Tallulah’s Sweet Sixteenth.
Come help celebrate
Working so close with our customers has really been such a privilege.
Living with them through pinnacle milestones in their life over the last 16 years. In this blog you will read the story of Tallulah plus the plans we have to celebrate this big anniversary with you...
It’s quite amazing- Sixteen, even sitting here typing it, I still need to pinch myself. Tallulah Lingerie is turning 16 years old.
Who would of thought that 16 years and 4 months ago nearly to the day I spoke to Bennet my partner and somehow managed to persuade him to open a lingerie boutique in Islington, not just any lingerie boutique but a Treasure trove of beautiful well fitted everyday lingerie.
2003, what a very big year that was. I was only 25 and had had my first baby (not totally planned) in the March of that year, then utterly unplanned I had my second baby as in Tallulah and opened the business in the November with my partner.
We had complete role reversal, Bennet was the ‘homekeeper and childcarer’ I was the ‘breadwinner’. Thinking back to those days we were purely running on such a high because it was SUCH hard work. I felt pangs of guilt everyday going to work and in those days I was working 7 days a week- staff was a pure luxury and not one we could afford! ….. later leaned from openly talking and sharing with customers that most mothers feel guilty somewhere along the line……
It was all hands on deck and friends helped us out..
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| Liddie painted the famous Purple front. |
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| Eve did the soft furnishings. |
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| Bennet did the entire interior. |
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| And I lit the candles and decorated the Christmas tree. |
Islington is a wonderful leafy neighbourhood with lots of independent boutiques and Cross Street in particular was the only street I would even dream of opening Tallulah. The perfect home for the prettiest lingerie collections.
I love Islington, know it well after living here and even working on Cross Street for over half my life, (Hello all my Clusaz customers from back in the day) so although it was terrifying opening a new business, it also felt so natural to do so at 65 Cross Street.
Just off busy Upper Street the boudoir is nestled in our cosy intimate Street.
It is a destination street for sure, not too many passersby making it the perfect spot to open a lingerie boutique as it is private and intimate something very important to our ethos, didn't want to block out the windows looking too seedy but equally did not want it totally exposed to the outside world, so a quiet part of Islington was the perfect spot to open a boudoir.
My passion has always been to encourage women to feel confident, sexy and happy within their own bodies. Lingerie is the beginning to every outfit so it makes sense to start with that!
My love of encouraging women to feel sexy everyday, not for their partner or anyone else, but themselves drives me and the this is shared with everyone that works in the boudoir. Tallulah is Every Day Sexy and this what we encourage to every customer.
Having consistently worked in retail, dressing beautiful women in well cut clothes, I witnessed over the years some terrible and ill-fitting bras.
Then the idea of Tallulah Lingerie was born over a cup of tea and a slice of cake with a girlfriend after me moaning that I couldn't find anywhere that fitted me properly and offered beautiful lingerie in a pleasurable environment, somewhere not too sexy or too stuffy, being a young new mother needing someone that would understand me, somewhere intimate so i could feel safe and ultimately help me feel ’normal’ again.
Working so close with our customers has really been such a privilege. Living with them through pinnacle milestones in their life. From fitting them for that first date, then the wedding lingerie and bridal trousseau to pregnancy lingerie then the nursing bras and then back to work lingerie, trying to feel ‘normal’ again and now even fitting their children. And with the tween bras I found it hard as it is hardly something any of us could weartest, luckily Dolly (my daughter) is 11 and at the perfect age for helping us find the perfect bras for the young girls. We have been with our customers through so many of their most important points in their life and not all highs, some lows and we share as much with them as they do with us, We have a strict ‘What is said within these ruby walls stays within these ruby walls’ policy in the boudoir.
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| Photography; Mark Whitfield. |
It was very important to have double sized fittings rooms so rather then cramming more we have 2 huge fittings rooms allowing enough space for us to be in the fitting rooms with customers to do our fittings comfortably and help our customers feel comfortable enough to openly talk to us.
Here are the fitting rooms being built in 2003 and today being
used to their full capacity, as you can see plenty of room.
I love our fitting rooms.
Nothing and I mean nothing enters the boudoir for us to sell to our wonderful customers that myself and the Tallulah girls do not LOVE ourselves. That is the main rule when viewing new collections to bring into the boudoir other then the obvious well fitting, we ask each other- “Do you love? Would you wear? Can you live another day without it in your life?” OK that last one is for the high price pieces, but honestly we love and believe in every piece of lingerie, lounge wear, swimwear anything and everything!
