new bag….

So, my beloved Mulberry Bayswater is looking a little worse for wear, I fear that it may need replacing. I thought about acquiring another of the same, until I came across this beauty…

A Snow Leopard printed, pony skin bucket bag by Wendy Nichol. It is lush! Totally has that chicer-than-chic, French, Left Bank thing going on! Oh, it would look so good swinging on my shoulder this Autumn!

Yes, it is not as classic as the timeless Mulberry Bayswater; but it has an appeal all of its own, which instantly carves it out as rather special.

Cool New Yorker- Wendy Nichol- adheres to fine fabrics, clean lines, native American influences and sustainability throughout her work. She released a jewelery line in 2007, followed in 2009 with her debut collection of bags. With vintage Americana, Cowboy and Navaho being central to her work, it makes  perfect sense that she would tirelessly source authentic materials- in and around her native New York- which she lovingly hand-crafts in her Soho studio ultimately producing pieces which really capture the imagination.

The love and attention which goes into Nichol’s chic pieces- such as this bag- makes her designs instantly covetable, and the type of pieces you will find yourself wearing time and time again; no matter how love worn they get.

I want some!!

biba’s back….

House of Fraser have acquired Biba and can now boast this amongst their ‘exclusive’ lines which also includes Therapy and Linea. This September Biba and House of Fraser are to release the very chic fruits of their labour, and I can tell you that we are really in for a treat!

This collaboration is further testament to the long journey Biba has made since it was founded by Barabara Hulanicki in 1964. Widely mis-thought to be a brand which echoes the tone of the 60′s and 70′s; this brand is actually more accurately influenced by the decadence and flamboyant glamour of the 1930′s. As the brand evolved throughout the 1960′s the cuts and styling naturally fell more in line with this era’s prevalent fashion themes, and it is these themes which are rejuvenated throughout this new collection in order to appeal to the target audience’s fashion retrospective and vintage sensibility.

However, this collaboration with House of Fraser is not the first re-birth the brand has had. Back in 2007, the brand relaunched instantly coveted pieces which spanned two seasons; AW07 and SS08. Both seasons collections were nothing short of breath-taking; very glamorous, very opulent, and very expensive! Only high-end stores and online stockists- Harrods, Matches, and MyWardrobe.com- hosted these collections; a far cry from Biba’s high-street beginnings! This is perhaps testament to the heritage and reverie the brand is now synonymous with.

This Autumn’s House of Fraser collaboration is no different. Apparently this September’s collection is set to tell various stories, all with confidence, style, and sophistication at their heart.

Firstly, the “Luxe” range boasts tunic dresses and wide leg pants produced in fine opulent fabrics such as brocade, velvet and lurex. A glittering palette of gold, black and bronze ensures that sexy decadence is full volume. The “Soft Metalics” range is in line with recent trends; beautiful pieces adhering to a sophisticated, parred down colour palette, and all boasting luxurious vintage styling. Now, what is sure to cause the biggest stir of all this Autumn is a collection of 10 limited edition maxi dresses, all giving a nod to the revered Biba archive. The designers involved in this hotly anticipated collaboration have produced these 10 vintage print beauties using only the finest dark silk chiffons, and lurex jersey combinations. They sound deliciously dark and sexy, and I know that I am going to be at the front of the que as soon as they become available! Get ready for a steady showcase of these beauties at every London premier event this Autumn!

Of course, like the collections of 2007/08, this new collection will also offer a flattering denim range which is being penned as: as wearable as it is desirable. Be sure to find coquettish, charming day dresses in this range which you will no doubt ended up living in, come the chiller months.

I’ll leave you with a little taster of what we have to look forward to this Autumn:

yes please….

It is here, at long last, it is here!

London’s very own Acne Studios.

A cool, new feather in the Acne cap which is further testament to the brand’s ever soaring success: they already have revered stores in Paris, New York, and of course, Stockholm.

If you consider yourself a bit of a fashionista, and you find yourself in any one of these cities, you are pretty much duty bound to pay your respects and visit that city’s  respective store. That respect can now be easily paid (and at the same time you can be easily- and happily- relieved of a large chunk of your monthly pay) what with the new store opening right here in fair London Town! Very exciting!

