On the 4th November, on a sultry night in Tokyo, Kate and Christina Strutt, as guests of our lovely partners in Japan, Innocent, attended the British Business Awards at the Inter Continental Hotel.

Cabbages & Roses had been nominated in the category 'Design and Innovation'.  Past winners of this prestigious award have been James Dyson, Richard Branson, Jo Malone, Paul Smith and other brilliant and innovative British business people.

Now, we are well aware at Cabbages & Roses, that we are a well loved brand; we are aware that we have a lovely loyal following, we sometimes also think that we are quite clever.  However, blinded by the alumini that have gone before us, we had no inkling that we could ever be included in any category other than

"Best rather nice clothing and fabric brand, with the most helpful and kind sales staff, selling rather lovely although sometimes eccentric pieces from particularly beautiful shops''

You can imagine our surprise then, when our British Ambassador in Japan, His excellency David Warren, announced that the two finalists in the British Chamber of Commerce Award for Design and Innovation 2011 were... 'CABBAGES & ROSES and NISSAN MOTORS' (announced in that order!)

This rather amusing, surprising, and eccentric even, announcement caused roars of laughter amidst the Cabbages & Roses team.  So much so, that we forgot to listen to the announcement of whom the winner was, which of course was Nissan Motors.

We congratulate Nissan Motors, but more important than a lovely award of finest marble, more important than the fact that Nissan are inventing cars that are so eco friendly that they are practically trees, we want to congratulate our partners Innocent, for their devotion to Cabbages & Roses, for their hard work and for making it possible for our tiny company to be mentioned in the same breath, on the same stage and in the same category of such very, very important people.

Christina, at the end of a very long bout of travelling, did not look her best, especially as she does not do 'black tie' very well.   However, here is Kate Strutt's beautiful back wearing a Sam Bow Front dress, and our partners from Innocent - Nori Sakaue and Hisa Tsuchida, (who work with us alongside the lovely Yoko, not pictured).





All proceeds from the 2011 British Business Award Charity Auction went to business regeneration and capacity building activities in Tohoku, Japan.

Love, C&R x