A whole new world of consumption.

On Wednesday I get the keys to my first flat. It's pretty damn scary. Not because of the huge, great mortgage. Or because I've never lived on my own. Or because Stoke Newington is choc full of yummy mummies and doesn't have a tube station. No, my real cause for concern is that most of my shopping experience lies in clothes, shoes, bags and food. Kitchen work surfaces, wood flooring and sofas, however, I have no experience in at all. Re-enforced by the fact that recent trips to Habitat, Heals and Ikea have all lead to unsightly sweating and panic attacks.

Nevertheless, if I can get through jeggings, I can get through re-decorating a flat. Here's my inspiration... thoughts?





Or maybe this?



Thanks to Design Sponge and The Kitchn

I knew the new cycling scheme would come in useful!

All I wanna do is invest my monaaay

Having just bought my first flat in Stoke Newington aka Clapham-of-the-North, this new vid from Funny or Die perfectly sums up the trouble I'm having reconciling my Shoreditch lifestyle with my new-found fascination with Ikea kitchens. Boo ya.

MIA -- Paper Planes Brentwood Redux - watch more funny videos

What's going on in there?

I just found myself watching a skype-skype interview on mobile apps online while simultaneously watching Gok's Fashion Fix on mute on the TV. Yesterday I found myself reading two newspapers at the breakfast table. What is going on in my brain?

Am I so conditioned to multi-tab browsing? So used to reading emails as I talk on the phone? When did tweeting, facebooking and watching television become second nature?

I'm fascinated because if that's me - and at 26 I'm old in digital terms - what is going on with "the kids"? My boss recently found his two year old son - who, I hasten to add, cannot yet talk - watching iPhone videos of himself in one hand while playing on the iPad with his toes. And it really makes me realise - his approach to learning, multitasking and problem solving is going to be unrecognisable to his elders, to the people trying to teach him when he hits school.



This week I was lucky enough to be part of a panel on "How to... Be part of the next cool thing" as part of LCC's Futurising festival. After the panel Martin Raymond (The Future Laboratory), Jaana Jatyri (Trendstop), Maggie Norden (LCF) and I went for a coffee. We were all gobsmacked by the seeming lack of curiosity from the assembled graduate audience. How could they even consider a career in trend forecasting if they were not brimming with questions for the panel? Maggie, a lecturer, voiced her concerns at the total and utter lack of investigative nous amongst her students. While Martin said interns that limit their research to page one of the Google results don't stick around long at FL.

But I'm concerned we're looking at it from the wrong point of view. Our way of thinking, our way of finding stuff out, is not the future. The extinction signs are there and we should be warned - we already don't remember telephone numbers anymore or since when did you turn to an encyclopedia? My boss's two year old will one day need to be taught by someone who understands that his brain is going to be wired in a totally different way. He is going to have skills and abilities that were once rare, just as he will have blank spots where his father is an expert.



I'm looking forward to spending the next few months figuring out what this is going to mean for brands wanting to make products and services that will thrive in the hands of these "Digital Instinctives". But until then I'm off back to my work iPhone, my personal Nokia, my 7 open tabs on Firefox, my Spotify playlist, the rest of that vid and the last 10 minutes of Gok. Wild times.

Camillastore goes Stateside.
"who were burned alive in their innocent flannel suits on Madison Avenue
amid blasts of leaden verse & the tanked-up clatter of the iron regi-
ments of fashion & the nitroglycerine shrieks of the fairies of advertis-
ing & the mustard gas of sinister intelligent editors, or were run down
by the drunken taxicabs of Absolute Reality"


It is my second day in the uber-cool San Francisco and, now I'm over the jet lag (For me, it's Tylenol Nighttime every time!), am able to finally string two lines together. Further evidence of my being bombed on the time difference emerged last night when I returned from a wander round the shops still wearing some unpaid for merchandise. A felony within 24 hours of landing. Awesome.

Anyway, today I am more coherent and with the weekend free to explore this great city. First up I headed over to the Ferry Building. A local foodie's heaven. a visiting, hotel-bound foodie's nightmare. Photos will follow, but picture row upon row of incredible produce set against the backdrop of San Francisco bay. Just spectacular. I also popped into Miette bakery. I first heard of Miette and got to know the owner, Meg, back when I worked for Rococo Chocolates. Meg wasn't around, but the Rococo was in prime position and the carrot cake cupcakes pretty special.



