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Let’s hear it for tech-cessories!




Considering how many people are now mixing business with leisure (this is henceforth to be called bleisure according to Sunday Times Style), it’s surprising how lacking the market is in sexy little tech-cessories. The Sunday Times article coincided with a pow-wow one Thursday evening between a bunch of bloggers and some tech experts (tech-sperts?) from Dell to discuss the topic of women and technology. The general consensus was that just making a laptop in rainbow colours wasn’t enough to get women to buy a particular brand of technology. However, being the sucker I am for a nice luxury leather-good, I would certainly consider spending on a sleek little laptop case or Blackberry sheath if it ticked all my design boxes (i.e. no big logos, minimalist styling, ultra plain or ultra graphic print). Mulberry must have seen me coming as it has just launched a hot new hook-up with Apple consisting of a whole array of cases to clothe your MacBook, MacBook Pro, iPod, iPhone ad infinitum.


Liberty has also jumped on the tech-cessory trend with its Samsung collab. Buy a Samsung X-series notebook at Liberty (yes, really) and you can buy the coordinating Angel Jackson bag at a 30% discount (below). The bag doesn’t speak to me unfortunately (too showy) but I quite like the concept. If it was a notebook-sized Hermes Constance I might reconsider.

Boys haven’t been left out either. The H by Harris quilted laptop case has received major blog loving, and rightly so, as has the not-leather-but-still-very-nice Gareth Pugh/Colette/Another Magazine iPhone cover and MacBook Pro sleeve.


Meanwhile, Kim Jones preceeded Mulberry with his Dunhill MacBook Air case last year.

All I need now is someone clever (Eley Kishimoto? APC? Vivienne Westwood? Mmm, yes to her squiggle print…*) to release some natty new pochettes for my Blackberry Bold to wear.

The Mulberry bags were launched on Apple’s European website and Mulberry stores on November 1st and will be available on Mulberry.com from December 1st.

*but please not PPQ, Giles or Henry Holland, give someone else a go!

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Summits and supermodels



The Fashion Summit 2009 is fast approaching on 17th November and I went to its reception drinks last night. What the eff is the Fashion Summit, you ask? Good question. In a nutshell it’s a two-day conference where fashion industry players from Sir Stuart Rose to influential bloggers will share their wisdom and discuss the future of fashion. I’ll be in attendance on both days and hope to blog about what I see and hear. At last night’s soiree, I chomped beef skewers with William Tempest (so lovely), Daisy de Villeneuve (hot-topic: fashion freeloaders), blog buddy Rebekah Roy and hubby Chris, Aquascutum’s Michael Herz and Courtney Blackman from Forward PR who also runs FBC.

Willliam Tempest and Rebekah Roy

I also caught up with Martyn Roberts and John Walford, co-directors of Vauxhall Fashion Scout. John Walford managed to shut me up as he reminisced about the days when he used to direct Linda, Naomi, Christy and Helena at the shows and take Helena and Linda record shopping. Wow, what did they buy John? “Helena was all about the singer-songwriter and indie bands while Linda was more easy listening.” Ooh, like Neil Diamond? “No, not that easy listening. I got her into Nick Drake.”
[Pic: Christopher Dadey]

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LFW ss10: Burberry Prorsum




What is there left to say about the Burberry Prorsum show? Quite a lot actually. For me it was a weird one as I was caught between the professional ‘journalist’ me and the bloggy fan-girl me. After entering what felt like a movie premiere rather than a fashion show, it was funny to find myself in the back row with fellow bloggers and the publishers of Glamour and Another Magazine – like, shouldn’t they be at the front? On one side of me I had Discotheque Confusion so we played spot the idol; “OMG there’s Carine!”, “Ooh, is that Joe McKenna?”, “Do you think Bruce Weber will let me have my photo taken with him?” while on the other side I had a big name menswear stylist so felt I’d better put my professional head on and tone down my excitement.

Anyway, to the show. Even Burberry has channeled the sculptural shoulder with practically all its trenchcoats boasting huge knotty or ruchy shoulders. The ruching and draping continued throughout the collection with swaggy folds adding interest to pastel-hued skinny trousers, tulle dresses and even bags. The Times had tweeted earlier that Victoria Beckham would be in attendance and might this be a clue that she was being courted as the face of Burberry. Please God, no, I thought but looking at the models in their silver Spandex leggings I had to concede that that might be a possibility. Yikes. I was actually more taken with the menswear than the womenswear – so many lovely quilted jackets and three-quarter length coats – although a pair of loose lemon silk pants got my vote.

Post-show we could see that it would take some time to exit the building so what did we do? Pick over the seat cards of course! Discotheque Confusion pocketed Carine Roitfeld and Coco’s Tea Party nabbed Mary-Kate Olsen while I was happy with Michael Roberts and er, Lorraine Kelly.


Onto the party! After a short walk to Burberry’s HQ and a five minute queue on the carpeted pavement, we headed to the online room where computers had been set up for live social networking. I did manage a sly tweet or two but was far too interested in the bar and canapes to spend an hour on Blogger. But I did manage to grab the PR to get the lowdown on the live-streaming initiative. As it turns out, there wasn’t a social media expert behind the curtain pulling the strings, this was simply the idea of Christopher Bailey and CEO Angela Ahrendts. Impressive. Designer whizz, interiors pro, art director extraordinaire, online embracer, the nicest man in fashion… is there anything Christopher Bailey can’t do?

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LFW – Day three



Another day of running around and hitting the shows to ‘hoover up’ stories for The Daily. Betty Jackson was first where I snapped some cute little almost-flat shoes with fabric pompoms and tried not to stare at Peter Blake and Tracey Emin (two of my favourite artists). Mulberry at Claridges was a very classy affair but tempered with candy-coloured balloons to make it less formal and more fun. Clothes-wise is was very commercial. I’d say it’s all about those fringy boots…




Topshop Unique was also uber-commercial and very derivative. I saw shades of early Luella crossed with Bananarma and Courtney Love. There were so many ideas there though – XXXXL oversize mens shirts with the sleeves sliced off and fluoro spray paint as a print. And still the mega high heels continue. At Jasmine de Milo, I liked the simplicity of a long, eau de nil long-sleeved gown and the leather cocktail dresses with pockets. Why can’t all dresses have pockets? Tomorrow, the Americans arrive (by which I mostly mean, Anna W), although one American is here already. I made friends with Britt from Fashionista, who was also filing copy for The Daily. Britt loves London, having interned for Stella McCartney back in the day. I also caught up with a record number of bloggers including Frassy, Bish Shops, Magazine Machine, That’s Not My Age, Torfrocks. Wee Birdy, Aindrea, Susie Bubble, Rebekah Roy and Discotheque Confusion. Did I forget anyone? Crikey, no wonder I’m so zonked out and my eyes are closing as I type.

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