'The life span of yogurt'

Last night's Mary Portas Secret Shopper on Channel 4 was a perfect blend of evidential documentary and Ms Portas tackling dreadful customer service. My favourite moment, when the owner likened his store's clothes to fast fashion which meant the garments 'had the life span of yogurt'. Mind you the 'if they're filming and show it on TV I'll sue them' followed by the shop assistants giggling was a close second.

I was confused by the choice of Braintree as it is mainly an outlet village, I know I did a photo shoot there once to promote the brands etc. I choose the grey ones from the shoot! There was no glamour in it just like the task Mary is trying to tackle!

Something I threw on...

What with the return of parky weather I'm actually thinking a rug or two again. Yesterday saw the sun appear in London and boy was it a welcome sight. I threw on my sunglasses and smiled!

My real heartfelt style advice during January and also February is really just make do! Save your pennies and pounds for a little while. Okay retailers might be cross with me but I am not saying don't buy anything just don't try and fill the grey day feeling with items that you might regret.


However there is always that pick me up number option when the grey days are too much and that glass of wine cannot stop the voices in your head that say 'I need something'. Do try and look at your items again and you might find a sort out or shufty around yields a fresh vibe.

But just in case then this number from M&S will work with any separates and lift your spirits with that old 1970s chic. Think Lauren Hutton and Farah Fawcett and be grateful for the £35 price tag. You'll find it online in Limited Collection's Limited 70s chic and in store within the Limited Collection concession area. The product code is T692761.

I think the colour is an added bonus which will suit all skin tones regardless. And if it wasn't for my self imposed style challenge I would be purchasing.

Blast from the past

It was a lovely surprise to receive a comment from The Small Fabric of My Life as she has been dutifully pursuing her retraining as a teacher. You see it is not just me who goes for something different!

Anyway Jane reminded me of my favourite event the Capsule Wardrobe Challenge. For those of you uninitiated in this annual event the challenge is to choose ten items of clothing from your wardrobe and mix and match them for five days between Monday February 14th and Friday February 18th. You can have any combination of shoes, dresses, skirts, tops and jackets as long as it adds up to ten individual items. You are also allowed five accessories which include jewellery, scarves, bag, belts etc. Underwear and hosiery do not come under the ten items and five accessories!

If you are up for it then please blog about it and if you want to appear in The Small Fabric of My Life's Capsule Wardrobe Challenge round-up the following week then please email your pics to workthatwardrobe@googlemail.com.

Go on...

Here are a couple of pics from bygone years. I give you October 2009




Old Wallis strapless dress, Gap stripy long sleeve tee (I have just killed it by wearing it nonstop for 4 years), LK Bennett belt and I also had an H&M black jacket. I wore the same shoes (old boots) all week.



Gap grey cashmere t-shirt, H&M white shirt, H&M sequin leggings, Topshop jade green coin necklace, Accessorise scarf, Toast bag and very old ankle boots.

Style Challenge Update

On November 16th 2010 I entered in to my year long style challenge. In short I am only allowed to buy designer goods. This is quite hard because you need a lot of money for only designer goods and of course I don't. Also it has saved me a lot of frittering on high street goods and thereby quite a bit of money. You know that £16.99 H&M item you justify on so many levels...

I have limited myself to a budget of £100 a month which amounts to £1,200 per annum. I am a stylist (though not for much longer way hay) and I do top up my allowance by selling items on ebay and thereby indulge in neutral shopping. I also, and this is occasionally get free items. One year a PR company insisted I choose some Falke socks from their supply. This was not only very handy but turned my head as Falke socks and tights are lovely. Apart from being given a Viktor & Rolf dress once, I don't get biggies or that much for free. I have been loaned items which is nice.

The allowance has to work hard but I was caught up in an endless cycle of buy, sell, buy, sell and worse over it! I began to find the high street items too costly for the quality of the garment. I knew quality is key but even so called quality brands weren't living up to the hype.

