Clara Francis

Jewellery designer Clara Francis creates beautiful, intricate and delicate necklaces, bracelets and earrings from thousands of tiny glass beads. These opulent and luxurious yet subtle creations take distinct inspiration from the British countryside – of 1930s’ studies of flora and fauna, of old watercolours and line drawing studies. There is a certain eclectic vintage charm in each Clara Francis piece – a bit Dr. Parnassus, a bit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, vague gothic and faintly magical. Think foxgloves, sleeping beauties, hummingbirds, hot air balloons, dark woodlands, ornate gilded frames and wax seals.

After working as an actress for a number of years, Francis picked up jewellery making – initially just designing for friends and family, and then moving on to having her own stall at Spitalfields fashion market. She is entirely self-taught, and initially all her jewellery was crafted by Francis herself. She now heads up a team of five highly skilled assistants, developing all the designs herself. 

From such humble beginnings on a market stall, Clara Francis’ jewellery has now skyrocketed to dizzying heights. Harvey Nichols snapped up her first official collection, and her pieces have also been exhibited at London Fashion Week. Even more excitingly, Francis was recently invited by the Victoria and Albert Museum to design a piece for their exhibition “Cherry on the Cake”, along with many other prestigious designers including the talented and eccentric Grayson Perry. This had led to sterling coverage in the likes of Vogue, Marie Clare, Grazia, Cosmopolitan and Elle, as well as a celebrity fan base including the very hip Alexa Chung.

Clare Francis pieces range from £60 - £250. Each item is handmade in London, and takes anywhere between 3 and 22 hours to make, so you really are investing in a skilled crafts-person’s time. Each item is a piece art and fashion that will never date or age, making for an ideal present for a birthday or anniversary, or as a personal reward for a promotion perhaps.

http://www.clarafrancis.co.uk/openingpage.html

Les Senteurs

If, like me, you get a bit bored of fashion house perfumes (a thoroughly mixed bag) and celebrity scent (which usually smell like sweets), Les Senteurs is a great place to head. This artisan perfumery offers a fantastic selection of classic, timeless fragrances that smell deep, complex, luxurious and sophisticated. Located in the heart of Victoria, just off Sloane Square, Les Senteurs is an upmarket perfumery. A family run business set up by husband and wife team Betty and Michael Hawksley in 1984, this store offer a huge range of perfumes with an equally diverse price range (starting at a very reasonable £25, they sour to an eye-watering £180+).

 Specialising in imported, high quality, and typically French perfumes, often from impendent perfume houses, Les Senteurs offer forgotten classics from brands such as Creed and Caron, alongside modern, niche fragrances. They stock a full range of each scent families – oriental, green, citrus, leather, floral, fruity, chypre, woody and aquatic – with handy colour coding for each perfume, so you can get a vague approximation on the type of scent it will be.

 Les Senteurs have a good online store, which offers a sample service where they will send you vial of each scent that you are interested in. Vial’s cost £5, no matter what priced scent you wish to try, and you get a good quantity of perfume, enough of a month of constant usage, so you can really asses the scent. Excellent for when trying something new, or when buying perfume as a gift. The in-store service is by far the best option though if you can get to London easily. Les Senteurs offer an excellent personal service, with knowledgeable and patient staff, and an ideal environment to experiment and discover in.

http://lessenteurs.web-epos.com/

Beyond the Valley

 Beyond the Valley is an incredibly artistic, high-end boutique and gallery space just off Carnaby Street in the heart of Soho. Heralded as “the space for new designers”, this concept store pushes the boundaries and conventions of art and clothing. In store and online the company offers clothing, jewellery, furniture, fine art and graphic design for sale, but there is also an in store galley space for new and emerging artists.

