Inside Amanda Wakeley's home

Fashion designer Amanda Wakeley opened up her black and white Earl's Court, Lonon, pad to The Independent. http://money.independent.co.uk/property/homes/article2002175.ece

Get 30% off at Brittique.com

Brittique.com is offering 30% off until 30 November. Don't forget you can also enter the draw to win £500 before 5 December.

DvF dress! Had to have it

I just returned from an MBAWorld function at the Strand Palace where Susie Willis of Plum Baby Superfoods was presenting about the trails and tribulations of launching a new business. Susie is such a beautiful and enchanting woman, not to mention smart and successful! She's also very stylist and was wearing this Dianne von Furstenberg dress. I couldn't stop coveting the dress, so I just had to buy one myself. Can't wait to wear it to a swanky lunch on Tuesday! I know I'm supposed to support British, but can you forgive me this once?

IQONS.com launch party

I attended the IQONS.com launch at the Slaughtered Lamb in London. IQONS is a new on-line fashion community that aims to have the same impact on fashion as MySpace had on music. The ambition is to “set fashion free” from the existing fashion system which has too many ‘gate-keepers’ with high concentrations of power. Instead, we want to promote talent and work based only on merit and integrity.

Pictured here (left) is designer Julia Clancey wearing her Ava Dress and cummerband as featured on Brittique.com.

More pictures here: http://2566341888.slide.com/p/3/Dan_27s+edit+London+party

Gil Carvalho to create a diffusion range for Faith

Shoe designer Gil Carvalho is to launch a diffusion range for Faith for SS07. This exclusive range will be launched at London Fashion Week in February.

There's no place like home - an ode to red shoes

In 1845, Hans Christian Andersen wrote ‘The Red Shoes’, a grim fairytale telling the story of a young girl who wore red shoes to church. The girl, Karen, could not stop obsessing over her bright and beautiful footwear and forgot her psalms. An angel of God appeared and condemned the girl to wear the shoes for eternity, and to never stop dancing in them until it killed her. Karen’s only redeemer was an executioner who sliced off her feet at the ankles, with an axe.

Since then, red shoes have become a statement of magic, sin and sex appeal. The 1948 film of the same name, directed by Michael Powell, was loosely based on the fairytale but added romance and desire when ballerina, Victoria, is forced to dance obsessively, but leaves dancing ballet completely when she falls in love. Her red ballet shoes lie hidden away, but their owner is infatuated with them, as they stand for so much more than just shoes.

Arguably the most famous shoes in the world are Dorothy’s sparkling and sequined red heels in ‘The Wizard of OZ’, 1939. However, these shoes are not sinful; they are in fact Dorothy’s saviour and can return her home from a magical land keeping her captive. If there is just one thing that red shoes communicate through all these stories and in life today, is that they liberate. Even poor little Karen started wearing the shoes to escape from the drudgery of her psalms. Red shoes say to the world “Here I am! Stand back, I’m coming through!”

Say no to "value" fashion!

You buy locally grown organic produce faithfully and are happy to spend the extra ££, but what about that £2 Primark top you're wearing? Have you stopped to think about the airmiles of those clothes and who produced them and the raw materials?

Sadly not many people do, too addicted to the short term high they get when they purchase these so called bargains that either sit in the closet unused, or fall apart after 2 washes. Where's the value in that?

It's time to think about it. Take your £2 Primark shirt, where did the cotton come from? It certainly isn't organic for that price! Was the earth ploughed by a poor little 6 year old boy in Africa forced to work to make some fat business rich when he should be at school? What about the manufacture of that fast-fading shirt? Is there some skinny, underfed girl slaving 18 hours at a sewing machine in a village deep in China? That shirt is then packaged in numerous amounts of plastic and flown to the UK where it finally arrives to you.

After the inital fix you get from the bargain, the shine is gone and you need another. The shirt is either washed once and so out of shape and faded that there's no way you'll wear it again, or thrown with the rest of your "bargains" to be discarded at the next wardrobe clean out.

It's time to turn your back on so called "value" fashion, an industry that has grown from 7% to 24% of the clothing market in recent year. If you think about it, there's no value there at all. Instead think about locally sourced products from the next generation of designers many of who are struggling to build their businesses and brand awareness. By supporting designers such as Preen,Osman Yousefzada, Aimee McWilliams, Nicola de Main, Hannah Martin, Alessandra Ferreira etc, you are helping to bring to market the next luxury brands like Amanda Wakeley and Nicole Fahri without adding to Sir Green's already buldging wallet.

Daily Mail features Craven Gene at Brittique.com

Craven Gene's white mohair blouse featured in the Daily Mail White Winter special on 20 November 2006.

Drapers on the record part 2

Day two of the Drapers retail summit was more relevant to me with some tangible and actionable ideas of how to drive forward the marketing of my business.

I questioned an analyst from investment bank Credit Suisse about the future of stand alone online businesses (such as mine Brittique.com) and he believes that there's no future because the bricks and mortar type shops will always be ahead with their retail offerings. I disagree! And Nick Robertson CEO of Asos.com is proof of this. Their business is going surperbly well. Although he says there isn't enough room in the market for another retailer, I disagree with him! There's a middle market currently not be catered for...

Amanda Wakeley dines with Gordon Ramsey

In the December issue of InStyle (UK edition), interior designer Kelly Hoppen hosts a special dinner cooked by none other than Gordon Ramsey with friends Greg Rusedski and his wife, nutritionist Vicki Edgson, DJ Harriet Scott and designer Amanda Wakeley.

I just love Gordon Ramsey! I sat next to him in the BA lounge in May and tried so hard to act cool as I texted everyone I knew! I then meet him at the recent Good Food Show. I tried to take a picture of my friend Kristy with Gordon and I was shaking so much he told me to go and have a glass of wine to calm my nerves!

However, back to fashion! Amanda Wakely also feature's as InStyle's celebrity stylist in the December issue.

Drapers on the record

Attended the Drapers Fashion Summit 2006 today and it's on again tomorrow. The topic is "Connect with your customer and innovate to succeed". Thought it was a relevant topic for the types of people who attend i.e. people in the fashion trade particularly the owners of independent boutiques such as me. But a number of speakers chose to disregard the given topic and use the forum as an opportunity to promote their own businesses – we work in fashion, we don't want to hear about your business! We want tangible and real ideas on how to connect with our customers, not yours!

There was one excellent presentation from Martin at The Future Laboratory. Martin had some amazing insights into marketing to the different generations from young teens through to 100.

Brittique.com reaches Brazil

http://santamistura.blogspot.com/2006/11/brittiquecom.html
The lovely Santa Mistura blogged about the amazing shoes on Brittique.com.

Brittique.com is live!

I'm exhausted! The party is over and I've booted the last person out. Brittique.com's launch party was a success - just a few friends around at mine having drinks and eating great food. Oh, and trying on all my clothes and shoes! Some bought too, which is even better.

Month's of planning and buying is over and I can't believe I have a live business. Starting a new business is so hard. But we've made it and now we'll work to make Brittique.com the most prominent boutique for top Brititsh luxury designers.

Brittique.com featured by Urban Junkies

Urban Junkies listed Brittique.com in it's bi-weekly Shopaholic feature. Click here to view.

Scarlett Johansson dazzles in Amanda Wakeley gown

Scarlett Johansson dazzled on the red carpet at London premier of The Prestige in a stunning Amanda Wakeley diamond encrusted gown and pink hair.