Culturelabel.com

Because I'm flying back to England shortly, I need to get my head around Christmas presents a little earlier than usual, deciding whether to get clever in New York, or just order it all on the interweb, and have it waiting for me in the UK by the time I get back.

I'm quite tempted by the not having to lug shopping home option now that airlines are charging for a second case, and websites like CultureLabel do make the whole process super easy. This new breed of online consolidators take product from all over, present it thematically in one place, and then leave you to follow the direct links to the website that actually sells the product. What makes them different from normal shopping consolidation & affiliate sites is that they curate the products they sell, rather than just mindlessly listing a load of old tat.

Their USP is a collection of products garnered from sixty leading galleries, museums, artists and culture institutions, (everywhere from the Saatchi Gallery to English Heritage), many of which are either artist-designed or limited-edition products. And, if you think this all sounds a bit po-faced, may I direct you to my current favourite pick from the site?



Radio Controlled Tarantula £24.47 from The Natural History Museum
Scuttle, spin and scare from up to 140m away? Yes ,please for my godson who would LOVE driving everyone up the wall with this little horror.

From the sublime to the chic, this bag from the ever fabulous Ally Capellino is a brilliant present for, well, everyone:


Ally Capellino Satchel Bag created especially for the Tate £35.23

And for the always impossible to buy for designer-y friend with impossibly high standards, may I suggest the V&A Pattern Limited Edition Box Set at an extremely reasonable £30?



A repository of ideas for designers of all kinds, this box set contains the first four titles (William Morris, Digital Pioneers, Indian Florals and The Fifties) in a new series of books containing patterns from the V&A archive. Each book includes a CD of all the images which can be redrawn or reworked.

Most of the 60 sites will ship internationally, so usage isn't restricted to the UK.
www.culturelabel.com

Virtual shopping list: the perfect long sleeve shirt dress

I'm not allowed to spend any money at the moment, as I am saving up for a rent deposit, (spent my last one on a hire car for six weeks in California). So I thought I would instigate an occasional virtual shopping list series where I pick an item I intend to buy when my finances allow.

They aren't going to be big ticket items, just everyday purchases that will fill in gaps in my wardrobe. After all, I'm old enough now that I have previously bought investment pieces that last from season to season - the perfect cashmere sweater or LBD for example.

Or else, I've used my fashion editor mojo to pick out statement pieces a few seasons ahead, (for example the black cape & over the knee boots I bought in Paris a year ago), so that I get a couple of year's use out of them before they either die from overwear - this is mainly shoes - or go into storage for the next go round several years hence.

London-based Lil'sis has MS, so battling the crowds on Oxford Street or in Westfield really isn't her favourite activity. She's become the queen of on-line shopping and, much to my astonishment, keeps producing wonderful pieces she's bought from M&S online. Of course I buy all my undies from M&S when I go back to England, (for some reason well-priced bras in large sizes, 32G in my case, do not exist in America), but if I find one clothing piece a season in there I'm doing well.

So, consider me astonished to find lots I like in there for this winter, including today's piece for my virtual shopping list.

Marks & Spencer Long Sleeve Shirt Dress £39.50. Particularly liking the 5 button cuff & full sleeves.

Imagekind: Buying art on-line

It’s inevitable that spending time in San Francisco means that I will be talking tech stuff with my friends here. It’s a world over which I barely skate back in New York, so it’s fascinating to be directed to sites and technologies by people who really know what they are talking about.

Amongst the several websites that have been recommended to me I rather like Imagekind. Although I must admit to a vested interest as I have an artist friend, Tim Aldridge, lurking on there.

It works as a portal for any artist to sell prints of their work in any medium, be it photography, fine art or well, anything. They claim to be the world's fastest-growing art site, with over 750,000 high-quality images for sale, from over 50,000 domestic and international emerging and established artists. Imagekind make their money from myriad framing, glazing and paper options. Prints can be ordered in many sizes, and the site is emminently searchable by anything from artist name to the colour of the image.

But the reason I like it is from the artist's point of view, rather than as a consumer. In this climate it can be difficult to sell expensive canvases, so using Imagekind can make an artist's work available to the widest possible online audience, at a more affordable pricing structure.

Image: Butterfly by Tim Aldridge.
Print available to buy here

Olivia Morris sample sale

Delicious shoes. Almost worth getting on a plane/breaking my shopping moratorium.

Shopping in London's West End

My lovely friend JK here in Manhattan does something rather important and glamorous at an international fashion company. She's off to England to check out their new London store tomorrow, and has asked me for some quick shopping recommendations based around her hotel on Conduit Street. She's only got one day tops, so I've given her a very short shortlist, based on the stores I try to visit when I am in town.