Next I sauntered - well, admittedly, heaved - my way up one of the infamous San Fran hills to make a pilgrimage to City Lights Bookshop. Though I may have sold my soul to branding and be more about power plates than Lucky Strikes these days, the Beat poets and writers still hold a very special place in my heart. I have always been fascinated by their courage and commitment to forging new forms of literature, of thinking even, in a time when America was vigilant against "non-conformist" behaviour. To finally set foot where founder Ferlinghetti hung out with Ginsberg, Kerouak and Cassidy realised a long-held dream of mine.

And now I'm back in my hotel room which overlooks the hot tub in a very Don Draper-esque manner and wondering whether a second burrito in as many days is pushing it slightly.

May the road come up to meet you

I know now is probably a rare opportunity to discuss the Party leaders' journey to the election, assessing brand strength, fashion choices and social networking capabilities. But two things launched this week to draw my eye from BBC News 24.

First up TopShop launched a MAKE UP RANGE! Put that in your pipe Gordon Brown! The dreamy, indie packaging makes great use of the TopShop spots, while the hand drawn element gives it an accessible-yet-aspirational feel. As someone who was beginning to feel that M.A.C's seat was in jeapardy, TopShop's range might just be the vote for change my makeup bag was looking for. And, yes, that metaphor just happened!



Secondly, and much more interestingly, Aubin and Wills are opening a CINEMA and gallery space in Shoreditch. This is lifestyle branding gone nuts. I'll happily buy a cute top and imagine myself into the A&W world vision. I'll even consider a bit of A&W homeware, because it's post-modern ironic. But is an events programme a step to far?

Thinking about it, little brother Jack Wills manages to get away with a yearly Polo fixture. But that's Jack Wills - ostentacious Sloanies love that shit. Aubin & Wills are meant to be cool, demure, subtle. People who wear A&W generally pick at their new cashmere jogging pants and say "oh this old thing!" between mouthfuls of organic porridge.



But have no fear Camillastore readers, I'll hit up the launch on 20th May and get back to you.

New horizons

Brilliant day yesterday getting away from Shoreditch and brands, brands, brands. First up, my friend and I were pleased to see that we could bring some "hot young thing" to a morning cookery class at Books for Cooks in Notting Hill. The class - an awesome birthday present from friends - was "A Taste of Spain". We sped through 5 recipes in 2 hours and then stuffed ourselves with chorizo, Andalucian salad, chicken with prawns, and a gorgeous apple cake. Who knew that one could roast peppers whole before peeling? Ooh!

Following a few mouthfuls of Pimm's, we ventured south of the river to check out Molotov Jukebox. The "up-beat reggae gypsy" band, fronted by my very old friend Nat Tena, absolutely smashed it and got everyone jigging around like it was going out of style. Nat brought some much needed sex appeal to the accordion by sporting suspenders and a captain's hat marked "H M Slut". She and her tricked out band steered the assembled cool kids through some incredible life lessons (ie. Don't live with your boyfriend) all set to a funky folk-hop beat.



If it weren't for the last tube home, we'd have also stuck around to check these guys out - The Correspondents.

Check out the Slideshare version of April's Project10 edition, with a contribution from me on p6.

Project10 Newspaper April (Ladies) issue

View more documents from Steve Price.

Next up, Steve's looking for people to help him explore the relationship and influence that design has on politics. If you're interested you can contact him via Twitter @planbstudio. Spread the love.

Camillastore for Project10.



Check out the latest edition of the Project10 newspaper, with a tweeted contribution from yours truly and Panja Gobel, with gorgeous illustration by Emma Barratt. Panja and I ourselves the challenge to discuss women in design and technology within a 140 character field on Twitter. Under the hashtag #unPandC, we ranted at each other for 3 days. To spice things up a bit we added the extra challenge to include five quotes each from our feisty heroine, Mae West, in our tweeted dialogue. To find out more about the wonderful Project10, click this.

