Pixie Lott interview

You may or may not know that I write the Lipsy blog - you do now - and as Pixie Lott is launching a collection with them, I went to interview her last week.

Pixie's two looks, 'festival' and 'party', launch on 28 April and there are a few great easy-to-wear boho pieces in the festival range that even I, on the wrong side of 25, could pull off.

So anyway, Pixie was very friendly and accommodating and seemed totally un-phased by the madness of the press day, perhaps staying grounded thanks to the presence of her parents and friends who sat and watched as she was interviewed.

Hard to imagine having her lifestyle at just 19!

Read the interview here.

Travelling through time

I found it: my ideal suitcase. Merci's Liberty print vanity case re-ignited my vintage suitcase obsession earlier this month, so when I came across this old-school travelling companion in Brighton's Snooper's Paradise, I was delighted to find that it was in full working order. It closes snugly, has pleasingly chunky buckles and is generally in top-notch condition. I suspect that this is because it's actually quite new - just designed in a retro-style - but this matters not to me, and £15 was a bargain price for such an essential piece.

It'll do me for my annual Cornish holiday and my Canadian honeymoon, and I've become quite defensive when it comes to questions of its practicality. "I'd never buy a suitcase like that; it doesn't have wheels", the girlfriend of a male colleague shared in the queue. No one's asking you to buy it, random rude girl...."That's going to accomodate nearly two week's worth of clothes?" Irish asked sceptically. "No, it's going to hold my flowery dresses. The heavy stuff will be going in your wheeley suitcase, darling".

It looks damn cool, alright, and I'm not planning on taking it trekking up Kilamanjaro. I just can't say no to Mad Men bags...

Supermarket sweep

So, Tesco – Tesco’s cool right? Well, actually yes, it would seem so. Not only is Clothing at Tesco now an official sponsor of London Fashion Week, it also has a pretty hot new blog, featuring fashion editor and fashion blogger picks, street style and behind-the-scenes posts. Looks like they’ve been learning from fashion’s social media front-runners.

The website has many fashion-focused bargains on offer too. Not only is it home to the supermarket’s signature F & F collection, which includes dirt-cheap summer staples such as an all-American denim dress, floral sun dress and studded leather jacket, it also boasts a number of other exclusive ranges.

Its more high-end fashion offering, Liquorish, is described as a “hip east London based label” and has already proved a hit with celebs - Emma Bunton wore the mini spot dress on Dancing on Ice. The range’s spring/summer collection features some pretty floral playsuits and cute architectural and embellished shoulder dresses.

Adding another string to its bow, Tesco launched its exclusive ‘ethical’ clothing range by From Somewhere in March. The ethical design house, founded in 1997, uses recycled materials and the Tesco collection was inspired by the street markets in Sri Lanka that sell apparel industry refuse and the fabric on which manufacturers try out designs. There are a couple of scary body-con pieces in there, but also a lovely ‘mix and match’ material dress which conjures up images of French milk-maids - for me anyway.

Oh, and somewhat surprisingly there’s a gem within Misha Barton’s range of bags, also available on the site: The Doctor’s bag is the perfect summer satchel for that Alexa-inspired ‘Brit’ girl look.

Tesco is greeting the fashion world with open arms, and no doubt bargain-hunting fashionistas will, in return, greet Tesco with open wallets.

Dress date

Speed dating with the week's dress crush

Where are you at the minute?
What? Sorry, I can't hear you over the steel drums

Where are you?
I'm on a beach, in the Bahamas, enjoying the sun, sea and sand.

What's your favourite drink?
Ha, rum of course - dark rum. Have you read The Rum Diaries by Hunter S Thompson? It's great. He wrote it whilst working on an English newspaper in Cuba in the early 1950s. It was all about the rum and the burgers back then - before he went insane in the membrane. It's being made into a film starring Johnny Depp - who else - this year. Perhaps we could go and see it?

What's your pet peeve?
I tend to slip down when dancing. It's more annoying than embarrassing - I don't mind showing a bit of cheeky flesh...

What do you look good in?
Anything. But I love a good white straw hat and I look damn hot in these strappy tan beauties - they're not to clever on the sand though.

