Liberty at Dover Street Market

These Liberty of London evening bags are fantastic: I think a shot of colour looks fabulous against black and, even better, clashing against this season's colourful cocktail dresses. I didn't pick on these Liberty pieces because they match the name of my blog*, but because I admire the way that they are moving the brand into the 21st century without losing sight of their identity (Hello Jaeger).

Blowing up the iconic art nouveau Ianthe print from the Liberty archives in this way looks fresh and avoids the feeling of cutesy that haunted Liberty for so long. It's also particularly clever to make these brilliant colourways available exclusively at Dover Street Market.

Without a doubt, DSM is London, & possibly Europe's most exciting retail space now. Nominated for Best Retail Concept at the British Fashion Awards last week, they was robbed by Marc Jacobs (woo hoo - opening a store. Really innovative), as I have complained at length already, both on this blog & in the real, bylined world.

*(The name of my blog has nothing to do with the Liberty of London store)

Guilty Pleasure: Gossip Girl

If you are female, under 35 and live in Manhattan, chances are that you watch television's newest vice: Gossip Girl. It's a sherbet light froth, more believable than The OC, & as addictive as 90210 in its heyday. (Now I'm showing my age), Set on in the world of private schools, & millionaire parents, these High School-ers exist on cocktails & thin air, shag for, well, Manhattan, & party for America. It's no wonder it's become so popular: it's executive producer is Josh Schwartz, who conceived The OC.

I may be (sometimes) a proper grown up with a serious job in the fashion world, but this is my weekly dose of escapism. All my girlfriends here are equally obsessed - and we are in our 30's and, I suppose, could be said to know better. But sod it, I like fluff as much as I do more cerebral pursuits, and I'm happy to say so.

Gossip Girl is based on the popular novel series of the same name written by Cecily von Ziegesar, which shines a spotlight on the lives of six teenagers attending private school on Manhattan's Upper East Side.


Blair and sidekicks.

Serena van der Woodsen (Blake Lively) and best friend Blair Waldorf (Leighton Meester) are the two key female leads, and slated to be the Mischa Bartons of their generation. Blair's boyfriend Nate Archibald (Chace Crawford), trust funder Chuck Bass -(played by you'd-never-guess-it-but-he's-English Ed Westwick) and the outsider Humphrey siblings from hipster Williamsburg Dan (Penn Badgley) and Jenny (Taylor Momsen) complete the key characters. The series is narrated by "Gossip Girl" (the voice of Kristen Bell), who writes an onlooker's blog which continually stirs up trouble.



Serena, Dan, Nate & Chuck.

The costumes rock too, less costume-y than Sex & The City, which went beyond parody in the last couple of series, generally making guys of the actresses. The designer is Eric Daman, who was an assistant designer on SATC, and also styles for i-D. Although I've yet to meet a schoolgirl who wears $900 Clergerie boots or $500 sequin Tory Burch frocks, they look hot enough on Blake Lively aka Serena van der Woodsen to make me seriously consider some copy-cat retail.

And it's not just the clothes that rock, the music does too. In the same way that she broke niche bands on The OC to a wider audience (Death Cab for Cutie, the Shins), Gossip Girl's music supervisor Alexandra Patsavas, has picked up on new NYC bands like The Virgins, who she mixes in with acts like The Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Amy Winehouse, Feist, Air & The Bravery.

It certainly has its ridiculous side: all the mothers look about five years older than their daughters, which isn't surprising considering that Serena & Blair both look 25 rather than seventeen. All the teens drinks like fishes, and have no problems getting into bars & clubs where they suck down martinis like Kool-Aid.



Serena: Seventeen, going on thirty.

Rumour has it that Gossip Girl's been bought by ITV2. Every time I try to describe it to my London-based girlfriends, all I have to do is say , "better than 90210" and I have instant converts: I predict the next UK cult show. (Let's just hope the Writers' Strike is resolved soon - they've only shot 12 out of the 22 episodes slated for this season.)

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.

Hokum

January is a pretty dull month. If you happen to find yourself in London, then may I suggest that you relieve the pre-fashion week boredom by booking yourself a ticket to Hokum, master magician Pete Firman's show at The Bloomsbury Theatre on Friday 25 January 2008.

Thank you.

Sunday brunch

Well, Mr W was beyond charming, and we had a delightful - and delicious - lunch at Café Cluny in the West Village. I worked my way through asparagus with chanterelles, hollandaise and a poached egg, with a huge pile of French fries on the side to mop it up. There may have been some frisée & leaves for texture, but I wasn't so interested in the salad component...

Cluny is only three blocks from here but I nearly went arse over tit every other step on the icy pavements. Mr W insisted on walking me home, so I clung onto his arm, but I am afraid there was zero chemistry on my side. Thing is, he's a proper grown-up, in his forties, whilst what I really need are some bad, naughty going-out male friends who want to paint the town red and misbehave, regardless of age. And, whether a boyfriend or a friend, I need a boy who can throw snowballs, chuckle at nothing, eat a lot, and jump around at gigs. I don't think Mr W is one of them.

Romantic Manhattan

Oh it's snowing! There are big fat snowflakes drifting past my top floor flat. All I can see from my bed are snow laden branches and the grey, snow-filled sky. I was woken up by the sound of the neighbours scraping the pavements. I'm staying on Perry in the West Village for five nights at my friend M's beautiful and very grown-up apartment whilst she is on business in London. The rooms have cornicing, architraves and wide sash windows and there is a working fireplace. I feel as though I have been teleported into the New York of Edith Wharton.

It's minus four outside (or 24F - I do love that you can choose between 'English' or 'Metric' on weather.com to get either farenheit or centrigrade readings), and the snow storm is predicted to last until Tuesday. Meanwhile I have a lunch date with Mr W. I'm not sure exactly what kind of lunch date it is: a friend in London asked if I was single and then introduced us to each other in an email, so I am presuming this is a kind of unspoken blind date. Although whether Mr W knows this is another matter. Still, Sunday brunch in the Victorian haven of the Village with an interesting man in a snow storm. That sounds fun.

I'm hungry now tho, so I'm going to make a huge pile of eggy bread )French toast w/out the sugar & syrup) and eat it in bed with the papers, whilst listening to my new music.

Saturday occupation

I had a perfect Saturday, which ended up in the Union Square cinema with a bag of popcorn watching the sugar-sweet new Disney romance-fest, Enchanted, starring MacDreamy & Amy Adams, and a hamming it up Susan Sarandon & Timothy Spall.

I spent the day writing, checked out Project Runway for the first time on TV (so much better then the English one), and then popped on my heels and cabbed it to Sushi Samba (made famous by Sex & the City) on Park Avenue & 20th for girls' supper. Friday & Saturday nights in the city are flooded with weekend warriors. Everywhere is rammed, and the streets, especially in the East Village, are filled with drunk twenty years olds. So, a quiet, healthy, alcohol-free supper is exactly the way forward.

The girls were on their way home by nine fifteen, so I trotted down to Union Square to Virgin and bought the new Killers & The Cribs albums (both excellent), plus some My Bloody Valentine and Louder Than Bombs - The Smiths' 1987 America-only album, both of which I have on cassette. Does that show my age? After the movie, I marched home to the West Village in the sub-zero temperatures, dancing along to Editors and The Pixies.

