We emptied our giant notice board of previous sketches, doodles, fabric swatches, trims and pins and set to work.

How lucky are we? We have no constraints, no bosses to boss us, no commercial diktats, no fashion to follow, no trends to adhere to. 

WE CAN DO WHAT WE LIKE.  

Which is, of course what we did.

Usually we think of a person. A film. A piece of music. To inspire us.

And by the completion of the collection, it inspires us to abandon all original thoughts of our film, our person and our music, because the collection has taken on a quite different personality of its own, a film of its own and music of its own.

We create what we love, there is no other way to gauge what will sell, we don’t have merchandisers, or trend analysts or any idea whatsoever what is going on in the big wide world, we lead small lives, perfectly content in the world of Cabbages & Roses.

Somehow, the hotch potch of clothes we fell in love with, divide themselves into mini collections, somehow they work with each other, mixing, rarely matching, but nevertheless rubbing along together very happily.

The emotional investment that goes into making a collection is enormous.

It is scary, it involves so many people and not an insignificant amount of money and risk.

Thirty four times have I exposed my soul, my taste and my lack of formal training, my belief in Cabbages & Roses and the absurd notion that I have a clue.

And thirty four times, it is you dear reader, that has come up trumps every time.

Thank you for your belief in us. 

Thank you for looking so beautiful in our clothes. 

Thank you for not always waiting until sale time to buy.

Thank you press for thinking of us when you are making a story. 

In particular Lucinda Chambers a) for producing the genius that is her son Toby (seen above) and

b)For featuring us in (we think) your most spectacular shoots for Vogue Magazine.

The first time Mrs Dent and I see the collection as it is meant to be, is when we

Embark on photography for our website.  

We would obviously LOVE to print the magnificent photographs that our photographer Toby Knott took, but with an eye on budget/waste/huge costs etc etc for the moment we will have to be content with looking at a website.

Here is Toby risking life and limb to find the perfect position. (Above)

Our model Brogan doing what she does best with Toby, prostrate, having found the perfect angle.

On occasion we receive comments from well meaning & concerned people, complaining about our models being too thin, too young, too beautiful etc etc.  

This I think may be a good moment to say that every model we have used, has eaten more than their weight in twiglets, mars bars, bananas, almonds and hot dogs during our short lunch breaks on our shoots.  

They are all grown up, well fed, intelligent, charming and happy.  

They all happen to be beautiful, but that’s not their, or our, fault.

Toby made a film of our collection, with the breathtakingly lovely Lea.

Watch this space.

xx Christina xx