Mate Date

Ree Ree and her booze ;) (well ok one was mine)

Last night I was invited along by a good friend to Westfield shopping centre in London, for 'Make a Date at Westfield London'.  The concept is that Westfield shopping centre isn't just a place to go shopping for high street and designer goods, it can be a great place to meet with friends, have a bite to eat, cocktails and maybe visit the cinema.  I was offered a free dinner so thought why the heck not!  Food is definitely the way to my heart and I'm a sucker for a freebee.

I'm not usually a Westfield's kinda girl.  (For my foreign readers, Westfield is a huuuuuuuge American style shopping centre in London).  Being a small business owner my choice of purchasing is dictated by where I am the most; The internet and the supermarket.  I have heard only good things from my friends about Westfield's though as it is a convenient place where all the shops in the world are under one roof.  So if I were 'high street clothing' inclined (Holister, H&M, Debenhams ect), then it would probably be my first port of call.  Because I don't usually shop on the high street for my clothing, preferring vintage clothing and vintage repro, I wouldn't have necessarily thought about going to Westfield for a day out.  So it was nice to be pleasantly surprised by the centre.

There are loooaaads of restaurants dotted about, some in the centre but mostly in a separate outside section.  This definitely makes it more attractive to me as you don't have to go into the shopping centre to be able to enjoy an evening out.  The variety of restaurants was excellent ranging from the normal chain restaurants like Nandos and Pizza Express, to more up market chains such as Jamie Oliver's restaurant and Carluccio's.  My friend Ree Ree and I were invited to go to 'The Real Greek'.

We were treated to a glass of prosecco and a slap up meal each.  The meal was part of their summer menu which was two courses for £10 - not bad for a London restaurant.  Ree Ree and I decided to treat ourselves and get a pudding too, and to our delight they also included the puddings on them!  Here is what I had (as you can see I couldn't wait to dig into the pudding!  Such a bad blogger at taking pictures!)

I love hummus and all that sort of 'finger food' so the selection was right up my street........in fact any kind of food would have been my thing!  (I am basically an obese person trapped in a skinny persons body, and contrary to popular belief I do like to eat and lots!). 

After our complimentary meal, Ree and I wandered around the shopping centre just for a nosey.  It was like being in America!  Personally I don't think I would necessarily make a day of it and go shopping there as there are no independent boutiques, which I pretend to prefer.  But if high street shopping is your bag then I can see why it is so successful.  There is a special section of the centre that is specifically designer stores, such as Jimmy Choo, Gucci those sorts of places so if designer brands are more your thing then they cater for that too.  Overall, if I was based in London, it would be a great place to meet friends for a meal and a catch up.  The choice is great with a budget for everyone with the added bonus of being able to pick up an outfit if I so wished.  I oddly felt like spending money when I was in the centre (even though I have no money!) so they are definitely doing the whole shopping experience very well!  Thank you Westfield's for treating Ree Ree and in default treating me!

Do you think that Westfield would be your sort of place?..............just don't go on a Saturday, I have a feeling it will be extremely busy!

Lots of Love
Betty xxx

B Millinery

Back in March I agreed to do a spot of modelling for my good friend Ellen, at B Millinery.  Well I can now show you some of the pictures of her fabulous creations.

Photography by Fashion Loves Photos

This is the Lauren Hat, perfect for the summer, and it has a matching bag made from the same material.  It is available at B Millinery's Etsy Shop and is £70.  I couldn't see the matching bag in her shop but I am sure that if you contact Ellen she will be able to quote you for it.

Then the next lot of photos aren't up on her shop yet, but I thought I would show them to you anyway.

Photography by Fashion Loves Photos

Photography by Fashion Loves Photos

This grey one is so cute, and matches perfectly with my pink dress!

Photography by Fashion Loves Photos

Again another hat that matches perfectly with my dress, the above straw hat with pink details.  I think it's a sign ;).  A lovely summery hat, perfect for the races.

Photography by Fashion Loves Photos

A behind the scenes shot of me preening to make sure the hat is perfect for the photos.

Photography by Fashion Loves Photos.

Group shot of moi and the other lovely models, Ellen on the left (Hat Creator Extraordinaire) and Lady May Den Voyage.

I do suggest looking at B Millinery for all your hatty needs.  As I have mentioned on this blog before, Ellen hand blocks each hat (ie they are not pre formed shapes).  Each hat is carefully crafted from a flat piece of material, shaped and finished painstakingly.  I do believe that Ellen creates bespoke hats should you want to re create the perfect vintage hat from a film or photograph.  So why not get in touch to order something special for Ascot and beyond.

Lots of Love 

Betty

P.S. I think there are some more pictures to come of different hats, so I will post those when I get them :)

Show Off!!!

