Glitter Clutch Bags Made in Britain

Meet Crawford, Davis and Dietrich the latest addition to the accessories line in the form of glittering clutch bags. We believe that if you're going to carry a bag, make it a special one.

Our new clutches are hand crafted here in Somerset at the atelier. The coarse, densely packed glitter crusted fabric is made here in Britain and cut in the workshop along with the leather hide interlining. Meanwhile the colourful silk is quilted on the sewing machine and the internal pockets are added.
The whole bag is then hand stitched together using waxed cottons and threads for extra strength. Finally the edges are blanket stitched to finish, the bow is placed and fixed and the fine metal chain attached ready to swing.

Each of our bags are one of a kind pieces that are made throughout the year.

Sparkling Cocktail Purses

We've been very busy here at the studio prepping for our Pop-Up shop at the end of the month in the beautiful city of Bath.
Here are a few of the sparkling glitter purses that will be available over the weekend from the 29th November to the 1st December. 

You will be able to pick up these little luxuries (they are all lined in sumptuous silks) along with our favourite accessories ..... belts, key fobs and our classic velvet hair bows. Great for special stocking fillers.

Of course, if you are not visiting Bath that weekend all of these gifts are available to buy in our online shop HERE. 

Monster Squad - Limited Edition Halloween Purses

Introducing this years glittering monster squad, a gang of limited edition Halloween purses to accompany your costumes for the Autumn.

The Bat - shrouded in sparkling candy girl pink with a sleek black vampire bat silhouette and edged in satin. 

Pumpkin Jack - in Autumnal pumpkin spiced copper orange this rounded purse has a hand carved applique face trimmed with a green beaded rhinestone stalk. 

Miss Kitty - inspired by the ultimate cat lady with curved cats eyes and scarlet red applique lips under her mask. 

The Black Cat - our very own witches accomplice with a red satin bow trimming his curled tail, long whiskers and the cutest sweetheart pink nose. Fill his fat tummy with all your essentials for a night out.

These little luxurious novelties are each individually hand cut and crafted at the UK studio from our British made glitter encrusted fabric. Fastening with a glistening metal zipper and lined in pure silk. Limited to four of each design.

Shop Halloween Purses.

Glitter Black Bow Tie

This bespoke glitter bow tie was made recently for a very important wedding. See important wedding in the New York Times here. 

Lined in silk with a double bow and silk band, this bow tie has a traditional shape with the added matte sparkle creating an elegant textured alternative to the standard satin design.

We always welcome bespoke commissions for important occasions, just drop us an email at alexandra@alexandra-king.com

Heart Shaped Box

Inspired by sugar and spice and all those things nice are our sweet shop cellophane wrapped heart purses.

Perfect for girls little and not so little, this glitter coated purse comes in a choice of custom colours with a long satin strap and a strong shiny metal zip to keep all your trinkets in. Big enough for phone, cards, glasses, notebook, sweets etc and lined in luxurious silk making this a serious night out clutch too.

Trimmed with a classic structured bow and in head turning sparkles this little sweet heart bag will most definitely win admirers.

Available in Our Shop here, on NotOnTheHighstreet.com and Etsy. x

What is it about Red Glitter?

Presenting Our New Red Glitter Evening Purse - There's just something about red glitter. Dorothy's ruby slippers, the glittering Coco Cola sign in Baz Luhrmann's Strictly Ballroom, MGM musicals and generally everything fabulous involves something red and sparkling.
This little ruby red purse was made to go with our famous glitter bow clutch bag and is now available to order separately. Every gal needs a ruby red to hold onto! x

Malibu Glitterati Collection

Malibu Glitter Purses - Tropical pinks, oranges and yellows scream of fresh hot summers. We designed three new pieces that bought out the Summer fun in our favourite glittering fabric.

The Malibu Ray purse is a slice of modern deco design, lined in yellow silk with a heavy-metal zip. Our Candy Heart key-ring will ensure your lover always 'holds a key to your heart' (would you like a slice of Cheddar with that?).
And finally my personal favourite gracing my hand this summer is the Malibu Stripes purse with its refresher lines of glitter, chic and glitzy in one.