Fenwick on the corner of New Bond Street & Brook Street. Wonderful accessories department with huuuuge, soft as kittens, knitted cashmere scarfs in the sale, and a fabulous millinery section. Great lingerie, interesting small label buy, boutique beauty brands. The Henri Bendel of London. (They have other stores outside of London, but they are quite, quite different.)

Dover Street Market. Owned by Commes, I think it’s probably the best curated fashion & design store in the world of the Corso Como/Colette ilk. I’ve posted about it before here. And the Rose Bakery on the top floor is home to delicious scones and cakes. Lovely cuppa tea.

B Store on Savile Row is one of London's brilliant independent boutiques, with a buy from some of England's most interesting & upcoming designers and a great place to get an overview of high fashion from the UK. Just seconds from JK's hotel on Conduit Street.

COS on the corner of Regent Street & Great Marlborough Street for brilliant everyday clothes with a high fashion nod. Forget that it is owned by H&M, and just gloat over the quality & fantastic pricing.

I could seriously care less about Topshop. I think it’s way over priced now, and the quality of the fabrics and make is conversely worse. Still, I guess the Oxford Circus store is worth a visit for the sheer scale of the merchandise. The shoes can be interesting.

Marks & Spencer‘s flagship store at the Marble Arch end of Oxford Street. Accept no substitutes, this is the only branch worth visiting in London. Brilliant bras & knickers at a quarter of the price I have to pay in New York (granted, I am pretty well-endowed, but still…) I stock up on piles of black lace knickers every time I go home. (Because bloody NYC laundries seem to boil/shred everything.)

New Look flagship store just by the Marble Arch M&S. The store was designed by Future Systems, and although they diluted the shopfit almost immediately (the original aisles were impossibly cramped), it still has a fantastic silver stepped entrance, & great wee shopping carts. 90% of the store is filled with fast fashion, and the new-ish Limited Edition range is really very good indeed if you can truffle it out. ( I am still wearing the black 100% wool bubble skirt I bought last winter, which everyone comments on, and only cost £35.)

Mid range shoe shopping: South Molton Street, top to bottom. Every shoe store on the British High Street.

Liberty’s first floor fashion & shoe department. Great buy. Glorious building. I do love a proper department store, even if this one is terribly grown up.

Just down the road from Liberty is Beyond Retro, one of the few vintage stores in the West End. Prices are obviously higher because of the West End location, but definitely worth a look.

Of course Selfridges is on the way to M&S and New Look from Bond Street, but you could spend days in there and not finish. I prefer to keep my shopping on a smaller scale.

Old Navy summer shoe shopping

I've been searching for some comfy, clunky summer shoes that I can wear to the new day job for ages. Because I'm a half size with exceptionally narrow heels I fall out of most styles, can't wear slingbacks & can't abide heeled mules (trashy), so I generally wear either Mary Janes or styles with ankle straps. They're suprisingly hard to find and, because I'm not in the market for expensive shoes at the moment, I've been stumped up until now.

So, when I discovered that a pair of Old Navy shoes I'd read about were reduced to $19.99, I didn't just buy one pair: I bought them in black and in red, plus another ankle strap platform style in white & in black too. They're all exceptionally comfortable with padded inner soles and canvas strapping.Okay. I accept it. I buy too many shoes. And I'm not very good at self restraint. Still four pairs of shoes for $80 odd dollars plus postage. That's really not a bad deal, although my inability to just be happy with one pair explains why I never have any money.When I went on-line to pick up these images I saw these new on-line extremely pretty ribbon tie espadrilles . Normally tie wedge espadrilles are uncomfortable as the ribbons cut into your ankles and twisted ankles are common as there is no support, but the clever design of these means that the ties are soft cotton jersey, and their extra woven side support stops one slipping off the sides.

But, no, I'm not buying them. Five pairs of shoes in one week is making me feel very guilty as it is, regardless of price point.

The power of a brand name

I popped into Hampstead Gap last week for a quick poke around the sale (I love me a Gap sale), and found not just a pair of tailored black flannel short shorts for £2.99(£2.99!), but a big pile of Pierre Hardy Mary Jane style pointy toe flatties. When Pierre Hardy's shoes for The Gap launched in London, I was in Manhattan, and my beloved editor friend E purchased me a pair of the black patent platform heels and posted them to me back in New York.

I had fully expected all three styles in the Pierre range to have sold out by the time I returned to England in December, and certainly the black heels had been snapped up immediately, but thw two tone shoes and the Mary Janes were still kicking around in store.

