Fashion kickstarter of the month: the Buckitt bag

image via Buckitt.co.uk

I am a bit addicted to Kickstarter. I love seeing how innovative and inventive people can be when they really have some of that good old cheesy passion. I've even gone as far as backing one or two projects, but usually I end up buying a product I first discovered on Kickstart once it's gone into production.

The Gilf was one of my favourite buys - a small piece of plastic that screws onto and tripod to hold your iPhone. It really helped change the way I produce video for work and it's proven useful so many time. 

But I'd never seen a fashion project that really got my thinking about pulling out my credit card. Until now...

I struggle a lot when it comes to bags. I lust after bags I could never, ever afford, many of which are highly impractical (yes, Chanel, I'm looking at you). I used to like Mulberry and even started eating packed lunches to try and save for one, but prices have gone up and the Bayswater has become both ubiquitous and a bit Boden mum-ish. 

Finding a handbag that really works for me has been considerably harder than finding someone I want to spend the rest of my life with. 

What I want is something that isn't too easily identifiable but still desirable, quite simple in shape and construction without too much hardware, big enough for a laptop and/or some shopping, made from the kind of leather that gets better with age and doesn't need to be looked after much and shows evidence of real care in its construction. And it has to go with pretty much everything and look a bit cool. And be affordable. I know it's a lot to ask. 

As a result, I'm an avid collector and user of canvas bags. They're the low-commitment solution to the handbag problem. A bit like a reliable shag buddy.

A lot of them are looking pretty battered and filthy - they get periodically washed but have a tendency to shrink as they're made of fairly raw cotton. 

So the first line of Rae Jones' Kickstarter pitch really hit a nerve:

"I was encouraged to design the Buckitt bag after becoming increasingly disillusioned by otherwise stylish women using grubby canvas totes, and even supermarket plastic bags, to carry their day-to-day belongings in."

Made by British manufacturers, hand stitched and big enough to carry my life in without looking like that's what I'm doing. Bingo! It's a beautifully simple and spacious design, with no unnecessary hardware and serious craftsmanship in its construction.

Image via the Buckitt Kickstarter

The only problem is that, although undeniably decently priced for what the bag is, I'm scared of spending that much money on something I haven't seen in person, haven't been able to touch, feel its weight, put on my shoulder and look in the mirror. So I'm just backing a tiny amount. But I'd definitely encourage anyone looking for a simple, practical bag to take a gander...

The Buckitt: bags via Kickstarter from £170 (they're going to retail at £270+)

Buckitt.co.uk

Objects of desire: Stine Goya

Printed dresses don't often appeal to me - they tend to shout too loudly. A bold printed dress can only be worn a handful of times because it's usually just too memorable. It's too much of a commitment being the girl in that dress. But every now and then you see something that just makes you melt a little bit inside. Browsing the internet I stumbled across this rather lovely example by Danish designer Stine Goya.

Stine Goya - Moonprint dress - £264 - ninaandlola.com

Look you can even tuck it into a pair of high waisted trouser (although this would only work if you were terribly skinny I fear). And now I want it very, very badly but given I had to bid a sad farewell to the beautiful scoop neck, perfectly soft, triple ply cashmere coat/cardigan at the Tse sample sale last night, there's no way I can afford this, especially in cost-per-wear terms. 

Ever the glutton for punishment of course I had to go and visit Stine Goya's site to see what else was on offer this season and found the perfect bag.

Thunder bag - Stine Goya - 2000 DKK (approx. £235) - stinegoya.com 

Sigh.

One to watch: CLaer

I know it's still summer, and therefore realistically far too early to be championing a knit-wear brand that specialises in cashmere, that most glorious of warm fabrics. But the magazines are all trumpeting on about how to get the next season's look and outside it is decidedly grey and rainy, so I feel vindicated.
CLaer isn't a typo, it's just another silly label name. But despite it's slightly odd branding (seriously, the twirly wirly typefce they're using isjust not right) CLaer's clothing is serious stuff. After all you don't get much more serious than a knitwear purist who used to be in charge of all things woolen at arch minimalist Jil Sander.

