My blog thus far has been “anonyme” in the French sense. Above is the one and possibly ONLY image of me that the blog will ever reveal. The reason behind this apparent change of heart…Rankin. What started as a jovial tweet from my mate Juan, followed by a few emails, resulted in the above shot (I’m on the left by the way!) I would like to make one thing clear, this is not the normal me; this is the enhanced me, lit by death lamp and shot by a genius. The process itself was phenomenal. I toyed with the idea of puling out all week, as I have never been comfortable in front of the camera. The Old Truman Brewery in Brick Lane housed Rankin’s makeshift studio and stunning exhibition and once in, there was no escape. Hair and make-up was a treat, laid-back and WAY more fun than expected (I am possibly the only person in the world that pre-imagined that this would be torture!) I was first up, thank goodness, as if I’d seen another be “Ranked” my nerves would have increased ten-fold. Rankin breezed in, cool and calm with his team at his side and a suitably bold soundtrack to match. One element I really wasn’t expecting was the interactivity of the exhibition – there was an open gallery, I was being watched, there was a film crew! By now I was in robot-adrenalin mode, so just got on with it. I was about as natural as polyester in front of the lens but I learned a lot; for instance, I angle my head each time I smile, my cheese-monger grin produces more wrinkles than an Olympus can handle and blonde facial hair shows up like a rug under the death lamp! The main lesson I learned as an amateur faced with a camera, was that with the aid of an astounding photographer, extreme lighting and Photoshop, we can all, even mere mortals, be transformed.

London Fashion Week was a complete enigma to me….until last week. LFW blogger etiquette eluded me too; to be honest I didn’t know if such a thing even existed. Then the blogger community rallied around to my twittering call of HELP and showed me how to be part of the great British fashion institution. My first lesson learned – if you don’t ask, you don’t get. I emailed lots of press-officers in the vain hope of one or two replies. Not having received my press accreditation, I did panic slightly but as Style Slicker and Disney Roller Girl assured me, the events are very blogger friendly. So, some invites started to drip into my inbox and up to Londinium did I head…with a sense of palpable trepidation! With the help of some good friends, I ventured to the Hospital Club for Nova Dando‘s fashion week unveiling of the Rainbow Collection. La Roux triumphed live for the select crowd, House of Dangerkat wowed with their “moves” and the champagne flowed, all be it a little too freely! One of the most interesting parts of the night for me was experiencing first hand other people’s definition of “celebrity.” I was overwhelmed by the presence of some of my fave uber-bloggers, whilst a certain Radio 1 DJ impressed one friend….another’s only starstruck moment came from viewing Banksy’s Lady Di tenners! What impressed me the most was that the common denominator is our humanity – if you venture over for a chat, these well-known souls communicate in the same way as us mere mortals…all be it they may not wish to talk back to you. A joyous revelation was Monsieur Yvan Rodic, the Facehunter. We share a common language, le français, and he was most helpful, insightful and friendly; I’m not sure why I expected anything less really! So quite a few myths were dispelled for me this weekend – LFW is accessible to bloggers, the famous and I are of the same species and Nova Dando gives good party.

As I get to grips with my Diana F+ camera, my admiration for professional photographers increases. Stories of the Eye is basically a perfect modern ad campaign for Olympus. Take 4 fashionistas, give them an Olympus camera and get them to photoblog the results. Alice Dellal, Daisy Lowe, Miquita Oliver and Lovefoxx of CSS, showcase their personal snaps in association with the aforementioned brand. Their combined cool factor alone is enough to make me nose through the shots and the collaboration with Olympus does lead me to question my next camera choice. I am enamoured with the Leica C-Lux 3 but do I love it for its look, or for its picture quality? Peruse the lovely ladies’ Olympus rolls here and maybe summon up the courage to submit your own photographic offering too. Feel free to tell me what camera you use and what you think of my “aesthetic” choice!

Regular readers will know of my fervent love for those at Tatty Devine. Right from the early blogger days of Random Fashion Coolness, I championed their plastic wonders (I once accidently blogged a private party invite they sent me too…not noticing the PRIVATE!!!) I didn’t realise how much I used to post about them, think it verged on stalker status! Take a look here and laugh at the first incarnation of my blog!!!! So it will come as no shock that I LOOVVVE their new collection; specifically their frogging pieces. No, they haven’t delved into the realms of Kermit (although a Muppets collaboration would be A-mazing!) but the frog garment fastening. WIKI says it well, “an ornamental braiding for fastening the front of a garment that consists of a button and a loop through which it passes.” As always, Tatty presents a plethora of frog-products – from rings to brooches, to tiered necklaces…you get the idea. My favourite has to be the simple cuff picture above. I will be honest, some of their other new bits aren’t for me – I’m not kitsch enough to pull off the hobby horse brooch. I would look like I had accidently rolled on my niece’s floor and got something stuck to my jumper! But take a look at the range and I’m sure there is something you will like. If you’re in the vicinity of Brick Lane or Soho, pop in to one of their shops; it’s a real treat! It’s like entering a sweet-shop with jewels and it doesn’t feel grown-up at all.

The STATEMENT necklace – a hard one to pull off I find. The outfit must be suitably simple to highlight its impact but not so boring that your “noose” is all that people see. I have a few of the aforementioned S.N.s and although I wear them from time to time, I never seem to get the balance quite right. So it is always with an air of distain that I greeted my friends that manage to pull off this mean feat. A Londinium friend of mine looked AMAZING last week and on enquiry her S.N. was from 2 by Lyn and Tony, purchased in Colette (a mere trip to Pariiiis away!) After my instant hatred of her stylishness wore off, I decided to check out Lyn and Tony. They use materials from their native Australia, such as Kangaroo leather combined with handwoven silks. Aside from their skills in creating jewels, they are also reputed photographers; their visual aesthetic obviously aiding their design prowess. Check out 2 here – I may justify a Paris trip for an S.N. (Aus is out-of-the-question ;)

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!

This summer, my eyes have already been plagued by some sheer denim disasters…of the double and triple variety! Then an epiphany; I bumped into someone yesterday in a trio of denims, that successfully pulled off a perfect look. The key can be summed up in this little guide equation – stonewash + grey + indigo = acceptable denim x 3. The mix of materials worked in harmony! Stonewash + stonewash + stonewash = this (WARNING : open at your peril!) Another element of her look (apologies as I was unable to photograph her) were the proportions – jeggings (HATE that term!), plus vest, plus oversized denim shirt. The look I found that came closest is the image from Stockholm Street Style above, all be it sans “jegging!” The other part of me, Things of Random Coolness, has fashion sweats over the 80’s denim shirt…but he’ll get over it! If the term jegging frightens you as much as me, go to the pull-on jean section at Urban Outfitters…that feels more acceptable! I’d love to see your denim combinations too; email or contact me with your experiments.