I know there are loads of fashion shows on tv at the moment and I’ve watched them all - and maybe there’s a bit over fashion over kill at the moment but I’m quite excited about Twiggy’s Fashion Trade. It’s is a new 3 part series for BBC2 which taps into the latest trend for clothes swapping parties! I’ve never been to a clothes swapping party - not officially but I have swapped clothes with friends. Anyway so many of us have wardrobes full great piece that we never wear for one reason or another - so why not swap them for something better & get expert advice at the same time! I think the show airs in September.

I’m sure many of you watched Panorama: Primark: On the Rack last night.

I like when I go into a shop and there is signage about the shop’s ethical policies. I want to believe them but I have this nagging feeling …it’s too good to be true feeling…I should know better. In my head it’s just common knowledge that cheap garments equal some kind of exploitation. I’ve had nothing to prove it - this was just a something I taught from a very young age. I’ve always felt people should be paid what the job is worth to you, not the least amount you can get them to do it for - that’s a mentality that I hate. Anyway I think when people read the signs in shops about ethical labour policies they want to trust the retailer. It’s easier and if it’s a policy it must be true and it puts our mind at ease. Even if on some level we know or can’t believe that a top only costs a fiver; the shop has a policy, so it must be OK. After a programme like Panorama it’s all most impossible to for us the consumer to claim ignorance. What will retailers have to do to gain consumer trust?

Check out:
Ethical Trading Initiative
War on Want

Update: Primark Speaks Out
Primark director Breege O’Donoghue speaks out: watch the video at www.ethicalprimark.com

In case you forgot, this interview will remind you, why you really liked Victoria Beckham in the first place!

Victim is one of my favourite shops. Most of Victim’s dresses are one of a kind, so they are very distinct and recognizable. They are made with vintage silks and lace: you feel very sexy and feminine when you wear them. Everything is designed by Mei-Hui Liu, a dear friend of mine.

Peaches Geldof was in Mei-Hui’s shop Thursday after shooting at Concrete - another very cool shop on Marshall Street. As reported in The Sun, The Mirror and The Daily Mail, after Peaches left Mei-Hui realized a dress was missing and called Peaches’ management. The dress was later returned and then paid for and a receipt was given. The dress was originally the feature piece for an upcoming fashion show.

I thought the first series of Skins was great. I liked that you knew it’s British just because of the style of clothes and the way the characters wore them. Cassie (played by Hannah Murray) was one of my favourite dressers; she wore lots of vintage looking dresses and knitwear. I also loved the way she said “Oh wow”.

I’m not sure that Skins will influence fashion the way Gossip Girl does, but it will be interesting to see if strives to influence fashion.

The second series air in February! What will they wear?

I love TV and it’s always fashion-related TV that I watch: biographies of designers, music videos and shows like Sex In The City, Ugly Betty or Gossip Girls - any TV that influences fashion. I also like shows that have an otherworldly/surreal feel to them like Twin Peaks - I loved that series.

I just finished watching the HBO series Carnivale. It’s about a carnival that travels across the dust bowl during the great depression and the struggle between good and evil. I love the whole look and feel of this series. It cost $4 million US per episode; it was one of the most expensive shows to produce. There were an estimated 5,000 people costumed in the show’s first season! The clothes are great. I love the neutral colours, they are faded, dusty, worn and authentic-looking: they tell a story.

What I find most interesting about costume and period clothing are elements of the clothes that are recreated in modern clothes to create retro feel to them. Clothes that look fashionable and hip often have a historic reference to them, sometimes it’s very subtle, but it can also be very obvious, to the point were elements of the authentic period costumes in Carnivale look strangely current.

Starting this weekend, Season 6 of Sex and The City will be playing again, on the Paramount Comedy Channel in the UK.

Ever wonder what all the designers are that they’re wearing? Well, HBO’s website has the fashion credits on their website. It’s pretty complete, especially later in the series, although some of the credits from the first season are missing - there aren’t even any fashion credits for episode 1 (!) but it’s a fun way to watch anyways…well, if you’re fashion-obsessed!

Just in case you haven’t seen it already, here’s the trailer for the upcoming Sex and the City movie, to be released May 30, 2008:

A great song from Flight of the Conchords, which is a hilarious new HBO series starring 2 Kiwi comedians, Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement.

Unfortunately the red swimsuit Gwen wears reminds me of Special K commercials but I do like the final outfit as I love her high waisted shorts!
I don’t like most perfume commercials as they seem to adhere to a different aesthetic than most advertising: they’re a bit too self indulgent for my taste. I love perfume ads that tell a story, like the ads featuring Estella Warren for Channel No.5:

Sky has released a limited edition set of designer HDTV boxes, by Basso & Brooke, Gareth Pugh, Giles Deacon, Preen and Jonathan Saunders. The HDTV boxes are priced at £199-£299 with subscription, or £399 without.

Basso & Brooke:

Jonathan Saunders:

Gareth Pugh:

Preen:

Giles Deacon:

http://designerbox.sky.com

Here’s a promo clip from abc.com for the upcoming episode of Ugly Betty with Vera Wang and Victoria Beckham (the episode will air in the UK on Nov 21 on E4 and Nov 23 on Channel 4).

This commercial is just too over the top for me but I have to share it with you! It’s Orlando Bloom in a Japanese UNO Commercial. Uno is a hair product owned by Shiseido, the main product is Fiber Neo.

maybe it works for the Japanese market?

Joseph Dempsie plays Chris on the E4’s new, edgy show “Skins,”
which follows the raucous lives of a group of UK teenagers. Chris is probably
the craziest of a cast of crazy characters. Doesn’t he look cool in Religion hanging out in The Hoxten Hotel.