We're going conkers for Autumn

With October round the corner, winter coats, scarves and gloves have started to emerge on the London streets in the early, crisp morning!

Many have a distaste for Autumn but at Attollo HQ we love it! Here’s why:

1.   Autumn wardrobes are arguably the best wardrobes - you can mix and match with different layers, textures and colours. New seasons have already emerged on the high street, making many of us pine for pay day! Although the quest to find that perfect winter coat is are a tough challenge, we love our autumnal wardrobes of blanket scarves, thick woolly jumpers, leather and wellington boots and beanie hats!

 

 Photos: The Londoner

2. The weather has moved from sunny, muggy and humid, to sunny, crispy, golden and amazing!

Photo: Pinterest

3. Food in the summer is undeniably great- during the summer, we’ve got into the habit of replacing roasts with BBQ’s. Now, BBQs are away and roasts are back! We’ve missed you, crispy, crunchy, roast potatoes and Yorkshire puddings! We’re not stopping at roasts; stews, jacket potatoes, curries and soups are back on the menu, with warm comfort eating puddings like apple crumble are back in our tums!

 Photo: The Londoner

4. Mornings – yes it’s a little darker at 7.00am than it was only a few weeks ago, but its crispy, sunny and the perfect trench coat + scarf + leather glove season!

Photos: Pinterest
 

5. Crunchy leaves that send you nostaligic at the sight and sound of them, reminiscing on childhood memories of running through a mountain of red, yellow and orange crispy leaves.



Photos: Gal Meets Glam

6. Tea is an excellent idea no matter the time or day or month or season or year. But with the temperatures dropping, there’s an extra tad of amazingness to every cup of tea!

Photos: Fortnum & Mason

7. Thanks to the amazing people behind the Rugby World Cup, Downton Abbey, Strictly Come Dancing, Lewis, the X Factor, nights in just got a lot better! You know it's Autumn when the TV guide turns really really good!



 

Photo: Google

8. Borough Market is one of our favourite places in London; hustle and bustle, local produce and mouth watering foodie eats, there's something for everyone. In Autumn, it's an extra special place with hot scrumptious food and hot, artisan nutty coffee!

Photos: The Londoner

9. Walks are wonderful, whether you're a city lover or country bumpkin, they are great! They are especially great in Autumn while we can enjoy sunny, spectacular days, with a crisp and chilly breeze! Going for a walk through London's Regent Park, with a hot cup of coffee, up to the summit of Primrose Hill and you'll get a spectacular view of London's autumnally-changing skyline!

Photo: Gal Meets Glam

  

10. A pumpkin spiced latte on a Sunday afternoon walking through the golden, leafy London parks is pretty wonderful. Autumn is the only season for PSL's and we love to make the most of them ahead of the Christmas drinks menu!



Essentially.....we have fall-en in love (get it?!) with Autumn here at Attollo HQ! Love A&F

Pink October 2015

Its that time of year again, when suddendly Friday's turn pink, breast cancer pink ribbons appear and London's monuments get a pink makeover..

Photo: Telegraph, Pink October 2014

There is one goal behind it: raise awareness, raise funds and end breast cancer deaths by 2050.

This is a big goal, but one that is achievable if we all work together!

According to Breast Cancer Now:

1. Breast cancer is the most common cancer in the UK.

2. Breast cancer is the name given to cancers that have first developed in breast tissue. There are many different types.

3. Thanks to research, more people are surviving breast cancer than ever before.

4. More than 80% of women with breast cancer are still alive five years after diagnosis but around 50,000 women are still diagnosed with breast cancer each year.

5. Around 12,000 women die of the disease each year.

1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer in their lifetime- that's 50,000 women per year in the UK! The likelihood is, if you haven't already been exposed to it, at some point it will touch your life. That's why raising awareness and doing your bit to help is so important.

You can help by:

1. Donating to Cancer research UK or Breast Cancer Now- this can be as simple as giving what you can or as fun as a Race or cake sale- because everyone loves cake!

