A Morning Visit With Claire Brinsley

We had an opportunity as the Gorgeous Girls to visit Claire Brinsley, owner and designer of the Claire Bloom label. Claire works mainly from home and we were all quite excited to have the opportunity to visit her at her home and have a private viewing of her available collection.

Our bus couldn't drive into the long driveway so we trudged up by foot and as a result saw some very scenic landscape.

Claire greeted us at her driveway and proceeded to introduce herself by informing us highlights of her career and how she has always enjoyed sewing from when she was a young girl. She certainly has had a diverse range of careers.

Her workroom was a shed located at the back of her lovely home. There was even a tree house right in front of the shed. This tells me her home is truly a family home and reminiscent of the fun times the children would have had playing in the tree house.

Maeve in one of her Claire Bloom purchases from her first visit

In the shed, Claire explained the process she goes through from ideas, to prototype, to the actual range for the season.

The room next to the shed had racks of clothes all ready for us ladies to view and try on. Imagine letting loose a group of ladies in a room like that. The added sweetener was Claire putting everything on the racks (including the newest collection) on sale especially for us. Sweet!

It was such fun. Even though the room was small, we were not deterred. Ultimately most of the ladies bought something, if not many things.

We left our handbags to go shopping!

For those who had finished with the shopping, there was tea and coffee available, plus some delicious cakes and biscuits waiting for us. How lovely!

It was so nice to meet Claire Brinsley. I found her to be such a charming lady, very refined and elegant in her demeanour and style of dressing.

Claire Bloom
Website: clairebloom.co.nz