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.

Website Review - Me & Em - Luxury Loungewear

Having cleverly and seamlessly changed their name from Pyjama Room last year, Me & Em has now surely become the destination of choice for gorgeous, luxurious (though not over priced) clothes to waft around in after a visit to the gym, a day on the beach, travelling just about anywhere or just for relaxing in at home.

This season they follow the trend for ice-cream shades with easy dresses and flattering ruched tops which sit alongside the main collection of layering lacy tops and tx, easy, pull-on palazzo pants and wonderfully soft cashmere 'weekend wraps' which any discerning traveller in their right mind would want to collect.

There are more and more 'loungewear' retailers appearing online, but very few who manage to get the mix of style and luxury just right with just a nod to what's going on in fashion right now, and with this quite irresistible collection and very well designed and easy to use website, in this writer's opinion, Me & Em manage the lot.

Incidentallly the top two pictures are from the new collection which will be going up at the beginning of March. The lounge trousers and tops in the other are there now.

Looking outside I'm horrified to see that it's still snowing! I don't remember being forecast this little lot - of course as I live on the top of a hill I always get the worst. So it's back on with the snow boots. Brrrrr.

Tomorrow, thank goodness, it's back to London and a meeting with a potential new agent, then dinner at 101 Pimlico Road, which if you can you should pay a visit to because it's tres chic, offers excellent food and very reasonable prices. And the chef is a friend of mine. Go there if you can. And tell him from me to get back on Twitter. Honestly! Some people.............follow him, anyway.

And.......just in case anyone's been waiting with baited breath for the next newsletter from http://www.thesiteguide.com/, no, it's not that I've been lazy, it's just that we've been moving over to a new server which, as these things always to, is taking longer than it should. This week, hopefully!

Would you ever wear a corset?……………………Underwear as Outerwear

We girls all know very well that the season of underwear as outerwear (daft expression, really), is fast approaching. It’s on the catwalk, we’ve seen it in the glossies and as a ‘trend du jour’ there’s no doubt you may be considering it as an option soon. I have to confess that I won’t, but then ‘chacun a son gout’ as they say, which just in case you don’t know, means each to his own taste.

Having been eyeing up my favourite DvF red body-con dress last week (and I’ll stop going on about it very soon I promise), and thinking that with the help of a little Spanx, more exercise and less food I might just get away with it, it was suggested that a corset might be the thing and no, this wasn’t a female suggestion, would it be? I have to say I first laughed, second was ever so slightly insulted and then thought noooooooooo. Glamorous they may be but wearable? In this day and age of going from train to tube to meeting to lunch to another meeting to tube and then train again? Absolutely not.

I’m sure they have their place, and judging by the incredible selection at Vollers, probably the UK’s most famous corset company (if not the only, sorry, I haven’t done my research properly) a large number of ladies are wearing them. I agree some of them look wonderful, glamorous and gorgeous and some you might want to wear to the ball, but as an undergarment of choice I’ll stick to my Spanx thanks. I do like to be able to breathe occasionally, let alone sit down!

Let me know what you think.

Diane von Furstenberg and the Essential Dress……………………….

With all the hype for London Fashion Week opening today, and overshadowed by the death of Alexander McQueen, I am, I have to confess, more inspired as always to react against those catwalk pieces impossible to wear by anyone other than a size 0 (if we're still allowed to talk about size 0) model and focus on the staples of everyone's wardrobe.

Incidentally, although there may be the odd size 2 or 4 in evidence, the thinnest of models are all still there. The debate goes on, is it the model agencies? Is it the designers themselves? Is it the buyers who want to see these extraordinarily thin girls? I certainly don't have the answer and I'm not in that business any more (thank goodness), but as I remember when I was, the sample sizes were always for very thin people, as they must be now, and so it undoubtedly goes on. Take a look at the latest reports in the Daily Telegraph and I think you have to agree, if you're not into skinny you won't get onto that catwalk.

