Bonding over Handbags

Still on the subject of handbags, for which I apologise, but this morning, on my extremely crowded train from Bucks to Marylebone I found myself sitting next to this handbag (if you know what I mean). Now any reasonably well versed handbag lover will ascertain quite a few things instantly from the proximity to such a bag and its owner.

That the person holding it is more than likely someone you are going to be able to empathise with;
That they have excellent taste.
They spend their money wisely on beautiful items.
That being friends with such a handbag owner will be instantaneous, with the knowing comment (from me) 'I love your bag'.

Which of course I said and we bonded instantly, girls together in the knowledge of what is an icon, great and good in the handbag world, as opposed to the huge amount of tat also in evidence on trains going everywhere. If you ever thought you couldn't make friends over a handbag, forget it, you can. I just wished I'd been carrying my Fendi - pathetic, isn't it?

Today was very interesting for me for two reasons, the first, and undoubtedly the most important, was a meeting with IMRG within Google's hallowed portals in central London - they even gave us lunch, I felt extremely special. There is an amazing atmosphere there.

Secondly my box arrived with the goodies I had won from Matches Fashion, a really beautiful box containing two exceptional dresses. So I'm feeling very lucky indeed, even though one of them was designed for someone at least four inches taller than I am (which most people are, let's face it). At least that's one problem easily solved. And may you notice, neither of these is black in any way shape or form, which is extremely unlike me. The blue is a really pretty shade of cornflower, and the brown and white.......I'll say no more.

Babylon, Punks and Blue Handbags

Saturday evening I went to a 'Trendy Punk' party, given by an Irish very old friend of mine, for his son's 21st, at the extraordinary Gilgamesh Bar and Restaurant in Camden Market. Not having been there before all I can say is go if you have the chance and if you can stand the noise. The food is 'pan-Asian' from head chef Ian Pengelly and seriously good, the decor Eastern opulence with the ambiance of a (their words) 'Babylonian style palace'. Not to be missed, I promise you.

Anyway, back to the punk theme. I'm one of those extremely boring people who doesn't do 'fancy dress' of any kind with any enthusiasm. So when I got the invite I have to confess I cringed slightly. I knew I'd go, but 'Trendy Punk'? What would you do? I decided that I would have to wear black (when don't I?) some slightly startling jewellery in the form of a cascading pearl 'statement' necklace I'd invested in recently, put on the studded gladiators, black jeans, a leather jacket, black nail varnish and lots of glitter. So I was a kind of 'glamour punk', although hopefully more glamour than punk.

Had I known I could have worn one of my favourite LBD's with the leather jacket etc, but I didn't really think about it. Now, looking at the pics, I confess I wish I had. Oh well!

Incidentally these are not my sandals, but these would have fitted the bill exceptionally well, don't you think? Punk shoes? Forget it, I'll have Camilla Skovgaard's amazing cut out heels any day.

The amusing thing was that although all the women kept it quite toned down, the men - and the kids of course - really went for it. The spiked hair, the leather jackets, the jeans and the safety pins in abundance. Now I have to be very careful what I say here. This is not a good look for a grown up man. There, that was quite polite, wasn't it? Hah! I wish I could show you a pic, but I can't, then I would really get into trouble.

On to the subject of blue handbags and wondering what you think? I have red (which I never use because it doesn't feel right) metallic (ditto) leopard (which I love) and purple (which I do use occasionally particularly when I'm really too black elsewhere). Then of course there are all the neutrals and, living in London with all the rain, Longchamp's wonderful black patent Legende handbag which goes from downpour to sunshine and always looks amazing.

Although I am not in the market for a new handbag (!) I was just channelling a blue vibe, and wondering what would make me decide that this should be the next colour. I think this is very tricky, because buy cheap and I wouldn't use it and buy mucho expensivo and I'd feel guilty that there were so few occasions when it was right. Having said this I do think this Miu Miu quilted bag is darling, but would my bank manager ever speak to me again? I suspect not. Blue will have to wait for another day, then.............

