LAUGH OFTEN, DREAM BIG

Thursday 12.03.09

L:

- Yeaahhhhhhh, at last, dresses are on display!! I immediately announced
on FB that our dresses are finally being stocked in Fashion Enter
boutique, Croydon shopping centre. In order to celebrate we let everyone
know we are giving away a free dress to anyone who goes into the shop,
takes a picture of one of our dresses and uploads it on FB. We had such
a good response from friends and members of our group. So look out for
the lucky winner!!
Later that evening we went out for drinks and a meal with a few of our
friends. We ate, drank, laughed and chatted about old times and all the mischievous things we used to get up to!!! It feels so
good when your dreams are coming true and it feels even better when you
share these moments with people you love and genuinely want you to succeed, as that's what being a JEWEL is all about.

IT'S BEEN A LONG TIME COMING

Tuesday 10.03.09

L:

At long last.....we could finally go to Fashion Enter boutique with our garments. We made an appointment to meet Stephanie (the manager) at 5:30pm. She was as much excited as we were, because being in the industry, she knows
exactly how manufacturers and people in general can take the p*** and let u down. Anyway, she loved the dresses and arranged to put them on show when she's back in the shop on Thursday.

Throughout the week I've been working on getting the things ready for
packaging our dresses. I got in contact with a great company that
provide bags, labels, price tags etc. and more importantly the company
can put our logo on everything and anything we like - check the pic of
the bag!!

I had a bit of trouble getting the right version of the logo the company
could use to print on the bags etc. Luckily a graphic designer we
worked with converted the adobe cs3 version I had to the one the company
needed, which was adobe cs2, (hmmm, I know these things are ever so
technical!!)
So I emailed the logo to the company and await their quote. I must say
we have been very fortunate to come across companies that speak the same
money language as us because the quotes are too good i.e. we can afford
it!!

J:

This week I was liaising with a friend of ours, (who happens to be a fabulous fashion stylist) as she was having a photo shoot to promote her brand new business venture and she asked us to design and make some dresses. The dresses were finished and looked AMAZING (is it weird saying my own work is good.....jeez, who cares, good is good, LOL)!!!!!! I met her later on that evening and she was sooooo happy and pleased with the dresses. What you think?

JUDGEMENT DAY

Monday 09.03.09 JUDGEMENT DAY

L:

First thing Monday morning and all we could think about was 'has the manufacturer done our samples?' hmmm well there was only one way to find out. I called the factory at 9:45am said hello and introduced myself and before I could even ask he said, 'YES, the samples are done, you can come and collect them now.' AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!! I couldn't scream, I couldn't jump around but my head was spinning because all I could think about was what we are destined to do next. I am excited, more than excited, I am ecstatic. These samples are our tools to get the stockists we need!!!! I called J ASAP and told her the news.

J:

When L called me to tell me the FAN-TA-BULOUS news, my reaction was quite mellow, I was happy, really I was, but I just couldn't get excited until I was there and had the samples in my hands. Getting to the factory was not easy, trains were delayed and there was a bit of traffic, so I started getting quite anxious and worried, doubting if things would be ok when I got there....but they were fantastic, fabulous, FAN-TA-BULOUS!!!! I know it might sound quite silly but I became quite emotional, I almost shed a tear, and I'm not the emotional type. What truly made everything even better was the price, especially after the quotes other manufacturers gave us during our 'london town road trip'!!!!!

So we celebrate, we haven't been out for a while, so we go to 'I LUV LIVE' a live music gig in Cargo, Shoreditch. The line up was serious; Charlie Brown, Averlee, Ghetts, MPHO and last but not least SWAY. The night was great, all the acts were good. Ghetts had energy, MPHO had originality and SWAY was very smooth and real. He performed a song call 'happy new year' which was inspiring and also performed his song 'pray for kaya', which I must admit made me shed a tear. It made me think, what would I do if I couldn't save my J? - I don't even want to think about it. The night was not only for enjoyment but for business as we made contacts with some artists' managers.

Now the real story of JeweL begins...

LONDON TOWN - ROAD TRIP

Monday 02.03.09 (this day was so long that we had to split it in to two sections)

PART 1- THE TRUTH SHALL SET YOU FREE
What a beautiful day it was. Sun is shining and I'm off work just to do more work. Today we are not messing around. We need to get stuff sorted because the London Clothes show is in 3 months and we have no garments!! 3 months is not long given the fact that we have so much to do and not enough money (I can barely eat) jokes aside, but yea we need to find a manufacturer TODAY as we need to start calculating how much all this is going to cost before the end of the month!!
So we start our journey in Croydon at the boutique (that is meant to be stocking our dresses), explaining to them why we have been delayed and they completely understand. We really believe it's always best to be honest with people and let them know what's going on so they don't think you are just slacking and messing them about. After that we go to meet our 'manufacturer', who has not manufactured a damn thing for us for past 3weeks!! KMT. We walk into the factory and he is prepared, he packed all our things in one place; the materials, the patterns, EVERYTHING and when he saw us he just walked straight over to our things and attempted to hand them over...well little did he know J was not having it!!
I was not having it at all!!!!! I just put my hands up and said "NO"!!!!!! LMAO. We're laughing now, but at the time there was nothing funny about the situation. We didn't have anybody else, and to be honest we didn't want anyone else..why you ask, because the price he gave was tooooooooo good.
So..like a typical man, he gave plenty of excuses and says "I really wanna help you girls, I just don't wanna let you down, give me until the weekend and I'll have something for you" and like typical women, we say "OK" leaving the factory praying that he does just what he said he would..but this has to be the last chance we give him because we are really behind schedule.

