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.

Cashmere glorious cashmere - Uniqlo jumpers and the Tse sample sale

 This season's Tse collection - but last season's was good too

The nights are getting longer and colder and it feels like we've actually skipped autumn and headed straight into winter. But the change in seasons has its compensations and of course one of those is glorious, soft, warm cashmere and lots of it. Or at least I wish I had lots of it.
If, like me, you can never have enough cashmere (and I really can't on my budget) but you have more than a little (but not masses) of cash to spare and the time and inclination you should definitely hot foot it down to the Tse sample sale on October 27, 28 and 29 at the Camden Town Hall where the cashmere brand is offering up to 80% off its main, mens and diffusion lines. I'll be there late after work to mop up any remaining dregs from the bargain rail.

Tse, Tse Men and tsesay Sample sale

October 27(11 am to 8pm), 28 and 29 (10am to 8pm)

The Camden Centre

Bidborough Street

London WC1H 9AU

enquiries - 020 3227 1046 ext 0

nearest tube: Kings Cross

Otherwise may I recommend investing in a men's cashmere jumper from Uniqlo? They come in a vast range of colours and the knit is fine enough for you to tuck into a high waisted skirt or layer up in. They're cheap enough - although not so spectacularly as to make you severely doubt the quality of the wool - to just slouch about in too. They look great under a blazer and over a shirt with a sharp collar or tucked in to a pretty skirt and the cardigans are oversized enough to be thrown over the shoulders and not instantly fall off again. And I can't think of anything more comforting to wear underneath a duffle coat on bonfire night...

Cashmere v-neck cardigan in 32 Beige - Uniqlo - £129.99

Pure cashmere crew neck sweater in 03 grey - Uniqlo - £89.99

Or if you prefer something more fitted the latest Velvet and Uniqlo collaboration should be able to offer something more to your taste.

Mildly weird weekend

Oh Margaret Howell, how do I love thee? I'll not count the ways, but they are many.
Her A/W collection is basically my wardrobe only better (and less cluttered). So undertsandably I was looking forward ot her sample sale last week. Sadly though I was too busy to post the invite to the sale on this blog, let alone actually go to the damn thing.
And then on Saturday evening I got scammed at a cash machine with the result that I am down £210 and therefore do not have a single spare penny to fritter away at any sort of sample sale - it's strictly car boot sales and charity shops only.
Saturday night turned out to be fairly dramatic actually, although it didn't feel like it at the time. Mostly I just felt upset and rather stupid.The evening began pleasantly enough - JFK had to work late so I scooped up his ticket to descend into the bowels of Aldwych station, one of London's many disused tube stations. The station was opened to a limited number of members of the public for three evenings as part of the London Trasnport Museums Blitz anniversary exhibition. The idea was to simulate an air raid, take us all down to the platform and then get re-enactment folk to give us a flavour of war time London on a stock tube carriage from the 1930s. It was great fun, although far too short. Funnily enough though, I had actually been to Aldwych Station before - when it was still working. The station only closed in 1994. It's funny that there are so many bits of everyday London that I walked around when I was little that are now shut or gone and I don't even remeber what they looked like.
After that we picked up JFK from work and headed off to Bodean's in Soho for a meat feast and then on to my favourite bar. I took a detour to a cash machine just off Soho Square while everyone else went ahead. There were lots of people around so I was a little distracted when I stepped up to the cash machine. Then an Eastern European man tapped me on the shoulder and pointed to the ground where there was a five pound note. I stooped down to pick it up but he carried on pointing at receipts on the floor so I looked again. By the time I looked back my cash card was gone, alhtough my money ahd been left in the mouth of the machine to make it look like the machine had swallowed my card. It only took a couple of seconds to work out what had happened though. So then I chased this group of four scary Eastern European men through Soho. I even spotted them using my card at another cash machine around the corner. God knows what I would have done if I had caught up to them. Me versus four quite organised men of varying sizes is not exactly a recipe for success.
Anyway, they scarpered and I ended up in Charing Cross police station, minus my cash card and, it later transpired, £210. Thankfully there is a cap on daily cash withdrawals on my card. I was a bit shaken, but generally what happens to me in these situations is I get upset briefly and then become very practical and philosophical about it.
JFK was brilliant - worried and furious on my behalf - talking about smashing people's hands with hammers and generally being very protective, which was unnecessary yet also hugely appreciated. And then we went home.
Ever since I have been feeling like a complete idiot for being so easily duped. It's not like I haven't warned plenty of visitors to London to be careful about such things. I was sober and in a good mood. But what do you do when someone taps you on the shoulder? It's hard to ignore physical contact like that. I suppose you really don't know how easy it is to be distracted like this until it's already happened. The police said they get around 10 cases like this every day in Soho.
Now, until my new card comes through, I have to limit my spending as I have to actually go into the bank whenever I want more cash. No unexpected splurges for me which is actually a very good thing as hopefully I'll be able to save a bit. Silver lining to every cloud and all that...
 