Who's your favourite pop princess?
Love Lily Allen - she knows how to have a good time and doesn't care what anyone says of it. Rihanna's pretty cool too.

Where can you be found?
You can find me anytime at Topshop.com. Come take me home - we could have fun.

What Misha Makes

Marvelling at the tiny trinkets on Misha Brigemohane’s stall at Brighton’s Upper Gardner Street Market a couple of Saturdays ago, I could feel that it was a love affair in the making. But Irish was becoming impatient – there’s only so much time he can spend riffling through dog-eared books whilst waiting for my magpie impulse to wear off – so I took down her e-mail address and voila, we has words on the topic (and a few pictures too):


How long have you been making and selling jewellery?
I started making charm jewellery two years ago just as a hobby to begin with, but by the following year I found I had so many pieces that the only thing for me to do was to see if anyone else out there would enjoy wearing them. Suggested by a friend who is also a crafter, I set up my etsy page, www.mishamakes.etsy.com, in January 2009 and did my first stall in May.

Where do you take inspiration from?
I take inspiration from everywhere - memories, eras, film, music, art and current fashion trends. I draw a lot of inspiration from trends on the high street - they help me notice more themed charms. I also love anything that looks vintage, even if it's not and love Victorian style.

Where do you source your materials?
I collect things from all over the place - buttons, beads, anything small enough to go onto a necklace or ring. I'm a bit of a hoarder! They could be from car-boot sales, antique shops, flea markets, haberdasheries to the deep realms of the internet. Most of my charms these days are from the internet as I don’t have as much to hunt around as I did.

What are proving to be your most popular items at the moment?
Every week is different from the week before. At the moment I've sold a lot of ‘Drink Me’ necklaces inspired by Alice in Wonderland which is incredibly popular now the film is out. I also always sell lots of tea themed items like tiny tea cup and saucers on rings and necklaces - everyone loves a cuppa!

What are the top trends in jewellery design at the moment?
Vintage styled jewellery and trinket charm jewellery have a really strong presence within design at the moment and have done for a while, but I honestly don't pay much attention to current trends in jewellery design, I tend to just go with what I want to do and what I like and hope for the best!

Do you find it difficult to create original designs when there are so many independent jewellery makers trading on etsy and similar sites now?
Not at all, I have so many designs that I want to create and will never have enough time to make them all! I make jewellery because it makes me happy to create: it's my hobby and so it doesn't matter how many other similar sites there are. Whatever I sell is just a great bonus and so far I've been pretty lucky to sell enough to continue with my hobby!

How often do you create new designs?
My weeks are pretty full but I love creating - making jewellery is my therapy. When I get home from work I make two or three pieces of jewellery in the evening while there's a television programme on in the background.

Do you make much money from selling your jewellery?
Well I still have a full time "day job" – working five days a week in a boutique in the North Laine - but I make enough money to pay for my stalls and for more stock and that's enough for the time being. I'm gradually building up my reputation and setting up my own website, so we'll see how it goes!
Do you sell your jewellery any where else?
I recently set up a new page on Folksy.com which is pretty much the British alternative to Etsy.com - it's less vast than Etsy which can be overwhelming. I'm also part of a collective of crafters called Handmade Cooperative, a group of crafters who make handmade items. They hold an indoor market every other month at the Komedia and are currently about to open a new shop on St James's Street, Kemp Town, with the same idea. All crafters get their own space to sell their wares. It should hopefully be open by mid April and I'll have my own little section in there which is so exciting, I can't wait!

Look at the prettiness…see the things that are smaller than they are in real life…you want these trinkets to make you happy? You will find them here:
www.mishamakes.etsy.com
www.mishamakes.folksy.com
www.mishamakes.bigcartel.com

Green for ice cream

This season's sun dresses take inspiration from the floaty feminine styles of the Fifties and Sixties, but why get a copy when you can have the real thing? Traid in Brighton is currently in the midst of one of its legendary dirt-cheap sales and I picked up this beautiful pleated skirt dress for just £4!
What really put the cherry on top of this particularly tasty bargain sundae was the colour - a gorgeous pistachio/mint green, my two favourite flavours of ice cream and a perfect fit with spring/summer's pastel trend. And as luck would have it, I spotted a pair of stud heeled courts in a similar shade in Dorothy Perkins, reduced from £30 to £12! So that's my favourite summer dress-up outfit sorted for the mighty sum of £16. And to accessorise? I think a mint and pistachio cone or five will set off the look perfectly.

