Page 134 – A Little Bird

30th October 201331st August 2022

Jeweller Vicki Sarge on the joys of Elizabeth Street

After an illustrious 30 years as co-founder and designer with Erickson Beamon, I felt the time was right to launch my own name brand. VICKISARGE introduces my new business partner Brooke Metcalfe. VICKISARGE is a fresh chapter in our story and I am thrilled to have Brooke on board.

This September, with much anticipation and excitement, we reopened as VICKISARGE. The launch party was a huge amount of fun and the champagne certainly flowed freely! Pop star, Paloma Faith cut the ribbon to a colourful gathering from the worlds of fashion, art, film and jewellery, and a lucky few found a gold coin inside their bags, winning a piece from our new collections.

The boutique was completely transformed in a very short space of time. Brooke’s unique interior vision was realized with the dedication and hard work of London design duo Not-Tom.

The wonderful sculptures which feature throughout, were hand crafted by the talented sculptor and great friend of mine, Oriel Harwood. Her aesthetic was the perfect touch to our new look.

My boutique (No. 38) has been situated on Elizabeth Street, Belgravia for over twenty years. It was a very different street when we first moved in. Chester Square, nearby, was extremely lively, and Elizabeth Street serviced all the nearby residents. It was an upmarket foodie street, with a fishmonger, a butcher, a bread shop and a great green grocer. But that wasn’t all. Philip Treacy and the designer Deborah Milner both had shops on Elizabeth Street even back then, and that was what made me realize that our jewellery shop and workshop could work there too.

It was Isabella and Detmar Blow who introduced Philip Treacy (No. 69) to Elizabeth Street. They lived there for years, and they gave Philip a studio in their basement. They did the same for Alexander McQueen a few years later. Philip then got his own independent shop, and I was next. I found a house across the street from Philip’s shop, and now, in my basement, which is now a workshop, there are about twenty people making our pieces.

I can’t praise Elizabeth Street enough. It’s perfect. You can pick up so many things there – from the everyday to the one-off. And it’s still great for food shopping.

I love H. R. Stokes (No. 58), a few doors up the road from us. It sells greeting cards and books, but it’s one of those shops that seems to have a bit of everything – stationary, well chosen toys, and gifts for kids and tiny, candy striped boxes of chocolates wrapped in silver paper.

Then there is Les Senteurs (No. 71), which is the best scent shop in London. It’s a beautiful shop and you can get scent and soap there that you can’t find anywhere else in London, such as Frederick Malle perfume. Great candles too.

Jo Loves (No. 42), the new start-up by perfumer Jo Malone, has just opened it’s first stand alone store next door to us. It’s a gorgeous shop and I can’t wait to explore their scents.

Donna Ida (No. 40) is great for jeans and tops – casual things that are really well designed and made. You can’t go in there and not find something you want to buy.

The street also has some fabulous eateries, I am a regular at Oliveto’s (No. 49) across the road. It does the best pizza in London, and they’ve just opened an ice cream store called Olivogelo (No. 28) on the other side of Ebury Street.

Tom Tom’s (No. 63) do a wonderful coffee, as well as cigars and whisky, and Peggy Porschen (No. 30) create the most incredible cup cakes. Poilane (No. 46), the French bakery, produces delicious bread and pastries – if I’m running out to dinner I’ll pick up one of their apples cakes to take as a present.

If I need wine then Jeraboams (No. 50 – 52) is great. It’s also on Elizabeth Street. And there’s, The Grosvenor Stationary Company (No.47), which is as good for stationary and diaries as Smythson, Baker & Spice (No. 54 – 56), a speciality dog and cat shop (Mungo and Maud No. 79) that sells unbelievably chic accessories for pets. What else could you want? Buckingham Palace? It’s just down the road.

VICKISARGE: 38 Elizabeth Street, London SW1W 9NZ

All interior photographs by Merry Brownfield.

30th October 201314th October 2021

Our favourite escapes with kids

Anyone who travels with children in tow knows the life-changing effects of a brilliantly conceived, child-friendly destination. Clubs, activites and in-room treats can make all the difference to holidaying with little people – here’s a round-up of our current favorites for last-minute half-term escapes or Christmas breaks.

