“I am often asked what it was like to have a famous mother. I always answer that I really don’t know. I know her first as my mother and then as my best friend. Only after that did I understand that she was an actress and, with time, that she was a truly exceptional actress.” Luca talking about his mum Audrey Hepburn.
Anyone who knows me well will tell you one of the things I love more than anything is celebrating life with friends. With Easter, one of the calendar’s biggest celebrations, just days away, I’ve made sure I’m as organised – all I do is organise – as possible.
Not so very long ago when I was young I used to prick holes at either end of an egg and blow as hard as I could to get the egg out, then dye them and cover them with stickers. Since then I’ve become a little more sophisticated thanks to ‘Martha’ . The egg has been a symbol of fertility since the Romans – no fools them – figured it out. Easter is named for Eastre the Anglo-Saxon goddess of spring, which is where the bunnies (originally a hare) and the eggs come in. I’ve cornered the market in rabbits, and their relations, in every shape and form. In Christian faiths, as I’m sure you know, Easter is more significant than Christmas as it marks the resurrection – but I’m going on here, you can Google this yourself.
images care of Martha Stewart
Every country has it’s Easter tradition, America’s Easter Parade with its hats being one of the more popular – if you’re still looking for ribbons and notions to trim an Easter bonnet, I have to say I have a heart-stopping selection at the store, not that I like a show off. While on the subject of over-exuberance, I hope you’re all aware that the connection between your child’s hyper behavior and a sugar hit is just so much nonsense and myth, otherwise mothers country-wide would act crazy every time they snuck a few Tim Tams from their secret stash. So do me a favour and let everyone enjoy as many Easter eggs as they like.
Tallulah’s easter hat parade
In the middle of my Easter table I’m having a parade of multi-coloured plastic chickens and roosters, who look as though they’re wearing Missoni, and they do make me laugh. My only concern this holiday is my daughter Tallulah’s horror when she found out Robert and I are flying to Hong Kong on business on Easter Sunday; she cursed me as a bad parent. I only hope I’m there to see the look on her face the day it dawns on her just what peas-in-a-pod she and I are. That will be Easter, Christmas, and a couple of birthdays, all in one.
PHOEBE’S POINT I’m the go-to girl for Easter bonnet ribbons and Easter table decorations and, for goodness sake, eat as many Easter eggs as you want.
moss bunnies from Papier d’Amour
Nothing irritates me more than laziness. Everything – big or small – could be improved with a little extra attention. As a mother I could go on here, as I like to do, about the state of the nation and my children’s future but instead I’ll stick to the business I know best and suggest your world would be a far better place if you set your table with flair.
Why plan for weeks, creating a beautiful invitation and fretting over the food, only to neglect the ambience? What guest doesn’t sing better for their supper when they notice the trouble you’ve put into making the occasion a celebration of friendship? And believe me, people – especially men – notice effort.
Dress the table with the intention of delighting the eye (and a useful diversion if you’re no Masterchef). Decide on a theme that flows from the invitation to the food to the table. Do I need to nag about linen, glassware and cutlery being spotless? (White cotton gloves from a pharmacy are the trick here.) Try popping the place cards in a fork’s tines to give that detail a bit of a modern kick. If the guests aren’t all known to each other, put the name on both sides as a helpful hint.
Plot the seating so the conversation hums – separate couples so they sparkle rather than play out their dreary routine. Do you light tapers or tea lights or bask in the glow from a muddle of candlesticks? Flowers, while I love, often interfere with the palate’s appreciation, so consider setting about ‘objects’ that relate to your theme instead (I have a shop full of things that would be perfect). Don’t, whatever you do, neglect the space above the table, which bring us to my passion of the moment: delicate, floating tissue paper pompoms.
PHOEBE’S POINT – Dress your table for a party as well as you’d dress yourself.
I have had a number of moments in the spotlight, albeit brief, I am still very grateful. You have to admit it is great for business and profile and all that marketing stuff. It is also wonderful to be treated to hair and makeup and have a wardrobe like Sarah Jessica’s Parkers to choose from. Believe it or not I don’t wear these clothes in my down time…nor does my daughter Tallulah.
