All Saints Spitalfields

The cult British fashion brand All Saints has some amazing clothes but the thing that I really love about them is their branding and shopfits. It completely compliments and reinforces the values of the product.

In some of their stores, (such as one of my local Glasgow stores above) hanging cruciforms are lit up acting as a rock'n'roll centerpiece reflecting the edgie, grunge fashion on their scaffolding fixtures. During the Summer I visited the flagship store in Spitalfields - round the corner from Spitalfields market in the now trendy part of East London. I instantly recognised the open-plan converted loft type space; exposed brickwork and aged wood flooring. But the displays were a lot more exciting and inventive than I had seen in Glasgow, with butcher meat hooks and industrial sized hanging items and mannequins from the ceiling as well as distressed 'vintage' style pieces spread out throughout the shop.

Although quite expensive (All Saints say their clothes are High Fashion at an affordable price), traditional artisan techniques are still used to make their unique clothes. At the moment I just admire but when I have a bit more money I shall be a regular shopper.

Another downside is that although their flash website is gorgeously designed to reflect the brand and its customers, it's not the best to navigate through. In doing this, I couldn't find any information about their ethics and history or any pictures of their stores on the site. They possibly need to work on getting this up to the same standard as their fashion and shop interiors.

Prada phone

Currently I own the Prada LG phone, the touchscreen phone that was much talked about a year and a half ago when it first came out. I first spotted it in Dazed & Confused magazine so waited with baited breath for its release.

The packaging was gorgeous and I had a bit of a honeymoon period with my phone overlooking the fact that it was difficult to write text messages and a not so great 2 mega pixel camera. Also, I stupidly never used the protective Prada sleeve that came with it so over time the Prada logo has completely scratched off.

Other designer phones such as the D&G, Chanel phone etc have came out, which I haven't liked as much. But in Amsterdam I saw an advertisement for the new Prada II LG phone with slide out QWERTY keyboard. It also has a 5mega pixel camera this time, which will be a lot better for when I see things I want to blog. And so I am in lust again.

I popped into Orange to see about upgrading but it isn't to be released in the UK for another couple of months yet.

Courtney Love photoshoot

I get emails from Elle UK and I saw that Courtney Love is on their January cover and looks pretty damn good. She still looks like her usual rock star self as she is wearing this season's trends but this time it looks a bit more polished than the usual smeared red lipstick look. I used to have really mixed feelings towards her as I was a huge Nirvana fan growing up but I'm so glad to see her looking so good. Speaking of which, I got a Nirvana t-shirt in Urban Outfitters recently as it was reduced from £32 to £15. I used to have a vest-top like this when I was younger which I bought off another girl in school who was a whole lot bustier than me at the time. The Nirvana logo was therefore a bit stretched horizontally but I loved it anyway.

Ferragamo shoes

Here's a couple of pictures of some shoes I got in Topshop Oxford Street a couple of months back. I was going into the Arcadia group (Topshop, Miss Selfridge, Wallis, Topman, Dorothy Perkins, Burtons, Evans & Outfit) offices for an interview but couldn't resist the flagship store round the corner.


I was looking at vintage shoes and couldn't believe it when I came across... white sling back genuine Salvatore Ferragamo shoes in good condition, a perfect fit and at a bargain price. If you look cloesely at the photo below it says on the inner sole 'Saks Fifth Avenue. Salvatore Ferragamo Florence. Made in Italy.'

Here is what the Ferragamo website says about some of his vintage pieces:

"Precious. No, extremely precious.They're not just shoes and bags.They are symbols of style and creativity, icons of the Ferragamo brand, and shoe models created over the Twenties to the Fifties for famously seductive women such as Joan Crawford, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo, Ava Gardner and Marilyn Monroe.
Entirely hand-made and using original constructions, lasts and hides, they are collectors' pieces, the beginning of a limited and truly exclusive series."

I only managed to get a couple of wears out of them as it got a bit too cold. But rest assured I shall get them back out in the Spring time.

My Burberry Mac

A couple of years back I bought a second hand Burberry Mac in a vintage store in Glasgow's West end called Watermelon for £30. I usually only find larger sized ones so when I saw this UK size 12 petite I had to have it despite being a UK 8 - I just convinced myself it kind of fitted. But 2 years down the line, I still hadn't worn it and was tempted to sell it on ebay.

Instead, I decided a few weeks back, to have it altered by a local seamstress who is fantastic and has fantastic prices to match (only £20 for this job). I asked for the hem line to be taken right up to update it and she took the whole thing in a few inches. And now I wear it all the time! (I have cut my face out this picture because I look miserable.)

