The society pages are where Mayfair goes to be seen: charity galas in the Grosvenor House ballroom, private views on Cork Street, product launches off Bond Street and client dinners in panelled private rooms. A composed companion at your side changes how those evenings feel, and how they are remembered by everybody else at the table.
These bookings ask for a particular skill set: poise with strangers, a good memory for names and an instinct for when to talk and when to listen. Karolina, crisp and precise with a pianist's timing, and Samanta, happiest in a tuxedo jacket on her way to a recital, are made for them.
Give Bella the outline when you book: the venue, the dress code, how you would like your companion introduced and anything worth knowing about the people you will be sitting with. A first name and a simple story, a friend from London or someone you met through mutual acquaintances, usually works best. Your companion arrives having absorbed the brief, and she will not improvise beyond it.
Black tie means a floor length gown or an exceptional cocktail dress; lounge suits call for something tailored and understated; a private view on a weekday evening allows a little more fashion. Forward the wording on the invitation to Bella and your companion will dress to it, jewellery kept discreet so that she complements your evening rather than competing with it.
Events rarely keep to schedule, so the three hour line at £1,050 is the usual choice, with the four hour line at £1,300 for a seated dinner with speeches. Build in half an hour before the doors to meet at your hotel, perhaps with a drink at The Connaught, and arrive together. If the evening overruns, extending is simple: say so on the night and Bella confirms the new length in writing. The whole ladder of lengths appears on the rates page.
Your companion talks to the people beside her, asks good questions and gives your guests her full attention. She never discusses the agency, never photographs the evening and never posts about it. At a client dinner she understands that the table belongs to your business; at a gala she is glad to be your partner on the dance floor. Margo and Violetta, both in their thirties, bring a particular calm to rooms full of strangers.
Much of London's event calendar happens within a mile of Grosvenor Square: the Great Room at Grosvenor House, the ballroom at The Dorchester, the private dining rooms at The Connaught and Claridge's, and the galleries of the Royal Academy on Piccadilly. Our companions know the doors, the cloakrooms and the long walk from the car to the reception. Launches around Bond Street tend to have a sharper dress code and a shorter running time.
If your work puts you in the public eye, say so when you book. Bella keeps the circle of people who know about the evening to the one companion attending, and that companion knows only a first name unless you decide otherwise. Sonya, with her ballet posture and gentle manner, is often suggested when calm matters more than sparkle.
Plenty of event evenings have a second act. When the auction closes or the last speech ends, you may want a quiet drink away from the crowd, a late supper somewhere nobody from the dinner will be, or simply the walk back to your hotel with someone who was there. Tell Bella at the outset if you expect the night to continue, and she will book the length to cover it, so there is no need to break off halfway through the best conversation of the evening.
5 answers below. Tap a question to open it, and send anything we missed to Bella on WhatsApp.
Whatever the two of you agree beforehand. Most often that is the first name she goes by on this site and an uncomplicated, believable connection; a friend from London is plenty, and she keeps to it all evening.
Yes, from an hour at £400. Summer garden parties, a day at the races and long client lunches can all be booked, with a little notice for daytime diaries.
Yes. Every companion attending is charged at the usual figure for the length, and Bella chooses women who are comfortable together. Duo bookings explains how pairs work.
As soon as you have the date. A week gives Bella time to match the dress code and the diaries; for a drinks reception, a day's notice is often still enough.
Only as far as good manners go. She is an attentive listener and a lively conversationalist, but she steers clear of opinions on your deals and leaves the business entirely to you.
A long supper, a gallery opening, a slow night upstairs: give Bella the outline and she will suggest the companion who fits it best.