2. Encouraging friends and family to Coppafeel! One of the best ways to fight breast cancer is to nip it in the bud and catch it early- so don't be shy ladies!



Breast cancer in men, although rare, still occurs and breast cancer awareness month is a great way to raise awareness about this disease.



Emma Watson's inspirational United Nations speech drew attention to gender equality meaning that people should feel free and comfortable with who they are. So men, don't be afraid to Coppafeel! too! This is key, as being familiar with what's normal for your body is so important for all genders and crucial in stopping cancer in its tracks.

Here's a little flashback to us during last year's Pink October...

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. We can't wait for the difference that this Pink October will make for breast cancer patients and hopefully, survivors! Bring onthe next 30 days, let's have a boob of a time!

London lifestyle...on a startup budget

London is one of the world’s greatest cities...fact! In our opinion, it’s the best city in the world! It’s also a fact that London is not the cheapest city to live in! But boy it's a privilege to live here!  Last week was Attollo’s second birthday, aka 2 years since we’ve been able to afford a lot of the lovely and amazing things that London has to offer…...however, after 2 years, we’ve become ninjas to getting the most out of this amazing city, for a fraction of the cost!

Starting off as students in London, we had to quickly learn, like every student, to budget. After uni, we both maintained our Saturday jobs for a little pocket money, but all in all - we have had to become ninjas at getting the most out of London without deep pockets! After 2 years of experience, we thought we’d share a few of our secrets....

Coffeeeeeeeeeeee....because we all need a caffeine pick me up on a Monday morning!

If we had all the money in the world, it would be Monmouth Coffee every day of the week. For now though, we are incredibly indebted to free Mywaitrose coffee - this has hands down saved about £12 on coffee every week! £48 a month, £576 a year in total! Free coffee is a life saver!

London with a view

Going into the fashion world, it makes sense that both of us are creatures who are aesthetically pleased. The architecture, landscape and views of London are something that we find not only helps inspire Attollo but personally we love too! Perhaps we’re biased, but for us, London is the most beautiful city in the world and boy oh boy do we like to enjoy the view from a height!

Most viewpoints involve a little dollar…until recently!

Hello Sky Garden! This is one of London’s newest but best kept secrets as few know that the Sky Garden is free if you book it in advance and go up at a timed slot! 

You have unparalleled 360 degree views of London! Its interior is something like the Shard meets the Eden Project.

A little garden in the sky for free…? Why ever not! If we’re meeting someone to impress this is definitely the first port of call!

The Shard..

The obvious thing that springs into our minds when we think of the Shard is an expensive meal out, but a damn good meal out, an amazing view (with a £20 price tag) and 2 very lovely and busy bars which on a Friday night is likely to incur a 45 minute queue in the cold!

We however like to go up this gem either for a morning coffee meeting, where the view is the cost of  a tea, coffee or even an exotic juice! 

Or in the evening on a work day, for a little je ne sais quois, the view of dazzling, beautiful London is as cheap as their cheapest glass of wine - £6.50!

Our final savvy way of seeing the view of London from a height is the Oxo Tower – very very few people know that there is a public footpath on the balcony of the Oxo Tower, ergo, you can waltz into the Oxo Tower restaurant, not stay for a very expensive meal and instead go straight through to the balcony, soak up the sun and view of the South bank and stroll back out again once you’ve got your vitamin D/viewpoint fix! Et voila!

Keeping fit…

We both grew up being very active and sporty. From ballet to cheerleading, to hockey, netball and athletics – we did it all. Both of us, by default, prefer to remain active and keep a balanced lifestyle. It therefore has been a crux to both of us that we haven't’ been able to afford a gym membership. Alas, there are cheaper ways to exercise and we’ve found them!

For the summer months….Timeout has been advertising free, public pilates classes in the markets and church yards! Hello free pilates, we’ll say yes to you any day!

Boris bikes…this is how we saw in our first birthday – a cute pedal through Hyde Park or Horse guard's Parada! For £2, or completely free if you change bikes within 30 minutes, hell free exercise!