A chat with the Hampstead manager revealed that they aren't being marketed as Pierre Hardy shoes, and so no one was buying them. Same story in Camden Gap. The manager's theory? If they stuck a big Pierre Hardy sign above them, they'd fly out of the store...

Sales joy

I have scored big time in the sales this month. These pretty studded nubuck flats from Office, with a fantastic, winter busting hidden rubber sole, cost just £5 from £29, and I have them in black too. They are perfect for scrunching up in the bottom of my handbag for changing into to walk home after supper in Manhattan. (They are incredibly lightweight too, and water marks just disappear when they dry.)
After weeks of debating, I bought the Kurt Geiger ankle boots, and they look just fine. I also picked up two Whistles jackets. The first, a brilliant black, long line, tuxedo jacket with satin revers was reduced from £180 to £50, and a black fitted, curvy gaberdine jacket/blazer with navy blue grosgrain trimming a la Balenciaga was £80 from £180 - but I hesitated so long before buying it that it was reduced another £35 by the time I bought it.

I also wanted to mention the amazing service in Whistles. If they don't have your item in stock, they will ring around the other branches and, if it's in stock elsewhere, will post it Special Delivery to you for a mere £4. Given the price of London transport, schlepping round to another branch would cost more than this! Plus Special Delivery actually costs £6, so this really is an extraordinary service. I bought both jackets this way and in each case they arrived the next morning.

Marks & Sparks

I was absolutely astonished on my trawl through the West End with Miss P last week to see that Marks & Spencers have substantially lowered their pricing. Where a pair of black lace knickers used to cost £12, with the matching bar chiming in at a painful £30, I picked up some very cute undies for a mere £5 for the knicks and £9.50 for the bra. Whilst I am the first to complain against overly cheap clothing, I have to say that I have never understood how knickers could be so very expensive for a mere sliver of fabric. Of course it doesn't help that I am a 32G (eek!) so I do need some underpinning, but still...I can only assume that with Primark lowering the price bar so successfully, that M&S have had no choice but to follow. Maybe this in some way explains M&S's less than stellar Christmas trading figures.

I also bought this dress for £39.50 after much humming & hawing. It seems so spot on trend for this SS08 season. If I was living in the UK, I wouldn't have touched it with a barge pole - I have no desire to wear such an instantly recognisable dress out & about, but I reckon in the US there's zero chance of bumping into anyone else in it.

My quintessential Manhattan in 2007

Bicycling around Central Park with the barrister. Staying at M's glorious apt in the West Village and waking up to find it had snowed overnight. Top of the Rock with Liz. Finding the perfect skirt for $2 in the East Village Flea Market. Being placed front row at several fashion shows: unexpected but always pleasing. Freewheeling down Broadway on my bike. CSS at Irving Plaza with Laura. Riding the rollercoaster at Coney Island. Managing to make cupcakes in my toaster oven. Sunbathing by the pool on the roof of Soho House. Casa Mono with Henry. Hotel room hanging with Garbage. Dressing up as a Deadly Sin for Hallowe'en. Brunch at The Carlyle with my parents. Making out with a preppie banker. Oxenberg cash-llama scarves. Sunday lunch with Barry Humphries & Angelica Huston on Ed's penthouse roof terrace. Suppers of raspberry martinis and French fries with BA. Dachshunds everywhere. Always having painted nails. Birthday supper at Morandi. Brooklyn Botanic Garden with Muv & sis. Strand Books. Wine & therapy with Mich. Eating hot dogs at Crif Dogs in the East Village. Kaiser Chiefs at Hammerstein Ballroom. Picnic-ing in Union Square with Clare. Guacamole. The Waverly Inn with CA. Dropping $600 on frocks on my birthday in the sale at Miguelina on Bleecker. Dating a boy in Brooklyn. Swimming in an open-air pool on a pontoon in the East River. Looking like high class call girls at the Four Seasons with JD. Riding a police horse in Central Park. The Whistlers at The Frick. Dancing to The Cure at Beatrice Inn.

Christmas presents

I am feeling super smug as I had actually bought all my Christmas presents by the 1st December. This is unprecedented: I am more of a desperate rush on Christmas Eve type of girl, but living 3741 miles from home means I need to be a little more efficient this year. It also helped that I had a massive deadline to meet last week, which meant I royally procrastinated and got a lot of admin done instead of writing. C'est la vie.