This is purely a post to show off, so I apologise in advance.  Last Wednesday evening I had the pleasure of being invited to a reception to celebrate small businesses.....................AT NUMBER 10 DOWNING STREET!!!!!!  Who would have thought that little old me would be invited inside number 10!  Some prominent business people don't get that honour!

It was of course as a result of taking part in the Conservative Party run competition The Start Up Hub last October (which I won whooop).  All the finalists were invited and it was lovely to catch up with everybody to see how they had progressed in the last few months.  (One guy had just been bought a brand new Audi as a present from his investors, well jel!!!)

We had to leave our phones in the reception room, so there are no photos of the evening.  Needless to say it was very opulent through that front door.  High ceilings, ornate picture frames and paintings of past great leaders.  We were ushered through the building around and downstairs, and out into the garden.  On the way I passed a huge globe that reminded me of those globes that have drinks inside - I'm not sure this one had drinks in, but I like to think it would as it was so big it could certainly hold a good selection of cocktail spirits!  Anyway the garden courtyard out the back was a lot smaller than I had anticipated, the telly makes it look a lot bigger.  But it had a nice private feel to it with the high walls, hard to believe we were in central London.

As we arrived the guests were offered red or white wine or a soft drink.  Dave!!!  Where's the champers!!!!  I suppose it was appropriate as people may complain if the spread layed on was too ostentatious in these times of austerity.  But having waiting staff certainly made me feel special.  I was glad to see someone I knew when I walked onto the grass as there were lots of very important people milling around.  I was slightly alarmed to be talking to a big wig from Loyd's bank in the queue outside, especially when his friend from RBS turned up.  Fish out of water slightly sprang to mind.  So seeing some of the other Start Up Hub people was nice and reassuring.

I got talking to a few people I knew and also talked to James Caan of Dragon's Den, ooooo eeeerrr.  I also spotted Karren Brady, (I thrust one of my product postcards into her hand) but she was too busy to talk.  There were speeches from the Business Secretary, Vince Cable, and of course a motivational speech from the PM himself.  I like to think he was talking about my business when he said that Britain's economic future will be fuelled by us SME's.............but seeing as Loyd's and RBS was there I somehow think my little company will have any great impact haha.  Well one day maybe I will be able to employ someone!  I also spotted George Osborne milling around in the crowd.

Unfortunately I didn't get to meet David Cameron, darn!  I was so sure I could convince him to buy something for Sam Cam!  But none the less I had a lovely few hours and made lots of new acquaintances.  And I had a brilliant chat with the MP who invented The Start Up Hub competition, Damian Collins.  What a lovely chap!  And he works closely with UKFT so knew a little about the fashion/lingerie industry.  I shall leave you all with the one photo that I did manage to take.

My parents are so proud they are considering using this as our Christmas card this year, just to show off of course!  And so that concludes one of the most exciting and surreal days of my life.  I hope you enjoyed hearing about it!

Lots of Love
Betty xxx

Behind The Scenes

A couple of weeks ago I had my A/W 13/14 photo shoot with Tigz Rice Studios.  Miss Honey Bare was the make up artist and luckily she had her camera on her to take a few behind the scenes pictures.  I say luckily, as I was all stressed from having to get all the garments ready for the shoot in time, so completely forgot to take any snaps!

The shoot was a boudoir themed, on location shoot.  The location being the Murder Mile Studios in Clapton.  It is a beautifully decorated studio with many interesting and quirky rooms.  Here are some of the scenes that we didn't use.

Teehee you can see Fleur in her rollers in the mirror!

The studios are a maze of rooms so there were many more that we didn't get to capture but were just as decadently decked out.

We, however, used just one setting.  Here is the Tigzmeister setting up her equipment.

Tigzy doing a spot of posing

Checking the lighting is correctly positioned

As you can see the boudoir set was perfect for showing the lounging nature of my products!  If only all our houses looked like this for when we wear our Betty Blue's Loungerie!  Once the models had arrived, myself and Fleur de Guerre, the first port of call was the hair and make-up chair.

Miss Honey Bare's kit

Working her magic on Fleur's hair and make-up

And working her magic on me :)

Everyone was amazed with how many pairs of shoes I brought to the shoot........what can I say, I like to prepare for every eventuality!

Considering how many shoes I brought, most of the pictures us models aren't wearing shoes haha, oh well!

I don't want to give too many details away so that's all for the behind the scenes pics, but on the day Fleur did post a cheeky sneak at the new colour way for the Bettie Robe.  Here it is for those of you who missed it/not on twitter/facebook.

Doesn't she look stunning!!  But you will have to wait until later to see the proper pics and the rest of the A/W 13/14 range ;).  For now I am having all the images made into look books so that I can send them out to potential stockists.  World domination is on my mind at the moment so I apologise if there is a lack of posts recently. 

Until next time.  Lots of Love
Betty xxx

P.S.  Much thanks to Miss Honey Bare for taking all the fab behind the scenes photos and letting me use them!!  You saved my bacon!