The Margaret Howell Sample Sale March/April 2011

I am not going to offer a lengthy explanation for my prolonged absence from this blog. All I will say is that I got a new, very demanding full-time job as a web editor (a real, proper editor which is a terribly grown up thing to be) and there was also some other stuff taking up all my spare brain space. Mostly I was spending my alone time in the evenings watching the same episodes of Family Guy over and over again because everything else felt like too much effort.
I didn't have the energy or inclination to spend hours reading pointless, repetitive articles on the fashion industry or reports on the latest fashion shows, most of which were boring anyway, and the blog began to feel like a weight around my neck rather than something satisfying and fun.
It's not as bad as it sounds, I promsie, I am just preternaturally lazy and couldn't handle being so busy. 
So anyway, now I am back. But not fully. I don't want this blog to feel like a burden again, so don't expect any consistancy in the posting regime. And it probably won't just be about clothes anymore, although I'm making no promises.
In the meantime, though, here's a gift from me to you - the Maragaret Howell sample sale invitation. This has become pretty much the only regular sample sale I frequent. It's not full of amazing bargains, but it is good for seriously useful things for your wardrobe that also make you feel like you've treated yourself.

Two exciting events

Well, they're exciting if you are me. The first takes place this weekend at the Kilburn car boot sale in north west London. I shall be getting up in the wee small hours of Saturday morning (my inner teenager is reminding me that I used to actually stay up til that time in the morning on a fairly regular basis), loading up my cousins car with enough clothes to fully furnsih two other people's wardrobes and then flogging it all off at bargain prices.
Please do come along. There will be cakes if you get there early, and alcohol if we get cold and bored.
Kilburn car boot is actually where I get most of the super-cheap second hand designer loveliness that I so often talk about on this blog, and there are an awful lot of bargains to be had if you don't mind a rummage. It opens to the general public at 11am, costs a measly 50p to get in, and is actually more like two car boot sales as it is split between two sites, one on Quex Road and one on Kilburn Park Road.
Among my goodies are a vintage camera, a full length pitch black satin strapless evening gown with tiny buttons up the back, dresses, hats, scarves, a LOT of jewellery and a basket full of fabrics and other craft and sewing bits and pieces. Mention you read my blog and I'll give you a hefty discount too.
The second exciting event is one I have told you about before, but the invitation has actually arrived now. Yes, it's the Margaret Howell sample sale. Be still my beating heart.

See that bit at the bottom where it says 'credit cards accepted'? That's the really dangerous bit. Or it would be if I was silly enough to allow myself a credit card.

Anyway, myself and Layers&Swathes will probably be there after we finish our respective jobs on the Thursday and will be grabbing a coffeee somewhere afterwards. Come and say hi and show us the practical-but-lovely things you've bought that we wanted but couldn't afford.

Margaret Howell and Coco De Mer - London sample sales

I am in wonderful, snow covered, open fire, big dinner Yorkshire having a lovely time. But if you are in London, my advice to you is to hotfoot it to the Coco de Mer sample sale tomorrow at 108 Draycott Avenue SW3, as it's the last day and there will be achingly lovely lingerie at up to 90% off. If you see any Stella McCartney in a 32d/medium and are feeling particularly generous, you know what to do. 

I, however, shall be saving my money by eating other people's food and waiting for the Margaret Howell sample sale in March which I just found out about today and is making me fidgety with anticipation. See you there?

(Margaret Howell sample sale, 25th and 26th March, The Music Rooms, 26 South Molton Lane, W1K)

Sometimes I long to be the Margaret Howell woman

I am a fickle fashion fan and can't commit to solely loving, or wearing, one designer. But every now and then I wish I had a wardrobe entriely filled with Margaret Howell's clothes.
Although I missed all of London Fashion Week due to a very sad family loss, I have been searching out the shows I desperately wanted to see in the few spare moments I've had online.
Among them was Margaret Howell. Not a headline grabber. Not showy and flashy and most certainly not 'of the moment', Howell has always operated according to her own rules, turning out beautifully cut and refreshingly modest clothes that are easy to wear and make you feel good in your own skin. These are clothes that can be worn sans make-up on a miserable day and still make you look quietly confident and a little insouciant without even trying.
I currently own three Margaret Howell pieces - the perfect breton stripe boxy t-shirt which was an ebay bargain; a mannish blue wide pin stripe shirt found in one of the pricier charity shops in South Kensington; and one of the most expensive items I've ever bought, a below the knee, black cotton full skirt with incredibly big deep pockets on the hip. The skirt, bought last year at a sample sale just off South Molton Street, has become a cornerstone of my wardrobe - a piece I fall back on in difficult times when putting an outfit together seems like a chore rather than something to look forward to but also something I love to wear that feels like me and is suitable for almost every occasion. Plus it has those pockets. I love pockets. Pieces by Howell are that most elusive of things - timeless.
Plus Howell herself is refreshingly down to earth. Here's an excerpt from an interview with The Telegraph last year;

"Loved as she is, Howell is in many ways the antithesis of fashion. How does she fit in? 'I don’t,’ she says simply. 'We do a fashion show in the shop. It’s sort of all right, though I must say that whole week is an interruption of work.

"To me it is such a lot of time spent on certain areas like hair and make-up…

"I’m better out of the way, really.’

"On the day we meet, before my arrival, she has taken her car to be serviced and read a magazine article in the waiting-room about Anna Wintour, the whip-thin, dark-glassed editor of American Vogue. 'Anna Wintour and all that; that’s real fashion, isn’t it? That’s the world. It’s like when they all come to the show and chit and chat and drop all the names – I don’t know any of them – and “Have you got the right bag?” It’s certainly a clique and you feel outside if you are not in it.’ And do you? 'Yes, I do feel outside.’ Do you mind? She looks thoughtful, fiddles her crystal buttons. Then she smiles, 'Not in the least.’"

I am, obviously, a Howell fan and on the strength of the collection she presented at London Fashion Week for Autumn 2010 I can practically guarantee I will remain so for an exceedingly long time. Am particularly enamoured of the pop of red in the final few looks, which was totally unexpected in amongst the palette of soft greys, blacks, browns and blues... Excuse the ridiculous number of images but I am obsessed.

(images via Elleuk.com)

Today I am wearing a Howell tribute outfit, built around the black skirt with a cropped, short sleeved slate grey cashmere jumper layered over a tucked in grey and black check shirt done up all the way, black tights and crisp white lace-up plimsoles with a vinatge 80's big satin black bow hair clip for a bit of softness.