The SALE is up.........This January, and it is true that I say it every year, the SALE is amazing!

 

 

The Swagger & Dash 2011 Collection is now online and in the shop, by appointment, at my house in Camberwell.

I am thrilled with the collection. It is richly coloured and textured, the fabrics are sumptuous and voluptuous, it has been great fun putting it all together and the results are stunning.

It is a rich tapestry of colour, texture, form and history. I have made a film that gives an overview of the main pieces in the collection. It is the first clip on the page. 

I have new dresses in the Victorian and Opera lines. Glorious silks, checks, slubbed duppions, colours that shine and shimmer and a new, shorter length. For these dresses there are also films to show how to wear them. There are so many different options when it comes to styling the cuts.

The Caro Dress and the Flared Shirt now both come in the heavy cord and in divinely luscious cashmere.

I have a new section called The Mother of the Bride with a film to accompany the information. I have put together a collection of clothes that work well for ceremonies, weddings, parties and those times when nothing but stylish drama will do…..

There are also Devotion Suits! This is a whole new area for me, but as so many of you are business women, doctors, lawyers, therapists etc and need to look smart, it seems the way to move forward. But there are also moments when sensible is not enough, so for these times….. the Swagger Suit is a mad homage to the 60's, Carnaby Street, the Beat Generation…… so many influences.

The collection of jackets has been expanded to include a beautiful collection of hand embroidered pieces from LET it FRAY by Carey Marvin. Carey is a wonderfully creative embroiderer and her designs for Devotion are beautiful.

I have expanded my range to include new lines in skirts: The Penn Skirt is sexy and flattering and a homage to the work of Irving Penn in the 50s, the Full Circle skirts are exactly that, full, heavy, evocative and filled with character, and in the felted wool, so warm.

In trousers there are stunning Narrow Trousers in rich silk colours. As of today, these are still patiently waiting to go up onto the store. By Friday they will be in place.

The lovely Caroline Townsend of Mandarina Shoes lent me a huge collection to match mine. Oh how wild it was..... I lust after so many pairs it is outrageous! And I cannot choose which I prefer the most. I already have 4 pairs of her shoes anyway, and wear them all the time. I think it will have to be the Leopard Print ankle boots.... She goes up to a comfortable size 42 

Do take a look at the films. I have added lots of new ones and by Thursday I will have expanded the original clips to include the new pieces so you will be able to see the new trousers, too.

Also remember that I can make any of my cuts in any fabric and size, my shop is in my house in Camberwell and is by appointment. Please do call 00442077019269 or email to make an appointment.

 

 

The video clips of the New Collection have been really successful so far. Lots of emails, visitors to the shop, phone calls about pieces that never get attention when only seen photographed. I am happy and feel it has been a great step forward. Many of you have been really positive and given great feedback, so thank you. If you have not yet had a look….

 

I have had a busy time recently wearing Devotion clothes to almost everything. Truthfully, apart from an old pair of Levis which I bought before I had kids and can now wear again, my entire wardrobe is clothes that I make for myself. Hence Devotion has sprung from this, and my own body dysmorphia and issues have informed the styles and cuts that I now sell. Having a shop also taught me a huge amount about the shapes and sizes that we all come in and I can now accommodate most body shapes in my collection. Whether you actually like the styles is another issue entirely.

Judging from your responses I gather that the films have made a huge difference to how you see the clothes, sense their wearability and from there, the ordering choices. So I know it has been the right thing to do and for the next collection I will repeat the experience with lessons learned and incorporated. If you have comments or thoughts about how I can continue to expand the experience for you, please do email me. 

 The positive response has now led me to expand my advertising and you should be seeing me in World of interiors and Vogue, too.

 Time is still whizzing by. I am trying to work out if it will ever really slow down….. I have been away in all manner of wildly exotic places over the last few weeks: Egypt, South Africa and this weekend returned from an amazing workshop in Slovenia.

 Travelling is an interesting experience, especially the long haul trip. I was chaperoning my daughter on a film she was starring in. The schedule was hard, the location awful and the atmosphere in the country quite challenging.

But luckily I was well dressed! I am endlessly stopped at airports by the staff there, asking where i get my clothes and it is always rather heartening to be spoken to as a human whilst trying to remain calm in the sheep like trance we are shepherded through at airports.

My favourite travelling outfits are either the striped gagra with a Brigitte Singh Juliette Jacket over a camisole. I wear good but eccentric walking shoes for all the endless airport trails and loads of jewellery which gives the airport staff something to do as they wield their merry way around the stout bracings of my gorgeous Rigby and Peller bra….. the joys of being older, the Victorian Coat goes really well over this look. Personally i have dyed mine black and wear a long silk shawl around my neck. The look is other worldly, straight out of a Georgette Heyer novel. 