The official end of Jasmine di Milo

I know the clothes were insanely expensive. I know the designer had a ridiculous advantage over most. But I still loved the clothes. And now is pretty much the last time to get my grubby mitts on them because Jasmine di Milo is having a final clearance sale, flogging off all the old samples and unsold stock from its archive. There's no word on what the pricing is going to be like, but it might be worth going along just in case...

Sales wish list entry number 1 - the Mulberry bag

Today it is sunny, my phone bill is about to bounce from my regular bank account and my other bank have infomred me that they will be charging me £300 in overdraft charges this month.
I also have some new followers. Hello!
But let's get back to the serious business - the sales. We have already established fairly firmly, I think, that I will not be buying anything in the sales as I literally do not have the money. Not even a credit card of pretend money, which is probably a good thing. But then I don't get Christmas presents either and I still did a Christmas wish list, so what's to stop us from enjoying a bit of sales-related wishful thinking this month? Do let me know if you have your eye on something lovely, unless of course you're trying to keep it a secret in case it sells out before you lucky people with money can buy it yourselves.
First lets have a gander at Mulberry, still generally my favourite purveyor of bags despite their laptop-related sexism (no, I still haven't forgotten about that).

There are a few rather good things in the sale preview on Mulberry's rather unweildy website - mostly veering towards the less-girly, more utilitarian holdall as a lot of the prettier stuff they've marked down is touched with a tinge of the hideous or impractical.
First there's the Mabel holdall, reduced from £995 to £497. Then there's the putty smudged leopard print version of the Picadilly, basically a giant Bayswater, now £447, reduced from £895. Usually I hate prints on bags, but a grey-scale print on a bag this big and simple I will allow.

Both of these are still rather expensive, but this is a wish list and therefore doesn't have much to do with practicalities.
At the more affordable end of the spectrum there's the lovely Bayswater laptop holder, although this is still only available for 13" mac books so the less said about that the less angry I will be. The Ledbury, although a member of the Bayswater family, is a complete waste of time - it's tiny and frankly ridiculous.
But the one, and there can only be one, that makes the sales wish list is this;

A beautiful burnished antiqute gold Bayswater clutch, reduced to £385 from £550. It's a classic, will take a good battering in its stride and still look great and will go with pretty much everything, adding some relaxed structure to a slouchy outfit and adding a bit of edge to a more polished look. And it won't date, which is pretty important when it's still this expensive even with the mark down.

I also feel I should share with you the details of another event that I would love to be able to buy things at - the Elle MacPherson intimates and Stella McCartney lingerie sample sale. It starts today (16 June) and runs til tomorrow (17 June, obviously) and is at Bendon UK, Axtell House, 3rd Floor, 23-24 Warwick Street, W1B 5NQ. They're charging £2 to get in, which is pretty much all I have in my wallet right now. (If you're feeling generous I'm a 32d / size 10-12.)