Liberty for the masses!

Liberty - one of the last bastions of true British retailing, the shopping equivalent of tea at 4 o'clock and cricket whites on the green - has got itself a little bit of rough by pairing up with Target. When I lived in Texas, Target was the place to go when you needed to buy 56 rolls of toilet paper and gallon bottles of nail varnish remover. We fondly called it "Targé" and now it seems to be living up to its posher side. The new range is pretty lovely, actually, and it makes a change to have a "Liberty Lite" range tas opposed to the mortgage-inducing prices we are used to. I'm love, love, loving this bicycle - perfect for the springtime sunshine!

Women! Know your (140 character) limits!

Just finished working on a collaborative project with Designers, Panja Gobel and Emma Barratt, for Project 10. Project 10 is Steve Price's philanthropic plan to work on 10 projects/collaborations in the next 10 months with 10 NFP/NGO organisations on projects that are ‘fun’. Bored of sending out generic press releases to promote the work Steve's doing, he's started printing a monthly newspaper stuffed with contributions from the great and good of the design world.



Steve and I forged a very modern friendship over Twitter and I feel very honoured to know him and to be invited to contribute to the up-coming women's only edition of the Project 10 newspaper. Keep an eye on Steve's site for updates.

Smoking is not cool

Unless it's the inspiration for my new spring pumps!

Oh la Le Labo



Took a sunny stroll down Marylebone High Street yesterday and popped into perfumier Le Labo, who has recently set up shop following their concession in Liberty. The new Le Labo store follows in the retail footsteps of other "rough luxe" concepts such as Aesop and All Saints. Exposed birck work and wooden floorboards act as a background to a well-defined selection of scents. What sets Le Labo apart is their belief that perfume begins to degrade as soon as it is made, so they handmake every bottle there, in-store. The receipients name or message can also be added to the bottle. Everything was very beautiful and the staff were lovely, but as L`Artisan Parfumeur closes just up the road and Dyptique barely just opened not 500 yards away, one does begin to ask questions. Firstly, just how many perfume shops does the Marylebone shopper really need at her disposal? It's like an upmarket version of Reading, with perfumiers and Waitrose instead of Morrisons and charity shops. Secondly, as a retail concept it is fantastically executed and incredibly aspirational, but I would need the advice of an insider in order to understand what sets these new kids on the block apart when it comes to their scents. When is a rose not a rose? When it's crushed to order and presented in reclaimed tins.

Living the dream.

Ok pro-brand post coming up. I finally did it. I went and bought a mac book pro. And, sweet lord jesus, it is incredible. Everything about it is incredible.

So it's not every Sunday that one gets up, eats breakfast and moseys into central london to spend nearly a thousand pounds. I needed a bit of a pre-amble, some low-fi spending to get me and my credit card in the mood. And so, it was laden with a week's shopping from Waitrose, that I strolled into Apple on Regent Street ready to do some damage.



As usual, the store was filled with the politically correct mixture of ages, races and gender all gazing aspirationally at screens as chirpy 'Mac Geniuses' circled. And then the branded fun began. The person who served me was chatty and amiable. He helpfully gave me a knapsack style bag, so I could sling my 'pro on my back and still schlep my shopping. How very modern, how very hip.

Back home, and after some pretty judgemental looks on the tube (waitrose and mac, could I be anymore smug?), the de-boxing began. What a ritual! Lovely little tabs and layers which all make the final unveiling feel almost climactic. The installing was a joy. And, with my old G4 slung mercilessly in my wardrobe, I am now penning this post. Smooth, fast, and oh so slick. And that's just the computer.

Is this the best website ever?



YES.

http://www.dukeofuke.co.uk/

Luxury brands learn to chillax

Doing trends for a luxury brand at work right now and, consequently, been getting heavily into luxury's place in the digital world. Given the rules luxury brands break, and the barriers they overcome in the fashion world it is surprising how slow they have been to find their place in the new world of online. Naturally, the democratic, free-for-all that is the Internet is the very culture fashion houses abhor. They no doubt fear the dilution of brand and total lack of control.

