BlogEvery now and again we get the urge to share with you, our lovely readers, what we've been up to and give you snippets from our life in the world of shoes. Also we love sharing with you things we've spotted or love, random photos and other brands we're fans of!
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 9th August 2010 - Shoes like you have never had beforeOur new A/W collection 2010 marks a change in the fashion world, a chance for us ladies to lead in the fashion stakes and be envied from afar.
A&J have carefully designed and crafted seven pairs of shoes that will add the full stop to any winter outfit this year.
There is only one reason now why you should put your best foot forward............................................. because you can.
Enjoy!
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 18th June 2010 - Shoe VerseWe love all things shoes and found this little verse that we thought was fabulous. Very succinct and very apt:
And as I cobble with needle and thread,
I judge the world by the way they tread
Heels worn thick and soles worn thin
Toes turned out and toes turned in,
There's food for thought in a sandal string
For prince and commoner, poor and rich,
Stand in need of the cobbler's stitch.
(The Cobbler's Song, chu chin chow, 1934)
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 19th May 2010 - Fashion and Textile MuseumEver been to the FTM? If not we suggest you take a peek!
They have just finished a bra exhibition showcasing its history. We thought shoes were complicated to design and make - until we saw how to make a bra! There are so many pieces so intricately stitched and if you have the underwired variety it just adds to the difficulty. Yet so many bra brands have pulled it off brilliantly.
Right now there is a Sanderson exhibition. In 1890 Arthur Sanderson founded the brand and for the last 150 years has been at the forefront of English decoration - producing the first coordinated collection of mass-produced wallpapers and fabrics in Britain.
Just next to London Bridge tube you could even pop there in your lunch hour! For more details see here
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18th May 2010 - Election fever is overOr is it??
Gosh what an unusual few weeks! What with all the election fever spreading all over UK it's been mad - and even secretly quite exciting - watching all the politicians do their stuff. We're still not sure all the commotion is yet over, with a new Government it's interesting to see how it pans out...
For any of you who stayed up all night to watch the election to celebrate or commiserate, we hope you've now got rid of those big bags under your eyes and are feeling beautiful again. |
 18th March 2010 - Spring is here!Spring is here! Well that's what we like to think anyway. We've been being busy bees putting the final touches to our new Spring collection and we thought everything yellow was spring, we hope you'll agree.
Our new styles have almost finished being made and we're going to get our hands on them in the first week or so in April. We can't wait that long so we wanted to share them with you now. We've included some pewter and mocha colours that will work well with your summer wardrobeI and, if you're bored of the usual suspects, then we've added some quirky prints too.
Do see our new styles here
What is it that we love about summer? The birds, the blossom, the refreshing glasses of chilled cider (although not at work, of course!), open toe sandals and just the smile that everyone seems to have on their face when the sun is shining! Yes we mean you...
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 26th Feb 2010 - Polishing your finger nails to match your bootsThis week we've been squealing with excitement as we've found the perfect, and I mean PERFECT nail polish to match our Catherine berry boots!
Well actually we must confess, it wasn't us but one of our lovely customers who bought some Catherine berry boots at Greenwich Market last Sunday so thanks really goes to her - It's Boots No. 7 Rose Truffle. She very kindly dropped us a line to let us know and, of course, we had to go and check it ou!
We nipped down to the chemist here to scour the shelves to find some and now we all have lovely polished nails. Polished off with Catherine berry boots - literally!
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8th February 2010 - Madness at Greenwich (in a good way...!)Well, well, well, we're still recovering from yesterday at Greenwich Market! We were delighted so many of you popped down to say hello and to try on our shoes. As those of you who came along will have noticed, it was extremely busy, at times with queues of women snaking round the side of the stand. The lovely people at Greenwich Market had given us a corner stand intentionally as somehow the 'gut feel' was that it would be busy.
So some of you had to wait a while to be fitted. Yet those of you in the queue were also the lucky ones as we offered you complimentary yummy, scrummy mulled wine from our favourite boys across the other side of the market.