The Jewellery Issue - choosing for others

Every girl likes a bit of bling (sweeping statement I know but I think you know what I mean) and pretty well all of us have a collection of jewellery we love to wear, from the aforesaid daft bling to a precious grandmother's hand down to something we spotted in Fenwicks, or at Astley Clarke, probably on the way to buy a dress or pair of shoes.

The problem with jewellery is not what we choose for ourselves because, of course, we know what we like, but arises in an extremely difficult way when someone has chosen something for us that doesn't hit the spot.

It may have been expensive, but if it's not our style, our 'colour', our genre then what do you do? Wear it when you don't like it - which won't make you happy? Put it away and hope that whoever gave it to you doesn't notice? - and he and most certainly they probably will (at least with me it's usually the daughter asking 'didn't you like those purple Swarovski earrings I gave you for your birthday? - actually I do, I just haven't worn them much) or, and I think worst of all, ask if you can take it back and change it for something you love?

I think that giving jewellery, like giving clothes, or a handbag, or fragrance, is exceptionally difficult, and jewellery, with its romantic connotations, probably the most difficult of all. Ok if it's a 5ct diamond from Tiffany's or a Chanel J12/Cartier Tank/Rolex you're unlikely to complain but something small and beautiful to him/them (friends, your kids) may well be something small and fairly ghastly to you and put you in an impossible position.

So to me the answers are these: Make sure he knows what you like if you think he's going to splash out. Make it clear you like to choose for yourself on the whole and obvious that you're incredibly difficult to buy for. And with your kids, when they do, as they probably will, give you something you don't love, make them the exception. I do, in any case, although I'm not wearing the purple earrings right now, as the daughter's in South Africa!

Reading this it probably sounds a bit cold hearted - but having done some writing recently on gift buying for American Express, who produced a piece of research which said that people had actually split up over being given the wrong gift (which is extreme, to say the least) I think that forewarned is forearmed and if you can stave off disaster then you should.

I've had a couple of comments recently, particularly on Twitter, about my seemingly ridiculous resource of energy, because I've taken up, er, fitness in a big way (swimming/gym/training etc). All I can say is that the more you do the more energy you have and I've proved something to myself I will now never be able to escape from, which is that you can go from being a total couch potato to a hyper-active vertically challenged mother of three older kids (and no I'm not going to mention my age here) in a ridiculously short space of time if you really want to. As I said, there's probably no going back now. Oh dear.

ps apologies for illustrating this post with some extremly expensive pieces - they just happened to catch my eye.....

Web Hints - How to turn Customers into your Friends

There's no doubt that the most important thing you can achieve, if you're in online retail (or pretty well any other business), is turning customers into friends, as friendship brings loyalty and goodwill along with it, both of which are invaluable.

Amazingly this isn't difficult to do but it is astounding how many businesses and service providers make negatives worse by slow or total lack of response; not using the opportunity to turn problems into positives and, quite simply, not listening to their customers.

Zig Ziglar, author and motivational speaker said 'Statistics suggest that when customers complain, business owners and managers ought to get excited about it. The complaining customer represents a huge opportunity for more business'.

But how often is a complaining customer looked on in that way? Rarely, it seems to me.

I don't believe, and I've said this before, that the customer is necessarily always right, however making the customer feel good about their dealings with you is about the most important thing you can do.

Last year I was approached by the CEO of eKomi, a company I had never heard of before, with a view to working with them to help launch their business in the UK. Customer review software? What the heck is that, I thought. Then, taking a good hard look at Amazon, eBay and other large companies, and talking to the guys in the know at IMRG/ISIS, I began to get the message that where online business is concerned, a) establishing trust with visitors and customers was going to become more and more difficult as opportunities for online fraud and the unscrupulous opened up along with the global Web, and b) here was a solution.

