Lunch and ladies at The Windsor Aug 24th, 2009 by Kim

This week our gorgeous friends from Anthea Crawford invited us to share in their Spring Summer collection launch at a gorgeous reception at The Windsor in Melbourne. Lots of beautifully dressed ladies, plates of yummy sandwiches, miniature sweet treats and champagne… a perfect occasion for a Spencer & Rutherford bag! I had loads of fun and was invited up to the stage to chat about our collection, which we just launched also, so I thought you might like to hear what we spoke about.

What was your inspiration for this season?

The collection is called “Into the wilderness.” Strangely, when I started this collection it was around the time, last year, of the announcement of the GFC. I was really wondering where a decorative, colourful, expensive, ladies’ handbag could sit amongst all this gloom and doom! So, for me it was an adventure “Into the Wilderness.” The collection is very pretty and all the pieces are like little found treasures.

Which is your favourite bag from this collection?

“Cheryl” in ‘Thorns and Roses’. She is everything a Spencer & Rutherford Limited bag should be. She has gorgeous, exclusive, hand-woven fabric in superb pinks and reds matched with lovely soft, buttery Italian leather. She is can go from day to night and carries everything I need.

What leather, fabric or colours really inspired you for this range?

As usual, when I come to doing a range for a Spring Summer collection I am always inspired by beautiful bright colours. By the time the end of Winter comes along, I’m over being moody and dark! So pink, red, orange, lilac and bright greens, plus some gorgeous soft pastels have featured in this collection. There are also some really lovely soft buttery leathers, which feel so yummy, and some wonderful woven fabrics, which were handmade just for us.

Which of these styles is an entirely new design?

Lilou is an entirely new style for us. She is a larger style clutch with an optional shoulder strap and this season she features a beautiful metallic fabric topped off with matching metallic leather ruffles down the front. She is in the softest baby pink and is truly divine!

If you were not a fashion designer what would you be?

If I were not a fashion designer I would love to be an artist. I have so many ideas that can’t be put on a handbag.

What is the best age to be?

The best age to be is the one I am right now. I really enjoy life, I have great memories, but I am looking forward to making new ones too.

In a nutshell, what is your philosophy on life?

Good friends, good coffee, great handbags!… and fashion of course… and shoes – love shoes!

XOXO Kim

Tags: Anthea Crawford, Cheryl, GFC, Lilou, Spring Summer Collection, The Windsor

Crazy Handbag Style Apartment Aug 14th, 2009 by Kim

For most people the signs of Spring are all around – rain of course making it really cold, but also flowers starting to appear, the sun is rising a little earlier and that feeling of promise is in the air.

For me it is all about Winter, and no not this Winter, but next! I have just started my collection for next Winter and I am on the hunt for inspiration. I thought you might like to see this picture of a very Spencer & Rutherford Apartment – fabulous!

I am also being inspired by loads of glamour – rhinestones and sparkly thread are making a comeback, plus fabulous brightly coloured appliqué. All good for my designs! Check out this latest bag from Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton for Winter 0910.

It reminds me of my Tinkerbell for this season – lots of bright appliqué and rhinestones.

I must say names these days are getting a little scant on the ground. I was explaining just recently, at a gathering of glamour devotees, that finding a name for a new style bag is just as difficult as naming a new baby girl – some names just don’t work, even though you love them. With our english-y sounding name, I always try to find names that seem appropriate to the genre, but really there are never enough!… I am always open to suggestions…

Sher

Introducing Sher (and the very adorable Chanel), our Retail Manager, whom many of you will already know if you shop at our online store or at Armadale. She is also my gorgeous step-daughter! Sher has worked for Spencer and Rutherford for about 8 years and will probably be here for the rest of her natural life. She runs our retail stores and will be even more busy soon with 2 more stores opening before the end of the year including one at Chadstone. Sher loves all things cute, cuddly, fluffy, silky, sparkly and her fiancée Chris, who is cuddly but probably none of the other things. She hates when our website goes down and eating fish!

XOXO Kim

Tags: bright colours, crazy appartment, handbags, Kim Michaelides, Louis Vuitton, metallics, names, Sher, Spencer & Rutherford, Spring, Tinkerbell, winter

A visit to Hong Kong and China May 14th, 2009 by Kim

Good morning, afternoon, evening to all you lovely Spencer & Rutherford devotees, it’s been way too many days since my last blog… but I have plenty of excuses!

There was a gorgeous two week break with my children, relaxing week at home enjoying our Melbourne Autumn; our range release for Spring Summer and a photo shoot; my daughter got glandular fever and was knocked out for many weeks; a trip to Hong Kong, and a mammogram. (Can I say here that I really, really, really hate mammograms. I have to have them every year as I have a family history, but I just don’t understand how putting your breasts into a sandwich press is helpful – I am so glad it is over for another year!)

Our trip to Hong Kong was to visit some trade shows and sort out production for the next season, but when my husband/business partner and I get the opportunity to travel together, we have a lot of fun.

Today I have finished off some new designs for fabric for our new Mini-Break collection, a range of soft luggage we are building at the moment. It was an interesting project and quite challenging too as I haven’t done a lot of fabric design before. This required two coordinating prints, a stripe and a floral, in 3 colour ways. Each print has 7 colours. The stripe was not too hard, but the floral was very complicated, getting the sizing right and making sure the repeat was actually workable. I am looking forward to seeing the final printed piece and I am now very inspired to do more work like this.