Beyond the Valley has become renowned for sourcing fresh, new artistic talent and innovative diverse pieces. The boutique was set up by Jo Jackson, Kate Harwood, Kristjana S. Williams, three ex Central St. Martin’s students who set up the store in 2005 after becoming disillusioned and unable to secure permanent, professional design work. The studio/boutique developed as a showcase for emerging artists and designers, and since its inception, the girls, through Beyond the Valley have curated a number of exhibitions, set up guerrilla stores, and at one point created an exclusive collection for Topshop. The brand has since become a favourite of the likes of Roisin Murphy and Lily Cole.

As well as stocking high-end fashion brands such as Anglomania for Vivienne Westwood, Melissa and Fabrica, Beyond the Valley also have an eponymous label. Their own label this season falls into a pre-Raphaelite/neo-classical style, with plenty of rich, deep colours, deep patterns, golds, blacks and embellishments. In general though, Beyond the Valley has a specific aesthetic, filled with whimsical, artistic photo-prints, plenty of chiffon and silk, with a generally grandiose, innovative and unique approach.

Beyond the Valley offer luxurious pieces, which for the most part are not cheap, although you can get some fantastic bargains in the sale. Their pieces are ideal for special occasions, key pieces and treats. I personally bought a dressing gown from them recently in the summer sale for £100, reduced from £250. A large expense, perhaps, but the dressing gown is 100% silk – proper silk too, not synthetic, and it is something I will wear most days for 10 years plus. Most importantly though, it has a beautiful 3D photo print of a forest, and even comes equipped with 3D glasses. If art and aesthetics are important to you, Beyond the Valley offers a wonderful box of treats.

http://www.beyondthevalleystore.com/

Laduree

Whilst Laduree are not strictly a UK based company, they are independent, and have a number of outlets across London for us British to access. The company have three patisseries/tea salons in the capital, one based in the Burlington Arcade just off Piccadilly, one in Harrods, and of course their newly opened premises in Covent Garden. Laduree are starting to take pockets of the UK by storm, and it’s easy to understand why, with their intricate, luxurious and very, very French style of desserts and patisseries.

Laduree was established in 1862 in a prestigious area of Paris, and quickly attracted the custom of Parisian high-society. Initially purely a patisserie, Laduree evolved into a tea salon, which offered a sit-down, restaurant-type feel to afternoon tea and cakes. Laduree salons now feature in each of their outlets, which are luxuriously adorned with plush velvets, opulent silks, golden brocades and gilding, all in a classically Parisian palette of rich navys, pale pinks, absinth greens and deep blacks. This aesthetic theme has continued on from the literal walls of each Laduree location to the packaging of their cakes, available in gorgeous boxes and cases you’ll be desperate to find a use for long after you have scoffed all your cakes away.

Laduree take traditional French cake and pastry recipes and elaborates on them greatly, to create diverse, extravagant, exciting and experimental new culinary inventions. Typical concoctions include pain au chocolat with chocolate and pistachio cream, a chocolate mini-gateaux with morello cherry jam and gold leaf whisps, rose raspberry, violet and caramel-mango profiteroles, and Laduree Saint-Honores – towers of puff pastry with fruit, cream, chocolate, nuts and a flavoured sugar-glaze.

Laduree are best known however for their sandwich macaroons, which were actually invented by the company back in the 1800s. The simple base macaroon recipe of ground almonds, eggs and sugar with a ganache filling is livened-up by their huge diversity of flavours. As a simple taster, they currently have flavours of cherry kirsch and chocolate, mint and strawberry, lily of the valley, orange blossom, rose and orange and granny smith apple, amongst numerous others on their shelves. What was a simple treat is instantly made into a rich indulgence.

Laduree’s X-factor is found in the combination of excellent, quality baking, a huge variety of innovative flavour combinations, the literal beauty of the cakes and the sumptuous surrounding you can eat them in. A Laduree take away is the perfect treat for yourself, or a special person/special occasion. A box of macaroons starts from £11, and you can buy individual patisseries from £3.95. A trip to the tea salon is a guaranteed winner for a special date, especially for a lady you want to spoil, or really make a real impression on. 

http://www.laduree.fr/