A Mayor’s representative presented Boris Johnson’s views for the Cultural Strategy for London. I read the whole document before the session, oh dear…I always believe in the positive and see the silver linings, so I figured there had to be more to it than my glances allowed.

I listened. There seemed to be confirmation of what I had read – no exciting sparks, no wildly wonderful suggestion for our cultural futures. Festivals … street parties … classical music … the backing of large organisations and it seems a lot of resting on laurels. Laurels in shape of stats that were illustrating how  diverse and culturally inspiring London is. But sadly… budget cuts will mean money will go to the big boys cutting down the small boys while the mayor insists and praises London’s innovative breeding ground. With all the spending cuts and his allocation of cultural funds to large establishments it leaves me wondering where his praised INNOVATION is going to be bred?

All of us YCE’s (Young Creative Entrepreneurs) seemed to be asking the same question. The answer really was plain and simple. Do it yourself, money will not flow your way to make it happen nor will support from diverse support networks that have been supporting the Creative Industries. It seems a little askew given that its us Creative Businesses which generate a very large proportion of London’s income and provide a very large proportion of jobs. It leaves me wondering if the Mayor, his advisers and planners have missed a HUGE opportunity for the future strategy.

The opportunity for Innovation, Sustainability & real Vision. The opportunity to invest what miniscule budgets they have into sustainable futures & the opportunity to communicate & consult their audiences.

Fru Hazlitt, Head of Commercial and Online Operations at ITV, former RADA graduate, who joins the discussion later, strikes with true vision. She knows a thing or two about culture and most certainly about people. Given that she started at ‘Yahoo’ when it was nothing!! she knows that small businesses are the Innovators and that investments & support needs to be channeled into the growth of those who will build sustainable futures & future opportunities – not simply uphold the status quo.

So I am left wondering if the Mayor would consider dining with some consultant advisers? Us lot – us Young Creative Entrepreneurs – his audience that could help him grow his small funds as they are dwindling. Us lot that could support him with sound ideas and concepts to retain & further the Innovation he seems to be so proud of here in London? Who knows what visions we would create with this view from our office in just one day? See above taken from the top of the Mayor’s office – lovely, eh?

I challenge thee.

Selected pieces of our High Summer collection are now available in ‘The Greenroom’ @ asos.com.

The Asos team has dedicated this special space to collections with a story to tell, pioneer brands with a social & environmental ethos. Check our best-selling Susie, Nicola & Vera shining in bold chique.

Might have to buy one for ourselves…

The Choolips’ are off to Berlin Fashion Week! East German born Annegret is skipping with joy … so thrilled that Choolips will be presented on her hometurf at THEKEY.TO Berlin’s stylish answer to Sustainable & Green Fashion, 8 – 10 July 2010.

Thursday night our dresses will be swinging along the catwalk & otherwise you will find us at stand B08.

Drop in and if you get a chance bring us an ice cream. We love a bit of a treat.

Regular power-cuts caused by heavy rains during rainy season and constant works on the national grit bring frequent delays. A new generator has made life so much easier these past few months! Work can continue regardless. We also hear that Godknows, the master of the tailoring business, is very proud of his new electric cutting machine. Apparently he loves it so much that it now takes him one day to cut 50 dresses rather than 3/4days. Can’t wait to see this for myself next time I visit Accra.

We have really stretched his skills & vision with our collections and are pleased he rose to the challenge. A few good tools, the secretary & our team and friends that support us on the ground, have gone a long way in supporting our operation. Its helped us build some exciting commercial relationships with large retailers, such as Topshop and Asos.com, while no doubt it has expanded minds and businesses.

See for yourselves how we add our stitch. Simply click on the pictures….start on the top left.

Around since Samson & Delilah, Batik uses cotton, wax, dyes and hot water. Its a tradition local to Ghana in West Africa, where Batik stamps are carved by hand into mattress foam.

Since designing & making our Golden Coast collection solely produced in Ghana, we have collected the story on how its done. This powerful textiles tradition ensures that every yard we print has a conscience. Its powerful assets provide us with small carbon footprints, the opportunity to dye fabrics in ways that conserve water, respect our environment while leaving behind gorgeous products.

See for yourselves just click on the pictures….start on the top left.

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Choolips marks 9th of May ‘Fairtrade World Day’ with a celebration:

£10 off every Bespoke dress available from our ‘Choolips online Pop-Up’ for one week! Visit us…

Because we love our dresses to be fair & our planet to be a breath of fresh air we have established ingredients for A LOVE STORY.

Choolips loves Ghanaian cotton… Cotton – farmed and spun by locals in Ghana – brings all its soft & genuine charms to our designs. There is nothing more exciting than seeing yards of white Cotton transforming into a beautiful fabrics; absorbing bright coloured dyes and reflecting our prints set by the local Batik traditions. The simplicity of this fabric and the elegant processes that transform it make the staple for all of the textiles & dresses we produce for our Golden Coast collection. Surely this is Fairtrade Cotton at its best – brightly coloured cute dresses that champion high quality. But is it enough?