So, back to the point of today and what we all really love to wear - a dress. Wear it for day, dress it up for evening, go for a wrap, shift, shirt, body-con, jersey, satin, silk or wool; dresses are the backbone of any great wardrobe as I'm sure you'll agree. What would we do without them? I'm sure there was a time when I used to wear pant suits or skirts but now, whether it's for a meeting or out for dinner, it's always a dress. So along with handbags, jewellery and shoes, I've become a dress collector as well.

As everyone does I've made some horrific mistakes, but one designer who never puts a foot wrong (well almost never) and who has never allowed me to is Diane von Furstenberg. Yes her dresses are expensive in most cases (although you can usually find excellent bargains in the sales and at places such as The Outnet) but the ones that I have I wear over and over again and I'm always on the look-out for something new to add to my collection.

Here are my six favourites from Spring/Summer 2010. Which one will I invest in? The jury's out, I can't decide. I think I need my hand held. Well ok, if I'm really going to be honest, I'd like them all! Well, having said that, there is only one black one, so this season, so me? hmmmmmmm.

Trust Building for Small Retailers - Web Hints

One of the biggest problems of blogging, I've come to realise, is what happens when you go away somewhere and you simply can't. Oh the guilt! Ridiculous I know but there it is, there was a small element of that while I was away, only a very small one, you understand as I was far too busy walking the mountains in the incredible sunshine and being entertained in the evenings by an amazing bunch of people from NY, Switzerland (surprise......because that's where I was) France, Austria and just about everywhere else you can think of.

Now I'm back and really wondering why I bothered to take a camera with me. Clear blue skys, stunning mountains, snow covered trees and beautiful chalets everywhere culminated in just a couple of pics. I'm now missing all those pictures I should have taken. Oh well........

Anyway, today I wanted to write about one of the ways that smaller retailers can build trust for their websites.

For some reason, and this is something I don't understand, there is a large group of small online retailers (huge, actually) who think that just having a reasonably good home page will be enough to make people want to buy from them. Well listen to me. It may, but the likelyhood, with the amount of dishonest onliners out there and the incredibly fast growth of online retail in general, particularly from those who really know what they're doing, is that it won't.

If you are a household name, such a John Lewis, House of Fraser, The White Company etc then of course you don't need big signs that say 'you can buy from us, we're trustworthy'. But if you're a small retailer, then you do.

One way, and one of the best, is to sign up to ISIS, IMRG's small retailer scheme. The benefit for you is that you get to display their well recognised and trusted logo on your site. ISIS accredited merchants now account for approximately two-thirds of all UK online shopping.

What you have to do is supply all your details, have your site reviewed by ISIS, recognise that it will be monitored and that your Business, VAT and Data Protection registrations will be checked by IMRG and pay, in fact, an incredibly small fee for the trust that you gain. If you're interested in joining ISIS click here to read more, then use the promotional code PHDISIS to get fifteen month's membership for the price of twelve.

Incidentally if you sign up to http://www.vente-privee.com/ and go to their members home page (by the way if you don't know them they are the best place for 'closed designer sales') the ISIS accreditation is one of the first things you'll see. As one of France's top ten online retailers and growing at an unbelieveable pace here - if it's good enough for them, it surely has to be good enough for you!

Yesterday in London was horrific, one swim, one great meeting (with IMRG, incidentally and more about that later) and culminating with meeting a longtime friend and colleague for an early supper at the Wolsley. Only problem was I was waiting for her at the Westbury and she was waiting for me at the Wolsley, not having received my text, because she was early. So I was the one who had to run in the pouring rain down Bond Street and then, thankfully, Burlington Arcade. Looking ever so faintly ridiculous. Oh well! We had a gret time.

The Importance of Great Service.........................

I don't think that anyone can argue with the fact that the US has the edge over us where service is concerned. I've visited the 'states many times, and I really can't think of any occasion when the service wasn't excellent and by excellent I mean just that, from New Orleans to Napa.