The New Forest’s Limewood just got a little more child friendly with the addition of stunning woodland lodges. The two cottages and cabin are like a Ralph Lauren fantasy come to life – chunky wooden interiors, vast luxurious bathrooms, piles of wood for the roaring fire. But they’ve been designed with families in mind and with all the convenience of the hotel (treatments at the Herb House spa, delicious dinner deliveries from Hartnett Holder & Co etc). But if you want to wallow in seclusion you can – each lodge is self-contained with a kitchenette and lots of treats for little ones including a Hansel and Gretel bunk cut from tree branches. From £650 per night; www.limewood.co.uk, 023 8028 7177

From the moment that the birds of prey start flying down the vast corridors of Bovey Castle just after breakfast it’s clear that this is no ordinary luxury bolthole. The Dartmoor hotel is famed for its outdoorsy activities from falconry to archery, clay pigeon shooting to fishing and riding. Kids over 7 can join the Rangers club while smaller ones have a playroom to keep them safe. There’s a Lego room service menu too and rustic lodges if you would prefer to have some quiet family time in the grounds of the hotel. From £361; www.boveycastle.com, 0844 474 0077

Kids’ entertainers extraordinaire Sharky & George are on hand during the holidays at the Four Seasons Hampshire, making this possibly the favoured destination for any parent who has come across this duo’s outrageously fun activities. This weekend there will be a Halloween special with tea-time tricks and treats and a themed kids’ dinner party, then throughout the Christmas holidays the games go on with tea-time activities daily from 5pm – 7pm. From £256 for a family room; www.fourseasons.com/hampshire, 01252 853 000

Tresanton’s beautifully styled and exquisitely located hotel overlooking the stunning south Cornish coast is a picture perfect destination for kids; there are sumptuous family suites here (as well as houses if you prefer), a playroom, a cinema and a wendy house in an enclosed garden while high tea is served daily too. There are plenty of outdoors activities from kayaking and sailing, and the beach is right on the doorstep for crabbing expeditions. From £330; www.tresanton.com, 01326 270 055

8th October 201314th October 2021

Guest Blog: Kerry Taylor

I worked for Sotheby’s for twenty-three years (I was their youngest ever auctioneer) before leaving to set up my own specialist vintage fashion and textile auction house in 2004. It felt like a bit of a gamble at the time – but in retrospect it was the best thing I ever did. Kerry Taylor Auctions is now one of the leading auction rooms specialising in vintage fashion and textile sales worldwide and we have handled super-stylish collections belonging to the honourable Daphne Guinness, Princess Gloria von Thurn und Taxis, Leslie Caron, Princess Diana and Audrey Hepburn to name but a few.

I sit in my saleroom in Bermondsey surrounded by 18^th century brocaded silk gowns, 1920s flapper dresses, Dior New Look haute couture, cutting edge Alexander McQueen couture creations, Hermes bags, Chanel jewellery, Vuitton luggage and think to myself ‘Well it’s a hard job, but someone has to do it’.

Nothing beats being your own boss and I love the job I do. There is no such thing as a typical day for me. Each week brings an array of new clients, new challenges and new discoveries. The clients who visit seeking a valuation can range from Princesses with unwanted haute couture to aging unemployed rockers with a bit of Westwood – but all are welcome. During the day I can be found buried knee deep in a lace collection or forensically examining the insides of a 1930s haute couture satin evening gown by Gabrielle (Coco) Chanel.

My clients interest me almost as much as the textiles. This week I had a lovely Japanese client who had been one of the first couture clients in Tokyo in the 1960s. She brought in an array of colourful mini-dresses as well as beautiful Hermes bags and accessories from the 1970s. Each piece evoked a memory for her – including three Pucci ties, which had belonged to a fiancée she told me she had jilted! Next through the door was a very stylish young woman who had brought some top-end designer evening-wear to sell. She became upset as she explained that her boyfriend had told her to clear some of her wardrobe and she was very sad to lose the clothes. I advised her to keep the dresses and jettison the boyfriend! She kept the clothes.

A lady from an aristocratic family from North Wales filled her car to the top with the contents of an attic of the old family pile, which turned up some very rare Edwardian Redfern creations, lavish bridal wear and court presentation gowns complete with photographs of the beauties who had originally owned them. I love these old family collections as they can often include historically important treasures – and for me it is important to keep the provenance with the objects for future reference.

We also receive parcels sent from across the world– as the fame of our sales spreads globally. First of all people email me pictures to get a rough valuation and if we think the pieces are suitable for the auction they simple parcel them up and send them to me. Every day is like Christmas as the postman delivers packages to our door. Opening them to see what lies inside still thrills me after all these years. Our buyers are also international and about 50% of everything we sell we export.

When we have a sale on view – the room is filled with dealers, private collectors, women in search of a unique evening gown, bridal gown, snappy little Chanel suit to wear etc, fashion designers in search of inspiration, students and museum curators. Some are real regulars and there is very much a sense of being part of a KTA club as people swap stories and advice in the days leading up to the auction.

