0041 borne at Changing Room Barcelona

Last Saturday we took our first tentative little step into the world of retail, by setting up shop in Room 11 of the Chic&Basic hotel in Born, Barcelona for Changing Room 10. Along with 24 other designers we took over the hotel for one day to sell our wares and spread the good Borne word!

In what turned out to be a loooong but enjoyable day we welcomed the great and the good of Barcelona through our little white door to meet our Little Seres. As you can see from the pictures below our room wasn't huge but we made it home, and lubricated by the free beer our pitch got better as the day progressed....

The highlight was definitely selling a piece of the collection to Nora Navas, the Spanish actress who was the special guest for this edition - thats her jumping up and down on the bed in excitement.

It was brilliant to see so many people there, so thanks to all those who came down to say hello. For those who didn't, Tendencias TV have made a little video so you can see what you missed out on, we've added it at the bottom - see you at the next edition!

Changing Room 2011 from tendenciastv on Vimeo.

0040 A little bit of Grazification

We lost our Grazia virginity last week, providing a little bit of Grazification with our CORAL KONIG TROUSERS - just flip to p.84 and head for the bottom right hand corner, or click on the pics below to enlarge.

CORAL KONIG TROUSERS - £235 - AVAILABLE EXCLUSIVELY FROM MELANIE BOUTIQUE IN BARNES AND BORNESHOP.CO.UK

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....

0035 borne's first cover! Office magazine

If you go down to Office today you're sure of a big surprise.... our ROSE WAGNER TROUSERS on the cover of their magazine!

Yup, that's her on the left strolling nonchalantly along in our beautiful rose trews...

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!

0032 borne in VOGUE UK April Supplement

It may be the supplement and not the main mag but we don't care - congratulations to the KONIG TROUSERS for being the first of our Little Seres to make an appearance in Vogue!!

There they at the bottom in the middle of the page, cosying up to model Nicole Trunfio, see how to work the rest of the "ballet inspired" look below - click the pics to go LARGE...

0031 borne in ELLE Norway & FIASCO magazine

We must admit to being quite proud when we heard that one of our dresses would be in the March edition of Elle Norway, and even though the stylist on the shoot really pushed the limits of "creative styling", we still are!!

GREY BARON DRESS (£190) | Available from Young British Designers, ASOS and Shop 172

If you are still in doubt as to what you are meant to be looking at, our grey BARON DRESS is draped around the shoulders of the model lying down!

Elsewhere in March we had a couple of pieces featured in the new "Hollywood Issue" of FIASCO magazine. Only available online, and a very limited amount of print copies, it is well worth a click through.

Firstly we had Laya Lewis from the cult TV show Skins rocking the CAMI-BARON dress...

NAVY BLUE CAMI-BARON DRESS (£165) | Available from ASOS & Young British Designers

Followed up by some of our limited edition Richter Trousers with ruffle detail - click on the picture for a clearer image.

ROSE RICHTER TROUSERS (£150) | Available from ASOS & Young British Designers