Alpaca

This, my friends, is an alpaca scarf. The Barrister brought it back from Bolivia for me. It's incredibly soft, and a splendid colour. But, best of all, it's about as ethically sound a piece of clothing as you'll find.

On the steps of The Met

I get a lot of blog-ettes wondering what I look like, and asking me to post pictures. Well this blog is anonymous, so I'm afraid this is the closest the camera is getting to me.

Christmas in Manhattan

These are my favourite Christmas lights: Fendi on Fifth Avenue, although I think Cartier get a special mention for making scaffolding look so delightful.

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

Topshop finally confirm Manhattan opening

Topshop have just confirmed that they will be opening a 40000 sq ft store in Soho in September. Two more stores are planned for New York, with flagship roll outs planned in Miami, Los Angeles and Boston. That should shake up the moribund under $150 fashion market in the US.

Let's just hope they don't use the useless UK press office to handle the PR.

Pierre Hardy for Gap IS coming to the US

WGSN reports today that Gap WIlL be launching the covetable Pierre Hardy shoe collection in the US, three months after the European collection made its debut in France and in the UK. The collection will be available online and in Gap stores nationwide beginning February 2008. It's not clear yet whether this will be the same collection that was available in Europe, as Hardy has been tapped for a second collection to launch in the Spring in Europe.

Lest you are unfamilar with Pierre Hardy, apart from his blissful eponymous line, he has also designed some of the most iconic shoes for Balenciaga and for Hermes. He's possibly the most exciting, and stealth, shoe designer working today. He's a super intellignt choice for Gap: instead of using a marquee (and somewhat vulgar) name like H&M did with Cavalli, they have gone for a designer whose work speaks for itself, rather than screaming off the pages of gossip rags.

It's interesting that they are launching here, as the European Gaps are run separately from the US ones: they have their own design team, producing vastly superior and more fashion forward pieces than the US team. Back in August the UK PR told me that the US team were visiting London imminently to talk about buying from the European collection. Let's hope that the Pierre Hardy collection is the first step in this direction. (Especially for me: Gap is twice the price in the UK.)

The US collection will range from platforms to flats priced $78-$98, which is a damn sight cheaper than it was in England, where the black platform heels retailed for £70/$140.

I, of course, am feeling smug as my pair of Pierre for Gap arrive today, courtesy of my fabulous ex-managing editor who offered, yes, offered to go buy me a pair and send them to the US after reading on here of my desire for a pair of Mr Hardy's diffusion shoes.

Pop up Comme opens today

Pop up shops which appear for a week or maybe a month, then close for ever have become increasingly popular from Tokyo to London. Especially in London. The latest is from Comme des Garcons which has been conceived to celebrate the launch of the new 88 8 perfume. It won't sell an an awful lot but a limited number of 8 88 Fragrance, T-Shirts and Candles will be available, well before they launch in regular shops worldwide in February / March 2008. There's also a downstairs section selling vintage CDG Parfum T-shirts and collector CDG Parfums, all from Comme des Garcons.

The pop up is at 5 Burlington Arcade, London W1. It's open from 1.00pm on 29th November to 8th December. (So you can pop into Ladurée for a (several) macaroon(s) afterwards.)

Rollercoaster

I am now so sleep deprived that I am finding it hard to function. I stayed up 'till 6.30am on Monday & then got in a scant four hours, didn't sleep at all last night, managed a three hour cat nap this afternoon, and am still up at 2.20 now...(Now I know how Miss P feels after young Master Edward's refusal to sleep.)

Deadlines are the problem, plus a rewrite. Not only do I blog 2-3 times daily for a paid anony-blog for a creative network elsewhere, I also have several overdue features for them, plus I'm filing for a super prestigious UK glossy. I am feeling the pressure somewhat: it's a muli-layered piece, involving having interviewed several Hollywood A-list, so I can't screw it up. ("You'll never work in this town again", rings through my head from time to time.)

Thing is, my real life continues: the barrister flew in from Bolivia this am and requires my attention before he buggers off back to Blighty tomorrow evening and I had to go interview Lydia Hearst this morning, plus attend her party at 60 Thompson this evening.

Still, the only thing worse would be no work, no friends, no social life at all...

(And the barrister did feed me cup cakes and dim sum in Chinatown for lunch)

Party season is upon us....

Goodness: the party season is starting up. Globetrotting P flies in from Bolivia tomorrow for one night, before hotfooting it back to London. I'm taking him out for supper to The Stanton Social, and then as my date to a small party Lydia Hearst is hosting at 60 Thompson in the evening. Wednesday is the gala opening of The New Museum on The Bowery, and Thursday sees Paper Magazine & Adrien Brody hosting a party for Miss Sixty in the Flatiron. (Better than London, where the equivalent party would see Patsy Palmer hosting).

Then there is a temporary respite until Sunday when some New York Times friends throw a tri-birthday party at a bar in the East Village. Then it's my birthday week, with plenty of shenanigans planned, and lots more parties. This is why I need a continual supply of sparkly party frocks. Although I am starting to feel exercised about a lack of amusing walkers....

Fashion and sentimentality

I am haunted by the clothes that I have mislaid around the world: a Jaipuri silk embroidered scarf bought in India when I was nineteen, and dropped at a London bus stop; the Florentine silk lined glove that blew away over the Charles Bridge in Prague; the cerise patent dancing shoes I left in the back of a cab in Miami...And now my favourite winter accessory.

After covering my friend A's charming and really rather attractive neighbour in bright pink lipstick two weeks ago, I managed to leave my absolutely most favourite, most irreplacable, searched for for ages, brown wool hat at his place. I'd been making bad jokes about leaving odd earrings lying around for other girls to find, then went and promptly left my lovely hat behind.

My chances of retrieving it seem slight as he appears to be ignoring me. Somewhat irritating, not least because he's the one who tracked down my number the next day, texted to say it was great to meet, and that he hoped to see more of me.

'Of course', I replied. (Not mentioning the hat). But then silence for a week. My ears were cold. So I suggested an after dinner drink - and a hat reunion. He SMSd at 2am to say he'd been in Mexico, and wld hat hunt. And that was that.

Eventually I texted a gentle hat chasing message yesterday, a week later. Quelle surprise: silence from his end.

I remain a little confused. Is "May I have my hat back please?" code in Ameri-English for "I'm a psycho bitch stalker. Ignore me."?

I REALLY WOULD LIKE MY HAT BACK.

Gah. How far does a girl go in order to retrieve her possessions? My pride is feeling a little damaged: by ignoring me, he's making ME feel stalker-y, dammit, merely for chasing my beloved, if somewhat unprepossessing to the un-fashion eye, hat.

Dearest H has gone all John Le Carré on me, suggesting I should capitalise on the stalker vibe for amusement purposes, by hamming it up with odd, foreign language requests for le chapeau via SMS, cyptic blurred photographs and oblique references to bribes, followed by the suggestion of a Cold War-style dead letter box drop. (I think maybe his & my English sense of humour is too, well, English.)

I suspect that, being a boy, he has no idea of the attachment girls can have to their clothing. Sure I could go out to buy a replacement, but it wouldn't be the same hat, the one I searched for for ages, that fits me perfectly and doesn't make me look like an elf on acid.

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

Single sane girl seeks single sane boy for friendship, possibly more....

I am starting to realise that if I am to stay in Manhattan, then I will be staying single for the duration, & will only be socialising with female or gay friends. (I only ever meet gay men through work, and they tend to be of the extremely camp variety. That's fashion, dahling. Which is not always very relaxing altho brilliant company if one's brain is working at razor sharp levels.)

