Beret nice

The blue knitted beret is a purchase from blogger Oranges and Apples. She does have her own Etsy shop but I negotiated directly with the supplier! My poor head needs a hat on my bicycle and when those Siberian winds hit the South East and London. i was taken with the stiching and the navy colour of the beret. I can sew but I'm no knitter and I can appreciate such a skill. Truly, my beret is beret beret nice!

But the story doesn't end with the beret purchase. The clever Franca, Ms. Oranges and Apples came up with a creative concept that tickled me pink... a knitted coffee cup warmer. Beautifully crafted it will adorn my daily coffee cup purchase from Pret. I love Pret for coffee as they use organic milk and it comes from a dairy in Aberystwyth, West Wales. I have preferences for such things! Franca was very kind because she gave me a freebie of a plain knit one in a mustard colour.

The season for a LBD with latitude

I know some of you are all set for a sequin number for the forthcoming party season. but my money would be on this number by Osman Yousefzard with it's perfect draping and elegance, it will be more forgiving than most!

If you are looking for a bargain and a kind dress then be quick as there is only one left in size 10.

Isis Drape Dress £252 down from £632

Thought of the week - the stuff of life

In the midst of wondering about ones wardrobe - I do this a lot, partly from habit and partly as a distraction to my current obsession, my dissertation - a whole host of events take place to create an experience far greater than what to buy, what you wished you'd kept, how to alter x item and thoughts on silk, draping and fair isle.

It is not often events overtake the self. I remain convinced that the ego is easily fed on materialistic pleasures and for one brief moment on Sunday before I checked my euro lottery numbers I was that person who had not claimed their £45m win. I managed to buy a town house in Marylebone, a country pile, an apartment in Paris and a house in the South of France. Since my property portfolio was under £20m I then moved onto the handbags I'd buy.

Luckily, my ego was brought back down to earth but more importantly it was fed by the proper wholesome stuff with the safe arrival in the early hours of Sunday morning of a little baby girl Hana May for my youngest sister, who went into labour due to being annoyed by the twins on X Factor!

Then we went for Sunday lunch at friends in Greenwich and had a delightful time with conversation, food, drink and the boys eating their food on a crisp sunny November afternoon in a tree house.

l to r: petit garcon and chums!

And today instead of dissertation, wardrobe matters or work I'm off to see my little niece. Although my ego wishes my sister had hung on for 8 more days so she could share my birthday.

High Street Pick of the Week

There is always a shop you can pop into and find something, you'll have yours and I have mine, Dorothy Perkins or Dotty P as I refer to this old friend. The ability to shop DP's was born out of need, believe me when you reside in deepest darkest Wales and the only high street shop is Dotty P then you learn to live and work what you've got. As you can tell this was the days before Net-A-Porter et al.

This top reminded me of days of old, when ones only option was to add a sparkly top to a pair of jeans plus heels.

Teal diamond embellished top £45

Gone clogging

The demands of the looming dissertation deadline are really really overtaking my life now, so I'll be sporadically posting and commenting but don't expect much!

I leave you with my clogged feet worn with fair isles socks (it was freezing in London yesterday) in the Zara changing rooms!

The imaginarium of petit garcon

He is but a small boy but already he has no fear of putting a look together. Recently the petit garcon trumped his usual take on every day style namely a Ben 10 t-shirt and shorts, although he is happy to dress up to go into town, and recently took to composing his own photo shoot.

He threw together a look composed of a Baby Gap tank top of his from his teddy which was his aged 3 - 6 months. Teamed with his pirate pyjama bottoms and a free Bart Simpson wrist sweat band from a comic.

Boden reprieve

The dress from Boden that set me off into a Nancy Mitford moment isn't a sentence in my wildest dreams I could have imagined uttering, thinking or writing. My views on Boden are a category on their own and foolishly I failed to do that on the blog labels or I could have directed you to one of my many Boden rants.

