Hayley Menzies

In party season, the pressure is always there to host a memorable event – so let Portobello-based model turned-party organiser, Hayley Menzies, be your social secretary. As Philippa Ronald discovers, the RSVPs to her parties always come with a ‘Yes, please’

Dinner parties always seem like a good idea. That is, until it’s 10 past eight, you’ve got one hand stirring Jamie’s truffle jus, another tugging on a pair of tights, the other leg of the tights is in the puppy’s mouth. Smudge in turn has tipped over his Belu water, which has soaked your fave Olivia Morris slingbacks. In the process of airlifting the shoes to safety, the jus is now a mushroom cloud of vapour round your hair, which promptly springs into a ball of frizz, just in time to greet your first guest at the door (who has arrived early complaining about the congestion charge and armed with a lukewarm bottle of Ernst & Julio Gallo). You find yourself throwing a Heather Mills-McCartney tantrum, comparing you and your car-crash dinner party to Princess Diana and blaming the papers for printing the truffle recipe in the first place.

Hope has left you high and a bit wet this time. But there’s always next time. What do you do?

a) Ignore past history and plough on

b) This time (as you say every time), make sure you prepare thoroughly and start even earlier

c) Call in the services of party-supremo, Hayley Menzies of Foxyshots, and only deign to stir yourself from your bath 20 minutes before your guests arrive.

With the party season upon us, pray that this year your pals have ditched the lacklustre minced pies for a Foxyshots experience. Hayley Menzies, who runs Foxyshots from her Portobello office, has been honing the business for a few years and believes she now has the answer to throwing you the coolest party in town. A quick cocktail-straw poll of my friends and she’s accurately gauged the inertia about the ‘same old parties’.

‘I dread people inviting me to dinner parties,’ moans Alex. ‘There’s never enough food and I always have to scoff a peanut butter sandwich when I get home.’ Or my friend Lucy: ‘Frankly, I’d rather stay in and watch Heroes.’

Not so with Foxyshots. Hayley is catering for the best house parties in London. It was while she was running a Tequila Slamming agency, supplying cocktail girls to bars in the city and around London, that she hit upon taking the concept more upmarket by creating ‘ultimate glittering soirees’, with a particular 1950s flavour to them.

Say you want to throw a wonderful evening for 20 guests in your home. Hayley will meet with you in advance, discover what you’re after, establish a budget and set about taking care of the A-Z of the planning process.

The possibilities are infinitesimal – your guests can arrive by chauffeur, should you wish, be greeted by a Foxyshots hostess, who will take their coats and offer them champagne and canapés. Whether just canapés or a three-course meal, the food is all taken care of. There are dazzling flower arrangements, special table decorations, perhaps if you’re a feeling a little extravagant, an ice sculpture or two.

Cocktails are whisked up to your tastes by the Starlets, in sensational outfits, and served up from behind a specially built bar. Perhaps a jazz singer might perform over pudding or a photographer take some snaps. Then, when you’re all partied out and hitting the snooze button the next morning, Hayley will arrange for a cleaner to come round and straighten everything out. You don’t have to lift a finger.

The 1950s inspiration gives the parties a unique touch. ‘When I was a child, I remember going to my grandmother’s house, and sitting watching old movies, eating chocolate mousse,’ says Hayley. ‘I’d be fixated with the beautiful actresses – Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe – they were so elegant and classy.’

So, when it came to finding the right girls to give Foxyshots a distinct appeal, Hayley saw a Fifties throwback theme as a fun selling-point. ‘We’ve all been to parties where the catering staff fulfil a function but add nothing new to the event,’ she explains. ‘Foxyshots does everything they would do, but adds a touch of glamour, demureness, frivolity.’

And, unlike the men-oriented Tequila parties, Foxyshots aims to appeal to both men and women: ‘These are pretty girls, not raunchy or scantily clad, but they’ll have fun making you the perfect mojito or sidecar cocktail.’

A successful model for more than 10 years and still signed to MOT model agency, Hayley is in the fortunate position of knowing and working with lots of pretty girls, who recruits to her team. Aside from learning impeccable cocktail skills, Hayley dispatches them off to etiquette class to be trained in tip-top manners by Alexandra Meservey at The English Manor, who has royal connections.

Hayley was brought up in Somerset and Cheltenham, left school at 18 and went to London College of Fashion to study to be a make up artist. She quit after nine months, as “it was far too much fun living in London.” She walked in to a dental surgery off the street and got a job as a dental nurse where she fully, if a bit liberally, embraced the uniform, wearing wear white mini skirts and patent platforms – “clients were so distracted by what I was wearing, they’d forget to be nervous!”

Clearly not her vocation, Hayley started modelling and became a Tequila girl in bars and nightclubs for extra cash. The modelling took off and Hayley starred in campaigns for the likes of Crew Clothing, French Connection, Bravissimo and many more, rarely out of work. Even now she still gets calls from friends jokily telling her to stop following them or get off their tail. ‘You see, I’m the face of Eden Waters,’ she explains. ‘And there are still 1,000 lorries driving round the country emblazoned with my face!’

Approaching 30, Hayley felt that more was expected of her and she expected more of herself. The social confidence she had garnered from the modelling and tequila world galvanised her to set up her own company, Foxyshots. She says of the experience, ‘Although I love modelling, it’s easy to get into a rut. You can earn £5,000 a day and that can make you complacent. Now I’m a company director, I feel like I’m in control of my life. I go to the office everyday, I’m more driven and I’ve gained so much more respect.’

While she lives in the Bush, her office is tucked away above a restaurant on Lancaster Road. For the business, she believes it’s good to be where many of her clients live and the environment motivates her: ‘Even though I am here every day, Portobello still fascinates me and makes me feel alive. Every day it’s different. No matter how many times you walk up Portobello or the little streets leading off it, you always discover another tiny boutique or restaurant... it never ceases to amaze me!’

Like her parties. Hayley knows it’s the bespoke nature of the parties she throws that bring the repeat business. ‘We can always find new elements to bring to the evening. Your party wish is my command!’

Foxyshots, 020 72434118; www.foxyshots.co.uk

Hayley’s Grove address book

The Electric, Portobello Road – ‘my extended living room’

The Market Thai, Portobello Road – ‘I always have their Tom Ka soup for lunch’

Cafe Bolero, Lancaster Road – ‘the best smoothies and great for people-watching’

Still, Lancaster Road – ‘gorgeous vintage pieces’

Coco Ribbon, Kensington Park Road – ‘great for gifts’

Rosas, - ‘it’s a firm favourite and their Sunday roast is incredible and massive!’

Sera of London, Lonsdale Road, W11 – ‘for their adorable party frocks and lingerie. I love the 1950s theme, its totally Foxyshots!’