The label's name comes from that of its founder, Hamburg based designer Claudia Laermann, who was creative head anf designer for Jil Sander's knit and jersey collections for 18 years beofre launching her own line in 2009.
On her website, Laermann refers to Cashmere and Marino wool as "noble fibres" that "caress the body" and "contribute to the feel good attitutde of the wearer", which is rather nice.
She also talks about "feminine coolness" which seems like a rather euphemistic phrase better suited to one of those breezy advert about feminine care, but no matter. What's important here is the clothes, and this is cashmere as it's meant to be - stupidly expensive but versatile and covetable and hard to get hold of.
Most of the new collection, which includes a gorgeous fine knit cape and some very, very chuncky cable knits, woudl sit very happily alongside the key autumn winter pieces from Prada, Celine and Chloe, which judging by the September issues of all the fashion magazines, are what we should be wearing at the moment.
But, even I was financially healthy, I'd quite happily not spend all that money on any of those collections, and just buy one piece from CLaer.
Although even the promise of the rarest fibres harvested by hand from wild goats and tiny baby rabbits and then rolled into wool on the thighs of Christina Hendricks in a process overseen by the ghost of Chanel with assitance from Karl Lagerfeld would never get me into an Alpaca playsuit.

Nice surfwear - not an oxymoron after all

Those who have made my acquaintance will agree that it doesn't take long to work out that I'm not really into most forms of exercise. I lack the requisite self-discipline for running regularly, and I can't bear to part with £60 every month for the privilege of exercising in the tiny sweaty box that is our local Fitness First. Last time I tried Yoga I had to sit out for half the class because I almost fainted. Some forms of exercise are fun and satisfying when only partaken in on an occasional basis. Like horse riding, ice skating, long walks on Hampstead Heath with nice people, swimming in the sea in India when it gets too hot to even consider being anywhere but in the water. All of these are acceptable because they are rare treats.
I was even persuaded by one of my oldest friends to try surfing once on a girly holiday in Cornwall. I will grudgingly admit it was quite fun, but I was never going to be an instant convert. After all, surfing may have it's own unique style, but I'm not exactly a fan of Hawaiian prints unless they're on 1950's bombshell dresses. And let's not even talk about wet suits.
Plus I don't hugely enjoy being in a bikini in front of, well, anyone really. Although years of serious training have made me able to pretend otherwise. The lack of mirrors in places like Goa really helps too, as does the fact that most of the skinny girls are on drugs or intensely annoying yoga heads. Or both. Which allows me to feel superior about my various wobbly bits.
But just when I though we had established firm sartorial reasons for my resistance to a repeat of being dragged into another humiliating surf experience, some buggers have come along and created a range of truly lust-worthy surf wear...
Despite having a rather twee Simone de Beauvoir quote on their website and a slightly silly label name, Jillian Demling and Karen Mulligan know what they're doing with Pret-a-surf.
They should do really. Demling is a Vogue editor and Mulligan manages Annie Leibovitz's studio. According to an interview with them in Vanity Fair this month, they set out to design a range of bikinis, swimsuits and rash guards inspired by 50's and 60's style because they wanted to "look good while playing with the boys."
I still think rash guards are deeply unsexy, but a mondrianesque print is a definite improvement. The only downer here really is they've chosen some ridiculously skinny models for the pret-a-surf lookbook, when really what's needed is a grown-up woman with breasts and some toned thigh.

The always swoon-worthy Marion Cotillard does a much better job of the same bikini in her Mario Testino shoot for Vogue, but I could only find these tiny picture to show you.

Pret-a-surf appears to currently only be stocked in the US. Although they do appear to have an online shop that ships to pretty much everywhere, I don't buy swimwear without trying it on first. Especially when it costs more than £100 and I still can't afford to be buying anything really nice at the moment if it's not from the car boot sale. But I really do want that bikini an awful lot. Sigh.

Talking of car boot sales, last weekend was a particularly successful one on that front. he sun brought out some good sellers. I found a cute Luella black shirt for £4, with white polka dots, black rhinestone buttons and tiny bows and ruffles on the cuffs. It's a bit big for me but will look good tucked into something high waisted I hope, or just left open as a light alternative to a jacket this summer. Other treasures from my weekend haul include a black Moschino Couture pencil skirt and a rabbit fur and silk cardigan for £3 each at my local primary school's summer fete. Not bad.