American, straight, platonic and male friends are impossible as single, interesting men with half a brain don't seem to choose to live here. (They have to be single, as Manhattan women are freakishly territorial and will bop you one if you so much as glance at their man. (What do they think I am going to do? Jump them in the middle of a restaurant?)

And, regarding potential boyfriends, if a man in this city is single and over 30, then he is generally a player, probably enjoys the company of stunningly beautiful & frighteningly stupid women, is possibly harbouring a communicable disease or two, and is so dysfunctional that you'd be fighting with his therapist for quality time.

Frankly I'd rather remain single than sink to their level. Yes, of course, being in a mutually satisfying relationship is splendid, but engaging in games,(outside of the bedroom), no thank you. I'm not twitching to be part of a couple: I complete myself, thank you very much and, after all, if husband hunting were top of my agenda, I'd have stayed in London. I'm not saying no to dating, but if I'm going to give up my time it had better bloody well be worth it.

No, what I want, what I really, really want is a nice boy with whom I can play. No, not like that. You know: for hanging out, feeding, dancing, wingman-ing each other: the stuff I did with my male friends in London.

Jimmy Choo to blame for marriage breakdown - OF COURSE!

ran this piece of retrograde chauvinism from the ex-husband of Jimmy Choo maven Tamara Mellon today. It is truly mind boggling that in this day and age a man feels threatened when his wife is fiscally successful. Then again Mellon is an ex-addict with a trust fund...and of course the marriage breakdown was nothing to do with his well-publicised falling off the wagon....

November 20, 2007 -- MOST men don't find high heels very macho, but for Matthew Mellon, they took away his entire manhood. The ex-husband of Jimmy Choo founder Tamara Mellon tells next month's W magazine, "When your wife makes $100 million during the course of your marriage, it's quite a shocker . . . I felt like my masculinity had been stripped from me. I feel like my b - - - s are in a jar, like a Damien Hirst artwork on the mantelpiece."

Yellow patent leather sandals by Jimmy Choo from Netaporter

US Elle December 2007 issue

Oh my goodness. What have they done to Keira Knightley?

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.)

Temperley buys British leather goods manufacturer

Buried away at the bottom of a Temperley press release yesterday was the following statement,

"We are pleased to announce the acquisition of the last bag manufacturers in the UK, enabling earlier deliveries and the development of exciting new bags and concepts. Part of the accessories will be produced at this factory going forward."

I find this more interesting than the bag collection: with fashion production increasingly being outsourced to the Far East, it's highly commendable that one of Britain's most ambitiously expanding fashion companies is choosing not just to source its leather goods in the UK, but is actually invesitng in the bricks and mortar to make this happen.

Sequin-tastic

I know I am obsessed by sequin dresses, but I am rather loving this Banana Republic number in super chic black sequins. They'd be chicer if they were matt, but you can't have it all for $228.

US Muji opens in Manhattan this Friday

My flat in London has so much MUJI kicking about in it. My taste runs to the clean, neutral & minimalist and, when I redesigned my bathroom and bedrooom storage last year, I filled it with MUJI's polypropelene storage boxes. I work in MUJI's simple brown card notebooks, and all my beauty supplies are kept organised in their simple perspex pots and containers. Thrilled they are opening here.

This blog entry is more in the manner of a public service announcement: MUJI SOHO, the first MUJI store in the US, opens at 12:00 noon on November 16 at 455 Broadway.

With approximately 3,200 square feet of retail floor space, MUJI’s first store in the US will offer over 2,000 items of MUJI products, including about 570 items of Stationery, 40 items of Furniture, 190 items of Fabric, 590 items of Housewares, 270 items of Health & Beauty products, 20 items of Outdoor supplies, 30 items of Electric Appliances and 330 items of Apparel. After the first day of opening, the store will open regularly from 11a.m. to 9p.m. from Monday to Saturday, and 11a.m. to 8p.m. on Sundays.

Exposure US press day & Jessica Ogden for Fred Perry

In the midst of my work horror last week, I took a break to hop on my bicycle so I could freewheel down Broadway to Exposure US's press day down in Tribeca. After A plyed me with a glass of Laurent Perrier and a Sugar Sweet Sunshine Bakery cupcake, (alcohol AND sugar - can you tell this company is English-owned?!), always elegant HH took me through the SS08 collections.

Lots of lovely stuff: Dr Martens was partic strong: Yohji ones, with a bonkers floral design impregnated into the leather & an eyebrow raising price point, and a whole range of neon patent 8 hole boots, which have rather grown on me after the initial shock. And some rather gorgeous silver, & gold, ones too. Piles of covetable Globetrotter luggage and some pretty womens' T shirts from Mahirishi.

Nicholas K's SS offer looks wonderful, with some beautiful dresses, and a muted, yet bright, colour palette directly inspired by the designer's trip to India. Designer Caroline Priebe popped in briefly with a wonderful black, feather soft knit with an appliquéd white spine on the back from her ethical & eco friendly line Uluru - more of this later.

Fred Perry continues to collaborate with some wonderful young British designers. So many collaborations of this type fail to mesh the chosen designer's particular aesthetic with that of the larger, more corporate company, but Fred Perry manages it successfully every time. I loved the fabulous black polo material dresses from Emma Cook with the Fred Perry logo blown up and used as embellishment. But the standout is Jessica Ogden's delightful tennis dress, which is an absolutely perfect melange of her artisinal viewpoint with the Fred Perry sportswear raison d'etre

Break for serious matters

A close family member in her early 30s has relapsing-remitting Multiple Sclerosis. It's impossible to understand what this dehabilitating disease is like from the outside, but this very good piece from The Guardian which she found on the internet today is the best attempt I've read in the media yet. As the writer Michelle Mullen (who has MS herself) explains, MS robs your life of the simple pleasures we all take for granted. I don't apologise for posting this on my blog. I'm not sanctimonious but I do think it does us fashion people all good to realise that for some people, "even putting their knickers on is like going ten rounds with Mike Tyson."

Hey ho

Hello blog-ettes

(A much nicer name I think than bleaders, which the author of Julie on Julia uses for her blog readers)

A bit slow on the old blog updating of late owing to a veritable flood of commissions, the imminent arrival of my parents and the WW3 that occurred ten days ago whilst we were planning their trip - my mother is, um, challenged, in the tact & diplomacy department where her family are concerned, plus an in-tray the size of Everest and a hangover to match on Saturday when I actually went out for fun for the first time in a fortnight and poisoned myself. Getting sick two weeks ago and being asked to edit a project in the Far East which meant staying up all night did for my memory & sleep patterns too.

Anyway, I have a LOT of outstanding posts, so I am going to try to play catch up this week. Just wanted to apologise for the slowdown in blogging over the past fortnight or so. xx

Things I have discovered recently. Part One

Don't kiss boys in elevators whilst wearing bright pink lipstick. It's kind of a giveaway when the doors open.

Coda to my Cavalli rant

I could rant for quite some time about big name diffusion collections, designed by their studios, produced in horrible fabrics, and sold in High Street chains, but I;ve written about it at length elsewhere, so here I will content myself by pointing out that if I want diffusion designer on the High Street, then I look for the new and interesting designers who I know will have designed tiny capsule ranges themselves, which support their main line and raise consumer awareness of their nascent brand not their over-priced handbags and umpteen licences for fragrance, cosmetics, sunglasses and the like.