There's no doubt that customers want to be listened to, at least most of them do. They want to be able to tell you what they think about your service, good or bad. They want to be able to have a good moan if they're not happy and see you do that little bit extra to put matters right (always do more, by the way, it will always pay off). They want to be able to tell other prospective customers what they think about you, and believe you me you want them to be doing that on your timeline, and not on the viral spaces of Facebook, Twitter and elsewhere.

eKomi offers an excellent solution for e-commerce, from allowing small retailers the simplest of customer feedback solutions to the complete picture with product reviews for the larger ones.

It's almost certain that within a short space of time every reputable online retailer will be offering customer feedback - not only because it establishes trust (as long as it's obvious the feedback can't be manipulated) but also because that confidence increases sales and helps to streamline in-house procedures by highlighting areas that work well, and others that don't.

If I sound like a complete convert to this method of establishing trust it's because I am, and you'll be seeing more feedback on the websites you visit all the time.

For a Special Offer from eKomi to trial any of their products for free - click here

Website Review - Fifi Wilson - Online Boutique

One part of what I do that I really enjoy is reviewing websites I haven't had a proper look at before. Not just for http://www.thesiteguide.com/, but in order to drill down and see what's great, what's not, and what I might be able to help with in terms of what's not going on that should be, and what might make a difference from a conversion perspective, which, let's face it, is what really matters.

What appears at thesiteguide.com is the commentary review, but what interests me far more is what is going on on each retailer's website in terms of usability, functionality, layout, photography, basic SEO etc.

So Saturday morning I sat down to review http://www.fifiwilson.com/ I had a really nice surprise, as this online boutique is a really attractive and interesting place to browse. The products (designer-but-different clothes and accessories) are handpicked so that the offer is far away from the norm, the site design has a pretty, idiosyncratic feel about it, and there are lots of reasons to make you want to stay a while and, if the look is for you, to buy.

Everything here give a nod to fashion but incorporates an element of fun, and there's a lots of well written and well thought out commentary about each piece plus back and front shots (essential now if anyone wants to compete with the major online fashion stores).

My comments, in short (and I asked Fi's permission before I wrote this), were that a 'Just In' category would work well, the sign-up box wasn't clear and that she needed to take a good run at her Title Tags. Plus a few other small items.

One of the comments I got back was that she had been let down and frustrated by her web developers and needed a good one, so I'm hoping to talk to IMRG/ISIS in the near future about creating a list of the good, the honest and the reliable (watch this space). I think it's badly needed. Let me know if you agree.

Back to Fifi, her comment in her reply to my review was one of the nicest I've received. Very few people bother to say thank you or pay compliments (don't you agree), what a difference when they do.

You can find Fifi Wilson's site review for http://www.thesiteguide.com/ here.

Product Reviews - X-Mini Travel Speakers and the essential Power Monkey

Something most people don't know about me, but which my younger (21 year old) son recognizes instantly when he describes me as a 'gadget freak' - charmingly of course - is that, along with my love of Trish McEvoy planners, which are a kind of 'gadget' I suppose, Diane von Furstenberg wrap dresses, Fendi handbags (and the list goes on and on), I love clever, tiny gadgets that can go with me everywhere, to London, Paris or NY, and keep me going so that I never run out of charge for my Blackberry or Nano and can always listen to music loudly in any room in any house or hotel.

We've all become more and more dependent on our mobiles to keep our every day lives on track, and now to keep us up to date with Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, surfing the web, shopping online and more. Sit on any train and at least 70% of the people in the same carriage as you will be on their iPhones, Blackberrys (and others) in some way, shape or form. Is this good? I have my doubts, however I'm with them all, pretty well all the time.

Two of my essentials, which quite often stop people in their tracks, are the Power Monkey, for charging phones on the go, and my X-mini speakers which totally bear out their mission statement of sound without size. If you didn't already know about these here's what you need.