Unfortunately for luxury, however, this need to "own" the spaces they exist in is outdated. Up-and-coming wealthy people are no different to up-and-coming regular people - they are on Facebook and read their paper online and send emails and expect their brands to be just as instant and available. Add this to the fact that recession-time spending is best done behind closed doors, away from the judgmental poor, and you have a compelling argument for creating an amazing luxury presence online.



Through the research, I'm seeing some (if surprisingly minimal) luxury successes online. DKNY have an in-house PR who tweets on behalf of the brand. Rather than pretending to be Donna herself, the PR is a well placed voice to make announcements about the company. Gucci has gone all out with an extensive and regularly updated Facebook page. The page now boasts over 500,000 friends and includes product and show news, photos and films. Proving that a luxury brand can "let go" and make thousands of new friends around the world. Best in show is Start, the Shoreditch boutique owned by TV personality Brix, who promotes herself and the store across platforms on Twitter, YouTube, blogs and the transactional website.

As high-end brands wake up to the fact they will gain, rather than lose customers, by claiming their www's, I'm excited to see luxury brands shape the future of online in the same way they approach their clothing lines. If Alexander McQueen can reach an audience of 77 million by allowing Lady Gaga to wear his shoes in her latest video, there's got to be something right about signing up.

Blog love

Kind of obsessed with this photographic blog from Purple Magazine right now. Each photo summons up that wonderful Parisian knack for effortless style, sexiness and decadence. How do they manage it?

Incredible where you can get sartorial advice these days!



Send your queries to the Innocent Rabbit by clicking here.

Snow day

Well, it turns out that splurging in Jack Wills will only see you good for the first two days of a big chill and several inches of snow. Day Three and I'm pining for a selection of Brora longjohns and pretty much anything from the Chanel ski range. Love love love it.

Firstly, Happy New Year Camilla's Store readers!

And what better way to launch into 2010 with a slow stroll around the new Jack Wills store in Islington? Maybe I've been in the bosom of my North London "Intelligentsia" family for too long, but I fell upon the JW sale as if my Sloanie little life depended on it. Antiques lovers will no doubt be mourning the loss of the emporium at the end of Camden Passage, but the space does wonderful justice to the Fabulously British brand. JW is expert at working with a location, rather than against it. Like their townhouse in Marlow, which retains the original layout of the house to create a unique retail experience, the new digs in Islington highlight the high ceilings and ornate finishings. Downstairs, beside the roomy changing rooms, a small stage, no doubt for their "Unsigned" to play, has also been created. It's a fun store, perfect for the Yuppie Islington clientele.

Glee: The phenomenon cometh.

Paid for or otherwise, today's Guardian ran a full page spread on upcoming new show to E4, Glee. The teaser, pilot episode, which aired a few weeks ago, was a heady cocktail of High School Musical 1,2, and 3 combined with Mean Girls, American Idol and 30 Rock. Feeling sick yet? Think what you will, but this show has already been a massive hit in the US due, in no small part, to its escapist appeal across all the generations. There's singing and dancing for the kids, hot teenagers for the teenagers, and biting wit for the grown-ups. It really is one for all the family.



Furthermore, there are two trends into which it has brilliantly, if obviously, tapped. Firstly, everyone feels like hell - they've no money, no jobs and they've just had a pretty slim Christmas. The family appeal of Glee allows everyone an hour of Betty Draper-style family time in front of the flat screen. And by Betty Draper I mean perfect, charming and happy not Manhatten-slinging, gun-toting blonde bombshell. That comes later. Watching Glee, Americans can escape to the Disney fantasy they grew up with. But will Brits do the same?

Secondly, Glee follows in the footsteps of shows like X Factor and American Idol in sending old songs straight back into the charts. And the charts mean money. As more and more people watch TV on their computers, the distance between watching and purchasing is narrowing. Like that song? Buy it in seconds on iTunes. Love what they're wearing? It can be delivered the next day. Gossip Girl goes part of the way there, in terms of making the products the characters use integral, if not downright critical, to the plot. But Glee seems to be the first drama which actively ties entertainment to purchasing.

Glee airs over here from 11th January. Watch this space.

Holidays are coming.