If I want to be comfortable, no less discrete, but more Zen Like….( is it possible or just a figment of my longings that I could ever be Zen like?) I wear the Tibetan Dress. Either black or the caramel colour. On my way to SA I wore it with Seville riding boots, a long heavy shawl and a long shoulder bag. On the plane I undid the laces at the back and was extremely comfortable throughout the flight. Upon landing the dress looked fabulous and nothing more than a re-redding of the lips with the fabulous matt Mac lipstick in deep red was needed.

Whilst away in Cape Town I needed trousers every day. I am not a great lover of showing my belly and have a deep pelvis, so have never found jeans comfortable. Added to this I still prefer clothes around my waist rather than the look where the individual items are gagging to slide their way down my thighs. So I was happy wearing Devotion trousers each day. I chose well: the Straight Trousers in black or cream linen were fantastic. They are well cut, giving lots of space to the belly, and give a fabulous look to the leg: Long and lean. WIth the Brigitte Singh Tao Tunic on top, or the Flared Shirt in the different linens, I looked calm, capable and stylish each day, 2500 ft up a mountainside whilst perched on a rock reading my Kindle……

So my life is completely coloured by my own clothes. They work dressed up, dressed down. Come in all manner of fabrics and colours and can be shortened, lengthened, widened or narrowed as needed. If I can assist you in any way do please call (020 7701 9269) or email me.

 

Going sideways: I am still looking for places to hold the Devotion Emporium. If you know of anywhere in London that I could rent, a gallery or shop space in the centre, please do let me know.

 

 In the meantime, carolyncowan.com is coming along famously. I still need to work on a couple of sections, but there is now an events & workshops calendar with active links through to all the relevant sites for more information on courses, where the emporium will be and lots more.

 

My downloads section contains recordings of my Masterclasses at Alchemy. I teach there every Wednesday, in the evening, and if you would like a one to one session there, I am available in between. One hour is £80 booked through Alchemy.

I am also starting classes locally, in Clapham and Dulwich. Go to CarolynCowan.com for more details. 

The video section is a useful resource if you have not yet seen it. Lots of recipes, meditations, a couple of yoga kriyas and much, much more. I am amazed by how youtube works and have now taken to making my own short clips and put them up myself. It is amazing how far they spread.

The Run for Your Life section looks good, too. Lots of information, plus the PDF of my now infamous Running Programme is available to download from here.

And I now have a Workshops & Masterclasses section and a newsletter. If you would like to be added to the list for this, please lick here to send me an email. and I will add you to the subscribers list.
 

 

 

 

City of Women  I have a series of images in an exhibition in Slovenia in October, opening on the 5th. City of Women is a project curated by Predrag Pradjic (He of The Pandorian fame... ) and based around the art and creativity of women from various different disciplines and medias. It promises, as does all of Predrag's events, to be spectacular and I am thrilled to be a part.  

 My classes at Alchemy have started again, on Wednesdays at 6.15pm. I will only be teaching in the evenings until January. Join me there, and if you cannot, but are still drawn, remember that on CarolynCowan.com I have downloadable audio files of all my recent classes and there are videos, too….

 

Portraiture.

You may or may not know that I am an excellent portrait photographer.

It is a skill that I put down for a while to build up Devotion. I now feel it is time to pick it up again. I have certain projects that interest me greatly and I wonder if you would be interested or able to take part;

I want to continue photographing women with scars. This does not exclusively mean breast cancer scars although the image here is as the result of a mastectomy. All scars are what I am intrigued by. I work discretely, in my house, away from assistants. The images are only shown in an exhibition with your permission and a print for you, the sitter, is absolutely part of the exchange between us. For many women, this work is a great experience and a lot of physical confidence can be built as the result if that is what is needed or lacking. Otherwise it is a wonderful way to pass a few hours, naked with me. My years as a body painter allow me to hold a very comfortable space. 

 

Another project, one that requires the Great Outdoors and to be fully dressed, is a series on Women who Shoot. If you are a woman who shoots, be it deer, pheasant, big game etc, I would love to photograph you. If you know anyone who might be willing to participate or who hosts a shoot themselves, please do pass this on. Again, it is great way to spend a few hours together, always an interesting way to get to know someone better and a print is a part of the exchange.

 

I have a very mediocre photography site. It does absolutely nothing for me and is on it's way to the trash to be replaced by a shiny new site, but should you desire to see something of my work then please dolook at mooncycles.

A new photography website should be appearing within the next couple of weeks. More to come..... 

 

If you are interested in working with me on this level please do email me and we can take it from here.