So far so good. I have bought three items, a Valentino skirt from the Outnet for £136.


A Calvin Klein dress for £49 from TK Maxx



And a Pringle jumper again from TK Maxx for £39.


Over a three month period I have spent £224 and have £76 left over which goes back into paying off the MA debts. I will wear the jumper to death over the spring and summer. I haven't felt able to wear it yet as it is so bright I might even give myself a fright.

It is really nice to be under budget and also not to have bought anything from the high street whatsoever. Having stepped away I look at clothes more dispassionately as I am choosing personal style and things I love over what is in. I love to know what is in as I think you can emulate it without actually needing anything new. I feel impressed with my sticking to budget and hope to keep up the good work. I know I could be doing better so next month I will only look for designer items in charity shops, saving me even more money.

High Street Pick of the Week - The 2011 Style File

This is the second in the 2011 series of building your wardrobe from recommended items from the high street. Of course if you are not in the UK many of the brands featured will be replicated around the globe in differing regional retailers but lots of the items I will pick no doubt will be available on the internet on global sites.

Last week wide leg jeans were selected and someone asked me to contextualise the basis of the wardrobe. It was a good question although a little difficult to answer preciously as I fearfully of being too prescriptive and not enabling you to be creative.

What probably more useful is to know what I imagine it to be. Because you can challenge my perspective and but your spin on it. I know I'm not thinking of baroque or gothic overtones when I choose items, but say you love crosses and black nail varnish, you could wear the wide leg jeans with a long sleeve grey t-shirt and accessorise with black nails and a gothic cross. I love the cut and looks of the 1930s and 1970s butyou might prefer the 1940s oe 1950s. I love Barbara Streisand's costumes in The Way We Were and I love the Italian chic of Antonioni's L'Eclisse. You will have your favourite looks from films. I much prefer the voluptuous excess of Dolce & Gabanna to the chic minimalism of Celine but of course you might prefer Celine to D&G. I hope with the style file to offer items that you can interpret and wear with the way you'd imagine the items being worn.

What the 2011 style file series offers is a reference for you in respect of building a great workable mix and match wardrobe. I will keep things fairly simple but hope that some items will be wonderful additions.

So back to this weeks pick.


You do need a great versatile skirt and the pencil or sheath skirt is the one regardless of body shape or size. This one is from Zara at £39.99 but you can find one almost anywhere. The reason I've picked this item now and not a top, is that the current crop of sheath skirts are in the right length, make the proportions correct so you can wear them more successfully. Once again it will be the type of top and the accessories you choose that will adjust any misgivings you may have.

You can wear this skirt with a plain white tee, or a completely over the top ruffled shirt. All you have to do is adjust how you compose the look. If you wearing a white t-shirt then hair scraped back in a bun with red lipstick and white plimsolls is a big step away from wearing it with a red almost flamenco style shirt and fishnets and heels. See versatility!

Back to school!

Today I go into a school for a few hours to sit on a panel for sixth formers doing interviews for specific media jobs. It was really nice to be asked and I was happy to volunteer my time. I feel quite excited and am planning my back to school outfit.

Of course I'm thinking British and I'd think Dame Vivienne Westwood would be nice at this type of thing so I will channel her tomorrow in the encouraging stakes.

If only one could nip in to Selfridges and borrow some items. I think I would select this dress from Vivienne Westwood for £250



It is dignified enough and has that twist to get attention. It would feel like a gown sweeping all the corridors. I wonder if I'm allowed to take detention!

Fashion submerging

When the going gets tough I often find myself submerging my head and body in all matters fashion. In the midst of reading the news on-line and the twitter updates on the Arizona shootings. I often find refuge in fashion when I find times too difficult. But as I started to write two outstanding fashion articles the momentary 'buzz' is so short lived I feel that my fashion dealer has sold me talcum powder.

Of course I'm talking figuratively but why do I feel that fashion is in dire straights in terms of editorial, marketing and in general. Within the mire that is the what to wear, who to wear, what to think there are some shining lights but overall not enough to lift my fashion spirits.