Sales wish list entry number 5 - the Olivia Rubin dress

A good dress is a truly wonderful thing. I have a lot of dresses, but only around three them really classify as a good dress. A good dress is a rare jewel in the wardrobe - something you can put on with or without any other covering and know you look good without even looking in the mirror.
My Acne sack is one of those dresses. Short, black, low backed, sleeveless with small shoulder pads and cleverly cut to be super flattering, this dress and some red lipstick got me eyed up by Orlando Bloom. It's a bit dressy for day though. For that I have my mother's old 80's Joseph dress, which looks like it's actually from the 50's but is much less restrictive and more comfortable than an original 50's dress would be. I also have a nude pleated dress from H&M that fits the bill. All of these look good with heels and flats, cardigans and jackets, tights and bare legs, making them pretty much invaluable as far as I'm concerned.

Some designers know how to do good dresses, and some just think they know. Olivia Rubin actually does know, and she is really, really nice to boot.
You'll know her dresses if you read the weekly glossy magazines here in the UK, as they're often worn by those in the limelight who want to walk the line between accesible feminity and scary fashion.
But aside from generating a nice bit of publicity, most of those celebritys are doing those dresses a bit of a disservice really. They might wear them once or twice before relegating them to the back of the pile, but these are not dresses for relegation. They should be worn as often as physcially possible.

Rubin has marked down her current collection by 40% on her website, and the prices are actually quite reasonable for anyone who has been paid in the not too distant past (ie not me)...
I've been coveting the Matisse (above), reduced to £179.90 from £257, since I first saw it all those months ago now, so on to the wish list it goes.

Although, like the Acne, it's a bit too fancy for every day wear, to me it looks like the kind of dress you could wear for a dinner party, party party, cocktail party or for looking like a glamorous wastrel knocking back tequila with beer chasers with EDF at a certain soho bar... basically it's a good times good dress. As long as your good times don't involve red wine because that could be a disaster. Lots of black smudgy eye liner is the only other bit of styling that would be essential with the Matisse - otherwise hair up or down, heels or flats, fur coat or cagoul, it doesn't really matter. I think it'd even look ok with wellies.
Next month Rubin launches a new diffusion range of jersey t-shirts, oli rubi, including a loose fitting t with her trademark brickprint about which I am irrationally excited in a way that would disturb most of my family and friends.

Objects of desire - Mulberry

Before Christmas I posted about how I was cross at Mulberry for being all sexist with the sizing of its Mac book covers. But now all is, almost, forgiven. Why? Well...

These lovely new bags are known as The Neely, come in red, black and nude and are Mulberry's latest offering. For me they tick all the boxes right now; practical straps, simple shape, proper anti-tube-pickpocket clasp, beautiful coloured leather, not too 'it', completely unaffordable (£450 in case you were wondering. The kind of price that makes me cry into my newspaper, along with the smell of anything containing sugar thanks to this ridiculous attempt at eating only protein having read about the Dukan diet in Grazia - today was going well until I found an untouched bag of coconut marshmallows left over form South Africa) and make me a little bit drooly. Yes, I am easily swayed but I refuse to apologise for it this time. 

Jewellery ideas that are a bit silly but I like them anyway...

I have found myself with a few spare minutes this week and am not quite sure what I'm supposed to do with them. There's not enough of them at the right time to do anything worthwhile that won't see me a/ hungover b/ wracked with guilt about how much I've spent or c/ trying to get home from Chiswick, so instead I have been rediscovering some old past times. One of those is reading proper books, which I have been trying to squish in to the tiny free moments I've had over the past weeks fairly unsuccessfully.
Now I have a bit more time in the evenings I'm racing through some of my favourite novels again. The stories in Gullivers Travels may no longer seem at all unlikely after months and months spent reading the depressing or absurd stories that pass for news in the newspapers every day but they are a bit of a relief.
I'm also enjoying some time to rediscover all the blogs I used to look at. Here are two of the silliest/greatest things I have seen on the blogs this week;

Stiletto x Eric Kayser x Mauboussin via viacomit.net
Some bright spark at Stiletto magazine had the idea to put a 7 carat Mauboussin ring inside a loaf of bread by master baker Eric Kayser and then give it away. Nice idea but surely a major choking/tooth shattering hazard? However giving this away to some lucky customer is certainly a good way to get people to come to your new bread shop in its opening week. (This is happening in Paris by the way. But of course.)

Chewed by Tuesday (can't remeber how I stumnbled upon this one)
Chewed by Tuesday is frankly a brilliant idea for people like me who like weird things. Created by Melbourne-based designer Vivienne Gibson and inspired by Brooklyn (the place in NY, not something banal) and stationery, the first range features only two pieces - a solid silver bic penlip and a solid silver bic penlid with a chewed end. Becasue who doesn't chew the ends of their pen lids. Well, JFK doesn't, but then he is very precious about his pens and would rarely sink to the level of the humble bic biro. 

