The rise of the über/power blogger over the last year has astounded me. It became even more apparent at the Arcadia blogger event last week. My conversations revolved singularly around the power-bloggers du jour and the reasons they wield so much influence – from the controversy and hype surrounding the youthful Tavi of Style Rookie to Scott Shuman’s respected first blogger publication. Susie Bubble‘s appearance at the event was met with great anticipation by most of the bloggers in attendance who proceeded to name-check her above all others there because of the kudos attached to her Style Bubble. Do not get me wrong, Susie was an absolute DELIGHT and seemed oblivious to the subtle furore surrounding her entrance, it is in the subsequent postings that her influence has been highlighted for me. So, it is on that note that I call all bloggers out there to showcase their blogs. I’m currently updating my blog-roll, a task I take very seriously! The big players will of course be there – Style Bubble, The Sartorialist, Facehunter and Style Rookie (name-checked as I used them in my montage photo above) but I’d love to highlight some new, up-and-coming blogs too. So if you would like me to take a look at your blog and possibly include it on my roll (if of course I love it too) comment on this post with your URL. I am currently sorting through the mountain of RSS fields I read daily but would love to see what else is on offer…go on…surprise me…!

Wednesday night offered a unique opportunity, a blogger event at Arcadia HQ to preview their winter collections. I will not lie, I was EXTREMELY apprehensive. Knowing no-one and ascending to the 6th floor with my oversized white puff-shouldered dress, I entered with trepidation. The night that ensued shaped this post, which originally would have been about ALL the cool bloggers I met (I will name check some later) and the amazing clothes. I feel that this post is better dedicated to the well-oiled marketing machine that is Arcadia and more specifically Topshop. They have harnessed a side of the publicity market that is still in development but offers them a phenomenal marketing opportunity. It could almost be summed up in an equation. Bloggers + canapes + booze + professional photographer + carefully selected clothes = marketing GENIUS! The event was soo well put together and soo much fun, everyone that attended couldn’t fail to gush over the brand. I also met some genuinely lovely members of the Topshop team, specifically Liz & Zoe pictured above. They worked incredibly hard networking and chatting but also seemed to truly enjoy themselves providing great conversation!

I loved meeting other bloggers too – putting names to faces and finding out these people were super-cool and interesting only serves to make me more appreciative of their work. Disney Roller Girl and Red Carpet Fashion Awards were really kind and chatty (Tavi cover of POP seemed to be the conversation du jour) It was also very enlightening to see the power of Susie Bubble – she was extremely in demand, very polite and lovely and obviously a very influential member of the blogger set. So well done Arcadia, this event was truly a success  and innovative and fun to boot!

I felt the need to share some of my current favourite tunes with you. You may think I shareth too much but music feels especially important to me in the summer. There is always music playing; be it in my house or car etc and I begin my autumn/winter gig planning with Clarice. I’m not sure if these links will work but they are to Spotify (I wasn’t sure how else to do this legally!)

Two Door Cinema Club – Something Good Can Work
The Temper Trap – Sweet Disposition – Original Version
Phoenix – 1901
Miike Snow – Animal
Jack Penate – Pull My Heart Away
Empire Of The Sun – We Are The People
Julian Plenti – Games For Days
Florence + The Machine – Drumming Song
Jack Penate – Every Glance
Passion Pit – To Kingdom Come
Miike Snow – Silvia

The only sad thing about this snippet of my playlist is that I believe Topshop has a similar current list – which only goes to prove Things of Random Coolness‘ belief that I get too caught up in trends! Missing are some faves, including Bat For Lashes (saved for bedtime mellowness) Interpol and Grizzly Bear, whose current album – Veckatimest isn’t included on Spotify. P.S. I LOVE the image far right that I pinched from Jack Peñate – his website is beautiful!

As the new issue of POP is almost upon us (saw a sneaky-peek of the cover today) I looked to issues past for some inspiration. Agyness, of course, popped up in many (pardon the sh***y pun!) but it wasn’t her appearance that caught my eye but the LACE. My neice summed it up the other week on a trip to fashion filtration mecca, Topshop. “Nana’s got a tablecloth like that,” seemed to be the quote du jour. Then when I tried a few items on the quote changed to, “but that’s really your style.” Now either my style is inspired by Granma’s tablecloth collection (which I’ve got to say isn’t THAT bad as she has some pretty cool stuff) or lace has become very fashionably acceptable, even to the tween generation. So I purchased this lace blazer, which I then became annoyed about because as you can see from the link Topshop then decided to tell EVERYONE that they “couldn’t live without it” (hate being dictated to!) I also see that many other bloggers were taken with the aforementioned jacket, including Dazed Young Mess! I love lace but when a trend becomes so ubiquitous it is often quite a turn off, so I may start to customise a few of those tablecloths, in an attempt to make it a little more original!