Our next auction is on October 14^th, which also coincides with the launch of my book ‘Vintage Fashion and Couture: From Poiret to McQueen’. The book was a labour of love (working on it any spare moment snatched when I wasn’t working doing the day job) and is filled with illustrations of some of the beautiful garments I have sold over the years and some of the stylish women who encapsulated the look of each decade. When I look through the pages I think what a privileged person I am to have handled so many interesting and important things. It’s going to be an action-packed week!

Vintage Fashion & Couture by Kerry Taylor published by Mitchell Beazley, £25

An Hermès brown crocodile Kelly bag, 1974. Sold £5,500, June 2013

Audrey Hepburn's Edith Head-designed ivory lace gown from 'Roman Holiday', 1952 but also adapted and worn to collect her Oscar for the same film in 1954. Sold £70,000, November 2011

An Alexander McQueen for Givenchy couture wildflower embroidered gown, probably Autumn-Winter, 1999. Sold £30,000, December 2012

2nd October 201331st August 2022

Eat by Nigel Slater

We love Nigel and we especially love his new book, Eat: The Little Book of Fast Food. It’s a bit of a game changer, this book: as neat and concise as Slater’s recent tomes (the brilliant volumes of Tender, in particular) have been lavish and microscopically detailed. Eat is simply a book of recipes: each one short, straightforward and delicious, each accompanied by a photograph. Most also come with an extra Slater thought or two, written in bullet points: how to bone a chicken leg, for example, or suggestions for alternative ingredients. Slater assumes nothing with this book – except his reader’s desire to eat great food made with premium produce. No garden, no veg patch, no pastry skills, little time? This book will work for you. It works for everyone. You know that mid-week feeling, when you've got to get yet another supper on the table after work? This book solves that. Truly! I got my hands on it last week, am on my fourth recipe, and have yet to chop an onion. How blissful is that? And yet nothing has tasted hurried, and not an ingredient has been compromised.

So get this book. It's small, fits on your work space, has a cloth cover, looks great, and it works. The recipes I've tried so far – Mackerel with Bulgur and Tomatoes; Soba Noodles, Salmon and Prawns; Salt and Pepper Pork; Squid Stuffed with Judion Beans and Tomato – all got massive thumbs up round the dinner table, but so that you don't have to take my word for it, we've wrangled permission to reproduce a particularly brill recipe, below. Oh, and we've also got three signed – yes, signed – copies of Eat to give away. To win one, fill in the form below by 5pm on Thursday 17th October, when we'll pick three lucky names out of a hat.

Mackerel with Bulgur and Tomato

mackerel, bulgur, tomatoes, vegetable stock, red wine vinegar.

Heat 400ml vegetable stock in a saucepan, then pour it over 150g bulgur wheat and set aside for 15 minutes or so, until most of the liquid has been absorbed by the grain.

Halve 8 medium-sized tomatoes and cook them under an overhead grill till soft and the skins have started to blacken. Remove the skins, pour in a tablespoon of red wine vinegar and season with black pepper. Crush the tomatoes with a fork to give a thick, roughly textured sauce and keep warm.

Brush 4 mackerel fillets with a little oil, season with salt and pepper, then cook under an overhead grill for a few minutes, skin side down, till the fish is opaque and a flake will pull away from the skin. I like to turn the fillets skin-side up for a minute or so, to crisp them lightly. Divide the bulgur between 2 plates, add the mackerel fillets, then spoon over the grilled tomato sauce.

For 2. Homely grain. The sweet sharp joy of tomatoes.

30th September 201314th October 2021

Beautiful Fabrics by Barneby Gates

nown for its beautiful printed wallpapers, Barneby Gates debuts an upholstery fabric collection this month featuring boxing hares, deer, a pretty star print (my favourite) as well as butterflies and honeybees, all of which are applied to a natural coloured cotton/linen mix. Founded by ex-Vogue Living Editor, Vanessa Barneby, and artist Alice Gates, the company is best loved for its intricate, and often wry, designs which grace some of the prettiest homes in the country.

