WOMEN IN ART: ELISABETH

One of the new year’s resolutions for my blog was to introduce a couple of new categories. One of these is the category where I introduce you to the women around me. Starting off slow – my planning got a bit delayed – the first woman in this series is the beautiful Elisabeth who works in art, has a successful wine and dine blog, and – I photographed her while she was 8 months pregnant – only recently became mother of a little baby girl. She tells us about her career, her style, and of course, baby preparations.

Elisabeth and I go way back – even longer than we realized in the first place. We went to the same field hockey club, the same high school, we had similar friends, eventually we went to the same city to study, and ended up living in the same residence. And again in London we ended up in the same neighborhood, and in fact, living around the corner from each other.

Her sparkling personality, radiant look, and amazing style have always been very impressionable to me. After our study adventures together, she graduated, moved to London, pursued a career in the art business, and now became mother of one of the sweetest baby girls. I always think she is one of those women – and I am very sure of this – who gets even more beautiful every year. But anyway, let’s stop throwing compliments and let’s meet Elisabeth, her inspirations, her life, and her style.

Tell us more about your time studying. What did you do, and where? First I studied psychology because of my interest in people but I eventually swapped to History of Art in Leiden, the Netherlands.

What was your dream job as a child? Being a psychotherapist.

But you didn’t become a psychotherapist, so how did you decide what career to pursue? It sort of happened once I started working at Christie’s auction house.

How did you make it happen? Did anyone help you along the way? A friend from university introduced me to my former boss for whom I worked very hard and made sure I made the role more widespread and interesting than how it was originally created.

And what lead you to your current position? My passion in working with people and art, and being creative in trying to come up with new tools and approaches for the specific position I was in. The job was still a bit in development then, which gave me quite a lot of freedom to make the job more interesting and challenging.

Talking about your current position, can you tell us what the favorite and least favorite parts of your job are? Honestly, I don’t necessarily always like the chasing around of people all the time. The job involves being quite persistent and getting the info you want quick and efficiently and this is not always easy. Love the fact that the job is extremely varied and makes it possible to work with a lot of different people in the company as well as with clients.

A day in the your office at Christie’s, how does that look? Very varied. Sometimes I am working all day on seating plans and biographies for a client dinner we are preparing and the next day I work on our Old Master Sales analytics (excel and stats and seeing for example where our clients come from and how we can best use this information for marketing purposes.) I also spend some days sorting out data for highly competitive proposals and doing research into the ownership of pictures.

What is your role during the auctions? Also very varied but in a nutshell I am responsible for making sure we target the right clients before the auctions (using our specialists knowledge, wish list and past client activity as a guideline), I am responsible for the guest lists of all our sale related events and work together with our events department on the logistics of these events, I am also responsible for the debrief of the auction that we hold a few days after the auction.

Are there any specific thing you find difficult in your job, and what do you enjoy the most? Dealing with tons of information and making sure we are having everything / everyone covered. My job involves a lot of chasing and bullying which can be frustrating at times. I love the fact that the job is very varied and that I am able to work with people who all have a great passion for the arts just like myself. We all just want to work with and eventually sell beautiful pictures in an honest way.

Any crazy experiences with clients? Tell us! We once had a client that came to one of our parties with his little dog. The dog decided to have a poo on our newly polished floor in the middle of a very chic crowd of people.
For those who wish to pursue a career in art business/auction houses, what is your tip to get there? Meeting people first. Do an internship or work experience and show them what you’ve got. Make sure people remember you so do not sit quietly in corner but be visible, creative and willing to help. Have coffee / lunch with people who do a job that you find interesting and ask them questions. Networking sounds maybe a little urghh but has definitely been a great part of the key to my success!

How do you see your ideal work-life balance after having your baby? I would love to still be able to work once the baby is here. Ideally 4 days a week. We are not sure yet if we will choose nursery or nanny but I am thinking that we will probably do both which allows me to stay later in the office on some days in the week. During auction season I would always have to work 5 days.

