Anouck and her choux masterpiece
Last night, I attended the most wonderful dinner hosted by Peter Pilotto and Anouck Lepere in the secret room at Liberty of Regent Street. The wood panelled chamber was Arthur Lasenby Liberty's office from 1875 through to the late 1890's, and felt suitably atmospheric.
The soiree was to celebrate Peter Pilotto and his partner Christopher de Vos's much deserved win of best young designers at the British Fashion Awards last December, and several of us were encased in Pilotto dresses and feeling fabulous. The joy of a Pilotto dress is it is comfortable to wear despite looking like you may have to squeeze into a full-length body-stocking first. Peter and Christopher had spent hours preparing the room - the linen was starched to perfection, the floral clusters pretty reminders of summer and the food well chosen.
Guests included Yasmin and Amber le Bon, Mike Figgis, Sarah Mower, Jefferson Hack and the classical pianist Rosey Chan.
So, by now you must be wondering about this business with the zwaan. Well, the cream filled choux pastry shaped swan we enjoyed for desert was created especially for the evening by Anouck Lepere, who declared "I feel like Martha Stewart" when I snapped her for the above shot with my Blackberry. "I spent hours perfecting on the shape at home," she said miming the use of a pastry piping bag.
The Belgian supermodel is clearly a woman of many talents. She declared it was her patriotic duty to create the choux zwaan, (swan in Flemish), to keep her connection to the old country strong. In addition she revealed over desert - yes, we eventually did demolish the zwaan - that she studied architecture at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, the same school Christopher and Peter studied fashion, and then told me that the interior panelling of the entire Liberty store came from two ships. "This is a recycled shop! Very modern, no?"
Jefferson Hack, Mike Figgis, Rosey Chan, Anouck Lepere hanging out at Liberty before the Pilotto dinner.
Me, Geoffrey De La Bourdonnaye , (Chief Executive, Liberty) with Peter Pilotto and Christopher de Vos
Amber le Bon
Me and Monsieur Pilotto
Emma Elwick (Vogue), Karen Langley (Dazed) and Anouck of the Zwaan's (Maartha Stewart wannabe)
All the photos bar the grainy top image were by an amazing girl andShiniqua. One of my favourite names, ever. They are great images. Thanks, Shiniqua!