24th September 201314th October 2021

One Fine Stay Paris

As much as the beds are Le Meurice are an absolute joy (seriously they are the most comfortable beds in the whole world) and as much as it’s great fun to camp out in a sceney it-hotel like Hotel Costes, what’s even better than either, is staying in someone’s own Paris apartment. So we were very excited to hear that One Fine Stay is adding Paris (and LA) to its portfolio of homes in New York and London, and it has some great French properties from a vast, airy house with a leafy patio on Rue des Dames in Batignolles to more typically Parisian flat on Rue Raynouard with stunning glimpses of the Eiffel tower. For anyone not familiar with the site – you pay per night to stay in a member’s home, irrespective of how many people are travelling in your party; the locations are very carefully curated and One Fine Stay has a fleet of cleaners, meet and greeters and people on the ground to make it feel like a properly luxurious experience. Best of all, each property comes with an iPhone with local recommendations from the owners so you can go for dinner at their favorite neighbourhood brasserie, find the most delicious pastries for breakfast or discover hidden gems that you wouldn’t otherwise know about. There’s only one draw-back to this model – because these are real homes they are not always free when you need them. So keep an open mind when you book – you may need to trade the Marais for Montmartre.

Plus don’t forget to check out our Paris Travel Guide here.

13th September 201331st August 2022

A Love For Food by Daylesford

A lovely cookbook and a perfect way to get going in the kitchen with all the fantastic produce that autumn brings (one early recipe is for blackcurrant vodka: cheering, no?) What's particularly great about the Daylesford cook book – of course it's brimming with fab seasonal recipes and great photography, you would expect nothing less – but what makes it stand out is the fact that it's packed with contributions by the various Daylesford experts. So the guy who actually grows the salad, writes about that, and the guy who keeps chickens writes about eggs (and is revelatory about what really happens in most free-range systems). So you get really top-notch tips about food throughout the book: growing it, buying it, cooking it and eating it. But this isn't a preachy book at all: it's a celebration of everything that grows in Britain and it makes you want to cook all those things immediately. The chapter on savoury tarts and pies and the section on slow-cooked casseroles and stews are especially good, and the melt-in-the-mouth-good lemon shortbread biscuits we made yesterday have now disappeared.

4th July 201331st August 2022

Black Isle Bakery

If you are anywhere near Hoxton on a Saturday, do head over to Hoxton Street Market where you will find a stall run by the Black Isle Bakery. We actually travel pretty far across town to get our hands on baker Ruth Barry’s delicious treats. Yep. They are that good. Barry grew up on the Black Isle, and studied art, before turning her hand to baking and working with Christophe Vasseur in Paris. Now that she has returned to London, she has set up the Black Isle Bakery. Her stall at Hoxton Market is an essay in minimalism: it sells a small selection of savoury buns filled with things like mushroom and thyme or cabbage and goat’s cheese, and just one or two sweet things. When we went last week, as well as picking up one of each flavour of savoury bun (including the best smoked salmon sandwich we have ever eaten), we bought bite size cakes flavoured with lemon, pistachio and coffee, and a small slab of melt-in-your-mouth tablet. It all tastes deliciously good, yes, but as well as that, you have the sensation of eating something beautifully crafted, which is immensely pleasurable and satisfying. Do have a look at the Black Isle Bakery website too, where Barry photographs her delicacies so that they look like still-life oil paintings. If anything, her goods taste even better than they look, and that’s saying something.

19th June 201327th October 2021

Our favourite new jewellery from Loquet

Whilst we’ve always loved the idea of charms and lockets, of carefully collecting them over the years, of building up memories through gifts from friends and loved ones (or giving them to others such as godchildren), we’ve never really found the right lockets. Until now. The brainchild of best friends Sheherazade Goldsmith and Laura Bailey, Loquet is a gorgeous collection of simple gold and glass lockets that you can fill with jewels, motifs and letters, all themed from Dreams to Friendship. The genius lies in being able to put together exactly the locket that you want – from necklace (18″ or 32″, 9kt or 18kt), to locket shape (round or heart) to charm (there are detailed instructions to help). Prices start at £399 for a locket and charms are £20 upwards although we’re tempted to spend so very, very much more…

19th June 201314th October 2021

Brunswick House

Vauxhall roundabout has a strange no-mans-land feel to it – where tube, train and bus stations meet and hi-rise modern buildings block the Thames from view – but then there’s Lassco’s, a stunning Georgian home that houses thousands of ‘architectural antiques, salvage and curiosities’ for sale. And inside Lassco’s itself is another hidden gem – Brunswick House – a restaurant and bar where the interiors change each day, depending on what has been sold by the landlords.

Jackson and Frank Boxer opened Brunswick House Café 3 years ago, now the ‘café’ bit has gone and they serve some seriously good, fresh English food. Enjoy a homemade lemonade, grapefruit fizz or virgin Bloody Mary in the courtyard before a lunch of cuttlefish, fennel & new potatoes, or pork and duck terrine, or quail, butterbeans and new season onions. Lunch is a bargain – 2-courses for £16.80 and 3-courses for £19.80, Monday to Friday.

