I'm published in Grazia - under the wrong name...

Being passionate about new designers I wrote to Grazia Magazine saying they they should help these designers more by focussing on them rather than the more established brands. They published me - but with the wrong name on the letter... Hmm thanks Grazia! But hopefully it will make them listen.

(I no longer work in the City, so that letter with my name on it is ALMOST relevant!).

DvF dress! Had to have it

I just returned from an MBAWorld function at the Strand Palace where Susie Willis of Plum Baby Superfoods was presenting about the trails and tribulations of launching a new business. Susie is such a beautiful and enchanting woman, not to mention smart and successful! She's also very stylist and was wearing this Dianne von Furstenberg dress. I couldn't stop coveting the dress, so I just had to buy one myself. Can't wait to wear it to a swanky lunch on Tuesday! I know I'm supposed to support British, but can you forgive me this once?

There's no place like home - an ode to red shoes

In 1845, Hans Christian Andersen wrote ‘The Red Shoes’, a grim fairytale telling the story of a young girl who wore red shoes to church. The girl, Karen, could not stop obsessing over her bright and beautiful footwear and forgot her psalms. An angel of God appeared and condemned the girl to wear the shoes for eternity, and to never stop dancing in them until it killed her. Karen’s only redeemer was an executioner who sliced off her feet at the ankles, with an axe.

Since then, red shoes have become a statement of magic, sin and sex appeal. The 1948 film of the same name, directed by Michael Powell, was loosely based on the fairytale but added romance and desire when ballerina, Victoria, is forced to dance obsessively, but leaves dancing ballet completely when she falls in love. Her red ballet shoes lie hidden away, but their owner is infatuated with them, as they stand for so much more than just shoes.

Arguably the most famous shoes in the world are Dorothy’s sparkling and sequined red heels in ‘The Wizard of OZ’, 1939. However, these shoes are not sinful; they are in fact Dorothy’s saviour and can return her home from a magical land keeping her captive. If there is just one thing that red shoes communicate through all these stories and in life today, is that they liberate. Even poor little Karen started wearing the shoes to escape from the drudgery of her psalms. Red shoes say to the world “Here I am! Stand back, I’m coming through!”

Say no to "value" fashion!

You buy locally grown organic produce faithfully and are happy to spend the extra ££, but what about that £2 Primark top you're wearing? Have you stopped to think about the airmiles of those clothes and who produced them and the raw materials?

Sadly not many people do, too addicted to the short term high they get when they purchase these so called bargains that either sit in the closet unused, or fall apart after 2 washes. Where's the value in that?

It's time to think about it. Take your £2 Primark shirt, where did the cotton come from? It certainly isn't organic for that price! Was the earth ploughed by a poor little 6 year old boy in Africa forced to work to make some fat business rich when he should be at school? What about the manufacture of that fast-fading shirt? Is there some skinny, underfed girl slaving 18 hours at a sewing machine in a village deep in China? That shirt is then packaged in numerous amounts of plastic and flown to the UK where it finally arrives to you.

After the inital fix you get from the bargain, the shine is gone and you need another. The shirt is either washed once and so out of shape and faded that there's no way you'll wear it again, or thrown with the rest of your "bargains" to be discarded at the next wardrobe clean out.

It's time to turn your back on so called "value" fashion, an industry that has grown from 7% to 24% of the clothing market in recent year. If you think about it, there's no value there at all. Instead think about locally sourced products from the next generation of designers many of who are struggling to build their businesses and brand awareness. By supporting designers such as Preen,Osman Yousefzada, Aimee McWilliams, Nicola de Main, Hannah Martin, Alessandra Ferreira etc, you are helping to bring to market the next luxury brands like Amanda Wakeley and Nicole Fahri without adding to Sir Green's already buldging wallet.

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