The above images are just a little taste of what we have in store from Acne in SS11. Not too sure about the lad’s outfit in this, but, from the look of things, the ladies wear is set to be utterly divine. I really love this suit. It is what I would imagine Brigitte Bardot to have sported if Acne had been around during her hey-day. I will definitely be making a mental note of this one, and getting my order in tout-suite.

Acne’s imminent arrival on Dover Street, will further bolster this achingly hip street’s cool credentials; it already boasts APC’s only London store, and of course, it is the home of the truly eccentric fashionista’s fave: Dover Street Market.

Therefore, this wise move to set up home on London soil truly perpetuates the Acne mission statement:

Ambition. to. Create. Novel. Expressions.

I, for one, simply cannot wait!

bubble….

I want this house!

It is Pierre Cardin’s bubble house in Cannes, and it is simply wonderful!!

I can totally understand Cardin’s mindset regarding this house: he wanted to buy somewhere in Cannes, but was totally turned off by the fact that all the houses looked the same. Then he found the bubble….a house simpy like no other!

The visionary architect Antti Lovag completed this property in 1990 ,and its exigent design instantly appealed to Cardin’s similar taste. Of course Cardin should own a bubble house; he gave birth to the bubble dress, after all!

How I found out about this architectural wonder was by a happy mistake. I recently got sucked into some awful television programme which saw the repugnant Tara Palmer Tompkinson trying to buy a replica of Cardin’s breathtaking original. Yes, the programme was terrible, and I hate her even more now but, on the plus side, I did discover this beauty!

Just look at it…imagine this being your holiday home!!

It is so Cardin! Cardin’s hey-day was in the 60′s, and this house couldn’t be more space-age, surreal sixties if it tried! Cardin has always been fashion’s original eccentric; producing chicer-than-chic pieces which are designed light years ahead of their time. One of my first encounters with a Cardin, was a picture of Kate Moss- in her prettier days- wearing a stunning chainmail top by Cardin. After seeing this, I was sold. To me, Cardin was simply made of something else. Therefore, it makes perfect sense to me that he should own a house as unique and as special as this one.

It set Cardin back by £4 million, and apparently you can rent it for £16,000 A DAY! MTV film crews frequently do just this when hosting uber glamorous after parties! Wow…

It is incredibly doubtful that I will ever be able to afford to make Cardin an offer for his pad; but one day perhaps I can manage to blag an invite to one of the aforementioned parties…

Dreaming baby….

naughty tiger….

Last night I watched that rather over the top documentary about how Tiger Woods screwed up his life because he couldn’t keep it in his pants (Channel 4). The show’s full stop was a showing of the recent, rather ace, Wieden and Kennedy TV ad for Nike. The creative is pretty straightforward; using re-edited audio, Earl Woods’ words are presented out of context in order for it to appear as if he were talking to his son from beyond the grave, questioning him about why he did what he did. It is very eerie and mega compelling.

I know it is old hat now, but I think it is worthy of a posting here nonetheless because I am really like it. There is something inherently wrong about trying to sell something using this tactic, not to mention riding on the back of such grim circumstances, but it is an incredibly strong piece, and its compelling nature simply cannot be ignored.

I read (or heard) somewhere that brand Tiger was originally conceived to be edgy like this; marketing Tiger as rising from lowly beginnings to the sports icon he is recognised the world over today. However, this strategy was quickly binned because it did not have the crossover appeal needed in order to support the sheer volume of endorsements Tiger was being penned for in those days. The squeaky clean, family loving image prevailed, and it was perhaps this disingenuous veneer which made his crimes seem all the worse because they were so at odds with how the word perceived him.

i like….

Recently it is rather difficult to be anywhere upon the web without encountering the little thumbs up button, inviting you to express sentiment for a particular brand, and share this sentiment with others on Facebook. Now it seems that every man and his dog are finding themselves interacting with Facebook, even if they had no intention of doing so in the first place. As a result of this recent development, Facebook is now at the centre of a maelstrom concerning the platform’s true, future intentions.