Topshop Boutique is good at this: Preen, Jonathan Saunders and Emma Cook have done stand out collections of maybe ten or twenty pieces for them, and I’m particularly looking forward to Next Big Thing Osman Yousefzada’s SS08’s collection of twelve little black dresses for Mango.

Cavalli mania at H&M - SO BLOODY WHAT?

Why on earth are we supposed to give column inches to yet another anodyne collection in artificial fibres, masquerading as high end designer, made in a Far East factory and sold at H&M?

Hiatus

I have to watch over six hours of movies before I go off to my junket tomorrow. Blogging will resume soon xx

Happy Bonfire night my English friends

Typical: I can spend several weeks painting my nails and rearranging my wardrobe then, the moment I get simultaneously ill and homesick, I get innundated with work. Last week was a pig, but now I'm better-ish and, joyously, the work is still rolling in. Today I was innundated with calls from across the BBC networks asking me to comment on Vogue's top fifty glamour list - no one could quite believe that the Queen had been called glamorous by a fashion magazine. Usually I can get away with doing phoners, but the World Service wanted me to go into the studios late afternoon for a live feed into Newshour. In London they send a car, but here it's so close it's hardly worth it so I, glamorously, hopped on my vintage bike and rode up to 33rd, arriving pink of face with very cold ears. Good thing it was radio. Very pleasing tho: work & exercise in one neat package.

Tomorrow is a random day - off to a truffle tasting uptown at lunchtime, and then to a film at Paramount's screening room. I'm interviewing a film director for Harpers Bazaar at the end of the week, which will be a change from the fashion circus.

BREAKING NEWS: US HOUSE & GARDEN TO FOLD

WWD reported an hour ago that US Condé Nast is to fold the US edition of House & Garden and the accompanying website with the December issue. This follows the closure of Jane and its website earlier in the year.

Prior to Jane folding, industry tactics dictated that the prnt version would fold, whilst the on-line one would continue, Hachette's Elle Girl & Time's TeenPeople for example. Although the clue there is in the demographic - H&G's somewhat silver readership does not, at least for the next few years, represent a guaranteed on-line revenue stream. And whilst Glamour.com & style.com have a fully functioning and rather good web presence, it's hard to not to suspect that the other CN titles' websites are there to drive print subscription sales, and build reader loyalty, rather than produce independent revenue streams.

The closure of H&G has been long rumoured, but this announcement came out of the blue, although it is thought to have been precipitated by the departure of publisher Joe Lagani last month.

What to wear during New York Fashion Week

I keep thinking about how cold it's going to be here in February. I remember buying a down coat in London for my friend M who lives near Lake Geneva/Lac Léman & shipping it out to Switzerland for her, all the time thinking, no, no, no way would I ever wear something as style-deficient as that. Now, after barely surviving the -10F temperatures during New York Fashion Week last February, I know better. I don't just want one, I need one. Sod style, I can always take it off once inside the tents.

Unfortunately they aren't something you can just pick up at a moment's notice and, after my usual meticulous on-line research I think this may be my baby. It has a 700 down fill which appears to be the down flll gold standard. It's also made by North Face, which my mountain goat friends Nick & Nigel assure me is A Good Thing, & it's an emminently affordable $298 at this site.

Then, of course, I discovered this:



The Canada Goose Arctic-Tech Mystique Parka. I thought it was a particularly naff name, until I read that it was inspired by the jacket made for Rebecca Romijn to wear off-camera during the filming of X-Men 2. As they point out, if the Mystique Parka can keep an actress wearing little more than blue body paint warm in Arctic shooting conditions, it's capable of handling whatever the city can throw in anyone's direction.

Unfortunately it's a bit out of my price range (seeing as it is something I have to have rather than something beautiful I lust after) at $549 on the same site

Banana Republic SS08 show

Yesterday was the SS08 Banana Republic fashion show. Usual slick KCD set up: fashion editors perched on four rows of Philippe Starck Ghost chairs in a concrete floored & rather chilly photographic studio in the far reaches of Chelsea. Rather sweetly they had grouped the four English editors together in the front row: me, doyenne Lisa Armstrong of The Times, and two old friends. (With BR opening in London in the Spring, it behoves them to be nice by not shoving us behind a pillar.)

After years & years of attending the main shows during the fashion weeks where you know at least all the British contingent and, often lots of the international lot too, it's quite odd to cover American market events like this when you know absolutely no one at all. I really need to start engaging with the American side of the industry now that I live here. Problem is that I still write, in the main, for the English market and not often about American fashion.

But I am educating myself, and discovering new (to me) designers is always a pleasure. It helps that I have started writing a by-lined column elsewhere which allows me to profile upcoming American designers.

I will provide some lucid thoughts on the show when my head isn't about explode. My critical faculties are suspended 'till I am better.

US Gap in covetable clothing shocker

In bed with a truly hideous, running river of snot cold, trolling through the US gap.com website for any clue that Pierre's magical dancing shoes are to be sold in the US, and trying to ignore the parade of dull, when this rather lovely piece popped up. I long ago gave up hope that there would be anything I wanted to wear in US Gap, but rather like this. (I actually have two ponchos from UK Gap, brown from last season, and black from this, but they have seamed bottoms with armholes. This looks a bit smarter - and is only $78 in a 95%/5% wool/cashmere mix.) This might keep the cold bugs at bay.

Lovely, lovely shoes

These are the Pierre Hardy for Gap sandals which launched in London, today, Thursday. I really, really want a pair. £70.

Stop press: I love my blog and I love my old managing editor who has just emailed to say she is buying these on my behalf & can mail them to me here in the States/hand them over to my sis. Words cannot express.

Freaks & geeks

Happy Halloween fellow pagan revellers. Now that I am in America, land of the free, I am embracing pumpkin worship. And, if I didn't have a hideous cold, I'd be frolicking out there with the other costumed hos, sorry Halloween masqueraders.

And to those of you in London, enjoy the Gareth Pugh & Browns Focus /Butler & Wilson Masquerade/Cuckoo Club party, or whichever party you end up at. Actually the invitation for the last looks pretty avoidable, seeing as how the party committee includes Francesca Versace, Stephen Webster & Julien Macdonald.

Winter boots

I'm on deadline for XXXXXXX so, of course, I am looking for new boots on-line. I would prefer to get my boots from Belstaff but I'm waiting to be paid, as usual and, here's the thing - if you have long sticky legs like mine, then trad motorcycle type boots often end up with the hideous wellie effect as they bag arond your calves. I've discovered that if you buy from a fashion retailer they cut closer to the leg, which is far more flattering. The problem then is finding something hard-wearing in good enough leather and in brown. (It has to be brown as brown is for weekends and black is for the working week.)

In fact my last pair of brown sturdy clomping around boots came from L K Bennett's Outlet store at Bicester Village near Oxford, of all places. I do not like LK Bennett one little bit - way too prissy for my liking, and not particularly well made either. But, I was doing a mag in Austria (long, long story) and needed warm boots at a day's notice. My wonderful father drove me to Bicester on a whim and insisted on buying them for me. This was maybe four years ago and they are still going strong. Only problem is that the toes have faded from the snow in New York last year and no amount of parental shoe buffing & TLC (hey, he's the expert!) has got the colour back.