The great thing about a Burberry mac is you know you are wearing a historic item of clothing (Check out the Burberry website to read all about the history of their iconic trench coat - so-called because it was originally worn by soldiers in trenches during the Boer War.) Also, I stupidly spilled my Pepsi Max all over it whilst waiting on a train and it just rolled right off: no mark or stain left what-so-ever.

Sears 'Arrive' advert

I'm a big High School Musical fan and came across this Sears advert (more like a full length music video) targeting kids going back to school in America featuring Vanessa Hudgens.

What amazing advertising for a generation influenced by celebrity and MTV. I must admit if I was a school kid in the US then I would definitely want to visit Sears after seeing this 'advert'. Thankfully in the UK we have to wear a school uniform which I actually loved and appreciated the advantages of. It was more fun adjusting school uniform to my taste than it would have been trying to think of something new to wear everyday.

Vanessa of course looks amazing in all 3 outfits (well 4 once all 3 are combined into one) but my favourite is the Rock chick one. The others seem a bit much for school.

Ooh lovely dress...

I've spotted a gorgeous dress I've just ordered on Topshop.com using my staff card. It is from Topshop's Punk Couture trend and wraps up quite a few Winter trends in one go: the LBD, Gothic, beading/sequins and bodycon. If it looks nice on I shall upload a picture.

Mannequin styling gone bad.

When I did a work placement in John Lewis Head Office in London during the summer, one day I was asked to accompany a member of the buying team to a John Lewis store on Oxford Street to report back on where their product was placed, if it was selling and how sales could be increased. On approaching the ladies wear department, I noticed some terrible signs that could have a dramatic effect on the product selling.

Here there are 2 mannequins set up in a key sightline but when you look at what they are wearing it is quite shocking. Both have identical wigs, identical shoes and identical summer floral dresses on. Floral prints had been massive that season so I can understand why they would be displayed. But why do both have the same dress on?? Shouldn't John Lewis be maximising potential sales by having a different outfit? Furthermore, one had a heavy black PVC jacket on. I kid not. It made no sense what-so-ever. The idea of mannequin dressing is to put a credible outfit together that a customer could imagine wearing. This also encourages them to buy the whole outfit rather than just an individual item.

Even worse was when I walked along a bit and (I think it was in the Warehouse section) I saw the worst single outfit on a mannequin ever. The photo below does not do it justice but the mannequin on the right is actually wearing a ra-ra skirt, then the same one again but sitting higher up on the waist, then a top of a slightly different (but i think meant to be the same) colour and again a similarly coloured scarf wrapped round the neck! In the height of summer!


2 nights previously Gok Wan had shown on his Fashion Fix programme, how to make a boob tube ra-ra dress from 2 identical ra-ra skirts. I think whoever styled these got a bit carried away.

What really annoyed me was that this was John Lewis's Oxford Street store so should display the best styling of the best product available. When I commented on this to the design, buying and merchandising team I worked with (who I must add, were all absolutley fantastic at their jobs and helpful) they seemed to be aware of the problem that there was no Visual Merchandising team within the store! If they are looking for someone I'd gladly go down.

Baby clothes

My eldest sister is pregnant so whilst I was in Amsterdam I kept an eye out for possible presents or ideas for something I could make for the baby. The dutch seemed to have a much more exciting approach to the likes of simple baby bibs which perhaps the British are overlooking. Here's some pictures all taken by my camera phone.

These bibs have food prints on them and come in jars like baby food. So clever.


These socks or 'Soggs' come in an egg box. I was tempted to buy them but considering the preice of all of the above, I might just make something similar. I've a while yet as the baby isn't due 'til April. I'm extremely excited.

Amsterdam

My friend Lauren and I got back from Amsterdam the other day where she was attending the first Service Design conference in Europe and I was going with her to explore and try to discover more about the city. 

We arrived and it was extremely snowy yet decided to go for a night out that lasted into the next morning.

After a days rest, I headed along to the global Tommy Hilfiger for a visit. You can just make out Tommy Hilfiger branded across this building in this phone photo. It was great to chat to two people on the team there and to hear that the company is great to work fore. It was also great to see what the inside of a massive designer brand's headquarters looked like. As you can imagine from Tommy Hilfiger clothing, it is very fresh, clean-lined with little superfluous ornamentation. Very American. 

After, I explored the city centre some more (where I discovered this amazing postcard - this photograph was taken in 1949 in New York. The shopkeeper's message definitely gets the point across but I think he could have done with some marketing tips from Mr Hilfiger).