Before, when the basic functionality on Facebook was ‘Become a Fan’ (and it was confined to the boundaries of Facebook), I rarely laid claim to being “a fan”  because I wasn’t motivated enough to say that I felt so strongly about a brand that I was willing to become “a fan”.

For me, it takes a lot to say that I am “a fan” of brand because of the suggestion of commitment associated with such a concept.  I would say that I am a fan of authors, bands, and film directors because I have spent time with these throughout my life, and have built up a relationship with them, in some way or another. As un Web 2.0 as it may sound, I can’t say I have the same type of affinity with any brand.

In reality, it is very possible that very few brands have actual, true ‘fans’; those that advocate the brand, and support and defend the brand through both the good and the bad times. These types of followers are hard-earned and are often acquired through clever in-site advertising. Very few brands are actually loved, this is not to say that most brands do their users a disservice; it is just that you don’t need to love everything, liking things is enough in order for them to be part of our everyday lives.

Enter Facebook and it’s shiny, new ‘like’ button. Facebook understands this mindset and has cottoned onto the truth that customers are much more inclined to say they like a brand than say they are a fan of a brand, this is because the term ‘like’ is an ephemeral sentiment, it is inconsequential and to some degree, throwaway. Therefore, saying you like a brand- and it’s products/services – does not mean that you are committing to anything. In a world where the notion of committment is scary, this is attractive to fickle users, and in turn is incredibly beneficial to the Facebook business.

By flattening user sentiment to the lowest denominator, Facebook is free to acquire heaps of users who are off-handedly stating that they have some sort of connection with a brand (however flimsy this connection may be), and from here they can begin to make stacks and stacks of cash from advertising.

Cunning Facebook; by making just a simple change to the platform’s functionality they are duping users into supporting them in their quest to become the number one online advertising platform. And why not? They are a business after all, and like all successful businesses, are dedicated to making money.

So, why all this hatred directed at Facebook if all they are trying to do is make some dollar in a Capitalist society? Many businesses adopted shrewd and cunning tactics in order to succeed, and they don’t incur the type of backlash Facebook has been experiencing lately. Perhaps this double standard can be explained away by suggesting that Facebook seems none too au fait with the notion of transparency; they claim that their Open Graph methodology is about extending social connections across the web and making interactions upon the network more consistent. However, in reality it is about the direction of the business changing.

Facebook has enjoyed phenomenal popularity since it’s inception six years ago, and it has grown like no one could have expected. All types of consumers, in every shape and size, are now interacting with the platform, so it makes sense that Facebook would become more focussed upon making money and less upon altruistic notions of connecting the world.

Perhaps where Facebook is falling short is that it assumes that it needs to remain faithful to a somewhat antiquated mantra because if it comes clean and says: ‘we are a business and we want to make money’ then every one of its users will take to their heels. However, in reality, given the unparalleled popularity of Facebook, this is probably unlikely.

If, in time, Facebook perhaps wants to give up the ghost and become more honest about it’s future intentions and business model, it would do well to remember that it is a ruler brand and it seems that most people are okay with this (which is not normal) because so far the platform is far, far away from losing any popularity, thus value.

come follow me….

I recently discovered  little Japanese gem, is Parade, and what  smile inducing find it was!

is Parade allows you to watch all your Twitter followers actually follow you in a virtual parade. First enter your Twitter handle, (in my case @jockjo_divine), then sit back and watch as a little stick man marches out with your avatar in place of a more conventional head! All your followers follow suit, each with their respective avatars as heads, and recent tweets are picked out at random and held high as banners. The drum roll and zippy little soundtrack add to the cuteness. Some followers appear in the parade as bouncing little dogs, which is endlessly amusing!

I guess, when you get down to brass tacs, the whole affair is perhaps a little pointless, but it is terribly charming. Clearly I am not alone with this sentiment; nearly 2 million individual first time parades have been watched via the app thus far, suggesting that not everything has to have a functional purpose in order to be compelling and popular.

Okay, so it is not going to change the face of social media or help to facilitate connections and interactions across the web, but it is fun and I guarantee it will make you smile…so what’s not to like?