I’m quite fond of tea dresses and bird prints so when Very.co.uk offered me a dress this one fit the bill. It’s a bit longer than I like but I have no hesitation in making little alternations - which doesn’t work for everyone. I really like simple dresses for every day.
I really enjoy online shopping. It’s very easy to look at a large selection of clothing within minutes and there is something exciting about opening a box - it’s a bit like receiving a present!
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I just love Heal Fashion Lab and how they show their collection - cute animated ecommerce thumbnails! (You have to check out the site to see the animated thumbnails.)
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Every holiday season I seem to have a favourite dress. It started from a very young age. When I was little we used to go to England for Christmas to visit my grandparents and every Christmas my mother would make me a special dress to wear for Christmas day. One year she made me a blue velvet dress with white cuffs and a white collar. I must have been about seven but I still remember how wonderful it was and how much fun I had wearing that dress.
I recenlty received this lace dress from Very and it’s become one of my favourite dresses this Christmas! I seem to wear it all the time. I like dresses because they’re easy to wear. You just throw it on and you’re basically good to go!
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Lots of shops are closing, so why has Suzannah opened a shop during a recession when so many other shops are struggling? What can the designer boutique offer that the big retails can’t?
When did you open the shop?
September 7th 2009
You opened the shop during a recession, were you hesitant?
Well, the recession has its advantages too, with better deals to be sought with property and business rates, and coupled with increased sales from a steadily growing loyal customer base which has grown through the website and selling events, I felt that I had enough of a platform to know that this wasn’t a total gamble or a gut instinct! Although of course there is always a touch of going with what feels right!
How did you choose the location? Little Venice isn’t really a fashion destination?
I wanted a destination which was a little different. A destination which offered a very new, but at the same time nostalgic and considered way of shopping. Little Venice is one of my favourite locations in London. It is a very beautiful, charming and calm place. It is interesting, quirky, and immaculate, with pockets of vibrance from the amazing flower nursery to the most amazing cafes, restaurants and bars,…not to forget the canal! It is a romantic haven. For me, it created the perfect back drop for the most amazing experience for a customer coming to the store or for discovering it for the first time. I wanted it to appear discreet, creative and imaginative.
I stumbled across the shop by chance…I do feel like it was meant to be! With just enough room to be able to work at the back!,…and it has lots of light, from bright daylight through to lamp light from the street lights outside,..which I feel creates a fabulous atmosphere of ‘cocktail hour’ for the fun cocktail dresses for which the brand is becoming renowned.
.jpg "Boutique Profile Suzannah")
Can you tell us about the photos inside you shop?
Ah Yes,… The photographs in the shop were given to me by a friend, for the opening. They were taken by her father, the photographer, Cornel Lucas, who was the in-house photographer for Rank Film Studios from the 1940-70s, photographing most of the major icons of the day from Marlene Dietrich to Diana Dors and Brigitte Bardot. We selected three of the shots: Diana Dors in Venice! (perfect of course for the location!!!), the portrait of Marlene Dietrich, and a stunningly fabulous location shot of the iconic fashion models of the 60s taken on scaffolding in Portobello! The shots were all hand printed bromides by Cornel Lucas in his dark room in Kensington. He’s 90 years old and still shooting!
What is the average price point?
The average price point of the cocktail dresses are around £370 and the daywear dresses £285.
What other services do you provide?
We also offer a tailoring service for the cocktail dresses, which depending how complex can be integrated into the make of the garment. As the cocktail element of the range is made individually in London.
Suzannah
6 Bristol Gardens
Little Venice, W9 2JG
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There were so many things that I loved about Boo.com. They aspired to be everything that the internet promised to be - from 360 degree views, to the avatar Miss Boo, to convincing established brands to sell online - it was oh so new but it was just too much, too soon.
So now we have Vente Privee, and it’s everything I thought an e-commerce company could be. I can’t tell you how many CEO’s that I’ve met who are afraid to read Boo Hoo: A Dot Com Story. It’s like an omen - if they read it something bad will happen. Vente Privee doesn’t seem afraid.
I recently had the pleasure of going on a press trip to visit Vente Privee in Paris. The office (formerly the Le Monde printing factory) has the feel of an art gallery with all the images on the walls, including the work of David Mach and David LaChapelle. The average employee age is about 30 and everyone seems hip and cool. You actually get the impression that everyone is really enjoying their job and you feel like you want to work there!
At Vente Privee everything is done in-house right from the creative to the shipping. They currently have 18 photographic studios and are building another 40. They are the largest employer of models in France. They have teams of stylists, hair stylists, make up artists and photographers. They even have five video studios and five sound studios that all work together to create the look and feel of the website. For every brand that they sell they design and shoot an in-house campaign and create a 30 second video with an original sound score (impressive!).
Vente Privee works in France because ‘high street’ sales only happen twice a year - how it will work in the UK is still to be determined.They are expanding in Spain, Germany and Italy and they say they already have 210,000 members in the UK as of September, with 800 new members joining every day. Net-a-porter and ASOS, saw sales grow 47% in the six months to the end of September 2009, so perhaps there is still room for Vente Privee in the UK market.
Here is a picture of the British team in Paris - they even have a Smeg with the union jack design (I didn’t open the fridge but I’m sure there would be things like marmalade, scones and Marmite inside - all things British).
The Vente Privee model is clever: the stockist guarantees that they have the stock, the sale takes place and the stock is delivered to Vente Privee, who then send out the merchandise directly to their clients. The downside is you might wait up to 4 weeks after the sale to receive your purchase, but then again if you get 70% off you might not really mind the wait. They’ve even sold cars and condominiums online. They say they’ve also sold 50,000 sex toys in 3 days and 25,000 watches in less than a minute (no, that wasn’t a typo!).
Vente Privee is like a beehive of activity. On average they process about 55,000 parcels per day!
I had the opportunity to meet with Xavier Court and Julien Sorbac - two of the eight founders. They are both charasmatic, witty and hospitable. After the tour of Vente Privee they joined us for dinner at the Philippe Starck-designed restaurant BON. Julien Sorbac is a dynamic, delightful bundle of energy. He chats about the internet and not only how doing business is constantly changing but how his relationship with his children has changed because of the internet, texting and e-mailing - sometimes he finds it’s easier to communicate with a teenager via text rather than face-to-face!
One of the things that I like about Vente Privee is that no one who works for Vente Privee, not even the founders, have first access to purchasing items from the sale beforehand - they all have to wait for the sale to open and buy online just like their customers!
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