Christmas wish list entry number 6 - Topshop Parisian wedges

Ok, so technically this is more than one wish list entry, but Topshop has launched a collection that is so perfect I can hardly breathe from the lust. Some of the pieces from the Parisienne collection are starting to trickle through, hiding in the Jubilee collection pages on Topshop.co.uk...

First there's these Parisian wedges, which I could never wear as they'd make me about a gazillion foot tall. Plus at £130 they're not exactly cheap, but I want them anyway...

Then there's this rather lovely velvet boyfriend blazer, £70

Which would look super with this leather sequin mini, £75

Or this double layered bow skirt, £30

Plus this comfy Eiffel Tower embroidered T, £22, which I may actually buy anyway...

And this twist lock square holdall bag from the Highland collection, £35

Apologies for the Topshop overload, but during my trip to hell I had a surprisingly pleasant Topshop experience with an in-house Style Advisor called Alys that has prompted a new trawl of on the online highstreet's finest. Brent Cross may be hell, but Alys was an angel. Plus her aunt is a textiles designer for Yves Saint Laurent, or something along those lines.

straight men don't understand - part 1

(Yves Saint Laurent Autumn/Winter 2009 via style.com)

There are two types of women - those who dress for men and those who don't.

Well, actually that's a bit unfair. We all like to feel like we are attractive to men and that will affect the way we dress. But there is a dividing line, perfectly illustrated last night at the Hoxton Bar and Kitchen by the girls in too-tight super short body-con dresses with flippy hair and the girls in low cut sparkly things and skinny jeans and bleached blonde hair - a triumph of presentation over content.

These girls are really all about feeling good about themselves by dressing to attract men. I do not condemn this (much) but if it means that your skirt is so short that you have to keen tugging it down when you dance, perhaps you should have bought the next size up.

There are plenty of women who prefer a more subtle take on this and then there are those who dress for other women. For these creatures little is as satisfying as an honest complement on your outfit from another woman whose style you admire. And in fashion world this means wearing things that the majority straight men will never understand and often actively dislike.

Last night I wore one of these things - velvet, high waisted, vintage Mani peg legs that finish just on the ankle. JFK was unimpressed at dinner, but LMWAI and Miss Laura Trouble, who have a regular DJ slot at Hoxton Bar and Kitchen loved them.

(It might look like they're dancing and having a good time playing records, but they're actually just filled with excitement about my trousers.)

The trousers were a bit of a find - all those reconnaissance visits to Oxfam Gloucester Road finally paid off. They make me feel a bit Katherine Hepburn and, unlike most high waisted trousers or peg legs, don't make my bum look like it spreads over an area the size of the Sahara desert.

They're a bit difficult to photograph - black velvet is a bit of a light vacuum...

(Black velvety goodness)

I wore them paired with the perfect Margaret Howell Breton t shirt (an ebay bargain) and gold metal belt from the Topshop sale a couple of years ago plus my current favourite heels.

(More goodness)

We drank beer and tequila, the ultimate good time combo, but perhaps a little bit too much. Have spent most of today recovering. Ouff.

p.s. Watching The City. Perfect hangover viewing and cameos from Jane Aldridge of Sea of Shoes (who I slightly hate for being pretty and very young and in possession of an amazing wardrobe and getting to wear Chanel for the Crillon Ball. Seriously.) and Tommye Fitzpatrick of Fashionologie being shot for Elle. Lucky things.

Dear New York readers...

I know you exist, I can see it in my web stats which I am becoming increasingly obsessed with as my readership builds. This post is for you.

When I saw this I nearly wept because the other side of the world is definitely too far to go for a mark-down.

Yes it's an Acne pre-sale at Acne Studio in New York. There's also one at Opening Ceremony in LA. Sigh. (For those who have not been following the story, I am currently consumed with lust for everything Acne related. No, not the skin condition, the clothing label. Yes, I know it's an unfortunate name, but have you seen those wedges? And the pearl collar t-shirt. And the amazing collection of little black dresses... ok, I'll stop now.)

This week has been pretty amazing for new readers. There's more than 100 of you. And this week I have had new readers from as far afield as Vancouver, Brisbane, Goa and that most glamorous of all locations in the world, Nottingham. Hello lovely new readers!

Mode En Module

Liberty is my favourite shop in the world. No really. Just seeing it's lovely windows makes me instantly feel comforted. It's pretty much my Tiffany's, my safe place, the place I go when I hate the world and just want to be surrounded by lovely things.

I love the beauty hall, the perfume room and the Frederic Malle sniffing booths, reminiscent of that Pierre Cardin, 1960's vision of space age design.

I love the jewellery room with its glass cabinets full of lovely things by Alex Monroe and Vivienne Westwood and others, surrounded by lovely leather bags and the Liberty of London room full of ridiculously overpriced and pointless things. I love the wooden ballustrades and the thick carpet and the mirrored changing rooms and the haberdashery and the smell and the tea room and the mens department. I could live without the scarf room, but nobody's perfect.

Most of the time I avoid the first and second floors though. Because this is where the clothes are, and the clothes make me sad. Because I can't afford them. 

But a few weeks ago I let myself wander around until I found the Acne rail where I saw The Dress. This Dress to be exact.

(Acne Wise 1 A/W 09)

It had to be mine, despite the price tag. Not that much for a dress on the grand scale of things, but more than I have ever spent. However, I usually feel guilt when I buy new things, and I felt no guilt after buying The Dress, which I take as a good sign. 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I had a nice chat with the sales assistant who helped me buy The Dress. Her name is Ann Nelvig and she is a jewellery designer. She's been working part time at Liberty's while establishing her own jewellery collection, Mode En Module, which has just launched online with a rather nicely presented website. 