These babies up top are from Boden. I'm not a big fan of Boden (their blocks can be very odd, and the colours off), altho I occasionally buy their well made cotton T shirts, & I admit to shooting chirpy commercial work a la their catalogues from time to time - clients LOVE it. Well-priced - £165/$248, I can actually get them for nearer £100, if I buy them from Boden USA and apply my press discount which, joyously, seems to work over here. I'm thinking yes?

oh poor little me

I've had the most glorious day, riding in Central Park, popping into The Met for a quick, uplifting peek at the Vermeers and then stuffing my face with delicious Mexican food. But Christ I feel staggeringly, overwhelmingly, homesick.

Autumn, not bloody Fall, is absolutely my favourite time of year. In London I would be spending my weekends cooking up a storm in my designed-by-me-for-me, perfect-to-cook-food-for-twelve-hungry-people kitchen, then hosting a silly, Bloody Mary & red wine filled Sunday lunch which would go on for hours, possibly rounded off by pulling on our wellies and wobbling off to the Heath with the hound to work it all off, before devouring plates of buttery crumpets & pots of Earl Grey and heading to the pub for a digestive.

I miss the easy camaraderie of being surrounded by people who have known me for years, in many cases people I went to both school & university with - we are a tight knit crowd. I have made some good, good friends here, people I hope I will take with me when I leave New York but, being separated from my sister & my parents, my dog, two recently bereaved friends, a couple of pregnant ones, some new babies and, especially, Miss P's divine Edward who I haven't even met yet makes me very, very miserable indeed.

In London I live in a beautiful flat, which I own. I had a car & a fancy bicycle and lots of lovely stuff. Here I live with a (charming) stranger in what is essentially a box, furnished with Seventies furniture and a bath in which I daren't bathe. I can't bake more than cupcakes as I have only a toaster oven (there are mice in the oven proper), and there is no work surface. All my possessions are stuffed into the room I sleep. I have regressed to the life I led in my early twenties, even down to the relentless socialising.

But, here's the thing. I love it here. I don't want to go back to London. I like the scale of Manhattan, the toytown feel, the ease of living, my ridiculous social life, my growing address book, the inexpensive restaurants and the shiny novelty of it all. I was stale, bored of London, my social life tramelled by other people's children & marriages, lacking in inspiration, stuck in an industry often seemingly populated by rude, bad-mannered, vile idiots. Not that those people don't exist here, it's just that they specialise less in tortuous back-stabbing and more in doing it to your face which is so much simpler to deal with - & counter.

So, I'm here, & everyone else is over there. And that's just the way it's going to have to be. Unless I magically get a 'plane ticket in my pocket tomorrow to go home for the weekend. Maybe then I could hang out with my adored male friends, because making any of those is another thing that's never going to happen here either...

Lost in translation

Some things just don't translate to us ex-pats. We all thought the guy who pitched up in this on Saturday night had a great costume. We failed miserably to see the inherent joke.



No. He is not just an amusing chest of drawers.

He is a One Night Stand.

Boom boom.

Picture from: Zoogster Costumes

Clarks clutches. Not bad at all.

I'm not sure about the jade one, but I'm rather liking the purple satin number. Basically I'm a sucker for bows and, as I think satin pieces should only be worn by stick people, I tend to gravitate towards satin accessories as I like the textural contrast.

Best of all it's only £14.99 (about $30). AND it's from Clarks. Will wonders never cease? (Although apparently Clarks is the non plus ultra in Paris right now. Most bizarre.) Mind you, their Christmas shoe offer is truly revolting.

Nicholas K

This Benoit Trench in heavyweight cotton by Nicholas K is the second piece I picked up from Lucky Shops (another bargain - $80 from $350). I've always liked their collections: there's meticulous attention to detail, clean sillhouettes, and great fabrics. It has a very European look, with a more sophisticated feel than many other American lines at this price point. The Fall 07 collection is particularly strong, with especially desirable knits and coats.

Nicholas K doesn't yet have distribution in the UK, but is stocked at Caravan, Saks & Big Drop amongst other in Manhattan.These images are from online boutique






Benoit trench picture from I Heart Luxe

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

Halloween challenge

Ok lovely blog people, I need some help!

BA & I are going to the fancy dress Hallow'een party at Soho House on Saturday. The theme is the Seven Deadly Sins

1 Lust (Latin, luxuria)
2 Gluttony (Latin, gula)
3 Greed (Latin, avaritia)
4 Sloth (Latin, acedia)
5 Wrath (Latin, ira)
6 Envy (Latin, invidia)
7 Pride (Latin, superbia)

What on earth are we going to go wear?! L is going as Pride - dressed as a peacock, & M is Avarice, spray painted gold in gold lamé American Apparel hotpants & bandeau. I don't really want to wear body paint, and I can't do skin tight, altho I've got great legs. BA looks great in everything!

Lizzie Disney appointed at Mahirishi

Lizzie Disney is designing the new womenswear collection at Maharishi - when I received the release her name jumped out at me. It's a good few years since she was one of London's hot new designers, with a slot in the third season of Fashion East for SS03 (alongside Richard Kinloch & House of Jazz), although she was unable to show as her samples were stuck in New York in the aftermath of 9/11 and, shortly afterwards, an appointment as chief designer at the newly revived Parisian House of Jacques Fath (which she left in 2004). In fact I had completely forgotten that I had written about her at the time, until I did a Google search.

A venerable Parisian house to Mahirishi's laid back casual wear: Just goes to show how much of a fickle master the fashion industry can be.

Party week

Ooh hoo, it's party week here in Manhattan. Last night I was calm, merely popping out with my house guest, Osman Yousefzada (in town to see Vogue et al), for lots of delicious Korean at Dok Sune in the East Village before he & I strolled up to Strand to buy armfuls of books. (Book stores in this city close at 10.30pm - my definition of civilised.)

London socialite Tamsin Lonsdale launches her Supper Club venture here in New York tonight. I'm a member in London, but the last cocktail party there I went to was full of the kind of people I'd pay to avoid.(City boys, secretary types dressed in Sharon Millen).

The Manhattan Supper Club is quite another proposition, with the emphasis strictly on socialising rather than dating, as in London. She seems to have the city in her pocket with everyone clamouring for membership. BA & I are checking out the launch party tonight: it had better be good, I turned down a big dinner, and a designer's cocktail & trunk show for it.

Tomorrow Iman throws a dinner for Alber Ebaz and Howard Sogol of Barneys at Gemma, which promises Grub, Dancing & Shenanigans. I look forward to this very much. Only prob is that I have to scarper off half way through to another big dinner. This city is TOO busy.

Chanel bicycle: designed for women by men...

This is Chanel's new eight speed bicycle with, um, quilting details, costing a neat £6,200, & available in store from December. But my question is: It's a bicycle designed for women. Why then does it have a cross bar?

Julien Macdonald signs with H Samuel

Well, just as I wrote that British high street jewellery chain H Samuel needed a shot in the arm, WGSN reports today that Welsh bling-tastic eveningwear designer Julien Macdonald is to move into jewellery with an exclusive deal to design a collection for them. Although I do wonder just how attractive it will be, given that the price point of the limited collection of 13 pieces will be priced between £35-£95, and that Julien and good taste often seem many, many miles apart.

A little bit of fervent patriotism

I've never pretended to be a huge rugby fan, but being 3741 miles from home is making me come over all patriotic.