Dress Date

Speed dating with the week's dress crush

Tell me something interesting about yourself
I'm made from organic cotton and sustainable materials.

What would be your perfect date?
Riding a bike around Amsterdam - along the canals and stopping for a picnic in the city's central park.

What are your pockets full of?
Books - novels and note books in which I scribble and sketch. I always have a book on me.

What's your favourite colour?
Grass green. Cut grass is my favourite smell too.

What's your main vice?
Ice cream, with loads of stuff on top: Strawberry syrup, chocolate sauce and little sweets.

Where can you usually be found?
H & M. I'm part of The Garden Collection.

Vintage treasures at Kate and Aud

If there’s one thing that Brighton isn’t lacking, it’s vintage boutiques and independent jewellery shops. But the former are often too cool for school – I’ll pass on the neon shell-suit at £50 thanks – and the latter overpriced. So I was delighted last weekend to stumble across a vintage treasure trove stacked full of cherry-picked pretty pieces and boasting decent prices.

On the cusp of the North Laine, just before you dive into Brighton’s best independent shopping district, Kate and Aud’s vintage and ethically-made gems spill out of their small boutique as if a well-stocked dressing-up box has burst open.
Kate (Katy Whittingham) and Aud (Audrey Taylor) had been selling their wares on markets independently for many years, Katy dresses and leather bags and Audrey charm jewellery, before they decided to join forces and move into the compact two-storey Trafalgar Street unit in November 2009.

“We both always wanted to have our own little boutique selling things we love,” Audrey enthuses. “We knew that we were hard working and passionate about what we did and if we brought our businesses together we would do really well if we had the right location. And so here we are.”
The shop offers a mix of vintage and modern pieces, bespoke charm jewellery made with beads, charms and unusual trinkets from Japan and America and hand-made leather bags and floaty summer dresses ethically-sourced from India.

The separate styles the pair bring to the boutique create a unique dynamic. “The good thing about us both is that we have very different tastes to one another,” says Audrey. “Katy is more classic and smart, where I would say I’m more kitsch so we buy things that are totally different to the other person. It works really well.”
The two employ people to source vintage items for them from all over the UK and America, with Audrey’s dad also picking up the odd piece when he’s in Scotland.

She explains: “We tell them what we are after at the time and they source them out. We have used wholesalers in the past, but sometimes you end up with a few goodies and the rest non-sellable. We might have to pay more money for each item this way but it’s so worth it.”
Prices in the shop range from £4.99 for a pair of charm earrings to £59 for a leather laptop satchel, with the majority of clothing under £50 - apart from the odd designer piece.

Kate and Audrey buy the majority of their own clothes from vintage shops and Ebay, name their style icons as Katherine Hepburn and Doris Day respectively and enjoy “rummaging around markets, charity shops and car boot sales”, so obviously understand their customer.

“You’ll always be able to get something totally different in a vintage shop and I think people are just getting fed up of the high street, you see the same thing in al the shops and it gets boring.”
Audrey names the boutique’s pocket watches, swallow, teacup and locket necklaces and silk chiffon mini dresses among her personal favourites. “We also have a couple of lace dresses that are amazing and an old Forties’ frilly umbrella and we’re going to try and get hold of some vintage wedding dresses too.”

Kate and Aud will soon be online via Ebay, but a visit to the over-sized dress-up box is a must for any vintage lover rooting for gems in Brighton.
Top image: Audrey feels right at home amongst the beautiful things

Meet Kitty

This is Kitty, my beautiful special-needs cat. She has this remarkably original name because she was a stray when I met her begging for food in the garden of my old flat. I didn't want to name her in case she belonged to someone else, but it soon became clear that she was a little urchin cat, and by then 'Kitty' had stuck.