A bit of back story the Boden PR was rude/dismissive once, as was the Toast one many years ago come to think of it. Lest you forget I proudly wear my Scorpio necklace bought for my by Mr MDS for my birthday last year.


This should be evidence enough of the fact I might be trouble. So, yes you guessed it I noted the slight and took revenge. I would never say anything (except on this blog) or do anything overt I just exact a revenge that makes me happy and removes the slight. On the Boden front (and Toast too!) I stopped all my private clients from shopping from the catalogue and the removal of any products in wardrobe for a magazine shoot. I think this lasted for a year before I relented.

Whilst I will never be a fan of Boden I recognise its place in respect of many people's lifestyle and needs for cut and size of garments. I do admire the colour aspect but often find it all a bit scary! Anyway...the dress ...well I thought cocktail, (I am currently thinking this too much) a wander through the V&A, some nice stockings and heeled brogues. It is the colour, the length and the very mix of silk and jersey.


I'm tempted but actually it is time for Mr Johnnie Boden to be the better person and send me a sample to try and display - after revenge, there is nothing equally to Scorpion loyalty.

Silk Jersey Party Dress Boden £89

Thought for the week - clothing allowance or budget

Beguiled as we are by the shows, the fashion magazines and fashion blogs, drawn to purchases of new items how often do we forget to budget or project for this occurrence? If you are a creature in need of a budget planner then this one is free to download at www.moneysavingexpert.com

image style.com

If you fancy strutting the streets next spring in Lanvin, then you need to start saving pronto. On my current budget I won't even be attempting to fake an interest in the forthcoming Jimmy Choo collaboration. But if you were to become budget obsessed then your clothes outgoings might run to a long list of options, imagine breaking it down to where you want to shop as well as a monthly allowance and things you want

• The Outnet
• High St designer collaborations
• Bicester Village
• Shoes
• Accessories
• monthly allowance

Seriously, I don't want to think about it in the context of consumption but the example above does mean you have to think about how, where and why you spend money on clothes, shoes, bags etc.

It is worth looking at it properly as you need to keep everything in perspective - we are lucky in the UK as is France with our truly national health systems. However the cautionary tale of Sister Wolf might make you rethink your shopping patterns and perhaps reflect on some of your pointless purchases. Set a realistic budget and actually it is okay not to buy new things if you can't afford it. Imagine you had no washing machine - that wardrobe stuffed of clothes isn't so appealing now...

Poor Anna

It was great fun to read the bloggers comments on this picture of Anna Wintour in the Style section of The Sunday Times this morning and Liberty London Girl kindly put this picture on her blog.

But, Anna can do no wrong in my eyes. I felt I'd already got a peek at her dressed down side in The September Issue and this image doesn't really deserve a critical response (though the bloggers comments were witty). I think it is an easy 'dress down' (hideous terminology I apologise) chic not an uncommon choice for affluent Americans, British and Europeans, Asians etc. It is reminiscent of images of Jackie Onassis on the streets of NYC in the 70/80s although Anna is of course more structured than Jackie was in this phase of her life.



All in all I'm a team Anna person and have always admired her tenacity and work as editor at Vogue and it is the first time I've seen her with a bag other than the Giles Deacon clutch she took out once. I want to know what bag it is.

Starting afresh

The trouble with the end in sight (dissertation deadline) is that all manner of things go out of the window. Whilst I apply myself to draft versions, rewrites, final edits, the housework is a complete joke, normal conversation is pointless as I can only think about what I'm writing and apart from libraries and edit suites I have no idea about the rest of the world. So, it was with some relief that I was pulled out of my insular existence to give a talk at the University of the Arts, London to students with editors of Idol Magazine and the on line artist blogging community Artists talking on the an website.


The fresh air and the outing blew some cobwebs from my head and apart from a brief pop into the LCF library for a Bond book I relaxed and actually took the day off yesterday to indulge in some Halloween fun.

This week I must start afresh and 'nail' the last four thousands or so words!