So rah for England and all that

Pic: PA

My new party dress

Topshop 100% silk £70/$140 AND they deliver to the US. (See it's only the Topshop press office I dislike.)

things magazine

Hey thank you to the very good things magazine for including me in their, "sift through a collection of style, design, whatever weblogs, all of which pump a relentless stream of eye-catching imagery into your browser, day in, day out." Apparently I have, "a nice take on the Atlantic divide".

things magazine was originally founded in 1994 by a group of writers and historians based at the Victoria & Albert Museum/Royal College of Art in the belief that objects can open up new ways of understanding the world.

Now an independent magazine, things has built a reputation as a home for new writing – essays, reviews, short stories and poems – about objects and their meanings. The website contains a weblog, photography galleries, special projects, searchable archives and the occasional on-line only article.

Hurrumph

Gutted! I love living here, but I love it less when fun invitations arrive in my mailbox for events back in London.

BROWNS FOCUS celebrate GARETH PUGH with a Halloween Party 9 - 12pm

How much fun will this be?! Okay - granted, fashion parties can be terminal, but this sounds worthwhile even if only for people-watching.

Knock me down with a feather: Ernest Jones launches perfectly pretty jewellery range

British High Street jewellery chains aren't exactly known for their ravishing designs. Sure if you want a bog standard diamond engagement ring, a natty gold sovereign ring, some 18ct gold bangles or an Anniversary clock then you are laughing, but pieces you'd actually consider stylish? I don't think so.



The three major players in the UK are H Samuel, Ernest Jones & Goldsmiths and, whilst Goldsmiths have raised their game over the past couple of years by collaborating with the likes of Matthew Williamson (altho I'd be hard put to name a company with which Williamson hasn't collaborated), the other two still have more than a whiff of mass-market about them.

But, I'm always happy to be proved wrong and, when I opened a press release from Ernest Jones' PR preparing to file it in the trash as usual, I was impressed to find images of these six rings, with their pretty art deco feel and clever pricing. (Especially given my habit of losing rings). Perhaps Father Christmas could take note?

Clockwise from the top: 18ct white gold 1carat cluster ring £1200, 9ct White Gold Diamond & Brazilian Garnet £285, 9ct White Gold Diamond & London Blue Topaz £100, 9ct Gold Brown Diamond & Amthyst £130, 9carat White Gold Diamond & London Blue Topaz £265, 9carat white gold diamond and Brazilian Garnet £235

Things you didn't know about fashion, part one

The super sexy 1986 Levi's Shrink to Fit 501s ad hammered the idea into the Brtish psyche that some clothes need immersion in water to make them fit. But until today I had no idea that you needed to do the same to cowboy boots. My very soignée friend BA has been informed by her colleagues at a (very) famous American fashion house that she needs to get in the shower in her boots in order to get the perfect fit...

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

CMJ circus hits town

I don't just spend my time eating in fabulous restaurants, going to fashion industry parties, lolling on the sofas at Soho House and drinking my body weight in raspberry martinis. Occasionally I engage with the music industry too. This week sees the annual CMJ Music Marathon & the arrival of industry reps from around the world - plus hundreds of musicians looking for that big break at the multiple industry showcases happening each night.

Having a New York apartment makes you VERY popular with out of towners, and so I am hosting my very favourite, super-stylish, supremely talented, very sexy, black clad rocker in my apartment for the week. Shah has flown in from Los Angeles to play at two Lower East Side venues this week: solo at The Delancey this evening (8.30pm) and at the Viper Room in NYC showcase at Fontanas on Friday with hotly tipped new band Le Rev, fronted by the ravishing C C.

Back to normal blogging activity

Firstly I must make a confession: I have been unfaithful. A month or so ago I was approached to start writing a second, paid, anony-blog for another website, off the back of writing this blog. It doesn't deal with fashion directly, but it does mean that I have been writing less on here about what I've been getting up to, as I didn't want there to be a crossover in content. Anyway I realised that this meant that I was getting away from the original point of this blog, which was as much to keep my friends & family up to date with what i was getting up to in NYC as it was for me to sound off about the fashion industry.

Anyway, I have worked out how to balance my two blogs now, so all is well, & I'm back to blogging about my life on here!

LLG xxx

Ok - social catch up (otherwise known as look how much I can eat in one week)

Last week was so rabidly social that by the time the weekend rocked up all I wanted to do was stick my head back in my teapot.

I started off on Monday at The Spotted Pig, Manhattan’s only gastro-pub, for Fergus Henderson’s book launch. Beyond Nose & Tail is elegantly written, and the perfect size for slipping in a handbag and reading in-between times. Ken Friedman the owner was working the room, and April Bloomfield, the chef/partner cooked up a Minnesota suckling pig cooked whole with a tarragon sauce and goose fat roasted potatoes and beets.

Tuesday was The Waverly Inn, a restaurant so stealth that even though it’s been open for nigh on a year, the menus still say ‘Preview’, and there is no telephone number. Unless you are a friend of owner & Vanity Fair editor Graydon Carter or an A list celeb that is, in which case you get the private number. The nearest London equivalent is The Ivy – except of course anyone can get a table there. CA & I troughed our way through the menu, flirted with the admirably gorgeous waiters who were charm personified and decided we must return – if we can magic up another table, that is.

Wednesday was back to The Pig for supper as this time Fergus himself was cooking, watching platters of roasted halved pig’s heads and duck hearts wend their way through the room.

Thursday was a dull store launch of no moment on the Upper East Side, followed by a dash through the vertical rain to Fredericks on Madison, an upscale dodgy Euro haven, for cocktails and supper (cauliflower soup with roasted mushrooms & fries) with BA & N, who were so wet when they arrived that they had to mop the floor after her.

Friday was blissfully quiet, bar a breakfast with Tamsin Lonsdale of The Supper Club at Gemma, and I rounded off the week on Saturday watching the rugby in the Meatpacking (which personally I loathe, but my friends all wanted to watch and, frankly, a room full of sexy, well-spoken Englishmen never goes astray). The evening was spent drinking frozen margaritas and stuffing as much freshy made guacamole & chips as poss at Dos Caminos in Soho with BA & lovely H, in NYC fleetingly to see his girlfriend.

In honour of the Rugby on Saturday

www.jonaspovel.com

British Fashion Award nominee list fails to set the world on fire - again

JesusChristonabike. The BFC announces the nominees for the British Fashion Awards today (Well, actually the nominee list is embargoed until Wednesday 10, but according to my London clock, as opposed to my New York one, it's 0433am on Weds in London, so I reckon it's Wednesday where it matters.) And what a dismal reflection of British fashion they are today. Reproduced in full are the categories & the nominees for each.

DESIGNER OF THE YEAR - A leading British designer of couture, ready-to-wear, knitwear or accessories who has directed the shape of fashion in the past year both in the UK and internationally.

Nominees - Anya Hindmarch , Luella Bartley, Stella McCartney

Is this really the best they could come up with? No one with a fashion bone in their body could possible argue that any of these three labels 'shape' fashion.

Anya Hindmarch may be a commercial success and make perfectly nice handbags, pretty shoes & cashmere sweaters but 'directed the shape of fashion in the past year both in the UK and internationally'? Are the BFC on drugs?
I am presuming that along with the massive bribe that the BFC paid Luella to return to the UK for London Fashion Week, that this nomination is part of the same package deal because she's hardly influential.
Stella McCartney: Great clothes. I'm a huge fan, always something I want to wear in her (or her team's) collections, but again who exactly is she influencing? (Apart from a legion of Chinese rip-off merchants)

NEW DESIGNER - An innovative and directional designer who, in the past year, has emerged as an influential force in British fashion.