(pictures from http://www.chewedbytuesday.com/)

At $250 each plus postage they're more than a little bit out of my price range, but I want one, if not both, very badly indeed.

Ricardo Dourado 2011

We're not even half way through 2010 and most of us are still waiting for spring to hit, but some designers are already showing their 2011 collections. Fashion is weird like that, but other people have explained the reasons for this, and the problems it entails in these must-have-it-now days of the internet and instant gratification. I can't be bothered to rehash.
Anyway, the important thing here is that one of my new favourite designers, Ricardo Dourado, has shown a 2011 collection in Lisbon and has, once again, created a collection I covet almost painfully. And this time the models look a bit less tiny and fragile (we're talking relativities here), meaning the clothes look better on them. Hurrah!



I would drool over this video, but having only just got my laptop back after a water/tinned peach juice disaster (thank you Apple genius bar for working your expensive but extremely calming magic) I'm scared of getting water on it.

What I love about Dourado is that his designs exude simple quality, but they're not too scarily grown up. Occasionally clothes grab you and make you want them not only because they're lovely but you can also see exactly how they would fit in your wardrobe and improve it instantly by making your cheap things look more expensive with very little effort. Sadly, his clothes are too costly for poor old me, especially because I've just handed over two very large cheques for the deposit and first month's rent on two rooms in a lovely house in Queen's Park. Huge kitchen and adorable puppy - not ours obviously, we wear too much black to actively seek out a small excitable thing that will shed hairs everywhere - included.

Of course, that said, I'm still being a bit naughty - Cos wool sack mini three quarter sleeve dress in the sale, I think I love you.

Quote of the week - Alex Fury

"Celine is so expensive - you can pay two grand for a camel coat - but you look at the camel coat and think, this is the best fucking camel coat I've seen in my entire life."

Showstudio.com fashion director Alex Fury perfectly sums up the appeal of Phoebe Philo's immaculately cut and so beautiful it hurts collection for Celine.

(images via Style.com)

This is the collection that pretty much defines everything about the coming spring/summer season - nudes, camels, navy blues and blacks in fitted, sharp military shapes or relaxed cocoons with the odd soft bow or waterfall drape. And lots of leather. It's going to be one that is super hard to emulate on the highstreet because it relies so much on the quality of the fabric and the cut being so precise.

But that hasn't stopped them from trying.

(Leather t shirt, £75, Wallis)

I've never wanted a leather t shirt as much as I do right now. I won't be buying this Wallis one, obviously, because it is brown, but the general idea is good.

Certain people have mentioned that I have singularly failed to acknowledge the existence of the Milan and Paris fashion weeks. No, I am not pulling a Wintour, I'm just taking my time. There's been an awful lot going in the life of the Magpie recently, and my head doesn't have enough room to process all the shows and decide what I think about them all right now. These thoughts need time to percolate.

Also, A/W11 seems a terribly long way off right now given that we're all still in A/W10 rabbit fur snoods (I wish), huddled up in long coats and layers against this persistent cold weather. The fact that it is a bit sunnier at the moment is certainly helping everyone's mood, but it isn't doing much for the temperature. Even just the suggestion of a bare leg makes me want to seek out 100 denier cashmere-blend tights in Fenwicks...

Beyond the Valley jewellery special

So, a few weeks ago EDF and I were wondering fairly aimlessly through Soho and popped into one of my favourite boutiques, Beyond the Valley on Newburgh Street, to have a nosey around.

Beyond the Valley is a great place to find small labels and really different jewellery and, although they have an online shop, nothing beats a trip to the shop itself as they always have something new on their shelves. Every time I go in I come out itching to buy fabric and make things. Sometimes I even get as far as the buying fabric bit. Right now there's a small bag of creamy diamante studded tulle, the after effect of our last visit, staring at me from a bedroom shelf and making me feel guilty about having failed to turn it into something wearable. 

As ever, this particular trip flagged up a number of great designers I didn't know as well as giving me an opportunity to caress a selection of super soft, fine and witty cashmere knitwear by Kind, which always makes me happy.

Kapow Wow made me want to make things more than any other. St Martin's graduate Mia Morokawa creates crazy ruffled neck pieces that look stiff and hard but are soft to the touch and surprisingly wearable.

