posted by: Andrea

We are now in the middle of finalising our Spring Summer collection. All the designs have been agreed, the only thing that has to be done now is to choose the colours and the fabrics.
The colour trends for SS are the base colour of Navy with a deep Fushia, Aqua and hints of Orange and Yellow. There is also a range of muted Pinks, Salmons and muted Aquas. It always so interesting researching the colours for the season as firstly some of fashion colours are so bad for the English rose skin that we cannot possibly go near them. We are always aware that just because the trend forecasters say a colour is going to be big, it cannot be at the detriment of how it looks on our pale pasty skins.
When everyone and his dog was screaming Nude for Winter (the colour that is) we decided to stay well away and look for colours that our clients would want to wear and feel happy choosing everyday!!
So be well assured that we will always find the perfect colours to fit in with our clients and our collections. We try to ask our clients what they like and what they would like to see in our collection. So if we haven't asked you directly please send us a email and let us know your thoughts. We are even going for a white metalic leather jacket for SS, that was agreed with a client as she loved her AW10 blk one sooo much!

17 November 2010 - posted by: Niv

Christmas is finally upon us, come see our newest member of staff: He's called Rudolph, he has an orange bow tie and he's even cuter than Andrea.

Come and see for yourself!

26th October 2010 - posted by: Lucy

It’s been a while since we’ve updated our number 35 blog! I would like to introduce myself, my name is Lucy and I work part time for number 35 On my free days I am following my passion of becoming a stylist.

Last week I was lucky enough to assist on Cheryl Cole’s X factor performance. It was a real buzz to see how they put the show together. The staging went well and she performed brilliantly.

Meanwhile at number 35 the new collection has been in since September and so far it’s been a raging success with something for everyone. We are also currently arranging dates for our marvelous winter makeover, which includes a body consultation, styling tips, a pampering session with Jo our make-up artist and of course the odd drink or two, it’s the perfect way to recharge you batteries in time for Christmas!!

Now onto something the English do really well which is to talk about the weather! And here we go.. Its cold, its sunny, its raining, its frosty, and I can’t keep up!! Every day I seem to make the wrong choice in jackets and quite frankly I’m not ready to put on my gloves, hat and Mac just yet. With November looming ever closer, I suppose I’m going to have to give in. This year number 35 have 4 super chic jackets to choose from which all, I’ve discovered, you can dress up or down and best of all they don’t leave you freezing in the cold! We’ve had some great feedback from our jackets this year with especially men calling our leather piece the coolest thing they’ve seen in ages. It’s nice to know that people share our passion for quality and simple elegant shapes; after all you can wear them again and again!

Another favorite of mine from this season’s collection are our royal blue woollen dresses, they really are the perfect Christmas party dress. They are a fantastic colour and a beautiful shape, perfect for the festive season and for those who are bored of Santa clause red and malting tinsel!

In the next week or so, we will send some information out on our marvelous winter makeover. We hope to see you all there and keep sending us your comments, on how you are finding your intelligent wardrobes we love hearing from you!

14th August 2010 - posted by: Andrea

It’s all change at number 35

After nearly 3 years at number 35 Christine has moved onto pastures new. Her new role will be as a Junior Production Assistant with a fashion company based in Camden Town, that deal primarily with fast moving production for companies like Tesco. So she will get to see a diametrically opposite side of the fashion business which will be great for her. We all wish her well and hope that she enjoys her time there as we know she did here!

Nivindya has stepped up to the mark and has taken on some of Christine’s role as well as her own, but she is so bright that I know it will be a great opportunity for her to fast track her knowledge. We have recruited a fantastic new member of the team called Lucy Fullager. Lucy has worked for companies like Diane von Furstenberg and Anna Scholz so she comes with some great references. Lucy’s role will be to focus on the marketing side of the business, developing new ways to drive traffic into the showrooms and also to work with our current clients ensuring that we maintain our very high level of customer service.

2010 has been a great leap forward here at number 35 and we believe that this year will bring us some great advancement. We have been working on The Body Forum which is a new way of integrating the inner self with the outer more confident you. We will be working with one of the leading image consultancy and we will be delivering The Forum at some leading banks and women’s organizations, so if anyone is interested in the Forum please let us know.

We have also started talking to some department stores about expanding number 35 to be a part of the department store environment, as long as the brand integrity and service levels can be maintained we would be very excited to expand in this direction. We have had some really positive feedback which was a great relief!

And finally for now.. I hope you have enjoyed your summer of mixed sunshine and showers and we look forward to seeing you all in September when we launch AW10. There are still some great bits and pieces in the sale so if you fancy a browse; we always love to see you. I also just want to add that we must be the only business that really loves working with our customers, you are all are fun, innovative and seriously great women. Thank you – its makes our life so much easier!!!

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!