So nearly there now, just another few days and we can collectively collapse onto our respective sofas and start drunkenly demanding Ferrero Rocher for breakfast and being thoroughly unreasonable about practically everything. And so, it may be that this little find has come too late for us to send on to our misguided loved ones, but perhaps bookmark it ready for next year, thus avoiding the inevitable Christmas morning tantrums.

Vital Stats Cheat Sheets from Cookie (who, I think, I may have just fallen into deep, graphic design related, love with).

Happy Holidays!

So freakin' Christmas

I've seen the Holidays are Coming coca cola ad, I've started a Spotify xmas playlist, I've punched a tourist on Oxford Street, and I've made mincemeat part of my 5 a day. One could say Christmas '09 has arrived. But it wasn't made properly official until my friend unveiled his Ralph Lauren Xmas Jumper in an unsuspecting pub in Highgate. You could have heard a bauble drop off the tree when he threw open his Aquascutum trench to reveal the wonder that is a £200 xmas sweater. The heavy knit, the square cut, the obligatory reindeer... it ticked all the boxes. Christmas has begun. Now, when does the pre-lunch mulled wine drinking begin?

Loving verbally abusive cotton bags right now. Just because we're being eco-friendly doesn't mean we need to be cheerful about it.





Top: Modern Toss. Bottom: Goodone

*For those reading this today in the Shoreditch area, Goodone are having sample sale til 10pm tonight.

Trend addict, moi?

On a blissful day off work, I nipped down to the Royal Academy to see what all the fuss is about the Anish Kapoor exhibition. A Renaissancist at, I struggled to understand exactly what made it 'art', but the show is certainly entertaining and engaging. Best of all was a egg-timer shaped mirror which reduces your reflection to a single stripe of colour. When surrounded by people, the mirror acts as a perfect chart for "trending" colours. It seems black, dusky blue, dark grey and highlights of teal are all hot amongst art lovers right now. Who knew?

The dark future of social networking

Check out my latest blog post on the Eye Magazine blog
http://bit.ly/Camilla3

And for those of you who just cannot get enough of me, I suggest you also swing by the Moving Brands blog too.

Amazing



Who is this child? Where does he live? And might he sell me his t-shirt?

Mad about Mad Men

Season 3 of cult series Mad Men had its finale on US tv last night, causing my friend, The Austin Blonde, to exclaim "OMG OMG OMG... I cried and was shocked and I felt like my heart was being squeezed the WHOLE episode. I can't bear the thought of having to wait a year to see what happens next!!!! Torture". So, as you can imagine, us Brits are climbing the walls for the latest season to make an appearance in the schedules. Not least in the hope that it will be accompanied by the commercial tie ins our cousins across the pond enjoyed. Banana Republic (below) and Brooks Brothers both payed homage to the show in the States, allowing both Mad Men and Mad Women to get that 50's, Martini-for-breakfast, "Not on my watch", look.



So what can us Brits look forward to in terms of Mad-Menning our wardrobes? TopShop does Mad Men?? Maybe we need to ask ourselves... What would Don Draper do?

WAH Nails pops up at Selfridges



Dammit, now EVERYONE will have leopard print nail do's!

Textures from Anthropologie

The tricky science of Anthropologie

Anthropologie has opened! Three glorious floors finally filled with all the covetable, strokeable, must-have things we've been drooling over online for years. As we are coming to expect from Regent Street's new retail additions (check out the National Geographic store), the space at Anthropologie is beautifully executed, drawing the eye up and down via a vast living wall and ornate chandeliers. On-brand sales assistants say 'hi', while carrying wicker baskets of merchandise and a pretty floral scent infuses the store's "multi-sensorial" offering with a warm, welcoming feeling.



Here's the 'but' bit and it's the same issue Whole Foods, Banana Republic and Abercrombie forgot about... The English. You can have thousands of stunningly curated floor space, vast changing rooms and eye-popping merchandising but as soon as you let the English public roam all over it, the fantasy is broken. It's difficult to explain. Maybe, because they invented consumerism, Americans are just better at playing the part of awe-struck shoppers, striving to become the target audience the brand is looking to attract. Like a character in a play, Americans seem to meld into their retail environments as if they're been there the whole time. Not so much with us Brits. In our lilac macs and awkward M&S handbags, we stomp around the shops with a permanently aggrieved look on our wind-chapped faces, snatching clothes off rails like dishrags off a washing line. And so, like TopShop and Abercrombie before it, Anthro is assigned to the list of shops "Only worth visiting outside of normal shopping hours so as to avoid the riff raff". For other retail snobs out there, these times include 11.30am on a Sunday, 6-7pm on a Monday and 2.30 - 4pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Sad but true.



