Dower & Hall – For when it needs to be special

22 Thursday Aug 2013

Posted by masquerade21 in Fashion, review, Shopping

Tags

bespoke, bloggers, bracelets, British, Celebrity, charms, chintz, Designer, Dower and Hall, engagement, event, Fashion, feather, Glasgow, gold, hearts, Inspiration, James Bond, jewel, jewellery, Judi Dench, Kasabian, lockets, M, pearls, pendants, Press day, rings, severine, shopping, silver, spiral, unique

A couple of weeks ago I was lucky enough to attend the Dower and Hall Press Day in Glasgow. I was absolutely thrilled to get an invitation, especially since most of the press invitations I get are for events in London which isn’t even in the country I live in. When I received this one and a) it was from Dower & Hall and b) it was in Glasgow, there was just no question about whether or not I would attend.

The Glasgow Dower & Hall store is tucked away on the first floor of the lovely Princes Square shopping centre. Princes Square is a gorgeous little shopping centre which is full of luxury stores. I normally only go there to wander around window shopping so this time it was actually quite nice to go in with some purpose and walk straight into a store.

I was actually the first one to get there and this was my first time attending a press day so I was quite nervous and as at first it was only me and the store staff I felt a little awkward. That didn’t last long though as the Dower and Hall team were all really friendly and soon I was chatting away to Dan Dower.

Now before I even tell you about Dower & Hall jewellery or review the lovely piece that I was gifted, I will tell you the main reason why you should go there if you ever want something special. Dan. Dan is the reason. He is one of those rare and lucky people who love their job. And what does he love most about his job? Turning an idea from your imagination into a real, beautiful and one of a kind piece of jewellery. He showed me some images of bespoke pieces that he had created and they were all really lovely. If you commision a bespoke piece he will really go above and beyond for you. He even goes so far as to cast the pieces in silver and then plate them in gold or whatever the client wants and set them with cubic zirconia instead of diamonds just so you can wear the piece and say ‘yes I want it like this’ or ‘please change this and make it x’ so you always know that the finished piece will be exactly as you imgained it. Dan showed me some beautiful images of the pieces he has created in the past but unfortunately I don’t have them to show you.

I can however show you one of the members of Kasabian wearing a feather pendant that they commisioned from Dan and also Judi Dench wearing Dower and Hall pearls in the latest James Bond film Skyfall:

To be totally honest, Dower & Hall is a bit out of my price range, my budget only allows costume jewellery at the moment but now that I have met Dan and seen his passion for what he does and heard him describe how he really wants to create exactly what clients want and imagine, I am sure that I will be seeking him out for the one piece of jewellery that I will want to be unique, my wedding band (not that this is on the cards at the moment) So, if any of you would like to have your own unique piece of jewellery created, you know who I would recommend.

Here are a few of my favourite pieces that are on sale at Dower & Hall at the moment :

Would you like to see the lovely gift I received? Here it is:

To see what else Dower & Hall have to offer visit : http://www.dowerandhall.com/

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂

How To Organise Jewellery and Handbags

25 Friday Jan 2013

Posted by masquerade21 in D.I.Y, Fashion

≈ 6 Comments

Tags

bracelets, budget, cheap, creative, decorative, display, earphones, earrings, handbag display, jewellery, Jewelry, necklaces, organisation, pole, shower curtain hooks, string, sunglasses, The Bre Guide

How To Organise Jewellery and Handbags

Hey everyone. I finally got my jewellery and handbags organised in a way that I like. It’s tidy and shows me everything at a glance which makes it really easy to choose what to wear. Take a look below.

All you need to do this is :

A long hollow pole

String or Twine

Shower curtain hooks

All you need to do is thread the string through the hollow pole and then tie the ends to make a loop. I then placed the looped poles over some shelves in my room but if you don’t have shelves then you could hang them any way you want, maybe on a nail like hanging a picture.

After you have hung the poles just hook the shower curtain hooks to the pole and then hang your jewellery or your handbags from the hooks. Easy 🙂

I also used the poles to hang some random things that are difficult to find places for such as sunglasses and earphones.

Not only is this a good way to organise your things but it also looks really pretty and decorative.

For me, it was best to hang my longest necklaces and my rigidly round necklaces from the poles. For my other shorter necklaces I use the stand below which I bought a few years ago from Ebay.

For my earrings I use a matching stand which I also bought a few years ago from Ebay.

If you like you could hang bracelets and bangles from the poles but I liked to only put bracelets on the poles which matched necklaces already on the poles. For all other bracelets I use a black T-bar display which you can see at the top of the first image in this post.

So let me know what you think. Would you do this? Or do you already organise your things in a cool way?

Thanks for checking out my blog 🙂