Available now exclusively on Not On The Highstreet.com xxx

SUMMERTIME BRIGHTS

Bright yellow dresses have arrived online and we just love the way they look with our bright purple glitter clutch. The colours work mouth-wateringly well together, be bold and bring a third colour (maybe magenta, candy coral or a polished gold) to the equation in patent heels and hair bow for that all important stand out event this Summer.

Our linen and lace dresses are both one of a kinds in textured Lego block yellow with modern hard angled cuts contrasting with the soft scalloped lace. Strong lined accessories a must.

GIVEAWAY - Silk Scarfs

It's officially Christmas time in my world. Everyone has their party dresses, glitter bags are already under trees across the land and the final red Christmas dress has been collected.

To say a THANK YOU! to the lovely customers and the people who have supported us over the past year we made hand printed silk chiffon scarves with our bow logo in navy, black, cream and pink. These were so much fun to make that I thought we should make a few extra to give away to readers too.

I also drew a picture (this is something I love to do more than anything over Christmas, pretending I'm an illustrator at Wing's drawing table!) showing 6 ways to wear your scarf. Some of you already have your scarves and have shown me how gorgeously you are wearing them! Thank you x

There are 8 to give away, they measure over a metre long and have a gold, silver or black print.

So the rules are .................

1. leave me a comment on this post telling me how you would style your silk scarf. The more imaginitive the better.
2. share this post with your friends (via facebook, twitter, waving, how ever you like to communicate that you like something) who may also like to win a silk scarf
3. I'll pick my favourites (or I'll just make more so you can all have one!)
3. When you get your scarf in the post send me a picture to share on the blog of how you have styled it.

Not much for a silk scarf delivered straight to your door.

The give away closes tomorrow night so get commenting  xxx

PLEASE NOTE THIS GIVEAWAY HAS NOW CLOSED

The Glitter Bow Bags Have arrived!

Our long awaited glitter bow bags that we have been so excited about have arrived. They are in the shop now in all of these sparkling gorgeous colours.

Each bag is made in England, the bag section is put together by an excellent manufacturer based in the South of England and we prepare all the quilted linings and bows etc here at the studio. The quilted linings feel so wonderful.

They really are so, so sooooooooooooo sparkly and match the shoes from Kurt Geiger, Miu Miu, Charlotte Olympia .... the list goes on, the glitter is found on shoes everywhere. And this (as a self confessed bag unenthusiast) is the first bag I have been really excited about to use myself.

The glitter is amazing! I love it! Hope you enjoy the sparkles as much as me. Here they are in the online shop. 

P.S. THEY ARE ON OFFER FOR TWO WEEKS AT £95 AS A SNEAK PEEK UNTIL NOVEMBER 5TH. xxx

Get Your Glitter On - New Collection

Today I'm very excited about our new glitter accessories collection. I fell in love with this glitter fabric a while ago when the wonderful Janine Basil sent me some snippets. It had stayed in my sketchbook for nearly a year until the lovely Caroline (a fabulous bride) and Kurt Geiger collided with the silver glitter bow pumps that will forever be one of my favourite shoe styles. You can check out all the current glitter shoes that we'll be matching our accessories too here.

Photography Copyright Assassynation 

So then we made the bag to match for Caroline (above) ......

And then the bag was so gorgeous I decided that every accessory must be designed in glitter ......
And then in every colour. Yes there is a dress involved too!

The first collections in Pumpkin Spice, Ruby Reds and Sparkling Silver will be available online on Monday.

Spring is here - New Corsages

Here come the Camellias and roses and gorgeous, gorgeous florals from Anna. It's taken me so long to list these stunning Camellias (paying homage to Coco Chanel's favourite corsage bloom here) and silk roses, but after lots of arranging them on a little black dress we got there!

Anna hand made each of these corsages, hand cutting each of the heart shaped petals and stitching them one by one into place for the perfect Camellia. I love the way that the plain corsages are backed with vintage prints, you keep catching hints of the colour combinations in the Liberty prints and the roses are so soft and delicate nearly like the real thing. Mostly I love that these doesn't wilt, fade or die on you!