I am a big fan of monochrome, simple layouts and moody photography, and the web site ticks all those boxes. Plus Nelvig's zinc plated and leather designs are beautiful, tough and organic in an Ann Demeulemeester-esque manner and worth a gander for anyone that way inclined. The cluster bracelet and ring are my favourites. Just remember you saw them here first.

Inside the Prada party

So, last night I found myself in the Prada shop on Old Bond Street standing at the side and pretending to look very interested in the book they were launching  because I didn't know anyone and hadn't had enough champagne to talk to the scary people.
Of course, after a couple of glasses of champagne it transpired that some of the scary people were actually nice people who would talk to me like a human being even though I was ostensibly there representing an architecture newspaper (my day job) and not technically a fashion person.

However I was very pleased to be the one who recognised Christopher Kane before the very nice girl from Grazia did, even though she managed to identify a Jagger spawnling that I wouldn't have recognised in a million years.

People I saw/recognised that might mean something to you but I didn't speak to because the pan fried scallops on a bed of black rice seemed like a more sensible option;
- Bianca Jagger (the other Jagger spawn I didn't recognise was a daughter of Jade Jagger - surely too young to be partying already?)
- Various fashion editors and writers
- Christopher Kane
- The doyenne of west London vintage shops Virginia Bates
- Brett from Suede (what does he even do these days that means he gets invited to nice parties?)
- Tolula Adeyemi, model du jour and possesor of the amazing two and a half thousand pounds fur shorts - so expensive it needed words instead of numerals - plus some incredible legs...

People I spoke to;
- Amy Molyneaux and her date Alistair who claimed to also be a non-fashion person but, being a dj, was rather taken with the music selection provided by a girl in a deep blue velvet dress and perfect inky black bob behind the shiny black decks upstairs. Amy was nice even though she didn't have to be because I was patently not anyone of any importance at all, but quickly moved off to talk to someone who was.
- Joanna from Purple PR who was really lovely and friendly and normal.
- Jess from Vogue.com who was wearing an amazing shade of lipstick by Mac which I'm fairly sure was called Impassioned. Or something like that.
- Ashleigh from Grazia who was pretty awesome.

What we drank;
Champagne
Pear cocktails in short tumblers

What we ate;
Pan fried scallops on black rice in a small matt black bowl (black is still the new black)
Smoked Salmon arranged in elegant rounds on tiny squares of bread
Medium rare grilled beef with horseradish dip
Chicken on a stick. No really, it was a bit of chicken on a little bamboo stick.
Little edible chocolate bowls with chocolate and orange mousse
Large profiteroles with a crunchy caramel disc on the top

Here's some general pics;

So there you go. It was actually really fun. I had three glasses of champagne, which as anyone who knows me will attest, is far more than enough to make me tipsy.

Trundling off to the very unglamorous tube home, I passed by the window dresser for Dolce & Gabbana putting the finsihing touches to their Chirstmas displays for the New Bond Street store...

Suffice to say the entire tube journey home was spent thinking about those shoes, the second entry on this year's pointless Christmas wish list. Got home in a merry haze and ate a rather large amount of these before hitting the hay...

Pictures!

So, I have now got my camera, charged up the battery, turned it on and realised I don't really have a clue about taking pictures.
Also the lighting in our house is the kind of lighting that older women love - i.e. soft and quite low. Not conducive for taking good quality images of my new silver and black knitted jacket of amazingness. But anyway, here are some of the pictures I promised, and you can see all my rubbish experiments with various mirrors and lighting arrangements.
Um, actually apparently I have to install the camera software first...
Ok, maybe now it will work!

So, this is my teeny tiny doctors bag. I love it. It's like a really classy tardis - you would seriously be shocked at how small it is and how much I can fit into it. I have asked mum to model it so you can get some idea of the scale...

(Think that's project runway on in the background - love that Heidi Klum always gets it slightly wrong with her own outfits but sits in judgement on all these people...)

And here is the shiny, warm, soft, fluffy, £3 jacket of amazingness which is actually warmer than my coat... which is good because it's too chunky to fit under it even though the coat is technically about two sizes too big for me but is APC so I love it.

This was difficult to photograph well and doesn't really look like much but every time I have worn it people want to know where it's from or touch it or hug me.

So there you go. I know I still owe you a picture of the Jill Sander for Uniqlo coat, but frankly that is beyond me right now.

Bargain Hunt

It is rare that a week goes by Chez Magpie without a visit to a car boot sale, jumble sale, swap shop or charity shop. The vast majority of my wardrobe has been bought second hand in these places or on ebay - although ebay has been a bit rubbish and expensive lately.

Everything from Jasmine di Milo dresses and APC coats to vintage bags and belts can be found for less than bargain basement prices if you are persitant, although luck does have a large part to play.

So here, in a first in what promises to be a simply fascinating ongoing series, I am going to show off about my latest piece of uncovered treasure - a tiny vintage black leather doctors bag complete with brass clasps. Had to do a bit of work with some black shoe polish and wax on this one to restore it but couldn't rescue the nice long strap it originally came with. It is, however, the perfect size for a night out and fits the phone, notebook, pen, wallet, keys and makeup. As long as you don't mind rummaging around a bit to find them.

It cost more than I would usually spend on a bag from a car boot sale - five whole english pounds - but I had to have it.

Pics to follow - I am finally buying my camera tomorrow!