Anyway the only downside of these exercises is the photos that you really like are usually the ones you never see – well not this time… here they are…
The rest are in this months Australian Harper’s Bazaar
Demi Moore applying lipstick to one of her children
Talitha Getty, a style icon of the 60s died at age 31
Shirley MacLaine and daughter Sachi
Jackie Kennedy cutting and pasting
Vietnemese mother at work with her children
Each Tuesday morning we have our Papier d’Amour staff meeting, aimed at ensuring that we maintain the best customer service and a great product range for all of you shoppers out there. Amongst all the inspiring and positive topics that we cover, the girls also report on any customer complaints that may have been received. I don’t often find it necessary to justify myself to customers, but when someone complained last week that we had put our Mother’s Day window in too early, I simply could NOT hold my tongue.
As a small retailer in Double Bay, Sydney, we pride ourselves on our original and creative approach to retail. So when I go about my responsibilities as a store owner, I don’t just do things on a whim. Monthly purchasing budgets are carefully set and adhered to and staffing is based on customer traffic and store targets, calculated from previous years’ sales.
Also, I set a window dressing schedule for the year, taking all these factors into account with the timing of seasonal occasions. And because I often do the window myself, it is based on when I can actually get the time to physically do it (we also run a graphic design studio out the back of the store, creating unique invitations, where the workload is often unpredictable. And to top it all off, I have a family to consider that includes a husband (yes, an extremely helpful one), two busy teenagers and a very active 9 year old.
So this year Easter ended on 5th April and Mothers Day is on the 9th May, which is 5 weeks apart. Replacing the Easter window with an interim arrangement would mean having to change it 2 to 3 weeks later and as a time-poor small retailer, this is just not economically viable. More importantly, many customers purchase items such as personal stationery for their mothers, so we are constantly trying to educate them of the need to get organised early to avoid disappointment. I know we live in a very instantaneous world however we are not a one hour photolab.
It is very annoying when the large department stores put in Easter displays in January as soon as Christmas is over – I do get that. But no one seems to complain when a sale window goes in. No one says “It’s too early for a sale window”.
Anyway, my point is that I would love to have the time to change the window every two to three weeks or the financial freedom to pay someone to do it for me. The reality is, I don’t. And if we did turn over the windows in such a short timeframe, some of our customers would never see some of our creative displays that hopefully inspire them.
So, on Easter Monday, while many of you (I am not saying all of you) were relaxing and enjoying the holiday, I enlisted the services of my sister Samantha and together we created this Mother’s Day masterpiece.
Sometimes you do have to give yourself a rap!
So I would love to hear your comments – is it too early? Comments from shoppers and retailers would be VERY interesting…
I think we may have started a tissue pom pom revolution. We have quite a few customers that we would put into the ‘Crafty Spice’ category who find making the pom poms a walk in the park. But for those of you that need a little help I am holding a workshop on Saturday 24th April down at the 30 Days Live House in Waterloo.
The workshop is all about creating the perfect atmosphere for your guests’ entertainment experience. Everybody can set a table, but how do you make it look amazing? So amazing that your guests will be taken aback when they enter the room. It is the small details that can make a guest’s experience so much more memorable.
Products used in the workshop like the lanterns below will be available to purchase at the traders market. I have included an image that 30 days of home and entertaining is using to promote the event, which we just love!
To book a place at the workshop or see what else is happening have a look at www.30daysofhomeandentertaining.com.au
It has been a long time between blogs and it is really time to get more diligent so I have decided to make them short and very very sweet. If you wander the streets of Double Bay at the moment you will encounter over 80 mannequins painted, decorated and embellished by local artists. It is such a fantastic way to get children and the more uncultured beings we know interested in art. The festival runs till this Sunday 28th March. If you come to Papier d’Amour you (or more importantly your children) can help Amy decorate our mannequin. It is like having a childminding service while you shop – what fantastic service.