For some reason, in the UK (and much of Europe, for that matter) there seems to be a train of thought that it doesn't matter, which is crazy when you think that there's a limited market anywhere, and whatever the product there's huge competition.

The larger online retailers, probably having learnt from those across the pond, have certainly, on the whole, got the message, although they too are only as good as the girl/guy who answers the phone at the end of the day. Something they need to take more into account, as boy do we remember bad service!

Today I was up in London, erroneously, as it turned out, because the person I was meeting and I had different days in our diaries, so I decided to get a couple of those things done I for one am always putting off, such as getting a new battery put in my watch and fixing my Blackberry because I thought I'd done something wrong with the new memory card I'd put in in order to take huge amounts of music with me to Switzerland tomorrow.

I'm one of those people who cause lots of shop staff to duck, because I will want them to smile at me, I'll try and engage (because I may be asking them to do something special, or something for nothing) and I may also ask their name.

I started off in John Lewis to invest in a new Nano (because I was in a panic about my Blackberry) and that went without a hitch, probably because I was just about the first person in the Oxford Street store, either way, I was met with smiles and intelligence, which is, after all, what we expect from JL.

Then I left to visit the o2 store just a bit further along. If you're thinking of going there, don't bother. They were my big score in terms of bad service. The girl who was running the store opened late, despite the freezing cold, and when I showed her my o2 Bberry she said I'd have to make an appointment to have someone look at the memory card. They should wake up. There was no smile, no apology for the lack of available service, just rather autocratic bad temper. I'll leave that one there, I think, before I say what I really think.

Of to Selfridges who, in case you don't know, have what I think is the best watch repair service in London. Amina (yes I got her name) was charming to a fault, laughed when I tried to look up the time on a wrist that was now watchless and said that my watch with its fully tested battery would be ready by mid-day.

Then downstairs in Selfridges to the Micro Anvica store where I had the best moment of the day. I had no intention of buying anything, the man who served me knew that I had no intention of buying anything and yet he spent a good 20 minutes trying to sort out my Blackberry before one of his colleagues suggested that a re-start might be a good idea. Oh how we laughed (not, well sort of). Now there's somewhere I will go back, again and again. Truly epic service with great good humour and willingness to help. I'm sorry I didn't get his name. He's probably not sorry...

My watch was ready on time with a smile (go use the repair service there, it's just where the entrance to the car park is) and I headed for home thinking three scores and one clanger.

Service, great or terrible, stays in our minds for a huge amount of time, and although I don't go literally with the 'the customer is always right' philosophy, because it doesn't necessary follow, if you want a customer to stay loyal to you you have to go the extra mile and do whatever it takes to make them think of you with a smile, which means they'll probably praise you to their friends. Believe me there is no better recommendation than word of mouth. And I know these things.

Tomorrow I'm off to Switzerland, for I hope not too much skiing (because I'm a seriously lousy skier) and lots of fun with great friends. Provided I get access to my friend's pc, I'll be back to you shortly.

ps. My friend Tom Jeffries at Spoonfed has asked me to let you know that Spoonfed have just launched a London Fashion Week Homepage - sponsored by French e-tail giant Vente-Privee (who have the best designer brand closed sales on the web, just in case you didn't already know).

Keep an eye on this, the combination of Spoonfed and Vente-Privee is not to be missed. Expect amazing imagery and loads of information.

Faith Shoes - Spring in Style

I had to pay a visit to Faith Shoes a week or so ago, and was completely stopped in my tracks by the visions that greeted me as I entered. Now that's not to say that these are shoes I would wear as they're far more suited to my tall slim daughter, however that doesn't prevent one from falling in love, now does it? If you want to stand out this spring - these have to be the shoes for you, don't you think? And they're delicious in cream, I have to say.

To say they are bold is an understatement, and I can't see that you'd want to wear them for work (!) but for playtime? Now that's a completely different story.

