Category: Thing of Beauty
Every little bit counts..
The tags for our clothes have arrived!
Laters, Kate x
Nearly there..
The clock is ticking down…Tuesday 11 June is our big day, well, night really and we’ve not been idle..the rest of the Collection all ready for our Preview…
The Bardot. Light, loose, sassy dressing.
The Grace, tweaked into a beauty with additional beige piping.
The Bergman Print. A classic take on neon with effortless class.
The Bergman in beige broiderie anglais. Easy.
With added drama: The Bergman in black broiderie anglais.
The Valentina joins the photo family. (NB She is actually part of our winter collection..available from September onwards)
The Audrey skirt makes an entrance with it’s fabulous pleated waistband and side split.
The Grace Top. An elegant every day metamorphosis.
The Grace top and the Audrey skirt. Simple styling.
A taste of the exotic: The Vreeland in silk. A sneak peak of a transitional winter item.
The Vreeland with additional Dandy Frill. A thrill to wear.
Our infamous collar, now to be named The Deneuve, sitting perfectly on the Vreeland.
Elegant sophistication.
The Fitzgerald. Hits the sweet spot.
The Estella jumpsuit. Cool and classy. Part of Winter and available from September.
Tarted to perfection with the Deneuve.
Laters, Kate x
Flights of Fancy
You know that feeling…something catches your eye..and you feel it in your tummy…but you’re not entirely sure whether to succumb with undisputed pleasure..or to slaughter the magpie in your head with a double-barrelled sling-shot..
Take these beauties..Jeremy Scotts Wings Adidas trainers..Are they total tack? Or is it that sometimes style gets stuck on a carousel of taste and every now and then it’s nice to break free..
Cara Delevingue (picture from http://www.leblow.co.uk)
Even better – the versatility of these from Shoe Wings at a cheerful £9.99.
I could even pretend I was buying for the children..multiple times..lots and lots of children..
Imagine on Bella’s ice-skates!..roller-skates..but call me fussy – I do want proper Hermes-the-winged-God homage with a pair on each side per shoe..
I laugh!
Oooh! A double pair..true temptation..
Bonkers or beautiful?
…And will they make me run faster???
Laters, Kate x
Set in Stone x
We have set – gulp – a date for out first-ever showing of our first-ever MasonBentley Collection which feels hugely daunting and very exciting at the same time..
It’s been eighteen months since Anna and I first came up with our Grand Plan..it was a dark, cold December night and knocking back the wine on the steps of my utility room we were both bemoaning the creative frustration we were feeling. Mix into that a computer, a shared love of vintage and a bit more Chablis..and MasonBentley was born. Right from the start we knew that a business just based on vintage would limit us – we wanted to create – truly create. But we had to start somewhere..and we had to find out if our idea for selling the clothes via Direct Selling would work.
Roll on eighteen months..and here we are with our own embryonic range..still learning, still loving it..and discovering that the more we do, the more ideas we have..sometimes, just sometimes from little acorns big oak trees grow.
The actual concept behind this collection is very simple – we wanted flexible, cool, effortless British style.
We have shirts because we believe they are the true transseasonal item worn all year round. There’s no time limit on these babies.
We have stunning ‘dickies’ that either sit on our shirts..or on a jumper..or on a t-shirt..adaptable, aspirational and clever.
We have cotton dresses because they are the ultimate in capsule wardrobe dressing. Posh them up with a pair of sky high heels..or dress them right down with flip-flops, insouciance and a bit of attitude..these dresses don’t need to wait in a cupboard for the right occasion.
We have a kaftan and a bikini as a taster of our vision for Summer 14 because we are always thinking ahead.
But rather than me tell you, have a look at our first round of photos (with more to follow)..
The Harper.
Check out the gorgeous buttons.
The Trilby in tusk crepe de chine.
The Macaroon.
Our ‘Dickie’, that can sit on top of a shirt like the macaroon – or be worn separately to Jazz up a jumper..
With a black bow..
Or with a Dickie-link.
The Billie.
The (Frilly) Billie.
Our Kaftan.
So if any of you can get to SW London on 11 June from 7.30 pm – 9.30 pm, drop me a mail at kate@masonbentley.com and I will send you an invite.
It’s going to be a special night and we would love to see you there!
Laters, Kate x
The Creme de la Creme..
I often wonder if winning the lottery would actually make my life better. It’s a moot point. However I do know it would make my walls so much more fantastic. I apologies for the next pictures..they are pure avarice and excitement and are (cough) ridiculously expensive (a pot of paint and a bit elbow grease won’t rock it with these babies) but they are sublime, aspirational and quite frankly give me giddy butterflies.
These hand painted chinoiserie wallpapers are from the company de Gournay. And looking at them you feel it is the timeless work of centuries of work from old master crafts men passing their craft down from generation to generation. In fact the Company was founded in 1986 by Claud Cecil Gurney. After searching for artisans to restore the antique wallpaper in his own home he discovered the traditional art was on the verge of disappearing. He made it his mission to resurrect it. And I for one am so thankful that he did.
To give you an idea..the paper is so expensive you can have it steamed off if you move… and re-used in your next millionaire mansion!