We were really pleased that so many of you emailed us in advance to let us know what styles/sizes you'd like us to bring. Although you often saw something else that took your fancy and so you ended up with that instead.
Today we're having a slightly more chilled day in the office - that is, after we've processed all new the orders. We don't mind though, we're chuffed so many of your left smiling yesterday, see the rest of you next Sunday!
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 20th January 2010 - 50% off many styles, bring it on! Yes you've read correctly, we're now offering a massive 50% off many of our shoes.
See our sale shoes here
We're down to our last few pairs of many styles and so we're letting you have them at this huge discount. Normally many of our shoes are nearer £75 a pair so this is your chance to get them for £30 odd. Go girl, what are you waiting for?
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 19th January 2010 - Tweeting, twittering, whatever...This week we've been twitter mad! Tweeting all the time, about all things shoes, fashion, clothes, interesting shoe facts, what we like, what we dont' like.
Already we have a large following and if that doesn't include you then you're missing out!
Do join our twitter following amberjadeshoes
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 14th January 2010 - Our new Catherine boots survive snow brilliantly! Don't know about you but we love the snow! The beauty of it and the still, calmness that it brings. Also we did sneak out of the office for a little while to go to the local park where there is a hill. Whilst we tried to slide down it on a sheet of plastic, invariably we ended up on our bottoms!
In the newspapers we saw some policemen who were caught on camera sliding down snowy hills too - and the article wasn't very complimentary. We thought give them a break and good on them! Pleased they had some fun too.
On the day London and UK officially 'stopped', the first main day of the snow, I got stuck at Camden Town and couldn't get back to the office in Muswell Hill. No buses, no tubes and zillions of people milling, all looking to each other for direction. The traffic was at a standstill and so I wasn't going anywhere fast.
By chance I was wearing these fabulous new Catherine boots and so, with no other way of getting back, I used the snow as a chance to 'road test' these boots. I set off from Camden Town to Muswell Hill that is quite a long way. I walked through lots of thick snow, water, ice and mud. When I reached Muswell Hill, as it's so high up it was one of the worst affected areas for snow. It was very surreal as all the buses had stopped and parked on the side of the road and snow was so thick that people had left their cars in the middle of the road overnight. Lots of cameras were flashing to remember the moment by, I felt like I was on a red carpet rather than the white carpet of Muswell Hill!
A couple of hours later and at the top of Muswell Hill Sainsburys staff were handing out sandwiches to the bus drivers who couldn't go anywhere! I stopped off for a sneaky fish and chips (well I deserved it!) and came across people still determined to get a taxi home - they had no chance!
Back down the other side of Muswell Hill and in the dark, whilst my feet were still dry, I couldn't see the external state of my boots. The following morning I studied them intently - and they were perfect. Really perfect. The leather is reasonably waterproof and had dried out completely and not left a single mark. They still looked smart and completely admirable.
So whilst UK stopped in the snow, it was great to have the opportunity to road test these boots - Don't believe me, see the boots here why not try for yourself?
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 15th January 2010 - Ellora for all things CreativeWe love bringing new people on board to join our dedicated team.
We're really delighted to have a new Creative Director, the lovely Ellora. The lovely Ellora has a background in Design and Fashion and has won many prestigious Design Industry Awards over the last 10 years. Her interest in fashion and appreciation of a good sense of style started at a very early age with her mum having been in the Fashion industry herself since the 60's. Her fashion shoe motto is simply "Always keep your feet firmly on the ground, just make sure you wear the best shoes you can when doing so".
Ellora is instrumental in helping with the Creative Design, Marketing and PR of our shoes. Oh, and she has size 8 feet and so understands what us women really want.
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 26th December 2009 - Our fabulous Winter sale...Yes girls, you've guessed it! It's that time of the year again where we're offering you some fantastic bargains on our shoes.
