About to land at Heathrow; my spiritual home.

It’s cold and we have been promised snow by the weekend, 6cm’s say the Independent and 6ft says the Daily Mail. Either way I am looking forward to my next trip in a few days to Puerto Rico.

The last two days have been spent in Vienna; a city which does Christmas like no one else. We were there to officially open our latest boutique. Positioned on Peterplatz, just off of Stephanplatz (the main drag) we picked the spot about 18 months ago with our partners John and Aniko because out of the many potential spaces this one was the most interesting. Loads of nooks and crannies including a basement which can get a bad rap in Austria but we loved the fact that there is a small hatch door which has a good story from the war associated to it (the owner of the building who’s family have owned it for generations told me so).

 To the credit of John and Aniko (kind of has a John and Yoko ring to it that) and Kate and Claire from my team, the store is absolutely beautiful. Every nook and cranny has been utilised to create a real journey of discovery and the odd tale of the unexpected. Like the original spiral staircase which leads into the ceiling and that’s it. I guess it spirals up on the next floor but for us it offers a short lift to the ceiling.  

The men’s area is my favourite of all our men’s areas. The black leather upholstered nook or it could be a cranny was a favourite with the 7 deadly sins models towards the end of our party.

I have to say John, Aniko and their PR machine Caroline certainly seem to have the power of persuasion with the press in Vienna. At the party I counted at least 4 TV channels and as many magazines and for me, the icing on the cake was the woman from Playboy who shook my hand over promising to do a piece on SW for Playboy. Admittedly it’s Hungarian Playboy but I’m not telling if you’re not.

The event marked one of the best we have had in a while. Considering we are brand new in the city the crowd was great with a real enthusiasm for the jewellery.

I have to mention the hairdresser to the models who showed me the tattoo on his calf depicting a crossed pair of scissors and a comb, what a commitment to ones trade. Also the DJ’s who not only looked amazing but also played one of the best mash ups of my play list I have ever heard.  

Puerto Rico next for the 10th anniversary of my show’s on the Island.  The only snow there is fake; it starts every day at 3pm inside the Plaza Las Americas to the delight of all the kids.

It’s exactly 3cm’s no matter which paper you read.

SW