(images from www.kapowwowobjects.com)

Also by a St Martin's graduate (they do get around, don't they?) Momocreatura takes fairy-tale woodland creatures and adds some rather nasty gory touches. I loved the more than slightly macabre pierced animal pendants, brooches and bits and pieces. Bit too dark for regular every-day wear, in fact really quite creepy, but I badly want a piece none the less. 

(image via www.momocreatura.com)

But my lust-o-meter was really raised by Noemi Klein. Google might confuse her with the No Logo author, but I think I know which one I'd rather be friends with. 

I especially like her twig collection, which would go rather well with my twig horseshoe ring by Alex Monroe.

(images via Beyond the Valley)

Her bird skull pieces are also pretty awesome...

That's all folks.

One to watch - Ricardo Dourado

While other blogs are obsessed with A/W 2010 already thanks to New York Fashion Week (best shows thus far for me Rag & Bone and Preen - some New York style mavens might think this is blasphemous but I'm not feeling the Wang), I'm still hunting for my big S/S love.

But if someone put me up against a wall right now and said I was only allowed to wear one designer this season, Ricardo Dourado would be a serious contender. Like Wang, he excels at the off-duty model look but with a more European twist.

30 year-old Dourado is hardly a familiar name in this country, but he's been on the scene in Portugal for four years now. I stumbled across him at Wolf & Badger and it was true love at first fondle.

His 90s grunge inspired S/S catwalk show features light silk jerseys, washed cottons and a muted colour palette. Sadly the youtube video demonstrates how some gawky models can ruin a show. Unusually, the stills actually give a much better idea of the quality of the collection but it is much, much better in the flesh (and on someone with a bit more of said flesh that those models).

His lace-up wedges knock the Atacomas out of the water (I have it on good authority that Elle have called in a blue washed pair for a photoshoot) and the man himself is even nice to bloggers, responding to our emails in person and seeming genuinely pleased that we like his work.

Check out Dourado's blog here.

Chelsea Rebelle - bad name beautiful clothes

Today I braved the grey skies and freezing rain to visit my incredible cranial osteopath in Royal Oak/Bayswater. There are many things I like about going to the osteopath. First and foremost, he makes me feel good. After the half hour session you feel like you've had the most incredible massage except he's hardly touched you. He's done amazing things for my posture and helps me feel infinitely more capable of handling the stress of my job and life in general. At £60 a session it isn't cheap, but it's half the price of an Eve Lom facial and definitely better value for money.

He's also based right by one of the nicest areas for shopping in west London. Five minutes away from the practice are some really very good charity shops on Queensway and Westbourne Grove which boast vast selections of second hand designer and vintage clothing, guaranteed to make me happy. Today I came away with a BCBG Max Azria monochrome print wrap dress that fits like it was made for me. For £10.  

After hitting the charity shops I like to have a little wonder down Westbourne Grove to look at the lovely things in the windows of the lovely shops where things are so beyond my budget it's amazing I can even afford to breathe in them.

The newest of these shops is something quite special. Wolf & Badger at 46 Ledbury Road looks like it's been put together by a museum curator and is full of the kinds of fashion and jewelry finds you dream of. It's the perfect place to pick up up-and-coming designers, or, if you're me, add names to your when-I'm-rich wish list.

The shop has had a lot of press coverage for its unique approach - the husband and wife team behind the boutique rents shelf space to individual designers and will even help them to find manufacturers for their clothing to ensure the standards remain high. They keep the rent pretty low and stock 75 different designer, most of whom you will probably not have heard of yet. 

The shop is brilliant, white with big glass display cases that exhibit the jewelry like museum artifacts and small recessed hanging spaces for each designer. 

Two designers caught my eye in particular, but I'm keeping one jealously guarded secret for the moment. The one I will share with you is the ridiculously named Chelsea Rebelle. Honestly, the name sounds like it should be on red ruched lycra dresses in discount shmatter shops in Kilburn, but don't let that put you off because designer Sarah Brannon has pulled out some immensely covetable pieces. 

Just touching these two dresses made me feel quite happy (and deliriously lustful), despite being almost soaked to the skin by so-cold-it-should-have-been-snow drizzly rain;

And I wouldn't say no to this jumpsuit either

p.s. I'm not telling you who my wonderful Osteopath is because he's so popular it takes ages to get an appointment with him as it is. 