Photos by HG.

I had been intending to post on why Shoreditch is a dead area in terms of trends but then two things happened which totally put a smile on my face and made me love the crazy, modern world we all toddle around in today. Firstly, I received this spammy email from Argos.

"Thank you for your recent enquiry on argos.co.uk

You recently enquired about a Go Go Pets Hamster Deluxe Funhouse Gift Set., Cat No. 384/1534, on the Argos web site, which was out of stock.

We have just received further stock of this item."



Strange, because I've only been to Argos once and that was when I was 16 and also enjoyed Hooch in a bus shelter. And, perhaps more importantly, I don't even own a hamster.

Secondly, my friend The Designer told me that he often gets text message alerts from a school in Inverness reminding him to attend various parents evenings, story times and nativity plays. The Designer is 24 and lives in London.

In a time when we can so easily curate the digital information we receive, the moments when a piece of rogue data slips into our hands can often be pure, human, and hilarious gold.

Shoreditch post to come!

(As if we don't know) How to spend it.

When is luxury not luxury? Apparently when it's online. A recent Guardian article discussed the recent move online by the FT's How to Spend It Magazine. The article queried whether the launch of a luxury site was in-keeping with the current global mood, while the FT insisted that watches, yachts and "below the radar florists" were all part of the "flight to quality" by discerning consumers. Timely or not, the one thing no-one pointed out was the quality of the new site. Like so many other luxury sites, at first glance HTSI is another Flash-based disappointment. Discussing the topic with my friend, the Social Media Guru, we both agreed that Net-a-Porter was the only user-friendly place on the net to conjure true aspiration. Vogue's online presence, Style.com, is a muddled mess, whilest Burberry completely missed the whole idea of 'exclusivity' by allowing the general public (!) to live stream and comment on a recent Fashion Week show.



This only leads me to conclude that luxury brands have approached the Internet as an after-thought. At a time when people are embarrassed to be seen in-store splurging on high-end goods, these brands should be 100% focused on creating an online presence which replicate the in-store environment. Luxury brands are at the forefront in curating inspiring, memorable and decadent retail experiences and there is no reason why the brand's extension online should not feel just as personal and unique.

Back from The Future

Yesterday was pretty special. Spent most of the day at the Future Laboratory's trend briefing on the New Normal having my mind blown by trends, insights and their super-slick presentation style. Then I went for dinner with my good friend The Social Media Guru and talked shop and plans to attend SXSW Interactive over a bowl of hummus.

In the briefing, founder Chris Sanderson talked about 'triangulation' - the combination of intuition, observation and interrogation - in forecasting trends. It highlighted the very element which has always made trends so fascinating to me, and which makes it an integral part of branding. That nothing stands in isolation. Everything that happens comes from somewhere and has direct and indirect effects on the things around it.



They packed a huge amount into 4 short hours, looking at how "Generation Jones" - the second largest demographic at 34 - 45 years old - are reconciling their desire to consume with making the "right" ethical, financial, and behavioral choices. They asserted that it's no longer cool to be cool, that we're more interested in a "participatory" culture which is collaborative, warm and friendly. They showed us the house of the future where screens become architectural and ovens teach us lessons in reducing our carbon emissions. I left with my head spinning but looking forward to slowly digesting and applying their insights.

Image via http://ffffound.com. If it's no longer cool to be cool, maybe Snow White no longer wants a bite of the apple.

Check out my first, and hopefully not only, post as guest contributor to the Eye blog. Thanks to John for giving me and my ranting a new portal!


http://blog.eyemagazine.com/?p=313#more-313

A first in Anthropologie

Bloody hell. Just as I hit the wrong half of my twenties and can finally give up the bank breaking addiction to Abercrombie & Fitch (you just can't pull off prep school anorexic past 24), another American, Anthropologie, gets set to open its doors on Regent Street.