I also did the window at our store in Armadale today using some gorgeous tapestry in autumnal shades and a fabulous metal butterfly I found on one of my many research (a.k.a shopping) expeditions. We showcased blacks, emerald green and turquoise bags from the Winter collection highlighted with some great scarves and jewellery.

Tags: fabric design, Hong Kong, mammograms, Priyanka, store windows

Back to work for a rest! Apr 9th, 2009 by Kim

Today has been a fabulous day. I can answer my emails in peace and even drink coffee without being interrupted. Yes… I am taking a work break from school holidays. Not to say that I don’t absolutely adore my children, but they keep me so busy that I am actually exhausted. At work I can sit and bond with my ideas. At home I am organizing things on the phone while mixing a cake, emptying the dishwasher, loading the washing machine and yelling at the kids to get dressed because they are due at play dates in 10 minutes.

This week we have celebrated my sons 8^th birthday. On his wish list was only one thing, so that’s what he got – a Wii. Now I feel like I am living in a pinball machine, a huge wave of relief washes over you when it is finally turned off. Mind you it is great fun in short bursts!

We made a beautiful orange cake for desert for his birthday. This is one of my favorite recipes from Stephanie Alexander’s “Cooks Companion” – Afternoon Tea Orange Cake. It is fabulously easy. Throw 125g butter, 3/4 cup of castor sugar, 2 eggs, rind and juice of one orange and 225g of self-raising flour into a food processor and blend for 2 minutes, then cook in a buttered 20cm tin for 35 minutes. This time, because it was a special occasion I added 1/2 cup of choc chips through the mix (normally I just make little patty cakes and freeze them for school lunches). We put passionfruit icing on the top and decorated with melted chocolate. Main course was butter chicken with rice and roti. This was my son’s idea, after all it was his birthday! It actually tasted pretty good.

Early this week we went to Yum Cha at Southbank www.redemperor.com.au, followed by a visit to Eureka Tower Observation Deck www.skydeck.com.au. It was so much fun and we were up there for quite a few hours. We watched the rain come across the city, which was exciting in itself. The view was amazing. A great way to see Melbourne. The kids went out on “The Edge”, the sliding-out glass box. They got to wear these fabulous shoes (so they wouldn’t scratch the glass I suppose). I was too scared (about the height and the glass floor, not the shoes). I would have been screaming and clinging on to the walls – not pretty.

Back to my relaxing day at work… this morning I dropped off a large portion of my new Spring/Summer bags to be photographed for our catalogue. The photographer and I also had a brief discussion on the photo shoot we will do to promote the collection. We have chosen a gorgeous model and he has some really exciting ideas. I am hoping he can work over Easter and get the bag shots done so that we get the catalogue finished next week and move on to the ad shots. So now, it is time to name all the bags. They already have style names, which I choose pretty much when I first design the style, but I decide on the colour names at the very end when I can see all the bags together. Our theme this season is based around nature and finding your way in these strange times, so we have a plethora of good stuff… I just need to work out which ones go with which…

I was going to introduce you to my lovely design and production assistant, but she seems to have gone on Easter break, so till next time.

XOXO Kim

Tags: Afternoon Tea Orange Cake, Eureka Tower, Kim Michaelides, Mason's Birthday, photo shoot, Spencer & Rutherford, Yum Cha

A new blog and a new collection. Apr 3rd, 2009 by Kim

Hi to all, and welcome to my new blog.

It’s really a good time to start this because I have just finished designing my new collection for next Spring Summer, so I’m ready for something new. You probably all want to hear about what’s coming up for the new season – well there are a lot of beautiful mixed brights, plus soft baby pink, white and yes – black too. I have finally succumbed! Of course it’s not just plain black, there’s quite a lot of colour to make it look Spencer & Rutherford. I think black will work well for the races too. There are also some fabulous new styles. Once again, it will be hard for even me to choose a favourite. I like to look at it all for a while before I choose, so I will keep you posted.

Here is the wall where I paste all my designs as I am working. It gets built up over the design period, which this time has been 10 weeks. Sometimes it is hard to know which bag to start with, but once I get going, it is very exciting and I usually find I have the next one in my head while I am still doing the previous. This collection has 64 pieces!

I always start with doing a big story board, like the one above, which includes the colour predictions for the season, inspirational pictures that I find and my fabrics, leathers and trims. This enables me to stay focused and not go off onto too much of a tangent (which can be really easy to do!)

Today marks the end of normal time for me, as I have to switch to my other full time job as mother, and more importantly taxi service, for the next two weeks of school holidays. We have a basketball final for my 8 year old son, Mason, a charity concert for the bushfire which my 11 year old daughter, Isabella, is performing in and, of course, Easter to prepare for, as well as lots of lovely catch ups and coffee with friends.

Also I thought it might be fun for you to meet all the fabulous staff at Spencer & Rutherford, so I will introduce them all one by one over the next few weeks.

This little character is the youngest member of our staff, and also the noisiest. Louis (pronounced Loo-ee, as in Louis Vuitton) is my pet Cavoodle, who comes into the office everyday. He is 9 months old and keeps us all sane by happily visiting everyone’s desks, checking out the rubbish bins for chocolate wrappers, staring longingly out the window at the street below and barking at every courier that visits us. He also knows how to jump up on the table as we discovered one day when a plate of cookies mysteriously vanished. At the moment he is lying under my feet chewing the roller wheel of the chair I am sitting on.

Coming up next time: Mason’s birthday, planning a photo shoot and introducing my production and design assistant.

XOXO Kim

Tags: black, bright colours, cavoodle, Isabella, Kim Michaelides, Louis, Mason, new collection, Spencer & Rutherford, spring summer, story board