What I think is really of no consequence, but here's my ten pence worth.

1. Don't make your best creative director ever the creative director at large - ref Barney's. Wrong on every level. Mainly suggests panic. It has never worked in football. When the club's boards have a good team manager and then go and install a director of football, invariably one of them leaves and mainly with cross words behind doors. The team manager by the way is the one with the real clout. Read Dennis Freedman as team manager and Simon Doonan as director of football. Trust me it will end in tears.

2. Brown is not the new Black. Nothing is the new black. Riccardo Tisci do not make pointless statements. Black is black, right Sister Wolf?

3. The lengths of skirts. Really give it up now. The last time when there was only one skirt shape/length de rigueur was the 1940s. It all went downhill in the 1950 when the horror of it there were two skirt shapes, the full skirt (re Dior's continuation of the New Look) and the sassy pencil skirt. Despite any attempt by fashion editorial to direct us to x and y I firmly say 'whatever'.

4. Stop dressing up the perennials as anything other than the same stuff every year. I give you stripes/nautical/military/white/colour/anything. This spring summer is no different from last year, the year before and the year before that. New fabrics, maybe, new cuts, sort of, new directions - no sorry seen it, done it go the t-shirt. (Actually I did, an original Dukes of Hazards one in orange for 0.99 on ebay during a brief moment of relaxation and relapse)

5. Words. The vocab needs to change. I cannot tell you how bored I am by the current crop of rehashed clichés. I'm sure I don't need to list any but if I said muse for starters you'll get the rest. Oh and my all time favourite, 'the A listers favourite....'

6. The fashion debate - there isn't one.

7. Designer collections for high street stores - don't bother, pretty please, no more. It has become a pantomime.

8. Models/Celebs as designers - no. See the collection that was Lindsay Lohan for Ungaro and then see the collection that is Giles Deacon for Ungaro. I rest my case (VB I'm only letting you off the hook as I'm soft like that)

There we go, ah, I feel better for that....I might rise above it all again and take in some air.

Something I threw on...

In the midst of sales and drab weather, when January always has that grey dull hue masquerading as day, it is hard to think about adding some zing into your wardrobe.

But grey days are no excuse for not making the effort, the easiest way to brighten your life from now until the end of March is with a coat from the sales.

This checked number from Zara at £59.99 is a good example of the High St bargains around.



PS Update thanks for all the tights comments. It goes to show coloured tights make a big difference to a look. Imagine mustard tights in a ribbed knit or more of a burgundy or even a bright orange. Cheerful huh!

Big stripes

I'm trying to ignore the slowly brewing Prada fashion fix of big stripes. I love Prada and whilst the catwalk collection was not to my taste I can see how the effect is trickling down and the execution from catwalk to shop floor looks different when you can put your own spin on it.

Love it or hate it (I did at first but am now leaning more to the accepting!) big stripes are going to get ya! I like the pink and orange number below once you minus the hair, make up and freaky accessory thing.


What do you think and are you going to pair your big striped number with a sombrero!

Maxi Midi Mini - jumpsuits

You'll get a lot of these in the fashion mags over the next few months. Thankfully I have a few pairs to see me through. On my UK style tour last summer I appeared in many a city telling all and sundry of the power of the jumpsuit, mainly to me by blank faces. I feel that this year they will have shifted and be embracing the love of the jumpsuit.

I wouldn't say no to the Max Mara orange jumpsuit all over the press at the moment. It's rrp is £445.


The forthcoming retailers to look out for the mid priced range are Isabella Oliver 365 - I know they have a lovely jumpsuit coming! But if you fancy being a Studio 54 junkie all day everyday then go for this satin number from French Connection for £125 - it will release your inner Bianca Jagger.


Finally in the mini section ASOS will deliver lots of variety at bargain prices as the season continues. Currently the best of the bunch is this pretty halter neck one from Lipsy at £62