What I really like about Faith is the way they're always pushing the boundaries while still offering styles that just about anyone could wear and the prices are very good as well. Fashionable friendly-priced footwear never felt so good.

Returning to packing for Geneva it's becoming a great deal less difficult, as I look outside the window and see the snow drifting down. It's not settling, yet, please please please don't let it - in the mountains I can cope but here, where in any case it's freezing, another week of being snowed in would be too much.

I was just talking to my great friend Anne out in the wilds of Maryland and this is what they have, 28" with more on the way. Brr....... despite my love of the white stuff I'm pretty glad to be here.

Packing - The Eternal Dilemma............

I've always been seriously good at packing, so good, in fact, that I'm frequently totally ready to scoot out of the door about a week before I have to leave. My only real problem is that so efficient am I, I'm not happy unless I've packed for every possible occasion which might occur (and of course many of them don't(, making it impossible for me to go anywhere without huge amoungs of stuff I never use.

I think that many of us are guilty of this, particularly as we know for a fact that we wear 20% of our clothes 80% of the time. It doesn't make any difference - I just have to take it all.

Well this time I've been presented with a real problem; me, on my own, flying to Geneva and then taking the train up into the mountains to stay with friends, for a 'little bit of skiing (hah! you haven't seen me ski) a little bit of R&R and added in at the last minute, one dressed up dinner and three occasions in private chalets owned by friends of my hosts. I'm not sure where the R&R is going to fit in to all of this but I think it's going to be a laugh.

However, and back to my main topic, I've been told to bring 'smart casual' (ugh, whoever coined that phrase.........) for two dinners, very smart for one and no feedback on the fourth at all. Smart smart is of course no problem - the eternal lace LBC works perfectly here with black suede heels, a few jewels and, dare I say the word? A pashmina. So that's done.

Smart casual I've always had a problem with, being much better at dressing up than dressing down. I see friends of mine manage it perfectly but I never feel I've got it quite right. I'm told this is me being obsessive, however there we are and I can't help it. Oh, and one other thing. I've also been instructed that I may not bring only black. Blow! You have no idea (or perhaps you have) how much trouble that one's going to cause me - at least 75% of my wardrobe is black (ok, I'm lying, 80%).

Because I simply can't, at this point in time, go out and invest in a completely new wardrobe (sons demanding money, dogs needing food etc) and if I did it would probably end up being black anyway because that's where I gravitate when I'm ready to flash the plastic, I decided to just add in a couple of pieces to 'lift' things a bit, and get me out of trouble.

In London this week I spotted this cream Reiss jacket, didn't buy it, regretted it, and it's now winging its way towards me. I think it'll work with black, don't you? It's actually much nicer than it looks here, a slightly richer cream and a lovely heavy weight and if anyone's going to shout at me for horizontal lines on someone who's more than a little vertically challenged, please don't. I know. I haven't tried it on yet. But I thought over a lace edged cami with some vintage style pearls it might just fit the bill.

My second purchase is black, no excuses there; DKNY very slim and stretchy black jeans - they're gorgeous and flattering, look wonderful with my very high tan leather ankle boots and I'm appalled to say that no matter how hard I've tried I can't find them online for you. How ridiculous. If anyone knows where you can buy them on the web please let me know.

Finally, and I hope no one's going to accuse me of fudging the black issue, I invested in Velvet's fine cashmere grey and black modern shaped cardi. I loved it so much the girl in the shop practically had to rip it off my back so that I could pay for it. It'll go with everything and I love it. Steel grey cami going into the bag then.

So what to travel in when you're on your own, you have a flight, a long train journey, a (probably far too) heavy bag? I don't know. The jury's out on that one. I know it includes snow boots because they won't fit in my bag. Any and all suggestions welcome. And I still have the third dinner to think about.........sighs.

The Five Best Lingerie Websites - and Why.......

Yesterday I spent a bit of time in Selfridges lingerie department, a) because I was looking for something, and b) because I wanted to test out my theory that if you're looking for anything specific in the lingerie category you're far better to stay at home and do it online.

