Not so long ago, in a land only a door knock away, the swans played shop in east london for the summer of 2010 and all of our friends came down for the launch party to help us celebrate. Opening it's doors on the 12th of August, Serafina Steer performed at the launch party, and swan original Lily Vanilli was there to sweeten things up with her red velvet cupcakes. Thanks to Static Caravan and Stolen Recordings for granting us permission to feature Serafina's song "Margaton" from Change is good, Change is good" on this short flick, and to Guy Stephens for filming the night.
A nostalgic moment for our designers and friends, and the sprawling warehouse style space of the east, we now have a cosy little nest for the winter at 1.2 Kingly Court, and we are ushering in a new season with yummy arrivals for autumn/winter.
People make a place so we wish to thank Alison of Hoxton Boutique, Poppy French, Oh Ruin & Kazatron for being everywhere at once all the time, our friends & extended swan family for coming to celebrate and helping us make quick work of 7 cases of champagne, Guy Stevens for filming it all (a movie to come), to the swan designers for making beautiful things, to Serafina Steer for putting the cherry on top & Lily Vanilli for wrapping us in red velvet.
Serafina Steer is a london based harpist, pianist and singer-songwriter. She is also my neighbour, and at times the wind will carry the sound of her playing down the street. Her latest album release dubbed ‘Change is good change is good’ is a beautiful record, and Jarvis Cocker rates it as one of his favourite albums of the year thus far. Not too tall an order from the lovely songstress who mixes sweet pagan vocals with electronica, harp with keys, romanticism with humour. One song that makes me laugh is 'how to haunt a house party' where she sings 'I'm so ambient you'd walk past me at a party, me at a party'... but not so tomorrow eve. Not a stranger to the Swanfield stage, we are very happy to welcome her back for the grand opening night of 'Swanfield on Tour', July 15th.
‘Swanfield on Tour’ was set up in December 2008 by Cecilia Hammarborg and Katherine Pont from Mine - both active and creative fashion designers in East London - they were joined by artful cupcake maker Lily Jones ( aka Lily Vanilli ) & a collective of other artists, musicians & designers who contributed to the pop-up boutique events originally hosted every Sunday on Swanfield St near Brick Lane.
First stop was 3 Lowndes Court in the Newburgh Quarter for the summer of 2009…
Second stop leading up to christmas was a residency at 1.2 Kingly Court between Carnaby & Kingly Streets in Soho…
Third stop, the swans flew east for the summer of 2010 with an exciting venue beside the legendary Hoxton Boutique at 2 Hoxton Street in Shoreditch...
Fouth stop, we returned to our nesting place at 1.2 Kingly Court for christmas 2010.