Nominees - Christopher Kane, Gareth Pugh, Marios Schwab

No problems with this, and obviously it should go to Christopher Kane who is influential AND commercial - in a good way.

BEST NEW RETAIL CONCEPT - A new or established retailer offering a new concept to the UK in the past year.

Nominees - The Shop at Bluebird, Dover Street Market, Marc Jacobs

Hmm - tenuous at best. They are shops. Big wow.

MODEL - A British model who has contributed most to the international fashion scene in the past year.

Nominees - Agyness Deyn, Lily Cole, Irina

Well, they can't give it to Kate, Erin's a personality now, and these three are the only other girls of whom the public has heard. Agyness will win, obviously

ISABELLA BLOW AWARD FOR FASHION CREATOR - A British stylist, make-up artist, photographer, art director or producer whose creativity has been a major inspiration and influence in the past year.

Nominees - Mert and Marcus, Michael Howells, Terry Jones

Bit long in the tooth, aren't they?

RED CARPET DESIGNER - A leading British designer of couture or ready-to-wear cocktail or eveningwear that has gained exposure at ‘red carpet’ events worldwide in the past year.

Nominees - Giles Deacon, Marchesa, Stella McCartney

Like 'em or loathe them, but it's obviously Marchesa as they dress most of Harvey Weinstein's favourites. (Hmm, why's that then? Oh yes, he's sleeping with Georgina Chapman.) I can recall Thandie Newton wearing Giles - and that's about it. Stella - huh?

MENSWEAR DESIGNER - A leading British designer of ready-to-wear and bespoke tailoring who has been instrumental in enhancing men's fashion in the past year.

Nominees - Christopher Bailey for Burberry, Alexander McQueen, Cassette Playa

Yawn. Until we get to Cassette Playa. Er - does she actually sell anything? Doesn't 'leading' imply a strong commercial business? And what about Kim Jones?

ACCESSORY DESIGNER - The leading British designer of shoes, jewellery, millinery or accessories within the past year.

Nominees -Anya Hindmarch, Rupert Sanderson, Tom Binns

Well, Tom's been based in LA for a while now, and hardly anyone outside the industry knows his work in the UK, or that he's even British, so not exactly a cracking choice, beautiful, amazing and wonderful though his work may be. Anya - oh god. All praise the queen of anodyne. Although at least it wasn't Lulu Guinness nominated instead. Rupert Sanderson: Wonderful shoes, love 'em, even covet 'em but he doesn't exactly push the envelope, does he? But: based in London, new shop, making money, good press, truly lovely man. I say this is Rupert's year.

Temperley for Target's GO International project

There’s a huge Target billboard in Times Square but it’s not aimed at Manhattan-ites. It’s a branding exercise directed at the thousands of tourists who throng Midtown every day. If you live on this island, then you have to head off to Queens or Jersey on a dedicated Target shopping mission.

Although, mostly, there’s bugger all reason why you’d want to – it’s basically like heading to a Tesco Extra in the suburbs – unless of course you want to check out their GO International regular collaborations with young design houses. Luella was first off eighteen months ago, followed most notably by Paul & Joe last year, Proenza Schouler this spring and now, the eighth, from the quintessentially English design house, Temperley.

After spending the afternoon checking out the Emperor’s new clothes at PS1, MoMA’s Queens outpost, we jumped back on the Subway to Queens Boulevard and Target. And, after an hour scrabbling through the rails, my haul? Two pairs of Hanes knickers, a copy of US Weekly, and an excellent cooking spoon.

I wasn’t exactly enthusiastic about the prospect of Alice Temperley designing for Target, but was interested enough to check it out, hoping it might be a distilled version of her pretty dresses and intricate knits. What we got instead was a really crappy version of Marc by Marc Jacobs. What was she thinking? I couldn’t perceive any connection between her design ethos and this collection for Target, bar the black crepe dress that is selling well on eBay.

But, whether or not it looked like Temperley, I love me a bargain, so I picked up the long sleeved striped T shirt, a couple of the polka dot chiffon blouses and a black velveteen puff sleeve jacket to try on, as well as the black dress, even though I was getting static shocks from all the artificial fibres. The ribbed T shirt had no Lycra in it, so it felt cheap, the cut of the dress was just bizarre, and the blouses were over-designed. I nearly succumbed to the jacket, but the buttons would have had to be replaced for at least half the initial cost of the piece ($40), and the fabric was so thin that the nap was irretrievably marked from being folded.

In the end, I couldn’t decide whether it was the cut, the flammable fabrics or the iredeemably cheap & nasty buttons on all the blouses, jackets & dresses that stopped me buying anything. And I still want to know which of Target’s regular customers will be investing in the blue crepe plus fours, and elbow length striped nylon fingerless gloves which felt so scratchy once on, I couldn’t pull them off fast enough.

Mini Mozart

Completely unrelated to fashion or New York post. One of my dearest friends runs Mini Mozart for toddlers & for babies at Lauderdale House in Highgate, North London. These fun & fabulous music-orientated sessions, with live piano, clarinet & violin, are based around fairy tales, singing, play & bubbles(!)

She is just about to start Mini Mozart up in Crouch End, N8. So spread the word if anyone you know wants their child to learn to how to listen to music, not just hear it, from an early age.

Mini Mozart is the brainchild of Clare-Louise Stuart. Not only is she staggeringly talented: She notched up a music scholarship at Uppingham School, a music degree from Newcastle University and a scholarship to jazz legend Berklee College of Music, Boston, Massachusetts, USA, but she has two adorable cherubs under five AND presented for BBC Music at The Proms and Young Musician of the Year AND has an amazing empathy with children.

She's beautiful, intelligent, charming and an all-round good egg, & I can't recommend her or her Mini Mozart sessions highly enough.

It's not like Sex in the City

Carrie et al may have spent their time trotting along the pavements of New York, bosoms heaving in plunging frocks, teetering on vertiginous heels, & toting bags that contained little more than a packet of fags, a lipstick and $20 for a cab ride home, but I can assure you that this is not an option for your average Manhattan girl. If I step out of my apartment building in the East Village in one of my cocktail outfits there is no way I can walk to my date dressed like that without being prey to every leering wierdo in the vicinity. It's costing me a fortune in cabs.And, as for those teeny-tiny bags, where am I supposed to put my phone, keys, hairbrush and emergency book (for when my date is late)?

We're in a city for chrissakes

We have killer mosquitos in Manhattan. Although I wake every morning with penny sized raised weals all over my body, until last night I resisted lighting one of those old schol green coil things. Then I was woken at six by a mosquito buzzing literally in front of my nose. So, I caved in, lit it & now my room smells like burning damp shit. Even the combined candle efforts of Jo Malone, Diptique AND Space NK have failed to mask the putrid smell. Somehow it seems part of the scenery in a damp, sandy $4 a night beach shack on Koh Phangan. In my (usually) fragrant bedroom it is almost unbearable.

French Connection sample sale

So I was remarkably surprised by the French Connection sample sale. Firstly it was empty, with incredibly helpful, funny staff. Secondly, it was HUGE. I spoke to the Outlet Manager from Orlando, who told me they had 40 000 units to shift over the next four days, so new stock would be arriving every day.

