As Mondays go, today was a good ‘un. The lovely Jo at Liberty of London contacted me a few weeks ago asking if they’d be able to interview me for the Liberty Blog, so that I could share my Open Call experience. Of course I jumped at the chance! Well, the feature ran on the Liberty Blog this afternoon – you can read it here! Hopefully i’ve made it sound less daunting than it might seem – it really was a great day. With 800 applications already in for the event this year, it looks set to be even bigger and better in 2011! Click here for full details on the next Best of British Open Call.
Back in February I took a few samples along to meet with the buyers at Liberty. I’ve had a crush on the store since forever – some of my earliest memories are of being here (and in the now unfortunately long closed Canterbury branch) sitting on tall piles of rugs, and eating delicious sandwiches and cake in the cafe; so it really went without saying that I wouldn’t be passing on the chance to get some valuable feedback from the people in the know.
It was a long but brilliant (and quite surreal) day. We arrived at 8am to find a queue of hopefuls already stretching almost halfway around the building. I have to admit that by the time we were inside and climbing the stairs a couple of hours later, I was terrified. The buyers on the panel were real troopers – a total of 569 talented designers were seen during the day. I was one of the privileged 40 who were selected to go through to the second round where I met Ed and Kate. We had a great chat and they gave me some brilliant advice and very nice comments, before telling me that they’d like to stock the Cherish Me badges. Amazed – and entirely over the moon – we left to celebrate!
I’d urge anyone even vaguely interested to apply for the next event taking place on Saturday 2nd April 2011. Details are on the Liberty blog it was a great experience, a perfect insight into the usually unseen retail world – and has certainly led to a very interesting year for me.
- Photographs borrowed from The Liberty Blog
First opened in 2007, my long-neglected Etsy store is back in business once again and holding a rather nice range of stock (If I may say so myself) I’m very excited to be back – especially now I can list, and you can purchase in good old British pounds (Or any currency you like in fact…) There’s 20% off at the moment too – just use the code LAUNCH20 at checkout for the discount.
I’ve spent the last little while developing some brand new ideas too – they’ll be unleashed in the new year.
I have big plans for you, 2011!
