Brand Spotlight: Nichole de Carle London

This blog post is one of the hardest to write because we cannot work out where on earth we should start. This is because we adore Nichole de Carle London. 

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Her designs

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Her brand 

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Who has worn them

A look into who has worn Nichole's designs is like looking through the  'Whose Who' of the Forbes Rich List! Beyonce, Jessie J, Kylie Minogue, Paloma Faith are just the beginning!

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

In the press

Elle, FHM, Lingerie Insight are among the magazines who regularly feature Nichole's designs.  

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Meet Nichole

After studying the world renowned Contour Fashion course at De Montfort University, Nichole gained experience working in some of the most incredible fashion houses; Alexander McQueen, Donna Karen and Pleasure State. In 2009, she created Nichole de Carle London. 

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Her label is ready-to-wear haute couture lingerie. Nichole celebrates artisanal values while playing on the heritage of the de Carle family. The luxury label is London-based, designed and manufactured, making it a supporter of British business. 

For all of these reasons and so many more, we love the brand, the story, the ethos and heritage of the label. We are inspired by someone so young, creating their own lingerie brand and maintaining the ability to create a British label - something which we aspire to do so. 

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

"Design is where science and art break even. It has always been paramount to create my own visual style, let it be unique to myself and yet identifiable for others" - Nichole de Carle.

Photo: Nichole de Carle London

Nichole, we salute you.

Breast Cancer Awareness Month 1

One in eight women are affected by breast cancer.

Every 10 minutes someone is diagnosed with breast cancer....! In the time it took to write this blog post, 12 people were diagnosed. In the time that it took for you to read this, another person was diagnosed. Let's do what we can to make the recovery of those people speedier, quicker and less painful.

October is Breast Cancer Awareness month therefore we are doing what we can to raise awareness of the causes, risks and possible reduction of breast cancer occurrence.

The following information is taken from Cancer Research UK's breast cancer leaflet.

The Facts
More women are surviving breast cancer than ever before as a result of earlier detection and better treatments.

Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK. Around 140 women are diagnoses with the disease every day.

What is breast cancer?
The breast is made up of millions of cells. Breast cancer develops when a single cell or group of cells begins to multiply out of control and forms a tumour.

The breast consists of fatty tissue and lobules that are connected to the nipple by ducts. Breast cancer usually starts in cells that line a duct of lobule. Sometimes cells can break away and travel to other parts of the body, starting new tumours.

What affects your risk?
1. Age
2. Hormones and reproduction
3. Family history

What reduces your risk?
1. Healthy weight
2. Limiting alcohol
3. Physical activity
4. Not smoking

Be 'breast aware':
1. Know what is normal for you
2. Look at and feel your breasts
3. Know what changes to look for
4. Report any changes without delay

What changes to look for:
1. Changes in the size, shape or feel of your breasts
2. A new lump or thickening in one breast or armpit
3. Any puckering, dimpling or redness of the skin
4. Changes in the position of the nipple, a rash or nipple discharge
5. Pain or discomfort that is new to you and felt only on one side

Breast cancer in men
Although it is rare, men still suffer from breast cancer.

Show your support for breast cancer this October so we can keep fighting on.

Attollo goes to BAFTA

There's no question about it. We absolutely adore our jobs and working on Attollo full time. We feel incredibly privileged to be able to do so.

This said, there are days where we feel like doing nothing but scream and cry as we journey through an endless rollercoster, just like most start-ups face. But today was a day where we didn't stop smiling and we both said:

"We bloody love our job". 

This could have been the soundtrack to our entire day:

We spent this morning at BAFTA, at what a lovely morning we had! 

  

Eventbrite advertised an event; 'Destination Westminster', showcasing London’s best and most desirable event locations around Westminster. 

We didn’t need any more persuasion - it was a great location and we got to spend the morning getting giddy thinking about venues for our launch party next September. 

We have a vague idea of the type of location we need, the capacity, general event logistics and the format of the evening.

Discarding the corporate looking venues, needless to say that we acted like two little children the night before Christmas when we were informed about a couple locations. 

We’ll keep our favourite ones under wraps, but here are some of the phenomenal event spaces we were offered:

London Transport Museum

Photo: London Transport Museum

DoubleTree by Hilton

Photo: DoubleTree by Hilton 

Cavendish Conference Venues, Asia House

Photo: Asia House

Photo: Asia House

Photo: Asia House

Photo: Asia House

Church House

Photo: Church House

BAFTA 195 Piccadilly

Photo: BAFTA 195

Photo: BAFTA 195

Photo: BAFTA 195

We even got our own private tour of BAFTA’s facilities, cinema and the private room where all the important BAFTA decisions are made!!

Photo: BAFTA 195

We had a fabulous morning; we gorged on the scrummiest canapes, picked at the pick and mix like children and enjoyed the freebies each venue were giving away - even Molton Brown shower gel and adorable rubber ducks!

We are unbelievably excited to begin the planning stage of our launch now and we can’t wait to start putting the event together over the next couple of months. 

Pitch Day

Last week, we got a shock of an email on Thursday night; “Can you two pitch on Tuesday?”. Our reaction was more or less this....

For our last three pitches, we’ve had months leading up to them and time to fully prepare our presentation. 

Its fair to say our weekend plans got cancelled and scripts, notecards and powerpoint became our new best friends. Unlike our past presentations, this one was not in a competition final, it was to a group called the 3 C’s community. They have been running for over 15 years and are a community of professionals and investors. 

Three times a year they give three start-ups the opportunity to pitch and to invite the community to help with their venture. 

It was not only a privilege but a complete shock to be deemed advanced enough to come and pitch to such an amazing room. 

At 5pm sharp, we arrived at 6 New Street Square, and headed to our ninth floor destination- Taylor Wessing Law Firm. 

We were sent immediately up the ninth floor...

....where the views were breathtaking. 

We even got a sneaky peak of our beautiful old university library, and it looks spectacular in the sunset!

6pm arrived and the proceedings began with a public apology from the host, expressing that this evening there would be a lot of ‘boob-talk’, something that had never graced this event in 15 years! 
Apparently it’s not everyday that people get to publicly discuss breasts - to us its just a no-brainer so we never bat an eyelid. Apparently not everyone has the same reaction and there were many giddy reactions to the mention of a lingerie company coming to pitch!

We retreated into our pre-pitch routine in preparation and at 7pm we took to the stage. 

After a very strenuous Q&A session and the pitching was wrapped up; the networking began. With a final cheeky look at the spectacular views, we were chooed out of the building as they needed to lock up. 

The response to our business model and plans for the direction of Attollo was incredibly humbling and we are still in a state of shock from Tuesday, but hopefully, the new doors which have been opened will lead to some very exciting opportunities for Attollo.