I have ten children & babies to buy Christmas presents for, and four of them have birthdays near Christmas too. For the adults, 75% of people are getting books because they can be ordered on-line and delivered to my sister in London, so I don't have to schlep them across the Atlantic, but I do have some genius American presents: I'm particularly pleased with a leather baseball glove and ball for Miss P's stepson and a whole family of Little Red Riding Hood fingerbobs for his sister from Dinosaur Hill, a teeny toy shop in the East Village. I've bought my godson a Tiffany piggy bank with blue spots. They aren't expensive over here, (& I'm staying with his parents for a week). I think it's a perfect godmother-ly present: it'll (hopefully) teach him thrift and his mama will appreciate the Tiffany gesture.

Johnny, Johnny - pull your socks up

I am so very, very disappointed with Boden. When I posted back at the beginning of November I was very enthusiastic about their offer but, because of my peripatetic lifestyle, I had missed the UK AW07 press day so hadn't actually seen it in the flesh.

I made an order for two pairs of boots and a leather satchel on 08 November. They warned me that the riding boots had a 2 week delay & the satchel a 1 week delay, but that the other boots were in stock. On 16 Nov (8 days later - far, far too long) I received an e-mail telling me that the pair in stock had been dispatched. As of today, the 29th, still no sign of them. However a couple of days later, the riding boots arrived, out of the blue (no dispatch email). Unfortunately, their sizing is completely f**ked up, and a size UK6 was enormous.

Today, the 29th, I finally received the satchel. What an enormous letdown. Although well-made, it looks extremely cheap. The leather is floppy, which is not how it was shown on the website. The web image purports to show a more structured bag with a flat bottom - but instead it is just completely shapeless. A classic example of catalogue over-styling.

And what really, really galls me is that I now have to schlep to the post office, with two heavy, unwieldly boxes, & have to pay quite a lot of money to return both the (very, very heavy) boots and the bag for mistakes of Boden's making. (Their sizing is inaccurate, and the photograph on the site erroneous.)

I emailed customer services the day before yesterday, querying the missing boots and still no reply. In this day and age it is ludicrous that customers cannot track & trace their orders after purchase. If Boden is to succeed in the US it seriously needs to pull its socks up and invest in both a decent inventory system, and a meticulously accurate on-line track & trace system. Frankly, their technological offer is antediluvian. They also need to post more accurate product images: the lifestyle stuff is all well & good, but is ultimately misleading.

My advice? Avoid like the plague. Enormously disappointing.


Leather satchel as shot for catalogue.


Leather satchel as arrived chez LLG

BY Malene Birger & American Vintage London sample sale

BY Malene Birger & American Vintage Sample Sale

Thursday 6th of December 2007 9-19pm
Friday 7th of December 2007 11-19pm

Inexcess Fashion
Unit 4
124-128 Barlby Road
W10 6BL London
02089606161

Nearest Tube: Ladbroke Grove
Payment: CASH ONLY

Banana Republic comes up trumps

I did a LOT of shopping today, blissfully fuelled by breakfast at Dean & Delucca on Broadway and then a full works lunch at The Mercer Kitchen. It is fun when my parents come to town. I just wish it hadn't poured ice cold rain all day.

I had the usual dilemma of whether to buy one great cocktail dress or lots of pieces. Although I tend to veer towards investment dressing,(I certainly don't buy Primark any more), I just have such an over active social life in Manhattan that one dress will simply not plug the gaping holes in my wardrobe.

Astonishingly, I bought five things in Banana Republic, which is most unusual. Annoyingly, the Banana Republic sequin dress has sold out in every store in Manhattan in all sizes, so I will order it on-line & trust it will fit me. Am ecstatic as I haven't been shopping for a month or so owing to pressure of work, and I appear to have dropped at least a dress size, and even two in some styles. Very gratfiying. Obviously hard work & bicycling is a good weight-loss combo.

Still, I bought this instead which will gratify my inner sequinned princess for the time being.



Truly terrible photograph. I also bought a black silk ruffle front shirt, a wool siren LBD, and this rather beautiful silk backed necklace.


And these earrings:



which will feed my inner Sloane. (I am so turning into my mother as my thirties progress.)

I have to sleep now, but will post my DKNY purchases when I get a moment - taking my mother to The Cloisters in the day, & then both my parents to The Waverly Inn for supper. (Last time I had a fabulous view of Zach Braff's bottom as he walked to and fro past my table.)

Geren Ford

The lovely girl behind The Glam Guide gave me a pair of tickets to Lucky Shops on Saturday. It's a huge sample sale/end of season clearance in Chelsea branded by Lucky magazine.