30% off many styles - Click here
After our wondeful Christmas party last week, where we had drinks and dinner and a bit of a boogy, we're all a little champagne-eyed but are still up and around to send out shoes for this sale! Some of our styles now have 30% off and so we'd get choosing if we were you. Our strappy heels are perfect for that new year's eve party, along with a bunch of mistletoe of course, and you'll be wanting to grab some moccasins for the casual yet chic look during the month of Jan.
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 15th December 2009 - BBC Breakfast TV wraps up our shoes!This morning we were delighted when our shoe box was used on BBC Breakfast TV. There was an interesting article of whether or not you'd prefer to receive a Christmas pressie wrapped in nice, pretty wrapping paper or newspaper.
We were really chuffed when they used our shoe box as an example of a present being wrapped in wrapping paper. If you haven't seen one of our new shoe boxes then you're missing out, they have a green base and the lid has a fabulous illustration on it along with our vibrant red logo.
Perfect for keeping your shoes pristine as well as having style!
Thanks to all of you wonderful customers who have been in touch saying you saw our shoe box. If you're giving our shoes as an Xmas present, we definitely suggest you wrap them in true wrapping paper style (and not newspaper!)!
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 14th December 2009 - Do you prefer mushroom or berry?This Autumn it's neck in neck between our berry and mushroom coloured shoes as to which is the most popular colour!
Our berry shoes are made of a rich, burgundy suede almost like a red wine. We chose it as the suede has a fantastic softness to it and the matching patent was vibrant - and we also thought quite Christmassy. For our mushroom coloured shoes they are made of a snakeskin print mushroom with a warm, matching patent and they are just a little bit different yet still go with everything.
It's so close, we're on the edge of our seats and are trying to decide which colour we'd go for!
So now it's over to you girls to decide, just drop us a line with your preference
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 29th October 2009 pm - www.afxentiou.co.ukLondon Boutique du jour Afxentiou makes fabulous bags in a variety of shapes and sizes - and we love them!
Check out www.afxentiou.co.uk. One of the founders has a background in laminated fabrics in far out 60s & 70s style prints, mainly spots, stripes and florals. Their designs are heavily influenced by nature (plants & flowers) and they love to work with bold colours. Handbags & Accessories in pastel colours on plain cotton is far removed from what they would do, it just doesn't suit them. They're about big abstract spots, stripes and florals, colour combinations and laminated fabrics - they don't do boring!
They change their prints reguarly as they know their fans love to see new things.
Afxentiou have a stand at Greenwich market every Sunday. As we love their bags so much, we asked them if they'd like to help us to celebrate our 2nd birthday. They agreed and so, during the month of November 2009, if you take away some shoes from our stand at Greenwich Market, they'll give you 10% discount off their bags.
Forget the high stree, Greenwich market is THE place to shop!
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29th October 2009 am - Delivering your shoes by courier As you may be aware we've always used Royal Mail to send out our parcels to you. Sadly Royal Mail is not offering its usual service at the moment and so we were concerned about how we could get our shoes to you.
So we've now just arranged for a courier to deliver our shoes to you sometimes instead. We'll still be able to track your parcel and you'll still need to sign for it on delivery. Parcels leave us every other day or so and, whilst we're still not offering next day delivery you should receive your shoes within a few days.
This morning we met the lovely courier van driver called Jim for the first time. He took away quite a few boxes of shoes and boots so some of you will receive them tomorrow.
We've never used a courier before but we're exciting about trying one out. Do let us know what you think!
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 27th October 2009 - Stunning beltsWe couldn't believe our eyes when we saw the wonderful belts that Phaedra made! Phaedra is the lovely lady who has a stand at Greenwich market and so we see her most Sundays.
Phaedra is incredibly creative and designs and makes all of her own wondeful leather belts and cuffs. She is very unique in that she really designs a belt to 'fit you', none of this one size fits all malarky. Whilst she has lots of belts in various shapes, sizes and colours, if she doesn't have a particular one you want then she'll make it for you especially.
We're in awe - how does she do it? The photos of her belts give you an idea but don't do them justice.