Kitty had most probably been mistreated by her original owners: She flinched whenever anyone came near her, as if she was going to get a kick, it took months for her to trust me enough to let me pick her up or pet her properly and she's still not overly keen on humans.

When I left my old flat I couldn't bear the thought of leaving her to fend for herself again so took her with me as I moved twice in the space of two years. Now she is the epitome of the rags to riches story and lords it around mine and Irish's flat and courtyard like the cat who really did get the cream.


Kitty mainly enjoys attacking soft furnishings, riding rugs on laminate surfaces and being a slave to tuna. She's still very shy, hiding whenever visitors come round, but has recently been exhibiting more 'normal cat' behaviour, perhaps as a result of having reached her rebellious teenage years.

Such behaviour has included presenting me with the thoughtful gift of a small dead bird and scaling a 15-foot wall in order to see what was in next door's garden. Fortunately it wasn't next door's dog, who was inside at the time. We managed to tempt her back over with her opium - tuna - but only after she seemed to forget how she made it through the trellis in the first place and became stuck. It was a very embarrassing and regrettable time for her.


Kitty only really likes me - she has good taste - and I feel very privileged to be her best friend.

Brighton seafront: Night and Day

I'm getting very excited about the upcoming spring and summer in Brighton, especially now that I live so close to the beach. This town was made for the sun and the seafront has given a few tasters of its true beauty over the last couple of days. Now all we need is the warmth.

The beauty of hindsight

I recently discovered a highly addictive vintage photo site called squareamerica.com thanks to blogger The Big Mac and of all the amazing glimpses into people's private history, the text with this photo really made it come to life for me.

It reads: "On my honeymoon. I was beautiful then. I'm not now - but my face has "character"."

Already, at 25, I'm noticing the first signs of ageing - lines are creeping in around my eyes and my face is starting to look different from how it did between the age of 16 and my early twenties, during which time there was little change. It's not a bad thing per se, it just takes a bit of getting used to.

But while I may not be completely content with the way that I look (who is?), I recognise that it's important not to get hung up on what has been before and to appreciate and celebrate each different stage as it comes.

No doubt I will also look back on my honeymoon photos when I'm older, as the woman in this photo has, and think "I was beautiful then" when what I really need to do is think "I'm beautiful now" and not wait for hindsight to give me that clarity and confidence.

How charming

I've become a little addicted to pretty charm necklaces of late. There are many, many cute and original pieces on offer from independent jewellery makers online and the high-street chains also boasting a good line in twee trinkets.

Here are my recent purchases (click on image for bigger view), from left to right: Rock N Retro, Rock 'n Rose, Topshop, Accessorise and Miss Selfridge.

Yay for pretty things!

Mad Men: Betty's maxi dress

Mad Men is by far the most beautiful thing on television. Expertly crafted, cleverly written and seductively stylish, it's an aspirational show.

Each time I watch an episode, I wish I could be transported back to that time, to wear those clothes and to exude that elegance. But in actuality I wouldn't want to swap places with any the three main female characters. Trapped by the societal constraints of the Sixties, they aren't able to reach the potential that they could if living in 2010, when they could all embody the best bits of each other.

I, as I'm sure many women do, aspire to be as beautiful as Betty, as sexy as Joan, as ambitious as Peggy and as strong as them all.




This week's BBC4 show (series three, episode eight) featured Betty at her best - glammed up in Rome, flirting in fluent Italian and, for once, enjoying herself. But it was the Biba-style bright geometric maxi dress that she wore once back at home that really grabbed my attention.

The maxi-dress is one of the defining styles of the Sixties: Long not because it had to cover up skin - this was the decade of the mini after all - but because it was comfortable and, being informal enough for daywear, a departure from the floor-sweeping evening gowns of the Fifties.

The loose and floaty design was a staple of the Sixties and Seventies bohemian look, yet as Betty's dress proved, if the cut was right it could be also be the height of elegance.

Now, where do I get myself one of those?

