I hope everyone is enjoying their summer. Just a quick posting to advertise that our stock clearance sale is now on until August 15^th 2010. 50% off any dress from both previous and current collections.

Feel free to e-mail us for a copy of our look book for Autumn/Winter 10/11.  

Premierevision at Parc d’Expositions filled the last four days of our two week stint in Paris. We rented a very small but very classical apartment in the eleventh Arrondisement in Oberkampf, a very blue collar and current trendy part of the city. Bars nestled between Muslim book shops, bistros and mosques created for a lively atmosphere. We arrived at the flat in the midst of Egypt scoring three goals against Algeria in the football resulting in a balanced mixture of smiles and scowls from heaving bars airing the match! We were both pretty knackered, though maintained the determination to stretch our legs and pick up a bottle of wine to close the exhausting day off to. The flat was ideal, just enough room to swing a baguette and tailor made for a week off where we could just concentrate on the online commitments of the business. One of the best markets for food rests on the plateau at Belleville (where legend has it, Edith Piaf was born under a street lamp) and takes place every Tuesday and Friday. Discovering this bustling market with its narrow lane and endless variety of fantastic cheap foods allowed for the financial sting of Paris to be easily diluted. Having some spring like temperatures and a bit of sunshine made for a lovely first week. The city plodded along at a nice pace and the authenticity of its character was visible in the parks and down by the river banks.

On the 9^th of February, the opening day of Premierevision, the relentless winter we thought we had bid adieu to in Berlin caught up with us! French cities, much like English cities become extremely puzzled when having to deal with even the slightest delivery of snow and this became apparent on the 10^th with commuter chaos during the RER commute from our metro stop to the trade fair. Any organisation by SNCF simply went out the window, leaving trains full of confused fair attendants standing in the cold for hours awaiting instruction on how to complete the journey to Parc d’Expositions. Parisians, contrary to popular belief, are very polite and gracious for the most part (civil servants and bus drivers aside), but impatience knows no nationality and before long, the train platform threw down the gloves and engaged in a seeming prison rule mentality of scrambling for first placement on the better late than never buses laid on by French Rail.

Arriving at Parc d’Expositions cemented the fact that online registration for any trade fair is the only way to go. Pre-registered lines run like clock work and one can immediately begin to navigate the floors, pick up the provided necessary in print material and map out agendas from on site cafes. Our own approach was for Magdalena to address fabrics and for myself to address manufacturing. Four days is just enough time and though overwhelming in options, there was a much more casual feel to this fair than the previous one we had visited in Milan two years ago. Certain snobbery when ones brand is not immediately recognised or considered worthy of time was few and far between here and even when encountered is best taken with a pinch of salt.

All in all, pieces of the puzzle really fell into place for us during the fair and eliminated concerns and obstacles as a North American brand attempting establishment within Europe. Some truly tasty threads this way commeth!

January 2010 served us a very full plate. We had extended our stay in Berlin to accommodate the work load. The recent move from the former West to the former East of the city left little time for us to even notice the record number of days that the sun stayed absent from Germany. With the autumn-winter collection underway, it was easy to bunker down and lock ourselves away from the frigid cold to address what we needed to address.

The photoshoot was very much just in the correspondence stages and materials for samples and supplies were arriving daily from our suppliers in Italy and back in Canada. Unanticipated visits to the customs office for parcel collection were only slight inconveniences. We had established strong encouragement at the end of 2009 from our new German agency and wanted to present the collection for her to discuss with clients attending the Bread and Butter fair at the Tempelhof Airport on the 20^th to the 22^nd of January.

 Bread and Butter was the pinnacle example of German organisation and truly impressive on all fronts. From the venue to the staffing, the production to the over all panache, the team responsible for organising the world’s largest clothing trade fair did their jobs impeccably. This was Bread and Butter’s return to its origin after a decade of having the fair held in Barcelona.  Though we did not have a visible presence as far as a booth, we had our agency on hand to discuss our collections with buyers of other labels from her impressive roster. The majority of networking from these events tends to happen in the weeks after the fairs and this proved true when learning of our line being picked up all over Germany.

As anticipated, larger established labels truly dominate the floor space at B & B, but there was an element of comfort about the whole show and even the smallest of booths attempting brand recognition, made wonderful efforts on the creative front with elaborate booths and cheeky give-aways. Definitely a strong learning curve for us, resulting in a rewarding pat on the back for one another for what we believe are equally strong styles for the consumer! Berlin stirred from its winter slumber over the course of the fair and Bread & Butter lay rightful claim to its self proclaimed title “The Original”.

 On the 28^th of January, we packaged all of our machines, fabrics and must haves and somehow made it through unshovelled streets to the DHL office and sent four massive boxes to the studio in Sicily (more about this later). That same day we also returned keys to the Friedrichshain apartment, dropped off samples with the agency, discussed the shoot with Sebastian the photographer and made our way to board our flights from Schonefeld to Paris Orly to recoup for a week prior to our reason for being in Paris, the Premierevision fabric fair.

On January 24^th 2010, on the coldest day of the Berlin winter, some twenty degrees below the freezing point, the Marmalade autumn/winter 10/11 photoshoot came together under the roof of an eclectic bistro in Schoneberg, Berlin.

Two months earlier, in November, we had attended, by invitation of Suzan, the bistro owner, an exhibition by photographer  Sebastian Doering, where after introduction to one another, decided to put a creative together for shooting the new collection of our mod clothing & 60s style dresses.

Time was becoming of the element due to our own departure from Berlin for the trade show in Paris and Sebastian’s own agenda as a busy working commercial photographer. We arranged to meet and to see what we could put together for the following Sunday. The project would prove to be a phenomenal effort from all involved with a certain serendipitous element and clear patience and generosity of those involved.

For the faces of the shoot, we were fortunate enough to obtain the faith and interest of Nadja (for who we simply approached with proposition on the U-Bahn when traveling back from collecting fabric from customs) and also Cecile, for whom we were introduced to at the infamous former haunt of Bowie and Iggy Pop, Bar M.  Fortunately, due to the extreme cold weather, many outside film projects had been postponed and we locked down the services of make up artist Martina Яojnica.

Photographers Sebastian, Jenny and Tomas arrived on set at 10:00 AM with full artillery of lights and brollies into the bistro that Suzan had already begun to eclectically set decorate. By 2:30 pm, after all the necessary introductions, pots of coffee and some Dutch courage, the fourteen hour marathon shoot began.

Our most sincere gratitude to the following for their dedication to the project.

Shot on location at Rote Beete cafe bar, Gleditschstr. 71, 10781, Berlin.

The above photographs are a teaser and the full results of the photoshoot will be available to view here and online at marmalade-shop.com as the A/W season approaches.

Guten Rutsch! For the month of January, we are having our sale and offering 30% off our current collection (25% off for wholesale customers too!). We have recently relocated from our live/work studio in Schoneberg to Friedrichshain. Regular service will resume soon with blog entries. Lots of club-bar-restaurant suggestions and even some quick peaks at the new collection that currently resides on every imaginable surface in the studio. Hope everyone had a great Christmas and a great start to this, the new decade. Keep checking back for updates and drop us a line if you have your eye on something from the current collection to see if it is in stock.