Laters, Kate x
Thing of Beauty 3
Looking at a beautiful floor lets me breathe..it’s like visual porn for the mind’s eye. The best are not glossy, gossip columns but tell a story, wearing their battle scars with pride and an undeniable polishing of age. My ultimate joys are marbled mosaic floors as found in St Pauls Cathedral, the Victorian tessellated floors like those found here in the UK and possibly my favourites: Encaustic cement floor tiles from places such as Cuba, France and Italy..the artisanal flair, patterns and colours are literally chocolate for my soul. I can understand if people find them ‘too seventies’ or too dominant…..but come into my world…see if I can change your mind..
And a true font of knowledge and know-how is an amazing website called Villa Lagoon Tiles based in the States where all the pictures on this post came from. They collect pictures and information and best of all, make these tiles. Go loose yourself in their website..the options and designs are both endless and fascinating..I was lucky enough to order tiles from them for our bathrooms..but I still head back whenever I need a creative fix to see what new ideas they have come up with.They can copy old tiles or you can choose from their classics range..the following are from their Cuban heritage section. I literally die.
Or they have modern options..
I’m feeling the need for renovation coming on..
Laters, Kate x
Oh! How I LOVE!
I have more dresses from our first collection…not perfectly shot because these were taken literally on the rails at the factory…but perfectly made…
This is the (Frilly) Billie in black broderie anglais…effing awesome in my entirely biased opinion! I will die to wear this dress..the piping…sooo chic!
The Grace in black..just a completely different dress…simple, elegant…wonderful!
This is our no-named shirt…Lace is our reflection on now..this print represents our vision for the future and a very british essence we wanted to capture. What has delighted us (can you tell?!) is that we wanted the core of our first collection to be cross-seasonal so we could carry it forward whilst growing new ideas…the other concept we wanted to embrace is escalator dressing..the ability to wear an item dressed up out to dinner..or casually with a pair of jeans or flip-flops..the final criteria is that where humanely possible everything will have pockets..love. love. LOVE! – check out the cuffs and the shoulders..
The Valentina, tarted up…don’t you want to just touch it? stroke it? Wear it? She is gorgeous!
Laters, a delighted Kate xxx
It started with a spring clean…
I’ve had gremlins..or little fingers…logged on this morning to find no post. Gone like the dew in the morn except for the first paragraph in draft form and 2 comments! Great. So here it is again, sort of – and I apologise to anyone who got this ditty twice due to the re-publishing…
It started snowing again today…snowing. In London. In March April. It’s pathetic. But somewhere deep inside there is a feeling of spring coming – because I don’t know what else is making me want to clear out cupboards and fill up dustbin bags. Which would be rip roaringly good except I have come to the conclusion that I am probably the worst de-clutterer ever…take this morning..I attacked our ensuite with the firm intention of getting jewellery sorted into piles, old make up thrown out (read ‘give to daughter’) and detritus removed. I got as far as the jewellery…I have this pile of old earrings in a brass bowl..
They’ve become part of the furniture. I keep them for some sentimental reason or other because the majority are dangly earrings and I never wear dangly earrings..
Then I had this thought – what if I could change them? turn them into stud earrings? Surely worth a try..so I set off to the shops…
These caught my eye.
And then I couldn’t resist these.
And these just had my name written all over them…
Removed the dangly hook thing, added copious amounts of this..
E Voila!
Macabre jellyfish skeleton men on juju juice! Why do I love these so much?!
Got utterly carried away and added additional gemming – but these I WILL WEAR with a white shirt dress and wedges in the summer…which admittedly could be never..
The additional shape, the little pop of colour..makes all the difference.
Neon orange stud hoops! J’adore!
I LOVE this combo.
Pretty non?
My alien babies! You look at them…and then look again..
Moral of the story? – Mess is obviously inspirational.
My tip of the day? – make sure the buggers are completely dry BEFORE you put them on…previously I never used to wear them…now I can never take them off..
Laters…much later, Kate x
Thing of Beauty 2
Baby it’s cold outside – but there’s always a little bit of summer in my house…
This is the statement light in our hallway which also creates the most amazing natural wallpaper..
Now for the truly amazing bit…I made it myself. Blush…well, not entirely myself…it started life as this :
The Makros pendant from Ikea…which I love, but then everyone knows it’s from Ikea..and it was screaming out for a tweak…and to be honest, I have a fascination for silk flowers..
Which actually start life as these:
Those terrible plastic imitation wannabees you walk straight past in the pound shop…
But pull them to bits and the magic happens…ta-daa!
(Little tip: Exceptionally useful and essential arsenal when wrapping presents…dip them in glitter for a Christmas variation..)
The middle bit of the flowers on the light? Those glass beads that come in plastic string bags and catch your eye in a devious way because you strangely want to like them but you know they have absolutely no use unless you want them as algae gatherers in a large vase….until now.
The glass beads and flower petals were stuck onto the saucer shape at the end of the long prongs with a HOT glue gun (as supposed to a cold one with is less powerful) – I left some of the prongs with just beads to increase the light and add variety. I also used a selection of flower types as I was in an experimental mood and thoughts of summer meadow fields were running rampant..but the choices are really endless..single colour flowers, single colour beads, single colour with multiple varieties…your imagination is your limit…
And now their moment to shine comes every time I turn on the light!
Laters, Kate x
Maison Bentley Style 
