Marla Primrose

Vases that look perfectly lovely with no flowers in them, which is a great relief to some of us.

It began, as a surprising number of good things in north London seem to, with a trunk show in someone's sitting room: Stephanie's, in Primrose Hill, in March 2023, for a few close friends and a small collection of colourful glassware, plates and decorative pieces she loved. She is a video journalist by trade, much of her work has been about old crafts and the people keeping them alive, and so it is no great surprise that the business works mostly with one-person makers. We had always assumed trunk shows only happened in Edwardian novels, and have been very pleasantly corrected.

A good deal of it is glassware, the more unusual the better, including bobble-stemmed cocktail glasses that would make any party, and ruffle bud vases that are every bit as pretty without a single stem in them, which is a great comfort to us in the weeks when fresh flowers have not quite happened. The Granada Bird plates are painted by the ceramist Sophia Pelizzoli at her home in Maida Vale, no two alike, and there is a whole greengrocer's worth of ceramic fruit and vegetables, from pomegranates to garlic, for anyone who has always felt a bookcase could do with a lemon.

For more for the table, have a browse of our glassware and tableware collections, or carry on to home decor, pottery and gifts for her. There are more businesses like this one in women-led brands, and more by place in shop by location.