What are your passions? Could be job-related or not. Music, food, cooking and interior design.

You also have a blog about wining and dining in London, New York and other places around the world. What made you decide to start this blog? I created a word document for friends that came to London because I was tired of writing out my favorite places in London all the time. A few (probably about 15) friends of mine wrote down all their favorite places in London in my little black Moleskine book and I basically typed that up. My brother then told me about wordpress where you could very easily create your own website. I decided to put all the tips I had on this blog (only the tips that we had actually been to ourselves and were also our favorites) and with my friend Guusje than started to build on that. The first things I posted are almost one liners but we soon started to write more like a review and made it more personal so people could identify with us more easily.

What is it that keeps you blogging next to a full-time career at Christies? I love to share exciting places I have been to with my friends and I LOVE food and going out for dinner. Nothing makes me happier then trying out new restaurants, bars or pubs. The reviews we write are quite short. Firstly because it is easier for us to keep on going with it next to our full-time job but secondly because I personally rather read a short review on a restaurant then a full-page spread. People that are looking to eat somewhere don’t usually have hours to read tens of reviews. You just want a quick overview on the food, interior, atmosphere and service, right?

I am dying to share your style with my readers, can you tell us how you ‘normally’ dress to the office? We have to wear three-piece clothing. So if you wear trousers with a blouse you need to wear either a scarf, jacket or necklace to go with it. Christie’s has strict rules but allows women to be creative in their selection of clothes. I love the combination of funky and chic. You will not often find me wearing just a dress to the office. Unfortunately but understandable for a company like Christie’s we are not allowed to wear jeans…

And what are your favourite brands for work-outfits? Sandro, Maje, Les Petites, Zadig and Voltaire, Zara, Twenty Eight Twelve.

How would you describe your style outside the office? Comfortable and shabby chic.

Where do you prefer to shop for your outside-the-office clothes? Online? Not so much online. Only the cheaper brands. I love Westbourne Grove or just Selfridges / Harvey Nichols. Same brands as above as I honestly do not look that different when dressed to go to the office. Except for those pairs of jeans…

Why isn’t online shopping your thing so much? I like to get an idea of what is fashionable and the whole collection online but I rather see things on and feel the texture etc before I buy things. I have been quite disappointed a few times because I was expecting a slightly different color or feel of fabric.

If you could pick one item – being on a limitless budget- for coming Spring/Summer, what would it be? My god… I have no idea! I haven’t been looking because I weight 80kg now so it is Tantalus Torture to check out things I cannot fit anyway. I will be looking for the perfect summer dress though because I have three zillion weddings this summer.

Fair enough! Do you find it hard to dress pregnant? Any tips? I started of making things complicated by browsing through pregnancy clothes websites. Very frustrating because I could absolutely NOT find my style. I find most of them either boring or too expensive. My tip would be to invest in two pairs good pregnancy jeans and a few good basic pregnancy skirts. I have Paige skinny jeans and a black skinny jeans and a few skirts. All other things I just bought at the bigger chains; Normal clothing in a bigger size. Long blouses from Zara and normal sized jackets that I will be able to wear with buttons closed once no longer pregnant and now I wear it with buttons loose!

Do you have any role-models fashion-wise? I love Kate Moss’ style. And yours! – Thanks ☺
And do you have any wardrobe essentials you want to share? Leather Jacket, skinny jeans, leather skinny jeans and loads of well fitted t-shirts (for example American Vintage t-shirts).

Lastly, we are all very interested in how you will dress your baby girl! Can you tell us what your favorite addresses are for baby clothes? Ohhhh so many! Ledbury Road / Westbourne grove has LOADS of them…. Expensive though. I think I bought everything Zara Mini has for girls… Love the way they branded this line. Other cheaper option I love: Mothercare, les petite batteau, John Lewis, H & M. I HATE baby clothes with text…. haha. If money were no issue; Caramel, Marie-Chantal, Bonpoint.

Read Elisabeth and Guusje their blog here!