South Kensington | cheriecity.co.uk

Hummingbird Bakery launches Spring flavours…

April 24, 2010 by cheriecity

Within two short months, The Sunday Times heralded cupcakes as being the coolest party cakes then cast them into foodie Siberia, replacing them with the more ‘sophisticated’ macaroons.

However, judging by the mountains of them at this week’s press days and journalists grabbing them like their blood sugar levels depended on it, plus the number of new London bakeries opening, cupcakes are going nowhere.

Hummingbird Bakery is still up there as one of London’s most authentic American cake shops and they’ve just launched their new Spring collection of cupcakes to match up with your afternoon brew.

Every day there will be a different special, including Earl Grey, green tea, Red Bush tea, hot chocolate, mocha, espresso and fruit tea.

The limited edition cupcakes are priced at £2.25 and are available from Hummingbird Bakery stores in South Kensington, Portobello Road and Soho.

Designers, Events, Exhibitions, Fashion, London

Katie Grand comes to the V&A!

April 21, 2010 by cheriecity

As if the V&A’s new Grace Kelly exhibition wasn’t enough, they’ve enlisted Katie Grand to come and give a talk on her life in fashion and her working relationships with some of the most iconic fashion houses, on Friday 14 May, as part of their Museums At Night programme.

Katie Grand helped launch Dazed & Confused and moved on to the best magazine ever (in my opinion), The Face, but she really came into her own with POP, co-founded with Ashley Heath.

Under Katie’s direction, POP was all about the fun and ‘jolly’ side of fashion, favouring bunnies, muppets and lashings of pink over heroin-chic dreariness.

Katie had a knack for bringing celebs out of their comfort zone on photo shoots and for the inaugural cover, she herded up her Central Saint Martins chums Stella McCartney, Luella Bartley, Phoebe Philo and Liberty Ross to pose as futuristic pole dancers.

Leaving POP in the hands of Russian art princess Dasha Zhukova, Katie moved on to Conde Nast to set up rival bi-annual mag, LOVE.

Along the way, Katie Grand has styled and consulted for the likes of Giles, Prada, Miu Miu and Louis Vuitton and was Creative Director of Mulberry. The fashion industry loves Katie for her ‘outside’ style and down-to-earth attitude and it is her refusal to conform that has made her such a leading force today.

On her friendship with Luella, Katie says: “‘I suppose we’ve always been a loud gang in a way. Luella and I were really aware from the minute we started being friends that we annoyed people. Like there was one London Fashion Week when we wore fluoro for the whole week and just got photographed everywhere.

“It was just those little things, like not wearing black and heels, and how easy it is to be anti-establishment without doing anything very wrong. Or like being at proper parties drunk and loud and obnoxious and falling over. It’s not like we were very influential or anything. It was much more people saying, “Oh, I wish those girls would go and wash!” We were quite scummy really.”

While trying to find ticket details for the event (not yet available, but I’ll find out), I spotted some other upcoming talks about conversations with Juergen Teller, Peter Blake and quilting chameleon Kaffe Fassett.

Museums At Night takes place from 14-16 May, with over 220 national events, including Stitch And Bitch at the Hunterian Museum, free arts festival No Soule For Sale at Tate Modern, a silent disco at the Tate Liverpool, a Jane Austen-inspired evening at The Assembly House in Norwich and an exclusive viewing of London’s Apsley House.

Visit www.culture24.org.uk/museumsatnight for the full programme and more details.

Designers, Events, Fashion, London, News, Shopping

Erdem comes to the V&A!

November 26, 2009 by cheriecity

Erdem seems to be etched onto my subconscious at the moment and I reckon it’s a sign from fashion gods to go forth and take my love of floral dresses to the next level.

I love the fashion warrior look, with the studs, spikes, chains and whatnot, but I always seem to drift back into floral tea dress/grunge territory. It takes a special kind of girl to rock a floral dress, patterned or embellished – see floral fans Helena Christensen, Chloë Sevigny, Eva Green and Erdem girls Keira Knightley and Thandie Newton for reference.

Thanie Newton wearing Erdem

It’s all about picking interesting colours, an attractive pattern and the right shape and hem length (oh, and a statement lip colour always helps). But enough fashion rambling and on to the real crux of the matter…Erdem is bring fashion to the people!

Erdem is the latest designer to show his favourite pieces in a series of catwalks shows, as the focus of the V&A’s Fashion In Motion. This year’s Fashion In Motion events have already seen Giles Deacon and Stephen Jones present their catwalk collections to the public and the initiative has been running for an impressive ten years.

Erdem showed his first collection at the V&A and it is a perfectly timed collaboration, as they unveil their new major exhibition, Decode: Digital Design Sensations.

erdem blue

Erdem has been one of the first new British designers to use technology to his own advantage, incorporating digital printing (pioneered by Basso & Brooke in 2004), which has also been adopted by Marios Schwab, Mary Katranzou and William Tempest. The results are crystal clear precision and a vibrant, more eye-catching effect. It is also a more economical technique, as there is no minimum printing run to break even, and the big fashion houses are now catching on to the trend.

erdem catwalk

The popularity of Erdem’s collections lie in him creating a number of different silhouettes, meaning there is an Erdem look for every shape. Everything is extremely wearable, with Jonathan Saunders-style panelling to complement curves and no unnecessary cut-out detailing or low-fastening.

Erdem has been compared to Christian Lacroix many times and his pieces described as ‘semi-couture’, but there is none of the old-world gaudiness, as Erdem looks towards the fashion of the future.

erdem florals

But while Erdem is one of the main east London players (he’s a fellow Hackney lad), he has further strengthened his more conventional links and collaborated with Bond Street stationers Smythson on a covetable, limited edition range of diaries and notebooks.

erdem diaries

The diaries feature whimsical colour block line drawings engraved and printed on goat-skin leather. There are also a range of notebooks that are covered in Erdem’s signature floral prints with added flower motifs and dashes of gold. All books and diaries are lined with beautiful silk from Erdem’s resort 2010 collection and two pages of illustrations. Prices start at an eye-watering £115 for the Panama Diary, but my guess is that you’ll carry it around with you everywhere and will thus be more organised than ever!

Admission to Fashion In Motion at the V&A is free but booking is essential
Tickets will be available from Monday 30 November
To book call +44 (0)20 7942 2820£115

Afternoon tea, Cafes, London

London's best cupcakes?

July 31, 2009 by cheriecity

London is literally flooded with cupcakes and the flavours of the month are becoming more and more elaborate, but Hummingbird Bakery is the original and, in my opinion, the best.

Hummingbird Bakery is more of a cupcake boutique than a mere bakery, bringing American home-baked goodness to Portobello Road and South Kensington. Cupcakes are kept simple in either vanilla or chocolate with a variety of frosting and sprinkles and of course, the famous Red Velvet – a deep red vanilla sponge with cream cheese frosting.

Hummingbird Bakery

If you’re after an even bigger sugar high, go for a slice of devil’s food cake, a frosted brownie or order a mississippi mud pie to take home.

You can be assured of the Hummingbird’s amazingness by the permanent queue outside of the Notting Hill store. My most memorable visit was arriving at 5.15pm, being honoured as ‘the last customer’, which almost caused a riot behind me, and then having my box filled with a few extra complimentary cupcakes – magic or what!

Hummingbird cakes

I was recently given the Hummingbird Bakery cook book and while my first attempt at cupcakes resembled oversized sugary rocks, my mum’s efforts were pretty close to the mark. So, the recipies are admittedly spot on and my rather bohemian disregard of measurements needs to be reconsidered! Note to self: become a master baker by the end of the year.