BESPOKE COTTON = NO WASTE … By finding a love match for each dress before it is produced we save a lot of broken hearts. This is how we do it.

Bespoke Cotton: You choose your shape, your colours, your print and we match your Bespoke Cotton with skilled hands to print, stitch and steam the dress of your choice. A Bespoke always means that you will love it as much as we loved making it for you.

Waste? No Waste. Because its Bespoke there will be no surplus Choolips dresses wandering the planet without their lovematch.

The Icing on the Cake… The difference you are making with your love match is more than fair.

Buying a Bespoke Choolips dress is throwing more than a lifeline to our local Ghanaian producers. It is providing our producers with confidence that there is an international audience for their products & trade. This means your dress provides backbone to each hand & life involved in producing it while it makes its way to your wardrobe.

Dreaming of summers with delicious Choolips dresses… We produce all Bespoke orders in one hit so we can bring your love match over in one shipment to save fuel. For that reason our pop-up is only open for another 21 days…

So get your orders in to receive your dress at the start of July in time for georgeous summer days.

‘Order Here‘

The 1st week of our online pop-up adventure has started and the boutique is cooking! We have been on tender hooks and our first week of CHOOLIPS’ Head to Toe has been exciting.  A lot of work has been done to get to the first week in our production cycle.

The dresses & the prints for our seasonal fabrics have been designed here in our London studio. Liters of coffee and buckets of blueberries later, our Pattern Cutters have worked their magic to shape the charming styles. Then Jenny our model lent her beautiful body for us to make them the perfect fit for you.

I have been back and forth to the Golden Coast of Ghana to test the fabric colours, sign-off the formulas for the perfect shade and oversee the carving of  the stamps for the batik prints with Juliana & her batiking team in Cape Coast, a former Slavetrade point. Its full of tense moments as both Juliana and I are perfectionists. We have different ideas of what grey looks like or even red and pink let alone the yellows. Stories to tell another day!

I will have left with sunburnt nose and heavy bags filled with bright coloured yards off to train the tailors and seamstresses on our new silhouettes. They work in Accra, the Capital of Ghana. They will have made our dresses, the Spring Summer collection for this year ready to show to the world here on Western Shores.

And then…well fabulous collaborations happened with Terra Plana! They loved our fabrics and made bags and shoes… 9months passed and we all know how that ends;)

Our shop opened and here it is our first week OPEN and besides the first week it is also my favourite as it goes back in time, its all back to the beginning. Only that this time YOU design your dress, choose the shape, choose the colour and print and place your order. We start production! We calculate the yards we need for all the orders placed so far. We buy enough plain white Cotton, dyes and chemicals to get ready for the next week – the week that’s all about the colours & prints.

We are ready to match it up with CHOOLIPS dresses. Our Batiker Juliana in Cape Coast, Ghana is getting fabrics ready for your orders. Bulks of bright white Ghanaian cotton to be dyed into colourful shades and prints for your special dresses. Its a georgeous day, Treat yourself.

We are ready for you.       Start shopping

sending a little sunshine to wherever you have gone and to your Loved ones left behind.

Thank you for being an inspiration brimming with intellect, soul & truths. Thank you for touching on a sense of beauty deeply felt & making our paths more graceful & just.

R.I.P.

No better way to start the New Year but with a poached Egg – just look at it! Egg yourself, lovers & the people who you would like to egg with this perfect little treat. Thanks to ‘Delia’ we know how to poach the perfect egg. So here it goes.

Firstly – “This method is not at all frightening or hazardous, but bear in mind that for successful poaching the eggs have to be really fresh – less than four days old. The key to a well-poached egg is to keep the water at a bare simmer throughout the cooking. Place a suitably sized frying pan over a gentle heat and add enough boiling water from the kettle to fill it to 1 inch (2.5 cm). Keep the heat gentle, and very quickly you will see the merest trace of tiny bubbles beginning to form over the base of the pan.

Secondly – Carefully break the eggs, one at a time, into the water and let them barely simmer, without covering, for just 1 minute. A timer is essential here because you cannot guess how long 1 minute is.

Thirdly – After that, remove the pan from the heat and let the eggs sit calmly and happily in the hot water, this time setting the timer for 10 minutes. This timing will give perfect results for a beautifully translucent, perfectly set white and a soft, creamy yolk. Now remove each egg by lifting it out of the water with a draining spoon and then letting the spoon rest for a few seconds on a wodge of kitchen paper, which will absorb the excess water. As you remove the eggs, serve them straight away.”

Finally – sprinkle with crushed pepper & rock salt, add in a couple of essential! soldiers and ‘perfectomundo’ your treat is ready.

Happy New Year to you all & well of course, thanks to Delia! YUM!

1st January 2010