But the biggest surprise was that, after I had written the sale off (I shoot loads of FC every season for a catalogue & recognised not a single piece) & was about to go home, I clocked a rail of random pieces hidden between the rails of identical crappy thin jersey tops, hideous shoes, badly tailored jackets and other sample sale stalwarts. I picked up two dresses for $50 each. But, most pleasing of all is that the black sparkly dress is still full price (£90) in London, and on sale for $139 reduced from $178 here in NY. The black and white embroidered dress is currently $99 from $158 online.

I have so many parties to go to here in Manhattan that I need loads of cocktail type frocks, so if I find something that fits me I'm happy. (I have an impossible figure to dress - long, thin legs, no waist, tiny 32" back and HUGE bosom. I also only wear dresses & tops with cap sleeves or longer as strappy tops emphasise my bust. And strapless: forget it.)

I wear quite a lot of French Connection as it's practically the only High Street brand that fits me properly. I cannot describe the frustration of working in fashion and having to wear what fits you, rather than what you would choose to wear. The only irritating thing is that, given the exchange rate, French Connection should be half price here - but it's not. They've pitched it way higher in the market in America, with a swishy store slap bang in the middle of Soho)

Anyway, back to the dresses. I'm not fussy and I think this will be useful. It's a simple shape that works with my figure - I'd love to belt it, but you can't belt a non-existent waist. However I'm going to get my local tailor to cut a V neck as a crew neck is mighty unflattering/shelf-like.



My dress (below) is actually black with white embroidery - but no pic of this colorway. It is a bit jeune fille, but I think with a long woolly scarf & hat, heavy ribbed woollen Falke tights and Chloe boots or Dr Martens it will be fine for stomping around Central Park & kicking leaves in the Fall. (I never, ever wear trousers, bar jeans, so dresses are my winter staple.)




The menswear is a much better offer than the womenswear BTW, with leather jackets down from $599 to $90, and quite nice mens shoes.

French Connection (FCUK) Sale
(Outerwear, shoes, knitwear, accessories)
Oct 3-7; Wed (2–7), Th & Fr (9–7), Sat (10–6), Sun (10–5)
Metropolitan Pavilion
110 W 19th St (near Sixth Ave)
212-221-3157

I'm in heaven

Planet Hiltron may be the best blog ever.

Disclaimer

A blog reader asked me at a party at the weekend if the products, designers and pieces that I mention on this blog are plugs for brands or if I am wholly independent. So, I thought I should make it clear that everything I mention on here is my personal opinion. I am not paid to mention anything on the blog, nor do PRs ( to the best of my knowledge) know who I am. My friends & family in England do, as this blog replaces regular emails home, but I do not publicise my authorship of this blog within the industry in which I have worked for a Very Long Time. This means I can be frank in my opinions and say what I really think. As you may have noticed.

Right, now that that is clear, I am off to the French Connection sample sale as flagged by The Glam Guide. I shall report back later.

I love Cate Blanchett

I have to thank the heavenly Fug girls for alerting me to this ravishing photograph of Cate Blanchett at the premiere of Elizabeth: The Golden Age in Los Angeles on Monday. I know this sari/toga hybrid would look utterly ludicrous on anyone else, but Christ she works it with panache. The simplicity. The clear colour. Perfection. But no one has identified it anywhere on-line: I'm presuming it is Dior - remarkably similar to a mustard dress in Resort 07/08, and the yellow dress Kate Hudson wore to Dior Couture in July - and she has a long-standing relationship with the house. But: Valentino did a red carpet sari-esque dress for J-Lo, Cavalli has been known to do them to, and Cate pretty much wears Armani to everything at the moment. Anyone?

The Heartbreak Kid

LW & I went to an advance screening last night at Soho House of the Ben Stiller vehicle The Heartbreak Kid, out here & in London on October 5. A remake of the same-titled 1973 Neil Simon Oscar nom-ed pic, it's truly dreadful: overlong with clunky pacing, and more ham than my local deli counter.

The Farralley brothers do love their frat boy humour and gross out gags (Dumb & Dumber, There's Something About Mary) but the misogyny and racism in this movie are jaw-dropping. Set mainly in Mexico, the film never misses a chance for an offensive Mexican gag, whilst women are vapid, vain, neurotic, one-dimensional, ultimately disposable sex objects.

The movie starts out well, with a neat set-up and an accurate evocation of singledom hell at a wedding. It all goes rapidly downhill from there, and whilst there are a couple of laugh out loud moments, but they didn't make up for the rest of the deathly unfunny movie.

Ben Stiller's mendacious, slimy bottom-feeder takes any trace of hero out of the concept of the anti-hero.

There were several (female) walkouts, although I stayed to the bitter end (never say die). I noticed a distinct cultural divide: the Americans in the audience were creased up, the English were playing with their crackberries and twitching. Variety gave it a rave, so maybe I'll be proved wrong at the box office.

Dating: Why do I bother?

I met an attractive man on a blind date last night in Soho. Unfortunately he blew it within one minute of opening his mouth. Here's why:

1. Do not start off by pontificating loudly and repeatedly on the lax criminal & penal system in England compared to America. This is rude and quite possibly ill-informed.
2. Do not repeatedly press your date to have another drink when she has said very firmly she is happy nursing her current one. To be attentive and ask once is charming. More than this makes you look like a sleaze with an alcohol problem. Above all, do not order her another drink when she has specifically said no.
3. Do not introduce your date to every person in the bar. It makes you look desperate, insecure and a barfly.
4. Do not spend most of the date talking about how the English talk weirdly and then correcting her English pronunciation. Mate – She’s lived there all her life. She knows how the English speak. Your once a month business trip does not an expert make.
5. Don’t try to tell her that Fosters is the smart drink of choice in an English pub. And then argue with her about it. Maybe in the dives you hang out in, but not in the ones that she does.
6. Probably best not to bang on about being a Republican if your date works in the media. She is unlikely to share any of your views. She will also think you are a dick beyond redemption when you say things like, “Why recycle, worry about carbon footprints, bother about food miles etc when the Chinese don’t?”
7. Do not keep pawing her knee, holding her hand or pulling your barstool closer to hers. She doesn’t need to smell your beer breath. She's only just met you. Down boy!
8. Do not tell really filthy sexual jokes.
9. A well-judged compliment germane to your date is always welcome. A shower of rent-a-quote compliments every five minutes or so is not. They appear insincere.
10. It’s lovely that the barmaid is your best friend, (& really, she’s great), but you are here to talk to your date. Do not keep calling her over, or including her in your conversation.
11. When you ask her where she goes swimming, and she says she uses the pool at Soho House, don’t tell her she is name-dropping, and that she is ‘better than places like that’. It’s where she swims, bottom line. You asked the question. It’s not her fault if you don’t like the answer. Get the chip off your shoulder
12. When your date mentions having to ‘do’ something, don’t reply with, ‘will you do me?’ Even as a joke, it’s not remotely funny on a first, second or even third date.

Sometimes I do not know why I bother. Dating in this city, apart from requiring an entire set of rules and etiquette that is so far removed from the English way, to be practically indecipherable, seems to be the province of the crazy, weak-minded, sexually rampant or plain dull.

Or perhaps it’s just the kind of men I attract….