H! by Henry Holland for Debenhams AW10 Preview

Half-arsed fashion blogger: Hi, I went to H! for Debenhams collection preview two weeks ago and met Henry Holland, it was like so nice! Look at my new shoes! Like, you can’t see them but they’re lovely! 

Food blogger: The canapés perfectly entertained my taste buds and the orange juice was most definitely high-end – ‘with pulp’. Very impressed it did not leave dregs at the bottom of the glass.

Celebrity blogger: Henry Holland oMG he was sipping Lemsip while infecting everyone in the room with his ‘fashion flu’, talk about an exclusive goodie-bag!

Tech blogger: There was a PC in the corner. Not. impressed.

Interior design blogger: Amy from Wolf Whistle blog was talking about seeing Henry’s mother’s house on ELLE. That was about the most interesting subject we discussed. Leaving the building, I had a strong urge to give Debenhams a bit of a store makeover. Naked Greek goddess statues in the foyer should bring good feng shui….

Fashion trend blogger: It’s Back to School ladies – Tartan skirts and khaki shorts with braces, jersey basics, varsity jackets, quirky knitwear… this season reflected Henry’s personal style. Best value for money was a purple faux fur coat that gave Chanel’s AW10 faux fur a run for their money, but a little hiccup was the camel coat, so perfect in theory, but felt like soggy cardboard.

Full-arsed fashion blogger (that is me): Thank you Laura for inviting me down, thank you Henry for being such a star popping in even with your cold. I’m going to be honest and say that only a few pieces in the collection tickle my fancy (velvet stripe dress/khaki shorts) but I’m more than certain it’s just something wrong with me having no <em>fun</em> bone while everyone else who can do the salsa will love the collection.

Jacket by Gemma Degara, Skirt – Menswear Shirt tied as skirt Uniqlo, Shoes – Loeffler Randall Courtesy of TwentyThirtyForty, Top – H&M, Bag – Courtesy of Chanel, Watch – Casio

Don’t be fooled by the above calm – I am stuttering, muttering, pacing around, spacing out, kicking the ground, and bickering at absolutely everything because I’m not getting my broadband fix. I’ve stuck a sticker on my arm that says ‘3 for the price of 2’, it was from Waterstones.

The line is connected, Virgin Media just seems to have sent the router on a donkey with 3 legs. The worst thing is that their branding is done by one clever graphic designer because I find it hard to scream at them on the phone – they let me choose my own waiting song damnit – press 2 for Pop, 3 for Dance, 4 for Indie and 5 for Rock. I wanted to click 5 and accidentally clicked 3 and got a thumping techno and a migraine. I managed to yell a little that day, thanks to that little nudge. Hey, what’s a webdesigner without the web?

I miss visiting your blogs and reading about your lives too, please bear with me a little while. I may take a trip to Scotland soon. Apparently that’s where they send the routers out from. ROUTER VENDETTA!

Thank you Kit for taking this wonderful photo with that ossom Lubitel camera of yours.

Sweater – Courtesy of Quiksilver, T-shirt, Trousers & boots – Gmarket, Bag – Topshop

An Asian will automatically find his/her way to a photobooth or a karaoke machine. It’s the law of nature, like bees are attracted to coke cans. But the Selfridges Shoe Gallery photo machine could’ve let me known beforehand that there was a human inside it – in the privacy of the booth I’d wriggled in hopes of teleporting out with the shoe I took in. Also, for some reason the only ‘shoe story’ I could think of was losing feetfat and just did not find it amusing so just sang shoebidoowapwap for 30 seconds. The photo was shoved out by a hand, from inside the slot. I now have an embarrassing shoe story, can I go back in?

Thank you Ad for inviting me down, and thank you Ellen for the shots of moi!

If there’s a chance, I’d like to leave Jasper alone on an island and see what he does with the land around him. Will he make sequins out of seashells and jellyfish? Will he find a hatch and cover it with banana scales? Point is, Jasper Garvida does good sequins. Period. He does it so well – he’s explored it, played around with it, applied it everywhere… First time I met him in March 2009 I asked how long it takes to apply sequins to an entire dress – 80 hours, he said. Well Jasper, how about your squad of dresses?  The SS11 collection, ‘Belle’, was inspired by Paris 1951 and the aesthetics of Degas’ ballet dancers, it was a particularly feminine interpretation yet the juxtaposition of toothachingly sweet pink with autumnal earth colours came in perfect harmony. Personally the pleats and looped fringes had me gasping, the Barbie in me cracked her plastic knees leaning over to see better.

Thank you to Miele and Forever Better once again for the show & backstage invitation, so so grateful to be able to witness Jasper’s growth over the past 2 years.

Blouse – Vintage, Top – Emma Cook (Sample Sale), Skirt – Courtesy of Susie!, Pants – Gmarket, Socks – Sheer Socks, Shoes – Take 10 Schuh

Left to right: Leia, Sherin, Adele, Sabine, MJ, Saskia, Vicki, Jen, Sarah

Note: Green brogues not part of Take10 challenge, from Kate Kanzier

I feel like all I do nowadays is grumble – sure, I was under a witch spell for a few days but it just went on after that, like the fashion flu – whoever coined that phrase needs to be jailed. The Take10 shot was Take 10 million shots in the stairwells of my new flat, and I’d growl after standing in front of the camera a minute too long realising the timer wasn’t on. So in essence I was just staring at a hunk of plastic on three legs – cue in the grumble echo up four flights.

I should’ve posted this forever and a day ago, so apologies to the rest of the Take10 crew about that! If anyone’s curous, the Schuh brogues are slightly small, so best to go a size up. Either that or again I don’t really know my shoe size. Quite a worrying thought, that.