Each corsage has a brooch back and it's amazing what you can do with one flower.........

Carrie SATC style on your dress
Tie to a ribbon and wear as a belt
Vintage prom style wrist corsage, again pinned to ribbon
Attached to hair band for an Ascot legal head piece
To pep up a clutch bag or any bag
Give them to your friends, and anyone you like quite a lot
Get five and make a fabulous bouquet

And if you're anything like me at gardening you could attach them to sticks and pretend you grew super amazing flowers ...... the list is endless.

Seriously one of the most useful little accessories I can think of right now and they work wonders on a little black or plain dress. Exciting just on your dressing table.

Sorry for the hard sell I just think they look so gorgeous I want to shout about them. Let me know if you can find any more wonderful ways to wear a corsage? I love hearing your ideas.

They are now available in the Etsy shop, click on each image to find them in the store xxx 

P.S Anna will also be making these into stunning camellia and rose silk bouquets, she properly knows her floristry so these will look wow!

What Katy Did Next

The 'Olive' steam punk hair piece.

Our tweed dress with the 'Queenie' large fascinator hat

Our Harris Tweed princess coat.

Our black lace cocktail dress worn with black lace bunny ears and the 'Lena' petite hairpiece

Our mint silk taffeta cocktail dress available made to order.

Our Floral bodice with the gorgeous grey underskirt from Doris Designs and the pink shoe clips!

Our Mint Silk taffeta cocktail dress worn with the Julia hair piece

'Alice' wearing our blue velvet princess coat and tweed dress with the Amelia beaded head band.

 We recently lent out our dresses to the wonderful and super talented Katy from What Katy Did Next for a shoot all the way up North. Once I had viewed Katy's work I was more than excited to have my dresses shot with her beautiful accessories and completely trusted that what she was going to do, would be fabulous. The shoot revolved around the theme of Alice in Wonderland, with the two stunning models playing the parts of Alice and the White Rabbit.
Sally Thurrell photographed Katy's 2012 collection which is made up of the prettiest accessories that you could wear to any occasion as well as for a wedding. My favourite has to be the Florence below, I love the pale blue, feathers, lace and the fact that it is a giant super gorgeous bow!

The Florence hair bow

HUGE THANK YOU'S TO KATY FOR ORGANISING THIS FANTASTIC SHOOT! 

Accessories: What Katy Did Next
Bunny Ears: Talulah Blue (we love these so much!)
Underskirts: Doris Designs 
Photographer: Sally Thurrell
Styled by: Katy Howieson and The Whistling Bunting Travelling Tea Party
Hair and Make Up: Beautiful bride makeovers
Models: Katy Marie Clarke and Nathalie Johnston aka Lily La Rousse


 Business Note ....

We have quite a few requests for dresses to be borrowed for photo shoots and as all you indie designers know, it can be a little bit of a hit or miss thing to do. Firstly you have to pack up all your garments and have them couriered to the shoot, trust that the stylists know what they are doing and in some cases after all the expense and risk of sending out your samples they don't even get used!
A few things I have learnt so far about lending out samples is ......

-check out the people organising the shoot thoroughly along with the other designers involved. If you don't like what they do just say no.

-Insist that they send you at least a few shots of your garments being used even if they don't make the final cut as this will pay for your efforts of sending your garments to them for free. If they don't use them they need to pay you.

-get insurance, if all your samples go missing or come back in a mess you would be devastated

-use wardrobe boxes, it's so much easier.

- give clear instructions of how you would like your garments to be shot and what can and can't be done with your garments. If necessary send clips and pins as there is nothing worse than getting photos back to see your designs not fitting right.

- organise the courier to return your garments yourself so they are not hanging around too long.

- be grateful that you have been asked, when it works well all the people involved get something great including you, so most of the time it is definitely worth all the effort. Especially when you get great shots of your work like the ones above. Remember the people orgaizing ther shoot are doing most of the work xxx