The mannequin photographed is by artist Megan McGlip who is training in illustration. I haven’t met her but we loveeeeeee the mannequin. My other favourite mannequins are retired hatmakers Isabel Klompe’s, which is mainly covered in meticulously placed ribbon, Stephanie Tetu’s ‘Miss Congeniality’ and ‘Inner Beauty’ by Adam Long. Come and vote for your favourite!
Isn’t it great when when you have a party and everyone pitches in. Like when you have a BBQ and someone brings the salad, someone brings the bread and someone brings the beer. I always do the decorations because that is just my thing. Some may not think it is a necessity but I strongly disagree – it sets the mood, the tone and shows everyone that you are serious about having a great time. Anyway, so we are having a small soiree at our Double Bay store and everyone is pitching in. Simmone Logue is providing the nibblies – how lucky are we? Robert Oatley vineyards are bringing the wines and Tuesday Designs the decoration, so to speak.
Who or what is Tuesday Designs you may well ask – well, when in one of my favourite stores in Melbourne a year or so ago I came across these most divine embossed works on paper and we all know that I have always had a fascination with paper and age old paper printing techniques. Since subsequently acquiring the pieces, I would have to say they are one of our single most popular items.
Tuesday Designs is a collaboration between sisters Taryn and Elise Eales.
The girls have created, in their paper and textile works, a world of whimsy that belongs to childhood.
Each work borrows from fantasies of dress up and play. Dresses are meticulously pieced together from pieces of antique fabric while birds peer from cages of embossed paper or out of pear trees that look like clouds. Skirts hide the blackbird in the rain, a hot air balloon ball-gown is perfect for that windy Sunday picnic and the bluebird of happiness dress must always be worn for birthday parties… Each wing is painstakingly pieced together after perhaps hours of sifting through piles of tiny off-cuts searching for the perfect piece. Most are sourced from the remnants of vintage kimonos… marks and darnings are intrinsic to each piece revealing its history, …a geisha’s undergarment… if only it could speak, oh the stories she might tell, and how might we blush…
“We describe our work as much about our relationship and closeness as sisters as it is about anything else. “We have always been close, always held hands when crossing the road and always finished each other’s sentences. Perhaps that is an appropriate way of looking at our artwork… as a sentence or thought finished by the other.”
“Our work is a collection of birds that inhabit not just the parks and gardens of childhood but our present sleeping and waking dreams. They peer shyly from the skirts of freshly ironed frocks, proudly from the tallest trees, and our paper cages will not hold them long… they are free to come and go as they wish. Don’t imagine for a moment that they will be silenced as is the fate of many behind glass… their songs will lull your children to sleep and colour your blue and red days.”
We would love you all to join us to meet Taryn and Elise on Thursday 22nd October 6.00 to 9.00pm for a drink or two and see their amazing collection of works. We may also have sneak peak of chrissy instore. If you could let us know if you are coming that would be wonderful store@papierdamour.com.au or 9362 5200.
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save the date • sunday 8th may
Sit up straight. You call this clean? What have you done with your hair? I’m always here. I said no and that’s final. What were you thinking? Close your mouth when you chew. You’re not going dressed like that. Don’t be a baby. You’re not old enough yet. Not until you’ve earned it. You tried your best. Are you deaf? This isn’t a hotel. Pick up your feet. I can tell when you’re lying. Ask your father. One day you’ll thank me. When it’s your house you can do what you like. What did I say the last time? Who do you think you’re talking to? Call me when you get there. I’m so proud of you. You will always be my baby. Where did I get you? You didn’t learn that from me. Stop that racket! You’re awfully quiet in there. I’m not your maid. I’m not always going to be around. I have eyes in the back of my head, you know. Brush your teeth. Would you jump off the Harbour Bridge because everybody else did? Come and give me a kiss when you get home. You were my always my favourite. I love you no matter what.
PHOEBE’S POINT People come and go but mother’s remain
Make it a Papier d’Amour Mother’s Day on Sunday May 8 – Ribbons & Notions, stationery boxes, plus a new shipment of must-have Kate Spade. Phoebe’s favourites below…