Our favourites are her low-lung belts that we love wearing with jeans and her belts for around your waist, the chunkier the better (as with our shoes!). We're often modelling her belts at Greenwich market.
Phaedra has kindly agreed to help us celebrate our 2nd birthday at Greenwich Market. So during November every time you take away a pair of our shoes she'll give you 10% discount off one of her belts.
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25th October - Wispa Gold rocks!Go on, give yourself a little treat!
Great news that not only have Wispa chocolate bars been brought back but the lovely people at Cadburys have also given us back Wispa Gold too - you know, the one with that lovely layer of caramel on top of the bubbly Wispa chocolate.
Naughty but nice! Well a girl's gotta treat herself occasionally. We're huge fans of this little chocolate bar and have 'stocked up' in our office so ther're always there for a pick-me-up and of course we make sure that's daily! Also we're chuffed as the newsagents at Greenwich market now sells them so we grab a bar on Sundays if we're flagging a little in the afternoons, as we sometimes do having been up since 6am on a Sunday.
We're intrigued as it was only when the Wispa bars were stopped being made that everyone wanted them back. We've found a similar thing with our mid heels. We took them away - although not for good but to improve their design - and suddenly many of you contacted us asking for them back immediately!
That same old adage, you don't know what you've got till you've gone...
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 16th October 2009 - www.lauralaura.net - Love these earringslauralaura has some fabulous jewellery including these button earrings. We think they're gorgeous, very individual and we love their unique detail. We've fallen for them in this bold green hue and we love them the bigger and better as they make a real statement.
Take a peek for yourself at www.lauralaura.net. lauralaura is new from old and reworks the unwanted to create captivating clothes and accessories. Be 'good as gold' and 'quite charming' in one of their wonderful hand-broidered knitwear jumpers that will also keep you warm this winter as the chill sets in.
lauralaura has a stand at Greenwich market every Sunday too. The lovely girl who runs it designs and makes all of the jewellery and knitwear herself. And as it's all unique, you're guaranteed that no one else will have the same as you, yet your friends will all want what you have!
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 11th October 2009 - The nitty gritty - and smiles - at Greenwich MarketWe were at Greenwich market, SE London today selling our shoes. Sundays are the hardest days of the week for us as we're up just after 6am loading our car with about 70 pairs of shoes (no we can’t see out of the back window to drive properly!) along with samples and lino for women to stand on rather than the cold and dirty cobbles!
When we get there it takes about 2 hours to set up our stand to make it look like a proper shop. We’ve got fabric for the walls and back of our stand (all thanks to the lovely Ikea!) and then the rest of the stand is a sea of green shoe boxes! We have two big signs that we tend to put slightly higher up than some other traders as most women with larger feet tend to be slightly taller than average. Of course whilst we have a lot of shoes someone usually wants a style/size I don’t have but that’s ok as if someone wants to buy a pair we won’t charge them the postage and will send out the shoes free of charge the following day.
After ‘extra hot but don’t burn yourself’ coffee from Starbucks before we start and a quick change out of old fleeces and old, scuffed shoes (we don’t want to ruin my nice shoes) into our new shiny amber & jade shoes, we’re ready and all set to go! We never know where I will be given a stand in the market. However the lovely lady who runs the market knows us quite well now and usually gives us a great stand towards the middle. It’s getting much busier now as it’s nearer Xmas but hopefully those of us hardcore who were there freezing our bits off from the first week in January will still get a spot! The fact we advertise and so encourage people to visit the market usually goes in my favour.
Then it’s go, go, go! Until 5.30pm it’s non-stop and full-on. You can’t really leave your stand so grabbing food etc has to be quick. There are some fab other traders who watch your stand if you’re gone (it’s like an office really, just outside) but other than that, it’s up to you.
Whilst it’s the hardest day of our week, it’s also the best. We love meeting larger-footed women, fitting many of them in person and chatting to them about what they’d like. It’s so hard to buy ‘blind’ from the internet and so we’d encourage anyone to pop along to be fitted properly. Also it’s amazing how our new ‘fit but not hurt’ concept goes down. Many women visit us with flimsy shoes and so are surprised when we encourage them to go for a size that actually fits them rather than being too big and sloppy.