I have to say that my belief hasn't changed. Selfridges undoubtedly has one of the best, if not the best collections in London, but it is mind-boggling to say the least and frankly, for me, 15 minutes wandering round ended up in exhaustion and wish to run away and go home. This might have been partly due to the fact that I'd already been to a three hour meeting and been for a swim, but the overload of plunge/lacy/sheer/whispy/moulded/full cup/underwired (and let's face it, that's only the bras), completely put me off.

There are some really great lingerie boutiques online, but surprisingly few, in my view, as many of the smaller more 'boutiquey' retailers just don't seem to get their websites quite right. Of course this is a totally subjective view and you may differ, particularly if you can't find your own favourite brand at the ones I'm going to mention here (and you'll find most brands included in the sites at thesiteguide.com) but I think these are the greats, they started that way, have continued that way, and no one has matched them, for their individual offers, or anywhere near.

Figleaves - Of course you've heard of Figleaves, the all time lingerie great, offering everything from all major brands of lingerie to loungewear, swimwear, men's underwear and more, with excellent photography and an incredibly tempting website. Couple that with excellent service and it's no wonder they're so popular.

Agent Provocateur - You've heard of this one too, I'm sure. For beautiful sensual photography and a gorgeous collection this is a great place. They offer up to quite a large size, but I personally think they're far more suited to the smaller end of their size range. Enough said.

La Senza - Reasonably priced lingerie, an excellent website and a very good choice. The fact that they're in just about every shopping mall in the country is irrelevant - you can browse, choose and buy it all here. The photography makes this site an extremely easy place to buy from.

Bravissimo - I have to say I'm not in love with loads of smiley faces, particularly on lingerie websites, although it must be working for them because they're hugely successful. With an offer aimed at the well endowed (in other words, if you're an A or B cup don't bother to try and shop here) they must have by far the best selection of everything from D and upwards.

and finally.

My Tights - you may say that this isn't strictly lingerie, however they do, along with the amazing collection of stockings, tights (think lace, seamed, patterned and coloured) and all of our regular day-to-day staples, offer shapewear and chemises and an excellent service, so I felt they deserved a place. After all, how much lingerie does a girl need?

Web Hints - Product Photography - The Essentials

I have a thing about product photography, and when I'm reviewing small retailers' websites I'm always saying the same things, so it seems to make sense to write about them here.

What some people don't seem to realise is just how important each and every picture on a website is. The saying 'Every picture is worth a thousand words' (and if you want to find out where it originated from take a look here) is in no way an exaggeration, particularly if you are trying to get people to buy product from you.

I know full well, from my dark and distant past when I ran numerous photo shoots, and had the fun and priviledge of working with late Patrick Lichfield amongst others, that photography can be incredibly expensive. In those days we were talking about film and 18 model shots a day if you were lucky (for fashion) and that was considered a lot. In fact I remember having to pay one still famous model an extra couple of hundred pounds to do just one more shot and still finish by 3.30pm. Those were the days - not.

Now of course everything's gone digital, those who said that 'digital just didn't offer the atmosphere', and there were loads of them, have been sideswiped right out of the picture and everything is instantly deletable, photoshopable, enhanceable and changeable in too many ways to mention.

For the small retailer, without the knowledge of product photography, the whole thing is a minefield, so my main advice is keep it simple, but stick to these rules:

1. Unless you are an expert, do not go for model photography. It will be expensive (or your model may portray the wrong emphasis) and you may end up offering something to the detriment of your product.

2. Never, ever use an amateur model. Some of the worst pictures I have ever seen have been taken on 'friends of the family' or 'a friend who wants to go into modelling'.

3. If you are going to go the 'do it yourself' route consider investing in a stills set-up such as Cubelite and make sure that you learn everything about it first. This will be the cheapest option if you can get it to work for you - a little time and effort will pay off here.

