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Sunday, August 31, 2008

Tribes at War

Ok, I'm going to say something rather controversial now and, I'm sure, deep down, it represents some deep-founded resentment and jealousy that links way back into my Clapham-based childhood. Nevertheless, here goes. I have a serious problem with Shoreditch-ites.

It's the 'I'm SOOOO different, just like everyone else' syndrome, previously the sole domain of goths and emos, but as I wandered around Old Street last Friday afternoon I began to feel that I would scream if I saw another trilby hat, another pair of pixie boots, or another 'vintage' checked shirt.

I held my tongue, spent nearly £10 on bagels and got the first Northern Line train out of there.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pimp yo' tech up!

Bud clicks for your earphones from www.budclicks.com




And a tech-tastic selection of skins for everything from your iphone to your laptop at www.gelaskins.com



ps. That was Camilla's Store's 100th post! Yay!

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

Low, golden sunlight, the burnished tinge to the leaves and a chill in the evening all mark the end of another british summer. But before you start polishing your conkers and digging out the old snow boots, why not hit the streets in this selection of provocative tees and make one last fashion statement before daylight saving time kicks in?








In descending orders, tees from TopShop, Urban Outfitters, moretvicar.com, palmercash.com x 2, and Abercrombie

Monday, August 25, 2008

The Beijing Olympics are over... our turn next. Whoop dee do!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

A little more hilarity for you on this bank holiday.



Watch the whole series at www.clarkandmichael.com
The American Prints exhibition at the British Museum ends on the 7th. Totally worth a visit!

Saturday, August 23, 2008

Some little hilarity for the weekend...

See more Will Ferrell videos at Funny or Die

Friday, August 22, 2008

Camilla's Store's photographer in residence, of Blazing Cameras fame, has been off on his travels and has re-invented himself as Our Man In Terminal 5.





Let's hope his bags followed him out the other side!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

As we're all in sheltering from the August rain and cold, how better to do it than with a lovely cup of tea?

Living in Austin Texas, I got really into the fantastic selection from the Republic of Tea and a pot of Spring Cherry green tea sits, adored, on the kitchen counter. They give quite good packaging too.



Speaking of packaging, our Native Ringtons apparently based their packaging design on old ration books from the war.



Harvey Nichols own brand teas are weirdly well-priced at something like £4.99 a tin and their peppermint is the best I've yet tried.




So, on this wet evening, brew up and snuggle down.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

Pop-ups and nomads

You'd think that mobile libraries full of batty old people and ice-cream vans fronting drug-dealing cartels would give nomadic retailing a bad name. Quite the contrary, it seems that hip brands are modern circuses as they swoop into town, shout there wares, entertain the masses and then skip out before we begin to get bored.

American Apparel has pop-up shops



Starbucks has the Starbucks Salon



While over here we have the Chocstar bus

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Come... join us.

9.47pm, Charing Cross tube station, Northern Line. A black and white poster simply requests 'join us', and, at the bottom, 'Heavenly. A new kind of branding agency'. Firstly, snaps to them for dreaming up such a clever recruitment idea. Secondly, it made me think about how the really great brands make a concerted effort to market themselves to potential employees. Get recruitment right and you've got brand ambassadors who are already walking the walk and talking the talk before you've even handed them the health and safety guide.



One company I've come across who does this brilliantly is Innocent Smoothies. Their tone on the 'careers' bit of their website is all about family, team-playing and having a lovely time. They invite you to tell them about your unusual hobbies, your cake baking abilities, and whether you got to grade three clarinet, and then to post it to 'A Job Would Be Nice, Fruit Towers, London etc'.

As experience becomes a huge factor in modern selling, the people who represent your brand become key. If they personally support your product, they're going to be great at getting other people to as well. New terms are also being employed which reveal a move away from seeing employees as staff and embracing them as integral to your marketing strategy. Abercrombie and Fitch has 'in-store models', while Apple Mac have 'geniuses'.

Time was we trawled through the job section hunting for a job, now we go shopping for one and see which company, which brand is speaking to us directly.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

I don't want to labour a frequently made point here, but what is it with Starbucks??

As a previous resident of Soho I'm well accustomed to the day-to-day transience of businesses on the surrounding streets but when it comes to Starbucks they really take the biscuit. Or should that be biscotti?

A quick skip along Great Marlborough Street this afternoon revealed the disappearance of Metro - the processing lab of choice for London's best photographers - and in its place? You guessed it.... Starbucks! Because what with Nero, Le Pain, and the M&S cafe on the same street there just isn't quite enough Latte opportunities!

Monday, August 11, 2008

Something interesting is in the air...

A recent visit to Urban Outfitters, Oxford Street revealed an interesting development in the American invasion (see earlier posts). Not content with offering great service, super-soft cotton AND vast shopping landscapes, they are now commandeering our nasal passages! Like A&F down the road off Bond Street - whose perfume you can being to smell as soon as you cross into Zone 1, Urban was pumping a distinctive scent straight through the air con. I suspect it's somewhere approximating the odeur released by Alexa Chung as she decides which vintage/high street combo she will throw on that day, while chatting to Noel Fielding on her blackberry.

Whatever it is, it works. Suddenly the store had a 360 degree 'identity', exciting all our senses and making us BUY BUY BUY! Mmm, the sweet smell of success.



Tuesday, August 05, 2008

God bless Boing Boing!

I've spent all day up at Queen M's thinking about supermarkets and 'value' fashion and it has made me more determined than ever to really fly the flag for ethical fashion. That's not to say I'm going to start buying it yet - the consumer demand is there, now it's time for our favourite stores to start supplying it! I like adili and people tree, but it's just not quite my style, not quite edgy enough. So, this is a call to arms for our high street and designer faves to get with the program, or should that be ethical sourcing policy!!

www.labourbehindthelabel.com


Monday, August 04, 2008

How bleak is this?

Apparently there are people living in rural Africa who think that Tesco is a country.