Every piece is tried by us all when they arrive as they all fit differently and we are all different.
Having worked in the fashion industry for over 25 years now a lot has changed in that time, fashion trends change but one thing remains the same we still need well fitted beautiful lingerie everyday and I still love to help woman feel confident. It started with the outerwear and a natural progression to underwear my true calling.
Over the years it has been such a pleasure working with strong like minded business women who have encouraged and helped me to grow. Lots of wonderful women, a few of whom stand out to me, Laura from Ell and Cee still remember our first meeting, we thought we were so grown up (boy have I grown up since this meeting Laura !) Fleur from Fleur of England (when I first bought this label it was called Fleur T) her printed silks were out of this world literally good enough to eat, she had a hand drawn chocolate collection and Luisa Loveday from Loveday London whom I very luckily still get to work with.
But Janet Reger is probably the designer I miss working with most. She was our high end silk British designer when we first opened our doors and I can still remember visiting the Knightsbridge boutique to carefully choose the collections on a very small budget and take it back to our Islington boudoir. They were the most beautiful silk pieces, I feel very lucky to have worked with such a renowned British lingerie designer so very early in my lingerie career. The photo below is a set of hers.
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| Beautiful silk and sequin lingerie from Janet Reger. |
Back in Nov 2003 Tallulah opened her doors stocking only 7 brands and now 16 years later Tallulah currently works with over 55 brands from small independent unique brands to the big well known lingerie houses from all over the world.
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| Tallulah today. Photography Mark Whitfield. |
Your experience with Tallulah is like none you will have experienced before, from the moment you walk in and see the carefully curated lingerie and slips hanging on pretty padded hangers and draped on the antique furniture to the personal talks you may have with us. We only put one out of a size as everything else is held in our stockrooms (which we have three, lots of stock!) sometimes this confusses customers thinking that we only sell the small cups but on the contrary our best selling cup sizes are E,F,G, they just don't look as pretty hanging!
We do not have a till, we hand write our receipts, every package sent out has a personal hand written note and only recently have an iPad to keep customer files and their wish lists on as it was all hand written in our folders before and it was getting out of control.
Over the last 16 years Tallulah has never advertised, we exclusively rely on word of mouth, it still makes me feel warm in my tummy when someone comes in and tells us that we have been recommended.
Fortunately we have had so many wonderful write ups and mentions in the press and all has been done so organically. There are so many honourable mentions, but one that stands out is when Grazia wrote that Tallulah was the place to get your Lux Lingerie in London, we had no idea until a customer popped in with a copy! I guess that's what happens when you are an independent small business with no actual PR team (hehe). We all do everything in the boudoir, its one of our super powers, being able to wear every hat needed to run the boudoir.
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| Grazia sharing their love for Tallulah. |
Thank you for letting Tallulah support your breasts and a
Heartfelt Thank you for your love and support over the years lingerie loves, we feel it from all over the world.
Below are just some of the amazing testimonials we have been sent over the years.
Tallulah is a wonderful, tiny, elegant, unique, sumptuous Aladdin’s cave of the most exquisite and beautiful lingerie. Nicola and her colleagues are so friendly and can ‘fit’ you perfectly before taking measurements – style, size, fit…..Nicola makes the whole experience from the moment one sets foot in the shop utterly pleasurable – as it should be!! Have been a customer from the beginning and now would not contemplate visiting any other lingerie shop. So lucky to have her and Tallulah in Islington. ED
Tallulah is my secret shop – I want everyone to go there and no-one so I can keep it a secret. It is glamorous, enticing, seductive and great fun. Nicola is an expert and makes you feel special. Her colleagues are friendly and welcoming. I always come out feeling great.
Some photos of Tallulah over the years, look how she has grown up ... and filled up!
Starting with the mood board....
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| Tallulah in 2003 |
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| Tallulah recently captured by our resident photographer Mark Whitfield. |
Whether you have been a fellow lingerie lover from the very beginning or found us along the way we would love to invite you in to the boudoir to help celebrate our 16th anniversary ;
SATURDAY 16th NOVEMBER
12 - 6
SUNDAY 17th NOVEMBER
12 - 5
Drinks will be served plus a very special
Thank You
So grab your girlfriend and swing by for a glass, some love, laughs and a lingerie fix with that special Thank You from Tallulah.
Really hope we see you over the weekend lingerie loves.
If you are on our mailing list then over the next few days we will be sending out your personal invite via text message.
Thank you for reading.
One more photo from our opening party 16 years ago...
Until next time... T x