Naked rambling

Not really truly naked. More like fully clothed but really liking nude coloured things. I've been catching up on my reading and there's a naturist feeling emerging from the blogs and that hallowed of high street trend setters Topshop which is making me a bit dreamy. A dangerous condition for a person in my kind of financial straits.

It's early still but 2010 is looking like it might be the year where I break with all my traditions - the year I stop hating wedges, leave London and embrace nudes and pastels. Well, the pastels might have their limitations as I'm not sure that looking like an early 90s M&S mannequin is really a great look whatever some designers might want us to think. And I'll not be leaving London permanently. And wedges on boots or shoes, but definitely not for sandals.

I'm trying to think of something profoundly interesting to talk about here, but I'm finding it hard to get back into the swing of the blogging thing. I do have a story about throwing up in the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge with which I have been entertaining my friends, although it certainly didn't feel funny at the time. Especially when I thought I'd got a tiny bit of sick on my brand new reduced-from-£115-to-£22.50 black and white aztec knitted lambswool-angora-cashmere cardigan of smug snugness that I got from the back of the sale rack in Monsoon in Waterloo after a one hour round trip around some of London's most depressing tube stations trying to find a working passport photo machine.

Thankfully I had recovered by Sunday when we went for a huge family lunch at an Arabic restaurant on Edgware Road with my uncle, the twin cousins B&T (I campaigned for B&H or G&T when they were born but to no avail) and their older sister A who I used to babysit when I was 15 and love to pieces. We consumed a pathetically small amount of this rather large plate of meat, but in our defence we had already had a similar amount of humous, falafel, aubergine dip, yoghurt dip and tabouleh...

Afterwards Mum and I went for a walk through town. Ostensibly she was joining me to hunt for some winter boots to replace my only pair which were a 21st birthday present to my self and are, unsurprisingly, no longer in the prime of their lives.

We saw many, many, many things that inspired momentary lust and a few other things that inspired the kind of longing that in other writers would result in some great romantic novel in the vein of Wuthering Heights.

A pop into the St Christopher's Place branch of Whistles produced quite a few of the latter. Sadly, lack of money and visions of my mother saying the word overdraft prevented me from purchasing any of the lovely things and we ended up mainly shopping for things for Mum.

She did, however, introduce me to the rather incredible sale at Fenwicks on Bond Street, which, as LibertyLondonGirl has pointed out before, is like no other Fenwicks in the world and now forms the crucial third member of my holy department store trinity (the other two being Liberty and John Lewis). I bought an exceedingly virginal looking white lace lingerie set by Elle Macpherson for less than a the cost of a bra elsewhere, which pleased JFK.

I also tried on this incredible slip by Stella McCartney. Possibly the most incredible piece of inner wear I have ever laid eyes on, it fit in all the right places, was the perfect colour and made me feel a million dollars. Sadly, the two hundred and something pounds price tag meant it may as well have actually cost a million dollars. But it now haunts my dreams...

(Clara Whispering Chemise in Blush via net-a-porter - not the best picture of this lovely delicate whisp of prettyness but ypu get the idea)

Mum, who isn't exactly the most fashion conscious woman in the world, but does that wonderful I-could-be-an-art-teacher-from-Hampstead look that only suits certain women really quite well when she wants to, said - "When I first heard about Stella McCartney moving into fashion I thought she was just using her celebrity name. Who knew she would actually have talent." Quite.

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!

Christmas wish list entry number 4 - knitted things by Yokoo

Etsy has done many good things for young niche designers, giving them a platform to sell their own wares and skipping the ridiculous struggle to find stockists, business partners and all that jazz. 
But Etsy is also overwhelmingly vast. It's just too much for me to filter through. So I am always grateful when other people flag up a great new Etsy find, be it affordable or otherwise. It allows me to feel smug about finding something new and unusual without having to do all the field work... lazy I know, but at least I'm honest about it.
One of my most recent Etsy finds is Yokoo, and yes, I know I'm very late to jump on this bandwagon because other bloggers have been banging on about her for aaaaaaaaaaaaages. Plus she's not just on Etsy, but also on Urban Outfitter's US site, not that that's much help to me.
But it wasn't till I saw a picture of TheShoeGirl's knitted chain scarf (she bought it after seeing in on Tavi's blog) that I actually went and found Yokoo's etsy shop. I'm a sucker for a big chunky knitted scarf, so it was pretty much love at first sight. Plus she also gives good interview.
Knitted things make great christmas gifts. I'd really quite like any of these;

Visit her shop here.