The best part of today was when a loyal customer who has bought from me before turned up to buy some more of high heel Penny shoes in black patent. Yes she’s a size 8 and has a slim foot (so has a little more choice in the high street than some of our customers) but still thinks our shoes are fab. She rocked up wearing a pair of our red Ellora flats from last season. Wicked!!
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 5th October 2009 - Our new Autumn Collection 2009Yay! We're delighted to be able to share with you our new styles for this Autumn. We've spent many hours (even days!) in our wonderful factory and the surrounding markets designing, making, sampling and tweaking our new styles.
Our main colours are True Blue, Mushroom and Berry along with splashes of gold and violet. Whilst every style is available in black, we urge you to be bold and try something a little different - you never know how it will make you feel unless you try!
Also from listening to you and fitting many of you personally we've made some improvements from previous Collections, check out the new dreams we've made come true here.
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 4th October 2009 - Hello LucyHi Lucy!
Lucy is the lovely lady who visited us at Greenwich Market yesterday. We promised her that we'd say hello to her on this blog. She came along wearing pink tights and was planning on getting some of our purple ballet pumps in size 10 Original.
As soon as she sat down for us to fit her, she noticed the Penny high heels next to her and loved the vibrant red hue. Then she also noticed our new mid heels with a brogue design that are out towards the end of this month. Then our knee high boots, the list goes on...
So Lucy ended up with some new ballet pumps, Penny heels and ordered some of our new boots in the berry colour.
We think you'll need some more coloured tights Lucy!
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 6th Sept 2009 - Walking off in GreenwichOn Sunday at Greenwich Market we had the largest number of requests for "is it ok if I wear your shoes now?"
Not sure what it was (maybe something in the Greenwich water / local beer?) but, as well as some of you loyal customers who came to see us, we had lots of women pass-by who saw our stand, tried on our shoes and found them so fab and comfy that they wanted to walk off in them! Also the patterned linings were much admired and our shoes made their feet appear small (that's the idea).
"Of course you can walk off in them" we told them, chuckling to ourselves! They hadn't planned to buy shoes but when you find a pair that fits there is no stopping a girl...
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 8th Sept 2009 - We're loving Carter and Bond - for WomanGo on, you deserve it. If you fancy treating yourself to a beauty treatment then take a peek at one of our favourite websites for all things to do with beauty and creams see Carter and Bond - Woman
We love Carter and Bond as, as well as being run by the lovely Joe, it tends to have some slightly less well-known - yet still fantastic - brands. Joe has managed to persuade some of these brands to give him some exclusivity and we're all for supporting small, growing businesses.
We're huge fans of Ole Henriksen (those little tubs with black lids) and Korres. So what are you waiting for ladies?
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 July 2009 - Our MakeoverWe're delighted that we've just finished our new makeover. It's a very exciting time for us and so, of course, this calls for a little celebration.
It's taken us a few months to do. It's not just our shoes that we start from scratch and then tweak but it's also our brand and website! Originally we started asking you, our wonderful customers, what you would like from us as a brand and what features / information you'd find helpful on our website. This is the end result and we hope that you like it.
Do let us know what you think of our new image, drop us a line at . |
 June 2009 - Website testingWe'd forgotten how much testing a new website takes! It's not just the design of the pages and the images but we need to check that all the links work and that you can email ok - also that what we're writing actually makes sense!
We've been round and round in circles trying to make sure everything is super duper and 100% perfect but we are human and so have been known to make an odd mistake. If you spot anything that doesn't work or an image that isn't clickable and that should be, please let us know and we'll make it do so. |
 June 2009 - CanadaYes we've heard you! Soon we're going to be able to let those of you who live in Canada get hold of our shoes. It's taken a while to set up but we're almost there. We've found a lovely guy called Nick who will be running the Canadian mail order side of the business and sending out shoes to you - also he might even fit you in person! |
