Firstly, we hope you had a great Christmas!
Thank you again for being a customer, supporter or part of the network that helps make our businesses work.
It’s become a tradition for us to reflect on the year gone by and share with you some of our favourite moments – we hope you enjoy.
January – February – March
We launched our online directory for businesses to have somewhere that customers could find them after they had exhibited with us at our events.
We began listing Dapper & Suave on more websites such as Pink Pages and G Wedding Directory as the backlog of special events and weddings started to happen. Find out more on our Featured In page.
We proudly hosted our 5th birthday party for Curated by Dapper & Suave at Gildings Barns and used the venue to work with 29 other creative businesses on a photo shoot that later appeared in Surrey Magazine.
April – May – June
We launched our first illustrated story book featuring Alex The Peacock, with a story written by Rob, original artwork from Flossie Hunt and additional illustrations by Chris Millard.
We started working with Forbes & Schuster to create dog bandanas for their customers.
We hosted our first event at Gildings Barns in Newdigate and then worked with Coffee Flamingo to create Curated with Pride at Barn At Sollo.
July – August - September
In July we took a well-earned mid-week break to Bristol and put our Etsy Shop and emails on holiday mode for the first time in about 4 years!
The break gave us a chance to reflect and come back with a slight rebrand for Curated by Dapper & Suave to make it even clearer to customers that we offer.
In September we launched the other 3 characters in our Style Squad each with their own illustrated story book which now have their own barcodes and can be ordered in bookshops as well as and audio book version.
We finally managed to get a photo of the whole creative team at our Christmas Market!
October – November - December
Often referred to in the retail industry as the Golden Quarter, the last 3 months have been our most fun and hard work!
In October we started reading our story books in Dorking Library followed by crafts to get the audience of 3 – 12-year-olds to create their own Alex The Peacock with feathers.
In November Rob was a guest speaker at London College Of Fashion to talk about the businesses to Masters students.
We also launched a vegan soap with rosemary, lime and mandarin working with The Sussex Handmade Soap Company.
We hosted 4 markets – 2 at Dorking Halls which also included their Christmas Lights switch on, plus 2 others at Gildings Barns (when it snowed!) and Bourne Valley Garden Centre, before finishing the year with story time at Cherry Trees charity.
Into 2023
We’ve finished the year with plans already well under way for more Curated by Dapper & Suave events in 2023 including our involvement with the Self Expression Safari project which you will start to hear more about in the coming months.
In addition, Jason began working with Enterprise Nation and will be working as a business mentor to share his background and experience.
Yesterday we took delivery of our updated promotional beer mats to continue to shout out about our businesses!
We have also been excited to see our advert in the inside cover of the Strictly Ballroom show brochure at G Live in Guildford.
We will also be focusing more on weddings, with adverts and expert Q&A slots in Surrey Wedding Magazine and Wedding Open Days to showcase where we are preferred suppliers at Wotton House Hotel, Gildings Barns and Denbies Vineyard.
At Dapper & Suave we still want everyone to “Do Well – Live Well – Dress Really Well” and for our Curated by Dapper & Suave events to be “Friendly – Creative – Unique”.
We’re excited to see what the New Year brings, and to meet the challenges we will all need to overcome.
We hope you continue to follow our mission to bring Colour, Pattern and Positivity through our products and events.
Happy New Year!
Rob & Jason