Trends

Super-luxe heritage handbags for Asprey AW13



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The luxury spotlight has been trained on the Brits this week – especially when it comes to accessories. As speculation grows on where Emma Hill will go post-Mulberry, we’re also looking ahead to what magic Katie Hillier and Luella Bartley will sprinkle on Marc By Marc Jacobs in their new official roles (as creative director and design director respectively). (more…)



Retail report: The art of Chanel



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The new Chanel London flagship opens in New Bond Street tomorrow and at 12,600 square feet it’s a vast improvement on its Old Bond Street predecessor. In terms of trends, retail and otherwise, it weaves in quite a few. There’s the trend for ‘at home’ styling; featuring grand mantlepieces, ample couches and coffee tables (for the wealthy BRIC customers to consider their purchases I suspect, not for bored husbands and kids). (more…)



Yasmin Sewell curates Beach In The East



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That photo above is from the Disneyrollergirl archives, AKA a pile of scrapbooks and box files containing years worth of photos, cuttings, and ephemera that I’ve held onto ‘just in case’. Yasmin Cho was a late ’90s shop on a first floor in Poland Street, an out-of-sight destination that you had to want to find in order to visit it. Run by Yasmin Sewell, it stocked a curated mix of under-radar labels like Susan Cianccolo, Carol Christian Poell, and Rick Owens. You had to press a buzzer to get in and the sign on the door was made up of coloured sticky dots. Fast forward 15 years and Yasmin Sewell’s early concept has come full circle with a Shoreditch pop-up space called Beach In the East. (more…)



London-Boutiques.com relaunches



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Today sees the relaunch of London-Boutiques.com, the London-centric marketplace that does a similar job to Farfetch but on a London-wide scale. You can shop by product, store or designer, plus the editorial has been boosted with insider contributions from London tastemakers and the store owners themselves who recommend their favourite local haunts and finds.

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I have kicked off the blog with a piece about biker jackets. Not just your classic black leather biker but all the newer, lightweight permutations too. The West London biker of choice is a creamy wool or khaki cotton biker shrugged over neutral cashmere and denim or a vintage faded-floral dress. You can read the whole piece here

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In line with more and more etail sites, London-Boutiques offers free returns, picked up from your address by DHL. If there’s one thing that puts me off online shopping it’s the faff of returning unsuitable items, so this is a point worth flagging up. Here are some of my favourite biker-style buys from London-Boutiques …

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Clockwise from top left:
Helmut Lang jacket/MIH shirt/IRO jacket/360Sweater cashmere jumper