PART 2 - LONDON TOWN ROAD TRIP
Everything written above happened before midday, sounds crazy eh???? But this was just the tip of the iceberg and our day was far from over, because we still had to make our way around what seemed like the whole of London in just 6 hours. We had made several appointments to find other manufacturers that could help us in case our guy did not deliver, we needed back up! They were scattered all over London.
After we left our manufacturer's factory, we made our way to west London, and then from there we had two meetings in east London. Now, the day would have been over for us after our last meeting in east but we did something very silly..we left one of our samples in west London, and had to go back to get it before going home. We got there at 6:15pm!!!!! Let me help you put things in to perspective, we left home at 9am that day, travelled all over London, got home around 8.30pm and didn't eat a thing, the only thing we had was a bottle of Coca Cola L bought that we shared! Hard times, LOL!!!!! Even though the day was long and very tiring we did accomplish a lot and had a better idea of exactly what needed to be done, when it had to be done by and probably most importantly who would do it.
We learnt quite a few things that day. It's always best to sort things out face to face, whether it's business, relationships, etc, this way everyone knows exactly where they stand and you can truly see if someone understands exactly what you expect of them and decide for yourself if you genuinely believe what they're saying. You'll see later on just how good it is to sort things out face to face, especially when it comes to manufacturers, LOL!!!!
Oh and I can't forget another equally important lesson...TRAVELCARD IS GOOD!!!! LMAO!!! There is no way we could have made all those meetings, travelling from south to west then east and then back to west London all within 6hrs without a travelcard- get one!!!

BOREDOM STRIKES AND BLAZERS GET MADE

L.

(some time in december 2008)
Browsing FB, as you do when one becomes idol and what do I come across? Friend's bday party pictures.

Q) ...aaaand who is this friend standing next to?

A) A very seriously sexy looking guy!! I think, wow, this guy is too much.

So I roll my cursor over him and yup he is tagged!!! I know his name, jeez, strike one!! Lmaooo!! So I click on his name and go to his profile and try to add him immediately, and yep, man is already my friend, strike two!!! How could I have missed this guy??? Hmmm...well maybe due to the fact that I'm so immersed in my work I don't have time for any eye candy?? Errrr mate I don't think so!!! So I poke this dude... Couple days later poked back. (A poke is disgusting if you really think bout the true meaning behind it, lol). Thank God, FB chat just became available too!! So he's online and I'm online, I say 'hi', he says 'hi'. I say 'are you a model?' He says 'no', I say 'well you look like you are', he says 'thanks'. Hmmm...well at least man is responding!! So we start making chit chat BUT - I can't tell this guy I'm on his ting, no way!!! So what do I say??? I say 'I'm a designer and I want to make you a blazer'. Yup made work for myself I did not need!!! Like I don't have enough to do, ahhh mate and I don't like saying something and not do it; don't you just hate shitchatters? Lol
So when we meet up on FB, we chat and get to know eachother, its fun but yea I find out he a young ting, hmmm...put me right off but he still wants the blazer!! So I design, I email him and later we arrange to meet up for me to measure him up! Yea people I get to meet him and touch him, MATE, I'm on cloud 3 right now! Lol.

Saturday 17.01.09
We meet for dinner and get the ball rolling and we end up in the ladies loo for me to take his measurements and I'm thinking (whilst I have him in a cubicle) I could just pounce on him but don't want to scare little man off to go tell his friends that this so called older business woman is a crazy nutcase! So I chill! Anyways gotta get this blazer made asap so I can see him again!

Sunday 22.02.09
I meet Mr P to get some help and advice on how to get this done. Not done menswear before so I'm dabbling in new waters. He breaks down costings etc and we get things moving.

Thursday 26.02.09
Pattern gets made within a day, I buy materials however I've not gone for the classic black as I've seen this guys pics and he likes colour. So I've chosen a colour I think is not too bright but will look amazing on his skin.

Wednesday 04.03.09
I go to the factory, start cutting the parts and placing the flowers where they need to be on the blazer. I leave work to go to my other work, what a long day, EVERYDAY!!

While I'm at the factory, working hard, working late, I'm hungry and all I can think of is next time Lee, shut your mouth and you won't create work for yourself!! Mate, if he don't give up then I'm doublely Peed!!! Lmao (wish me luck girls, you know how it is).

Anyways blazer is looking good so far and if people like it may just be in demand, hmmm??

SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER (21.02.09)

L

21.02.09

At home on a Saturday night and nothing to do, I’m really tired but yep, I want to go out, just because I’ve just got my hair cut and want to show it off (can’t let a FrSH new style go to waste!! LOL). So, my girl Nay comes to pick me up (no I don’t drive any more, couldn’t afford to run a 1series with the costs of business alongside so I’m on TFL baby – no road tax , no petrol – although they may be hidden costs within my monthly travel card – but hey its cheaper than a car). So we drive up to Holborn where Reggie Yates holds a monthly event called Trading Places. The venue is plush, queue is long and phat but we get in. It’s very different from the raves I go to, the music is more commercial and the people are varied – everyone there is making a fashion statement whether it is glam or casual, with big hairdos, bold make up and bright colours!! I love it. Well, I dressed in between as you can see and the hairdo isn’t BIG but it’s good enough for me. So towards the end of the night, after dancing our feet off and screaming lyrics til our lungs are exhausted we resort to taking pics, woohoooo FB time!! As you do, you find a spot - we found the elevator by the toilets (hehe). Talk about girls gone wild, we were posing like jokers but I'm sure the security guy was counting his lucky stars just watching!! LOL