Merci beacoup

I need a new suitcase for my Canadian honeymoon and if this one wasn't so mini, it'd be perfect. Old-school, pretty, and in full working order, unlike the many I spot in vintage shops and flea markets and have to talk myself out of buying - no one wants their dirty holiday washing bursting out onto the airport concorse.

The case is part of a collaboration between Parisian concept store Merci and Liberty London, which is renowned for its prints, and at £45 it's more afforable than many pieces in the collection. But, unless I shrink to doll-size between now and September, sadly there exists no justification for such a pretty vanity case.

Web wonders

I spend a lot of time on the interweb - it's my job to help fill it with lovely words and links - and recently I've come across some pleasing new ventures.

While researching high-street fashion social media sites, I discovered that French Connection's current tongue-in-cheek "The Man" campaign is accompanied by its own 'Manifesto' blog; a charming commentary on how "men have lost the ungentle art of manliness".

"The man in the street doesn’t know what to bring to a knife fight. He gets nervous around large fish. He can’t tie a full Windsor. It’s time to man up". Take note boys.

Highlights include games of internet chat roulette, an illustration on favourite facial hair styles and a review of a mod jacket in which the model reports that: "Wearing it to the pub made strangers buy me single malts. Wearing it on the bus made schoolgirls giggle into their crisp packets". Brill.


With more high-brow direction, my brother alerted me of another great site which is still in its infancy. Created by one of his clever Oxford chums, Brainwaving.com is full of juicy articles about consciousness, creativity and human happiness. Since taking a course in consciousness at degree level I've regularly tied my grey matter in knots contemplating the various theories and look forward to a bit of gentle untangling.

And then there is laluminita.co.uk/magazine, a "sustainable design and trends" blog for which I attended the launch party last week. In the absence of any announcement, or even a "look what we did, woo! Now let's get drunk", I'm not entirely sure what these guys are about, but am interested in how they will position the "eco" angle on fashion, which is inherently unsustainable.

The rules of engagement

Since I became engaged, the fact that I'm getting married seems to have become the most interesting thing about me. Or, more accurately, the thing at the top of the 'what do I know about Jo' list people mentally scroll through when initiating conversation.

But the problem is that it's not that interesting; in fact it's pretty boring and thus makes me boring when I have to talk about it all the time.

I know why people do ask, it's easy small talk, but I miss the old small talk. I long for a "what did you get up to at the weekend?" or a simple "are you going anywhere nice on holiday?" These may even prompt a response that's near engaging and enthusiastic, rather than irritable and jaded.

The thing is that we're having a long engagement, nearly two years long in fact, and as we don't have the budget to do anything extravagant, the planning part of the process isn't that involved. We booked the registry office and reception venue aaaages ago, and do you really want to hear about the buffet and seating plan? I think not.

It's bad enough when you have to have identical conversations with people you speak to regularly - I'm asked the same questions by the same people on a weekly basis, and there is very rarely anything new to tell - but at my other half's work people he doesn't even know ask him how the plans are going.

And then there's the wedding-obsessed types, the people who became addicted to the minutiae during the planning process of their own big day, and now need constant fixes of wedding porn to give them that buzz. I'm sorry to disappoint but there be no bridesmaid dresses or extravagant floral arrangements here.

And what have I got to look forward to after the big day? "How's married life?" I imagine exactly the same as co-habiting life. "It'll be babies next..." because marriage and babies, that's all women do right?

Suddenly shot-gun weddings and eloping scenarios don't seem so ridiculous after all...

IMAGE by Flickr user Son of Groucho

London Fashion Weekend 2010

I've written a full report on London Fashion Weekend for Bitchbuzz.com but I took all the photos in the world throughout the day so thought I'd share some of the best here. It was a fabulous event full of designer bargains, catwalk shows and general frivolity.

Somerset House
The tent
Alice in Wonderland styling
Betty Jackson
Vintage glamour
The shoe and sock trend
Vintage sequin pieces
Final walk
Presenter Louise Roe (right) talks with catwalk stylist
Luella
Elizabeth Lau
Eley Kishimoto
Ducie
Reem
Boru Aksu
Mawi
Antipodium