This week, The Flower Appreciation Society provide us with their top tips for superior flower arranging. Ellie and Anna will be decking our Marylebone shop with flowers for its re-launch on March 21st. As a prelude to this, the girls will be featuring here regularly. Next week: The Flower Appreciation Society’s guide to edible flowers, complete with Easter recipes.

Remove dead flowers as they appear, in order to keep the rest of the flowers healthy.

When using woody stemmed flowers or foliage, cut directly up the stem to allow more water to travel to the heads.


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by TOAST ( 10.03.13 )

Love = Love #2 by Kent Rogowski.

www.kentrogowski.com


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by TOAST ( 08.03.13 )

John Andrews, also known as ‘Andrews of Arcadia‘, is an author, a printer, a brave survivor of the Indie music business and a dealer in ‘vintage fishing tackle for the soul’. And a gentleman.

Last summer he was to be found at the Caught by the River section of the Port Eliot Festival. Appropriately within earshot of the lapping of the River Lynher he hosted the festival’s smallest tent where, to contented and sun-kissed audiences of no more than twenty, authors read their elegiac tales of angling: fishing as backbone to quietly perceptive, meandering narrative; fishing as life-metaphore – fishing stories for the soul.

John Andrews writes a daily blog at andrewsofarcadia.com as well as pieces for Caught by the River and other publications. His book, For All Those Left Behind (Mainstream Publishing) is currently out of print, but is well worth seeking out – we believe Rough Trade East still has a few copies left.

John can be found ‘putting my wares out on the velvet for sales to passers-by’ on most Thursdays at Spitalfields Antiques Market between 8am and 3pm. He will also be a regular contributor to Toast Travels, read his first dispatch here.

www.andrewsofarcadia.com


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by TOAST ( 06.03.13 )

Our photographs for our new men’s collection are a (modest) homage to Irving Penn and his great Small Trades series – portraits, shot in 1950/51, of tradesmen in Paris, London, New York, dressed in their work clothes, carrying the tools of their trades.

Neil Gavin took the pictures – portraits of six interesting men shot over two thoroughly enjoyable days. It felt refreshing to be taking pictures of individuals as they are, dressed as they might be – no pretence. It felt like the right way to show these clothes.

The eagle-eyed might notice repeated connections between the men here and Caught by the River, the excellent website/gentle affiliation of the like-minded; and Port Eliot Festival, the discreet queen of festivals. We have no official connection to either but this book’s second homage is to both for providing wonderful times and

View the collection hereView the photographs here.


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by TOAST ( 06.03.13 )

The Flower Appreciation Society celebrate all things wild, floral and English. We asked founders and friends Ellie Jauncey and Anna Day a few questions and found out about their love of lilac and passion for poppies. The girls will be decking our Marylebone shop with flowers for its re-launch in March. As a prelude to this, Anna and Ellie will be featuring here regularly. Next week: The Flower Appreciation Society’s guide to flower arranging.

The flower you most relate to?
Ellie – All flowers, my middle name is Fleur… it makes sense.
Anna – red poppies.

You can’t wait for…
… the day we can buy a smart van.

What’s the best advice you’ve been given?
Appreciate…


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by TOAST ( 04.03.13 )

The first dispatch from author, printer and dealer in ‘Vintage Fishing Tackle for the Soul’ John Andrews (a.k.a Andrews of Arcadia). John is one of the six working men photographed by Neil Gavin for our spring/summer menswear collection. The photos here are by Jim Eyre (@scribblebag).

In the month of February all journeys to my stall at Spitalfields begin on the edge of the Heath at the un-Godly hour when only gangs of foxes are abroad, scattering the contents of rubbish bags as they scavenge, play-fighting gaily in the middle of empty streets like ghosts of London children past. Through bleary eyes I dare not look at the clock for it will tell me to go back to my warm bed, as even the birds have yet to wake and one’s senses are aware only of being surrounded by an utterly dense and inky stillness, akin to the end of everything, a blackout curtain thrown over the unwashed face of the city just before dawn…


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by TOAST ( 01.03.13 )

The Flower Appreciation Society are not your average florists. Founders Anna Day and Ellie Jauncey met at the Scolt Head pub in North London two years ago. Ellie had spent the summer helping her mother, also a florist, with orders for wedding flowers, and Anna had just completed a (very uninspiring) year-long floristry course. They were both bored by the endless tweaking and prinking of professional floristry and instead bonded over a love of fresh, English flowers, arranged in a freer, more natural way…


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by TOAST ( 22.02.13 )

Study of Sky and Trees by John Constable.

Study of Sky and Trees, c. 1821 by John Constable.


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by TOAST ( 22.02.13 )

Orlando Gough.

Once upon a time it was mackerel and herring, then it was mackerel not herring, then herring was reprieved and it was mackerel and herring again, and now, shock horror, it’s herring not mackerel. A poke on the nose (or rather, a slap round the face with a wet fish) for those smug buggers, like Hugh F-W and Yotam – and me actually – who thought they’d got it every which way with mackerel – delicious, healthy, sustainable. Now it’s just delicious and healthy. As usual it’s all about greed – Iceland and the Faroe Islands unilaterally upping their quotas, which turns out, curiously, to be legal because they’re not part of the EU Common Fisheries Policy…


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by TOAST ( 18.02.13 )

James Seaton, Toast’s co-founder and Creative Director, is interviewed by The Lifestyle Editor about his work, inspirations and achievements.

Who are you: James Seaton

What is your work: Co-founder and Creative Director of Toast

What is your website: www.toast.co.uk


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by TOAST ( 14.02.13 )
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