Classes – these are much more us! Interactive, fun and each time is different. Classes mean ££ so we discovered the joys of pre-recorded youtube classes (Cassey Ho at Blogilates is our favourite!), again, we owe a lot to the internet!

Our top 3 ‘to do’s’ at the weekend….

1. Borough Market

2. Walk along the South Bank from Westminster to Tower Bridge

3. Primrose Hill

London, thank you for having so many wonderful things to do, and so many glorious honeypots that are free! You are the best city in the world, and we love you!

Happy 2nd Birthday Attollo!

We are 2! We cannot believe how quickly the past 24 months have gone! 2 years ago today, we both started to work everyday towards Attollo!

730 days and we’re still here and can’t wait to launch Attollo next year!

It’s hard to believe that Attollo is a two year old business, especially as we’re still pre-launch!

We wanted to share a few of our greatest moments that we've had with Attollo since our birhtday last year:

1. Getting 'Pretty Muddy' in the Race for Life 5KM last September!

 

2. Convincing Virgin that we were trustworthy with a £30,000 loan! 

3. Meeting Cath Kidston and hearing her thoughts about Attollo!

4. Securing a partnership with breast cancer charity Coppafeel - we'll be featuring their labels in all of our products from our launch, reminding all our customers of the signs of breast cancer! 

5. Attending the UK Lingerie Awards and aspiring to be as great as the amazing award winning brands! 

6. Being given 6 months free tenancy in our first office, with the Shard for a view! Attollo's first every HQ!

7. Meeting both Anita La Roy, Monmouth Coffee founder and Chrissie Rucker, The White Company founder and being offered an exciting potential future collaboration! 

8. Building our customer waiting list to 160 women - all as eager for Attollo as we are! 

9. After 6 months of trying to rebrand, finally deciding on a new logo for Attollo!

And without a doubt, the most memorable day of our last year was in early Spring….

10.  The day we held our first knickers and bra samples!That was the day that it all came together; our colour palette, our satin print that we'd had designed and our fabric choices - 5 months of work with our amazing designer suddenly visible in physical form!

Our birthday last year seems a lifetime ago now....

We wouldn't have been able to tackle the last year, working full-time on Attollo without the help of a few incredible individuals who work with us regularly, who are at the other end of an email, day or night, whenever we have a new crisis that we're not sure how to tackle! They have taught us all that we know today and we're incredibly blessed and fortunate to be able to learn from them and soak up their experience from each of their amazing careers. 

Our friends and family, you all keep us going! On the days where we can't see or think straight you give us perspective, you make us laugh and smile when we're stressed and tired, and you make us realise what we're working towards! We owe the biggest thank you to you all for doing everything that you do and have done for us up to this point! 

We want to dedicate today to you all – to everyone that follows what we’re up to, who believes in Attollo and has been spurring us on over the last 2 years – to you all, thank you, we are incredibly grateful and can’t wait to share the future of Attollo with you!

Here's to the next year.....let's see what it will have in store for us!

Love A&F x

We're back on the blog!

We’re back on the blog!

Shamefully this is our first blog post of the year, therefore, hello 2015!

How are all those New Year Resolutions doing?!!! Ours for Attollo was get the first range designed,  sampled and launched! We’ve done the first two, will be ticking off the third later this year!

We’ll be giving you a sneak peek at our designs and samples in our next post, and boy oh boy are we ecstatically excited to do so! We cannot tell you how long we’ve kept them under wraps; it’s a surprise we’ve been able to keep them secret until now!

What we can reveal however is our shiny new holding page website! We spent months rebranding until we were completely happy with our new look. We hope you love it as much as we do!

                  

Once the branding was updated, it was time to hit the website and we’re so excited that today the new look went live, see what you think! 

How much better does it look than our old version that the two of us embarrassingly created at our old university’s library in between essay deadlines?!

Until our next post very shortly, happy Friday, happy weekend, happy blogging, happy boobs, happy days!