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Thank COS it’s Friday




So much lovely eye candy on the newly launched COS website. Aside from the AW09 collection and a behind-the-scenes campaign video, you can also see the magazine (featuring Grace Coddington and Christina Kruse) and a kind of minimalist blog of things they like. Hope it’s updated regularly…





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Snippets



Today has been a complete whirlwind so I’m speed-blogging to get it all down.

Breakfast with Tiffany
9am Brekkie at Automat with a very blog-savvy PR. Lots to discuss including the importance of brands to have a two-way conversation with consumers online.

First look at APC
1030am Love that familiar signature candle scent on first entering the new Dover Street store and I immediately eyeballed all the shirts, wedges and belts. Welcome back to London APC!

Murdock opens store no 3
1045am Just a stone’s throw from APC in Dover Street was the latest Murdock luxury barbers (5B Stafford Street, W1). These guys have cornered the market in high end (but not poncy) male grooming. Alongside the trad barbers service, they offer a lovely retail experience, especially if you’re a girl gift-buying for a fussy discerning guy. When I asked to have a nose round, I was invited to have a look upstairs, even though ‘it’s not finished yet’ and my host also revealed that Scott Schuman had recently enjoyed the Murdock experience. Didn’t surprise me one bit, this place is a must-visit for all sartorialists.




Falling back in love with LK Bennett
1130am: As I was in Bond Street, I decided to give Fenwick the once over including a mini- tour of LK Bennett. Wow, it’s suddenly totally right for now. I liked the high-on-the-instep Mary Janes (Selina, £155), roundtoe courts in an array of heel heights (Sabira, £130, Shilo, £140) and red low-heel pumps (Samedi £125) to go with crop skinny jeans and ankle socks. Nice work LKB.




Short Cuts
12pm This Uniqlo window caught my eye – same-day instore alterations. Me likey.
Daily Candy and arm candy
3pm After more meetings and lunch I headed to Fashion Business Club to take in an interview with DailyCandy.com‘s London editor Malika Dalamal. Daily Candy is looking into encouraging feedback from its readers via comments which I think is a very good thing indeed as it harnesses the community spirit and keeps the punters coming back. Post-interview I caught up with a number of fashion people including accessory designer, Quentin MacKay. I first met MacKay years ago when he had designed some very simple black leather wristbands and I had bought one (I think it was when Browns Focus had just opened). I still have it today and was pleased to discover that following successful stints at Tanner Krolle and Samsonite Black, MacKay has now launched a luxury accessory line under his own name – it’s the real deal, have a look here.

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In: New Look, out: Borders



Bloody hell! There I was popping in to Borders on Oxford Street to ‘use the facilities’ and I was greeted by the world’s biggest queue for the tills, coiling every which way around the ground floor. There must be a new Harry Potter book out, I thought, but no, it’s much more sinister than that. New Look has bought five Borders stores and the Oxford Street branch is one of the unlucky ones. Almost everything is half price (but not the magazines, natch) hence the frenzy.

The photography section looked tantalising on first inspection but when I returned for a proper recce two hours later, everything was on the floor.


What a sorry state of affairs. What on earth is going to happen to the rest of our bookshops if this is happening to Borders now? What can we do? I don’t have anything against New Look but there is already a flagship store in Marble Arch (unless they are downsizing and swapping sites), is our appetite for jazzy leggings so great that we need two branches of the same store in the same street at the expense of a bookshop? It’s all too sad!


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