On brands, video blogging and he-tail



Last Wednesday I was very lucky to be invited to a super-special event organised by Arcadia. The company that owns Burton, Topman, Topshop, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Sefridge and Wallis hosted a dinner to bring together fashion bloggers, online fashion press and print media to show that all are equally important when it comes to working with its brands.

What an inspired initiative and I think everyone got something out of it, whether it was just putting faces to names of fellow bloggers (hello 00o00), engaging with press and Arcadia PRs, or understanding each other’s media. I also loved that we were gifted with Flip cameras, a great way of highlighting the fact that with blogging and social media, video (I’m sorry, I refuse to say ‘vlogging’) is the next stage in the journey. And there were tech support peeps from Flip on hand to show us how to edit and upload the videos. (Yes, it may be simple but it’s still helpful to have a demo.) Other PRs please note, bloggers love having tech experts at blog events!

Aside from hearing some top-secret Arcadia plans involving hi-tech consumer interaction, I also learnt that the UK menswear blog sector is booming. We all know Style Salvage but there are lots of other good menswear blogs and male bloggers emerging. Just in time for the menswear retail (he-tail?) revolution – welcome MrPorter.com, from the Netaporter stable



Beautiful boys




There was a time in the eighties when girls really, properly fancied boys in make-up. Boy George, Adam Ant, Nick Rhodes (guilty!) and OMG, David Sylvian (above) were the gods of male beauty. I loved Japan both for their music and for their style and beauty. Drummer Steve Jansen was also an avid photographer and sells some of his beautiful photos of Japan on his website. To raise money for his friend and former bandmate Mick Karn who is undergoing cancer treatment, Jansen is donating funds from some of the sales of his work. More info at Stevejansen.com.




National Jewellery Week: friendship bracelets



It’s National Jewellery Week and everywhere I look there are articles on baubles, bangles and bling. Even the guys are non-exempt – witness Charlie Porter’s piece on businessmen in bracelets in the FT.

Well, I love a bit of wrist-candy and have some extra space on mine as my beloved Hermes Medor watch has a broken neck and has been sent to the Hermes hospital for surgery. Disaster!

Here are some of the luxury friendship bracelets I’m eyeing up:

Shashi ballerina bracelet, £62, Kabiri

Silk bracelets, 45 euros, Vadi Jewels

Philip Crangi/Michael Bastian gold and leather bracelet, £49.55, Colette

Dana Levy, satin cord horseshoe bracelet, £28, Liberty

And I’m still pining for a carbon copy of my long-deceased Van Rycke bracelet



Net-a-Porter launches mens site




Breaking news! The unstoppable Net-a-Porter is set to launch a standalone mens site in January with Mrporter.com. It’s been years in the planning but the time is clearly considered right to capture the mens online shopping market. Net-a-Porter is on a roll. It recently launched its Denim Boutique and apparently has also bought the domain names Petit-a-Porter and Net-a-Beaute. Ex-site-ing!

WWW.MRPORTER.COM