I picked up this navy blue washed silk, inverted pleat dress from Geren Ford for $100 - which was especially pleasing, considering it's currently selling for $304 on shopbop.com

I haven't really paid much attention to Geren Ford before, but it's an all American, easy breezy line of clothes in relaxed shapes, mainly in washed silk. Geren Lockhart worked in advertising for twelve years before giving it all up to pursue her dream of designing her own fashion line, which launched in 2002.

Picture: shopbop.com

Jewellery sample sale - Thursday in NYC

This is an NY friend's jewellery sale this Thursday in the Meatpacking District. She makes beautiful gold & silver necklaces, bracelets & more, often spelling out rather naughty words, which have attracted an A list celeb following. If you fancy wearing your feelings, then check it out.

COME AND HAVE A GLASS OF WINE WITH US

JEWELRY SAMPLE SALE
BY

CASHONLY

AS FEATURED IN TATLER, VICE MAGAZINE, BLACKBOOK, NY POST & MANY MORE
AND WORN BY NATALIE PORTMAN & JOHNNY KNOXVILLE

6-9PM
THURSDAY OCT 18TH

REVEL
10 LITTLE WEST ST, BTWN 9TH AND WASHINGTON,
NEW YORK
ENQUIRIES: 917 547 6783

NO CREDIT CARDS OR CHECKS PLEASE

Filene's Basement does Basso & Sinha-Stanic

Before I forget, my most random find in an outlet store here in Manhattan has been the discovery of a delivery from Aeffe in Filene's Basement in Union Square. I was a little surprised to find, between the racks of easy fit slacks, Calvin Klein underwear, and Nolan Miller-style party frocks, three rails of rather lovely Sinha-Stanic pieces and, best of all, a whole load of Basso & Brooke's penis print pieces. This gave me much amusement as I am sure Filene's had absolutely no idea what they were carrying, and the thought of a Jersey girl popping into Filene's and going out on the town in what she thought was a merely pretty & colourful print made me chuckle for quite some time.

How to get the pregnant Britney/Jordan look: Head for TopShop

One of the things that influenced my flight to Manhattan from London was the endless stream of girlfriends getting knocked up. Don't get me wrong, I rather like small children - so long as they are a) clean b) at arms length, and c) nowhere near my cream sofas but, for the time being, I've no desire to have my social life tramelled on a daily basis by the demands of other people's offspring.

However one of the things that I enjoy most right now is torturing Miss P with inappropriate sartorial suggestions for her bump. She'll be seven months gone when she gets married in September, so it's been joyous looking for staggeringly ridiculous garb for her wedding and for her honeymoon. TopShop Maternity, in particular, comes up trumps in this arena:




I PARTICULARLY like the way they've named the denim skirt 'Pelmet'.

Pictures from topshop.com

Let me count the ways in which I hate department stores

(specifically utterly bloody Macy’s)

1) Too big. Way, way too big. This does not equal choice, this equals confusion.

2) Lack of service. Has commission been done away with here? Very, very short-sighted, especially when it’s my mother doing the shopping.

3) No signage. I may be a practiced shopper but I am not psychic, so don’t look at me like I am stupid when I can’t find the blooming knicker section. (I can’t believe the signs have been removed for security reasons. Surely Al Qaeda aren’t planning an attack on the underwear department in Macy’s?)

4) Trying to be all things to all people. History tells us you can’t please all of the people all the time. So don’t try. Aim for excellence not over-abundance.

5) Tourists. Specifically the ones that move in lemming like packs.

6) Assistants Who Know Best. If I have chosen to take 22 dresses into the fitting room, it’s because I have spent 30 minutes raking the floor for things I like. Please do not bring me dresses that bear no relation either to the pieces I have already picked, or to the clothes I was wearing when I was arrived. This is not imaginative. It is bloody annoying. Surely any fool, let alone someone who works on a fashion floor, can see that a girl with a large bust can’t possibly wear a plunging to the waist neckline without looking like she is solicting for custom?

7) Apart from the fact that Intimate Apparel sounds like a department in a porn shop, I am at a loss to understand how, in a nation with so many obese people, they only seem to sell a selection of thongs in rainbow colours, and bras up to a Double D cup. Not even vaguely in my ball park.

Family commitments

Both my sister & my mother, fondly known amongst my friends as Mrs Mad, have descended in some state upon Manhattan for five nights. My days shall therefore be filled with shopping, museums and eating. Forgive me if I am a little dilatory in posting.

Off now to worship at the various temples of retail uptown. Specifically the Holy Trinity: Barneys, Bendel & Bergdorf.