In other news, I have now managed to draw on the sewing guides and pin together the pieces for my raw silk skirt. This took about two hours and was aided by a serious dose of 90's nostalgia with My So Called Life and Daria. Next, and most scary, stage - sewing it all together. I have a few misgivings about this, but will hopefully begin tonight. Stay tuned for the inevitable blood, sweat and swearing at the sewing machine.

At the Dover Street Market Market

Having been holed up at home for most of the bank holiday weekend with an evil chest infection that is still lingering on, I finally braved the outside world for the promise of affordable Lanvin.
The Dover Street Market Market was really quite something, and possibly goes down as my favourite sample sale yet. The first one took place two years ago at art dealers Phillips De Pury and was basically a way for DSM to shift its old stock in a fun, and relatively cheap, manner. They saved up enough stock to run the sale for three days and obviously did well enough out of it to want to do it again so have been squirriling away loads of Commes des Garcons (of course) as well as some of the other fine designer goods that have failed to shift on, or possibly never even made it on to, the shop floor.
The main bonus of this for me, aside from the clothes actually being vaguely within my price range and the event appealing hugely to my general love of market rummaging, bargain hunting and beautiful clothes, is that the sale takes place in much less intimidating surroundings than the actual DSM shop on Dover Street, which, as we have discussed before, is quite a scary place as far as I'm concerned.
Anyway, I was there on the final afternoon and worried that a lot of the best stuff would have gone. On the plus side the queue wasn't too long, on the minus side the queue was outdoors and it began hailing just as I arrived. Of course the sun came out just as I was about to step inside.

The queue

The queue's shoes

The queue jumper

Inside was a treasure trove but sadly my camera battery died so I can't prove it to you.
I spent three hours rummaging through and trying on and more money than I could afford, naturally. No Lanvin, and sadly a number of gorgeous Boudicca dresses were still too expensive even at 80% off. The saddest moment of the day was giving up on a pleated pale chiffon goddess dress by Giambattista Valli  which would have necesseitated having a rib or two surgically removed if I was ever going to get it to fasten all the way up. Realistically it was too expensive anyway, and also very very impractical. One of those occasion dresses you fall in love with even through you know that you are deeply unlikely to ever be invited to that kind of occassion (for me this is summer weddings - I have never ever been invited to one but have at least two 'summer wedding' dresses).
But I did come out with a beautiful bright red, knee length, stiff silk YSL for Dover Street Market skirt with round pockets on the front and a tie string waist (£80), a swishy short Alma Aguilar black skirt with a thick balck velvet wasitband tied with a bow (£60) and a transparant, beautifully light and palest pinky lavender Phi (RIP) top (£20), all of which I completely love. And there was no fighting, no flinging of clothes and no elbowing.
I wish all sample sales were as civilised and successful as that.

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)

More London sample sales today!

Yes, I'm slow, but I've only just realised that there is also the Preen, Nicole Farhi, Ghost and Rainbow Wave sample sales today thanks largely to Urban Junkies who are really very good at this.
I'm in work til 6 so this will require some very careful planning if I'm actually going to make it to any of them. This evening is going to be crazy. 

And for my London readers who don't need to save their money for Christmas presents...

Sample sale spectacular!!!

I went to the Valentino sale today. It was a bit different to the usual scrum - very quiet, very expensive and very popular with Russians apparently.  Absolutely nothing there I could afford aside from a carrier bag. No, really.

The above is the edited highlights of the sample sale extravaganza that is hitting London. There's also an Anya Hindmarch sale going on today, tomorrow and Saturday. You can register for it here.

A good sample sale always makes me feel a little hot under the collar. They're really exciting, even though I rarely actually buy anything. Just the suggestion of an amazing bargain is enough to make me feel a bit flustered. The sample sale is like the diet coke man in my world.

I am most excited about the Osman and Christopher Kane sales... Sad to be missing the Peter Jensen though. Can someone report back for me?