In the evening Brunswick House steps up a notch, perfect for a date or night out with group of friends. We particularly like the cocktails – Sours, Brunswick Martini, The Brunswick Pimms, Negronis – and it has a great wine list too, with wines by the glass, carafe and bottle. All in all, it adds up to one of our favourite dining spots of the moment. See you there!

12th June 201331st August 2022

The best linen & bedding

Revelation time. We’ve always known the importance of a good bed and how, for reasons obvious, you should buy the best you can afford. We’ve always bought good pillows too, and a couple of years ago splashed out on a duvet filled with Siberian Goose Down. That was a worthy investment. But our sheets and duvet cover, while perfectly good and made of high quality cotton, weren’t great – though we didn’t even realise this until last week, when a new duvet cover we’d ordered from one of our favourite websites, Cachette, arrived fresh from France. Rev-e-lation! Listen: it was a really expensive duvet cover – kingsize and made of heavy linen – so we were expecting it to be good, but even so we were surprised at how much difference it’s made to the way we sleep. It’s been so worth the money. It’s the right weight, the right temperature (it’s never cold the way cotton can be), and feels unbelievably luxurious and comfortable. It’s also available in ten lovely colours, all made using artisanal, eco-friendly tints – though we find white the most restful. The added bonus of linen, too, is that it looks best when slightly rumpled, so it doesn’t need ironing. We’re saving up for sheets. See Cachette’s linen, here. Prices start at €155 for a single duvet cover or €165 for a sheet.

Other Lovely Things for Beds

As well as our brill buy from Cachette, we’ve sought out some other lovely things for beds, including more sheets, quilts and cushions.

We’d like a whole pile of these silk Ikat cushions on our bed, please. Available in different colours and designs, £100 each, from Ben Pentreath.

We’ve got a thing for blue and white stripes, and it works particularly well on bedding. The Treviso Alabaster range from Designer’s Guild is our favourite. It’s linen too, so again, feels wonderful to sleep under, and looks best slightly creased, so doesn’t need ironing. Prices start at £85 for a single sheet.

Lovely Kantha Quilt, made by Fair and Square, £85, available at Monsoon. It’s a Fair Trade piece too, which means Monsoon will donate 10% of its price to worthy causes.

These Brinkhaus pillows, filled with duck down and duck feathers, are fantastically comfortable and well worth the investment. £79 from House of Fraser.

We love this sleeping bag, £128, from Anthropologie.

For something bold and graphic, this Kissing Rabbit duvet cover and pillow cases by Anorak at the Linen House, are great, and start at only £45 a set.

If you want plain, crisp white cotton sheets, then the Tribeca range from Designer’s Guild is ideal. It’s made with Egyptian cotton, has a 300 thread count, and is reasonably priced, from £45 for a single sheet.

Divine traditional Canadian Macausland’s Blanket, all wool, £175, from Toast.

Pretty kids’ quilt – the sort you long to find in a French market, £140, from Designer’s Guild.

5th June 201331st August 2022

Rory O’Connell’s Master It

We’ve been waiting for this cook book for a long time – ever since we first tasted Rory O’Connell’s food at Ballymaloe House, and then did one of his cookery courses at his house nearby in Shanagarry, East Cork. O’Connell was head chef at Ballymaloe for ten years. He also co-founded, with his sister, Darina Allen, the Ballymaloe Cookery School and still teaches there as well as at his Shanagarry house. O’Connell is an incredible chef and and an inspired teacher. And this, his first book, is a teaching book, which you will learn much from, whether you are a beginner or a really experienced cook. It’s one of those seminal cook books that helps change the way you approach food and shopping, cooking and eating, and more than anything else, it shows you how to take real pleasure in all these tasks. It also has the best introduction to any cook book that we’ve ever read. The recipes are fantastic. O’Connell has impeccable taste, so everything is the perfect version of itself, without ever being fussy or pretentious, and his instructions have been honed over years of teaching and cooking. Plus, he suggests how and when to serve things, so you don’t just get recipes, but ideas for a whole meal.
We made his Mackerel baked with courgettes and harissa last night and loved it. His brill with Bretonne sauce is a firm favourite. His roast fillet of beef with roast peanuts, Asian dressing and mint and coriander salad is amazing. He’ll teach you how to master a whole load of fabulous jelly and meringue recipes, as well as how to make puff pastry and hollandaise, gravy and soups and sauces. He’ll teach you how to carve, and which herbs you can freeze, and how to make a perfect tomato sauce and why you should drain away nearly all the water from new potatoes after ten minutes of cooking. We could go on and on.