Anthropologie is the sophisticated big sister of Urban Otufitters. I first discovered it when I was living in Austin, Texas and when the dollar was two to the pound. Anthropologie is just the best - the clothes are perfectly gorgeous, the accessories are to die for, the pajamas are heavenly and don't even get me started on the homeware! And now it's arrived in London and suddenly all my work-clothes woes will be a thing of the past. Just like my savings.

What's new in Old Town?

The second installment of brand news from Norfolk includes the discovery of Old Town. Located in Holt - a town popular with Guardian reading, posh b&b staying, organic muesli munching, suped-up 4x4 driving Londoners - Old Town fits in perfectly as a purveyor of "blingamalist" clothes for the guilt-ridden rich. With its wooden floor boards and letter-pressed business cards, the shop stocks only samples. Once the customer has selected their cut, fabric and size, a new one is made specially for them and delivered within 6 weeks. As we emerge from our binge on fast-fashion and mass consumption, shops like Old Town are the zeitgeist for a new era of "better and fewer".

But, in branding terms, Old Town does not stop there. It also produces a newspaper which serves as a brilliant guide to the area for the aforementioned tribe not wanting to risk mixing with the riff-raff on Holkham Bay. The newspaper groans with on-trend nods - from the heavy organic paper it's printed on to the achingly nonchalant name-checks to other "blingamalist" establishments like Fernandez & Wells - the Soho deli for tv execs who like their steak sandwich at twice the price and with a side of smug.



Reading these paragraphs makes me seem as though I'm perturbed. I'm not, it's genius. If the future is de-branded, austere and route one in its approach then other luxury labels would do well to learn from the unassuming simplicity of Old Town. If I'm perturbed it's because I know that Tribe Organic-Box-and-two-kids-at-Bedales will get such a kick out of it.

Visual Merchandising and Viral Marketing in North Norfolk

Following some crazy times at work, I decided to unplug and head to the North Norfolk coast. However, you can take the girl away from marketing, but you can't take marketing away from the girl.



Within an hour of arriving in Blakeney, I overheard this conversation in the local fisherman outfitters...
Norfolk lady 1: Oooh, look at this lovely jumper *brandishing hideous purple monstrosity*
Norfolk lady 2: Ooooooh, that is beautiful
Norfolk lady 1: And it's on the mannequin in the window
Norfolk lady 2: Oooh

Translated into London speak...
Norfolk lady 1: @norfolklady2 check out this jumper www.hideousjumpers.com
Norfolk lady 2: Niiice RT @norfolklady1 check out this jumper www.hideousjumpers.com
Norfolk lady 1: Posh Spice has one just like it
Norfolk lady 2: I'm gonna blog that later!

It's been quite a while Camilla Store lovers. I've been otherwise engaged in running the social media campaign for A Brand for London - an open pitch by Moving Brands in response to Boris' call for an agency to create a brand for London. We didn't get through but won the hearts and minds of London via our blog, Twitter, press (London Lite, London Paper and Evening Standard), and 50,000 visitors to our site. So, good times.

All a-Twitter

There's good news and there's bad news.

The bad news is that I've spent the past 4 days trying to find "social media interns" who can use Twitter to come and help me on a project at work. I had visions of hundreds of eager, credit-crunched, tech-savvy young things contacting me desperate to prove the business application of their online social skills. Strangely not. Of the few who did respond all of them faked their Twitter acumen, only to be rumbled when I asked if I could "Follow" them. So if it's not young people making the UK the Most Twittery Country, who is it? I'm confused.

The good news is that I do use Twitter and, slowly but surely, have gathered a following on my work Twitter of nearly 700. Last week I decided to conduct a little experiment in order to promote a film a made (see below). I uploaded the video onto Vimeo at 2pm on Thursday, put a Tweet out, asked a couple of friends to Tweet it, uploaded it onto the Creative Review feed and by Friday had totted up 1,000 hits. Unbelievable. The power!!

Moving Brands/ Moving World from Moving Brands on Vimeo.

