MAMA BROWN AND HER 72 DESIGNERS

Walking into "Mama Brown's Pop Up Store" in the old postal sorting warehouse on London's fashionably eclectic King's Road was like walking into Ali Baba's cave after a psychedelic trip into the past when Hyper Hyper reigned supreme on Kensington High Street back in the 80s.

To our right was an impressive throw back of Punk/Goth/Parakeet ...a surly young man with long black hair, wearing a coat of pink fur so expansive that the whole looked exotic as well as a little scary. I am sure that anyone who knows this person will probably attest to him being:
" A sweet guy, a pussy cat"...
I gave him wide berth and almost bumped into his female counterpart on our left: Mrs Punk Rock circa....then  and not very welcoming either...or maybe it was because it was late on a Wednesday evening and she and her friend were tired of being ogled at.

BUT! This by no means should detract from the experience of Mama Browns...eclectic it well is...Punk caps, colourful furs leading you to jewellery encased in "DO NOT TOUCH" glass cabinets....only to find that you come to a drafty corridor with some clever Calligraphy artwork leading further still into  a surprisingly massive den of art,design and Middle Eastern cuisine!
And that is what threw me...the Middle Eastern theme that I was hardly expecting let alone seeing the mom of someone from my past,sitting with headscarf and glare that she has always sported beside another lady selling her wares ...where have I landed?
My past????
Ahead of me I see a sign for Tania cashmere...Tania Laurie and I went to school together here in London many,many years ago. We were besties then and lost touch until the miracle of Facebook....when does Micheal Aspel jump out and say:
"Reem! This is your Life!!" and hand me that blessed red book!!!

There is jewellery by Tateossian, Neville Hair and Beauty is on hand, funky cartoon pop tshirts with Arabic "Boom" and "Shebang"...not that I can read Arabic but was told so by my faithful companion Omar B.
We met and chatted with a very sweet Canadian, Lebanese handbag designer called Nathalie who told us about all her trials and tribulations. There was also fabulous photography from Noura Al Sakaf...most of which was already sold and understandably so...Stunning.

It is fun and there is lots to see and buy...so get to it before it closes it's doors by the 10th of December, we were told by Nathalie..unless they have extended it by popular demand.

The Japanese Diamond System....Hair we go again!

 I have been a slave to my hair since puberty; I would wind a gauze bandage around my blow dried ...long... thick... curly hair and slept with what felt like a furry rod . The next morning and upon the unravelling; my hair was controlled and lush...my neck on the other hand needed a brace BUT! off to school I went not looking like Diana Ross who had been dragged through brambles but a happy teen with lovely hair.

Fast forward many years of bi-weekly blow dries/blow-outs:burnt ears and scalp to all the latest fads to get my hair under submission and control.

Yuko: done....Ramrod straight hair after 5 back and ass debilitating hours with  Manolo my then Spanish hairdresser whose accent was as thick as molasses and kept calling me "Ren"...
"It's Reem"...
"I know..Ren"!!
It cost a fortune and looked like crap when my hair started growing out.

To cut a long....long...agonising story short: I did it all....

And now I simply get it relaxed at Junior Green's in Knightsbridge... With a yearly Brazilian thrown in for good measure before summer... I spend less time at the hairdresser and get out by lunch time for a glass of Pinot as opposed to twilight and a handful of Nurofen.


Now there is a new kid in town :The Japanese Diamond system available at Eleven Hair Salon which uses a new technique for our unruly tresses : ultrasound.

Apparently this only takes an hour while the ultrasound pushes healthy ingredients such as: argan, jojoba and rose oils into the hairs' cortex thereby smoothing the cuticles into a glass like shine. Then you are free to push healthy doses of Prosecco into your system followed by a delightful lunch.

It costs £85 and results last about 2 months....cheap as chips compared to the rest!

Get thee to Eleven Hair: 11 Blenheim Street, London W1 ( 020 7491 2390)...minutes away from Bond street station.

Latest Resort by CHANEL

I walked by the Chanel boutique in Brompton Cross, London with my dear friend Omar the other day....after a nice lunch at Aubaine might I add(BTW the soup the jour is more like the soup du month...delicious as it is).

...and what caught my attention ? Not the Boy bag on everyone's arm,nor any particular item for that matter... just the cacophony of colours,flimsey fabrics and some seriously hideous "baboush" like shoes on the mannequins.

This apparently is the Resort collection..more like last resort... judging by what we saw in the window. It didn't look good,it didn't look chic and it didn't look like Chanel! 

Then I came across this fashion spread from Marie Claire and thanked God for stylists! Because there is cohesion here,not a collection of "expensive rags" as well as some pretty lovely shoes that don't look they come from The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul.

Have a look for yourselves:

My personal favourite by far is the "keffiyeh" print silk lace jumpsuit worn under the tweed jumpsuit...(lotta jumpsuits at once, I give you that...)

Pray to God you don't have a hangnail as you ease the silk jumpsuit on...at £4,480 there is no going back.

So what did I learn from this? That sometimes window displays just don't convey that intended look?.....or that the said "look" was simply not working as intended and Chanel need to rethink their display.

Moving on....

"Cousin It" Does Xmas....

Ever wonder what Cousin It ...(from the Adams Family) looked like at Xmas?
........
No?.....

Well,in case you did,look no further I have found the answer for you:

And this is by Prada.....I kid you not.

HIDE & SEEK.....

Have you herd.....The Urban Cowgirl is back in Vogue..if only in little touches here and there...total look is overkill and roadkill,my friends!

I am loving the cheetah print Mary Janes with a twist : front and centre by Bionda Castana..in fact Bionda Castana is the new Manolo (in my eyes...)vibrant and fun and the right side of expensive.

Then again is there a side in expensive to take?

C'est Qui?....CELINE!

Sho' Nuff must be love.....

Not that I am a Yellow kinda gal....but it is a mood lifter, something that will take your greys and your leopard prints to a sunnier clim.

Pump those biceps,cos it does look like a heft to schlep....not that anyone will be complaining when this makes its way under the tree....Gym membership included natch.

Nuff said.

Do You Remember the Time....

This is a BLAST from my past and a pleasant one,I might add.

I came across this page in VOGUE SPY  and did a double take:
The thick argyle cardi worn on the model above is a Vintage Ralph Lauren...and how do I know this?
I own one,the very same and I can even date it: 1980..the year I went to boarding school and my mother spent a fortune on my designer trousseau...I mean wardrobe!
I have never wanted to rid myself of it and despite the fact that I washed it last year and stupidly put in the dryer...I HAVE A WOOL CYCLE!
It's ok tho' not tip top but ok.

Nice to see that it can still command attention...in Vogue no less.

Now let us move our collective attention to the jeans worn by the very attractive lady on the right: Been there,did that and NEVER NEED TO DO IT AGAIN!!

Seriously! Are transfer jeans back in fashion? Didn't the Gods of Fashion have any ideas and sort of pulled it out of a hat...as a dare????

Urgh...at any age ...what goes around,doesn't need to come around ad nauseum.