0044 Getting comfortable with Marie Claire

Our capsule knit collection for Autumn / Winter 2011 is probably the most comfortable set of knits you can get your hands on this side of Christmas, always nice for Marie Claire to agree though!!

FOREST GREEN SPATZ JUMPER - C. £200

AVAILABLE FROM YOUNG BRITISH DESIGNERS AND SKIRT BOUTIQUE

0043 The Metro takes to First Flight

Anyone reading the Metro the other day might have recognised a familiar face....

Not quite sure how we got roped in to promoting the new Samsung phone, however we're definately not complaining about a whole page spread!

For those who are interested in the clothes rather than the phone, our Autumn / Winter collection "First Flight" is now available in a store near you (or online for that matter)!

0039 Borne's first concert

Last month our DOMPFAFF TOP became the first borne piece to officially go to a concert.

We don't get to go to a lot of concerts you see as we are slaving away under heavy machinery but Eliza Doolittle does lots of them, including this one for The Carphone Warehouse. Apparently it was the first Facebook only concert, who knew?!?

Anyway, the DOMPFAFF TOP looked amazing as did Eliza!

DOMPFAFF TOP - AVAILABLE SOON FROM ASOS

You can even see a short video about the concert here;

Eliza Doolittle Facebook Concert for The Carphone Warehouse from Threefold on Vimeo.

0038 Borne in Barcelona - L'Armari de Sant Pere

We caught up with our stockists in Barcelona last week to see how the season was going and check whether all our Little Seres had safely found gorgeous new owners to take care of them.

While we were at it we thought we would do a little illustrated guide to "Borne in Barcelona", starting with L'Armari de Sant Pere - a gem of a store tucked away on a beautiful square in the medieval barrio of Sant Pere right in the heart of Barcelona.

L'Armari is run by Kathy and Mayra, who know their clients inside out and back to front, always useful that!

So begin your tour by walking to the end of Sant Pere Mes Baix, and opposite a grand, wood panelled pharmacy you will find...

Mayra is on the left and Kathy on the right - guapas!

L'Armari de Sant Pere - PLACA DE SANT PERE - +34 933 150 463

0037 Borne in Barcelona - RooM

RooM is a beautiful tienda hidden down a narrow street in el barrio Born behind the new entrance to the Picasso Museum.

Calle Flassaders is full of fascinating boutiques but RooM stands out from the crowd, painstakingly curated by Maria Roch who stocks her own label alongside other designers she handpicks.

There is also a wide selection of jewellery, accessories and shoes, while even the antique furniture that has been sourced from far and wide can be taken home!

RooM - CALLE FLASSADERS 31 - +34 932 689 655

0036 el taller de Elise Berger

Fabrics were mounting up against the walls, we could hardly squeeze around the pattern table and there were Little Seres coming out of our ears - time to move studio...

After an exhaustive, emotionally draining hunt - and just as we were about to sign on the dotted line for a far less inspiring space - we found what we were looking for!

The catch was that we would be homeless for a month which made April a little disjointed. Now we are in, and as we spruced it up to welcome our first proper visitors this morning, we thought you might like to see what borne's new home looks like....

...welcome biscuits...

...the floor which could tell a thousand tales, and a quiet corner for doing the accounts...

...new home, new plant - and some familiar colours...

...oooooh whats that? A cheeky glimpse of the SS12 colour palette?!?

...and it all comes together to form our new taller (or workshop)...

If you are in town then please drop by, say hello, have a cup of tea....

0034 Plaits plaits plaits

0033 happy borne birthday!!!

Thats right - happy birthday us!

A year ago this week we decided to turn a dream into reality, change our lives completely and start on a journey with only a faint sketch of where we wanted to end up.

What we did know is what we wanted to create - a new brand of womenswear which is beautifully designed, with exquisite attention to detail, using the finest quality ingredients and made with love and passion to produce garments bursting with individuality and personality. We didn't want them to cost the earth and we wanted the pieces to be so comfortable that they could all be worn at anytime by anyone - simple really!

We did make things a bit more complicated by choosing to split our time between Barcelona and London. Barcelona would be where the pieces were designed and produced and London would be the hub for press and sales, we would also get more sun and easy beach access....

However it is really important to us to be as close as possible to where we produce, to know who is making each piece and keep an eye on each stage of the process to make sure everything is made exactly how we want it to be. We have met some amazing people during the process, many of them feel like family given how much time we have spent with them over the last twelve months, and we can honestly say that we wouldn't be here today waffling on without them!

At the same time we knew that the UK, and London in particular, was where it had all started and would be critical to establishing the brand amongst stockists and press. Figuring out how to do this and who to trust were some of the biggest decisions we had to make and we quickly learned the hard way that having the right feeling about who you are working with is very important. Having Harriet and team at HPR and Rosi & Charlotte at Studio 13 on board has been invaluable!

We have just finished our second collection for Autumn / Winter 2011, "First Flight", which is inspired by the beauty of birds in flight. It is a natural evolution from our first collection, "Little Seres", while staying true to our ethos of quality, attention to detail and

individuality.

To see the new collection you can go to our website, www.borne.co.uk, but just as we felt when we got on that plane a year ago - borne is getting its wings!

0030 AW11 "First Flight" behind the scenes

We always hoped that our "borne-by" blog would be a guide to the journey we started on almost a year ago, we may not have updated it as regularly recently but we promise we have been busy!!

One of the reasons for the lack of updates is we have moved some of the more "newsy" items to our new and improved news page on the website - www.borne.co.uk/news - this will be updated more regularly and will act as the go to source of what is happening in the world of borne!

The last few months have been a complete blur, though we remember that it all started with a wall of ideas - lots of birds and the feeling that we wanted to fly!

To those images we added some colour and some texture - forest greens, charcoal greys, natural beiges, mint and navy blue/black in a selection of sandwashed silks, mohair mixes, jerseys, washed cottons and luxurious italian wools.

We then got re-acquainted with our little white friend, who would be hand-in-hand during long nights, early mornings and pretty much any other time over Christmas and into the dawn of a New Year!

When the patterns had been drawn and cut, we tied up the beautiful bundles of fabric and sent them off to the amazing ladies who make it all happen; Ana, Teresin, Rosa, Tere, Merche and Magda who lovingly sew our garments together.

When we receive the samples back there are always a few last-minute, finishing touches to apply before the big day to make sure everything is perfect - thankyou Mum for your needles and nimble fingers!

And then we were off, to the glamourous location for our AW11 photoshoot... Lambeth, who said fashion was glamourous?!?

We had another amazing team behind us this season, we were really excited to be working with Ben Riggott, photographer to the stars. He had coincidentally just shot a few of our SS11 pieces for a Cosmo article so it was obviously meant to be!

In addition to Ben we were honoured to have Tilly Hardy styling the shoot again, there is no-one else who can make sense of a collection when it is hanging on a rail like she can!

Our model for the day was Kamilla - a perfect borne woman in every way - she gave each of the 19 looks (a lot!!) just the right amount of wintery cool.

After Ben had finished posing and Kamilla had been preened (literally given the amount of feathers that were flying around backstage) we were all set, for lights, camera, action!

Last but no means least, Wendy Turner (on the left) did an amazing job with the hair & make-up - little did we know she is an expert in headresses!

And now we can truly say that borne by Elise Berger, AW11 "First Flight" has its wings...

The collection is available to view, by appointment only, at our showroom Studio 13.

For a copy of the lookbook please email sales@borne.co.uk - the full collection will be up on the website soon.