Hits of the 90s

The signs are there - it looks like AW09 is going to be all about the 90s and it's not just because we've lately been enjoying the best of Michael Jackson before all the facelifts and kiddy fiddling.

For those of you who want to re-familiarise yourselves with the key looks of the era, I point you to Paris is Burning - the film that introduced us to Vogueing. God bless it.

Moving World, Moving Brands

Check out this film I made with my colleague/friend Rex McWhirter for Moving Brands. It is made entirely from found material and social networking sites to illustrate the fast moving world we all live in today.

Nailed

Check out my ghetto-fabulous nail job, done by the lovely Georgia of WAH Nails during their pop-up session at Cargo on Sunday afternoon. More photos can be found on their blog by clicking here.

Faking it

Ok, I'm going to propose something a little controversial. In this economic and environmental climate we're meant to be focusing on pared-down austerity and the ethos of make-do and mend. Apparently there are currently 8000 people waiting for allotment spaces in order to grown their own and I've talked before about the chic Waitrose Essentials range and Mary Portas' quest to revamp charity shopping. Everywhere you look it seems we're holding back and reining in.



Well, I'm suggesting that it's not exactly everywhere. Alarm bells were set off on my trend-o-meter (yes, I do have one of those) while watching the footage of this year's Glastonbury. In their bright neons, animal prints, glitter and plastic fantastic, the crowd appeared to be rejecting the notion that lean times must necessarily equal lean accessorizing. And it seems that people have not left their "f*** it all, let's have fun while we can" mentality in the fields of Glasto. Since then, Miss Selfridge has teamed up with HedKandi to produce a range of dresses that practically scream hedonistic good times. Equally, a trend towards 'fake', inspired perhaps by the war-time habit of drawing a pencil line up one's leg to imitate tights, seems to be growing. Shoulder pads are turning our shoulders into dangerous weapons, Shu Uemura has a whole window at the front of Selfridges for their fake eyelashes, and Lily Allen was on Twitter this week showing off her gold fake nails. It seems that times may be hard. but we're British and we'll never let it show.


For incredible nails, check out the new Wah Nails in Dalston. 

To shop and to buy from this day forward...

Maybe it's because my parents got the bus to their wedding, or maybe it's because my childhood game was more likely to involve eating mud than playing dress up, but for some reason the whole big White Wedding idea has never particularly grabbed me.

Until now.

Apparently Selfridges has got a wedding license! As the girl who just last Wednesday found herself being unceremoniously pushed from the store at closing time, the thought of combining the love of my life with... the guy I want to marry is pretty exciting. A cousin of a friend did just that some years ago and here's the picture to prove it.



Thanks to Selina and Matthew for use of their image.

The ideology and imagery of the American housewife in the 1950s.

My university dissertation was on the American housewife in the 1950's. It was a fairly depressing account of bright women locked in suburbia, cleaning for 8 hours a day just to take their mind of potential nuclear attack.
Wish I'd discovered this Jello ad at the time!



Via BoingBoing.net

Enjoying these wall vinyls from Hu2 - nice to see some that are slightly more 'sharp' than the more decorative ones floating about.

Super cool sacks.

Magazine holder made from thrown-away sport felt. From Jonas Forsman


Flouro carriers from Susan Bijl

Wolf whistle

Every few months my Aunt, who resides in deepest, darkest Dorset, hits the London retail scene so hard the credit card company once phoned my Uncle to check the card hadn't been stolen. And so it was with much forethought that I took a long weekend to give me both a prep and recovery day either side of her weekend visit. In 48 hours we covered Camden Passage, Covent Garden, Bond Street, Selfridges and Marylebone High Street, stopping only to eat and sleep. As such, I am now 100% updated with both the highstreet and designer offering in this awkward time between Summer and Autumn, between Sale and New Season, between so-last-week and so-right-now.

And it is with some authority that I can say just one word: Whistles. When Jane Shepherdson left Topshop to refresh Whistles we knew good things would follow for the previously mumsy store and, my, hasn't she done well! They have seriously raised their game and, I think, lowered their prices - making them a winner all round.

I tried on this (looking for the first signs of the Balmain shoulder)



Bought this



And saw this on someone at a wedding last weekend