Mike Summerfield, of Cubelite, offered the following comments 'With a system such as this you don't need to be a professional photographer, it's easy to set up, including the lighting and all your shots will be consistent. You also own the copyright to your images and have complete control of your photography. You can take pictures as and when you need to.'

4. Make sure that all the product pictures you show on your website are the same size and shape. This uniformity makes a great difference to how your pages will be looked at.

5. Unless they're on a stylish backdrop, such as the ones at Nordic House, your background needs to be the same throughout, lit the same and in the same style, anything else will look messy.

6. Take a look at how the 'big boys' are doing it. Two of my favourite websites for stills are Restoration Hardware and Williams Sonoma, both from the US. Don't get me wrong, I know that these shots have cost a lot of money, but everyone can learn from the ideas behind them, the superb page layouts, and try for something as near as possible. Going back to Nordic House - this is a small online retailer doing something beautifully, there's no reason why you can't as well.

7. Back to fashion photography - be very careful about mannequins and how they're used, and also very careful about cut-out shots on a white background, leaving products floating on the page. Personally I think this is not a great look and will undoubtably reduce conversion rates. If you want examples please ask me.

I know, I've said it before, but take a look at what the greats such as Net-a-Porter.com are doing, who never put a foot wrong. There's no better online example for fashion in my opinion, which is slightly annoying, because it would be great to see someone take up the mantle, but I don't think that's likely to happen soon. From stills to model shots, they're all excellent.

8. Concentrate on the items that you think you're going to be selling in depth and spend money there, offering more detail shots. Whatever you're selling, from lingerie to lighting, you're going to be up against stiff competition. Don't waste time and effort on small return pieces. Go for depth and quality.

9. Understand that if you spend a bit of time you can learn to do your own photography, and that if you do you will save heaps. There is no quick fix however, you'll need to learn how to do it properly.

10. Invest in the best camera you can afford, and take advice before you buy. If you think about how much this is going to save you in the long run, whatever you spend will be a true investment.

11. For best results you will need Photoshop, and to learn how to use that as well. You don't actually need to become an all time expert, the basics will serve you very well (I use it all the time). You may already be using it, but if not it's a great program. I will admit that my eldest son gave it to me a few years back, and he taught me how to use it!

Finally a story from my shoot organisation days - we were shooting swimwear on the top floor of the Berkeley Hotel in London where there's a gorgeous swimming pool. Unfortunately all the shots through the almost Italianate windows were of a dirty grey London day, so our photographer just cut them out and superimposed a real Italian sunny backdrop which looked superb. Digital photography has certainly made an unbelieveable difference to what we're all doing now.

Leblas Designer Jewellery .........Mothers and Daughters

I'm sure you have those days when you remember something you meant to do some time back, and this is one of those days (apparently, according to Heart FM, it's also go to work naked day, but I won't comment on that!)

Some time back my daughter and I visited the launch of a jewellery store in Sloane Street - Leblas, which you may or may not have heard of. You can see a pic of us both there below, a little bit poignant because after writing this I'm about to take her to the airport to start her gap year travels, but anyway, back to reality, no comments thanks on the fact that the daughter is so tall (and wearing 6 inch heels), and the mother, er, how shall I put it? Ok - not tall.

The jewellery at Leblas is completely stunning, and includes diamond engagement rings, fabulous filigree gold and silver earrings and pendants and glamorous cocktail rings.

Everyone who was there was entered into a draw for this gorgeous pendant (and please excuse the pic, this is my effort) and guess who won it - yup, that would be me.


The prices go from mid to high but the difference here with many jewellery stores, both online and off, is that the quality is superb. When I met Clare from Leblas recently and I mentioned another jewellery brand she sniffed (well not quite) and said yes, but the quality bears no comparison to ours. You know what? I believe her.

Anyway, here's the mother with her far too tall daughter. Boy did we have fun that evening. Off to the airport I go.

I'm very grateful to Retail Jewellery Magazine for producing this picture - the Leading Watch and Jewellery Magazine.