The Power Monkey is very small, very light, doesn't take batteries (do not, whatever you do, buy one that does), you charge it up at home, slip it in your bag (I put mine in a glasses case so that it doesn't turn itself on by mistake which they can do) and voila - you're up in town all day, away for a night and all you have to do is plug it into your phone wherever you are and you have at least one, if not more, full charges. Me being me, I have two, so that I'm never without one fully charged. I think maybe I've been talking about this too much because the price seems to have gone up, so shop around - I paid around £18 for mine.

Oh dear! I now see they've brought them out in a whole range of colours. Hmmmm? No, I'll have to stick to my silver ones for now. Very tempting though, if you're me......

My second 'I can't live without' piece of kit, and recently updated, is/are my award winning XMI X-Mini Max portable speakers. When I say mini I mean mini. They clip together to form a giant egg, you charge them up (they last, they say, for up to 12 hours, although I haven't tested them quite that long) and create a really great sound. These are not your average tinny mini speakers, but contain a bass expansion system far above what you'd expect from their size.

My horrible son has tried to steal these several times (and has lost the cable for my original set) so I now have them in brand new red and whatever you want to play on them, from opera and classical music, which I normally do, to something I can't stand, which he normally does, you will be amazed at the combination of size and portability. Minimum Size, Maximum Sound is the mission statement here, and they definitely deliver both.

Once you've invested in these you'll wonder how you ever lived without them. And now shall I tell you about the Logitech speaker system/sub woofer I bought for listening at my desk? No, enough and I'll save that for next time.

By the way, if I sound like a complete nightmare to have to stay or in the next hotel room I do have headphones, I hate being disturbed by other people's music too!

Beauty Review - Trish McEvoy - Makeup Planners and More........

Dedicated to all things online, and having waited for quite a while for this great makeup, skincare and fragrance brand to be available on the web, (which hopefully it will be as soon as Selfridges' transactional website goes live), I'm officially giving up (for now) and writing about it today because this is such a great brand, nothing like as well known as other US cult beauty brands and, quite frankly, it should be.

I first came across Trish McEvoy on a trip to New York for a cousin's wedding with my daughter when she was 11, when I was seduced in Bloomies to spend a huge amount of money on one of her planners - needless to say after an hour of being counselled and made-up within an inch of my life I was in no fit state to say 'oh no, that's far too much', so I bought the lot.

Now the reasons I still continue to be a Trish addict and collector are quite simple, she has some of the very best products, wonderful, unique fragrances and a system that can go with you anywhere. As someone who trains and tubes it up to London, goes swimming, then to meetings etc and wants to look 'ok' the whole time, I can tell you that one of her zip-up treasures will take you from gym/swim to lunch and on to dinner with no trouble at all. I would never be without mine.

I have to say that I hate makeup that is over-done, it's probably an age thing (and don't those young girls pile it on??), but because people come up to me and ask me what's wrong with me if I don't make the effort I always do, but try and keep it natural looking.

Yesterday I had a seriously big treat, as one of Trish McEvoy's head makeup people just happened to be in Selfridges when I was heading off to a major meeting not thinking I looked my best. Half an hour later I felt (and I think I looked) so much better. If you have the opportunity go there and ask for David - a hilariously funny and hugely talented Parisien. You'll have a ball and you'll look amazing. The other girls are excellent as well, but he was superb.

Every girl needs her Trish McEvoy planner. But that's only the start. The fragrances are unusual and gorgeous (I have two favourites, Blackberry and Vanilla Musk, and Mandarin and Ginger Lily), her Beauty Booster Creme is superb and Eye Base Essentials won't let your eye shadow slip a smidge at any time. And that's just a very few.

And if you want a real treat, buy one of her huge pots of Blackberry and Vanilla Musk Body Polish Sugar Scrub - it's totally delicious (not literally, of course).

The best way to order anything Trish McEvoy related at the moment, if you can't get to Selfridges or Harvey Nichols, is to take a look online at Neiman Marcus in the US (and obviously order from them if that's where you are), but if not, call Selfridges and they'll send all this gorgeousness out to you.