Fur Coat, No Knickers

On Monday night it’s the British Hairdressing Awards, aka, the Oscars of the hairdressing industry. People always laugh when I say that, but that’s fully what it is – and I’m not just saying that because it’s our event. Last week Andy got his hair cut and when his stylist referred to it as such, he was amazed that it wasn’t just something I said but an actual real accepted term. See!

Outfits are, of course, a huge part of the night and finding something to wear starts to feel like a full-time job in itself as November rolls on. Anything high street is out (too risky); it’s got to be dressed-up, but not try-hard… Hairdresser black tie is the given term for the dress code, but that can be interpreted very, very loosely. Every year around this time I start spotting outfits on the high street that are going to be BHA hits – this year it’s this River Island sequin maxi and this Topshop gradient sequin prom style.

One of my jobs on the night is ~street-style~ photographs, so in a way the challenge is on even more – I can’t be taking photos of imaginative outfits dressed in the same Topshop as everyone else, right?

It’s all very melodramatic and a nice problem to have, but a problem nevertheless.

Anyway – I got my outfit this week. It’s this Whistles Melissa dress, which I plan to wear with spotty opaque tights and my old faithful black suede Office pumps. My favourite thing about the dress is its dirndl fastening – the best thing about Whistles dresses is the unexpected details, and I had no idea about these until I saw it in IRL in the shop.

My old faithful Luella pink metallic mock-croc bag is big enough for notepad and copious pens, but the best part of the outfit is my new earrings.

Sent to me by the Earring Boutique, the Venus Chandelier Earrings combine mother of pearl with Swarovski Elements crystals for a deco-ish vintage design. I proper love them. The Earring Boutique describes them as;

Inspired by the eccentric glamour of the Hamptons elite in the sixties…

Pretty perfect, right? Thank you so much to Jenny and the Earring Boutique for a fabulous gift that is going to make my outfit complete, I’m so happy with them!

So excited for Monday night – feel free to follow the action on www.hji.co.uk if you want to know who the best in the hairdressing biz are – and see me at my most !!!!!ENTHUSIASTIC!!!!!

I can’t think of many things that would make me happier than this Shana London Swarovski-studded Smiley bag. Encrusted with enough crystals to cheer up any hungover bedroom flor outfit, the yellow lacquered wood is also mega-cheery. It’s available here for a not unreasonable £720. I say not unreasonable because it includes Swarovskis AND they say it has room for an iPhone – which is more than can be said for a lot of my handbags.

However… If you’re looking for an easier/cheaper way to get happy, there is an alternative.

I was recently contacted by internet legend, the Fairy Hobmother. This greater being appears as if by magic on blogs and hands out rewards to happy, hard-working bloggers – now isn’t that nice?

I left an innocent enough comment on Tamsin’s blog and was rewarded with enough Amazon vouchers to buy all the 1920s fiction I could carry so… who knows what could happen if you comment on this post?

Feel free to leave a message below to be in with a chance of the Fairy Hobmother paying a visit to your blog and granting you a wish. Good luck!

My dad has just been down on a mercy mission from Sheffield and Henderson’s Relish made up a large part of his Red Cross package.

I always assume everyone knows about Sheffield’s finest import, but maybe that’s because most people I know have some sort of connection to my home city…

Made in Sheffield for over 100 years to a closely guarded secret recipe, Henderson’s Relish is kind of like Worcester Sauce, but vastly superior. It tastes like pickled onion Monster Munch, it’s vegan-friendly and it’s basically just a taste of home. I like this story that Richard Hawley tells:

“I spent most of the 90s on tour somewhere in the world and got to the point I couldn’t even remember my name at times. I’m not knocking it – it beats working for a living, you know what I mean? Anyway, I got back from being in the States with the Longpigs for nine months and was in a mess. When I finally got home, I just walked into the house and sat down. My wife had cooked tea for when I got in and I sat there, and didn’t speak or anything. She put the plate in front of me – sausage and mash and gravy, with Hendo’s on. I took one mouthful and burst into tears – the taste of Henderson was the one thing that proved to me I was home at last.”

Ah!

Other relish-love comes in the form of Kid Acne’s top Strong and Northern print (top) – a fine piece of work from one of Sheffield’s other favourite sons.

Here’s my Henderson’s Relish Bloody Mary recipe:

Bloody Strong Mary (makes one jug)

• 100g ice
• 175ml vodka (use a good one, no Asda SmartPrice)
• pinch of celery seeds
• splash of dry sherry
• lots and lots of Henderson’s Relish
• lots and lots of Tabasco (you need to have so much Relish and Tabasco that a mouthful of the drink makes your face feel really warm, like when you stand too close to a fire)
• one teaspoon of creamed horseradish
• one litre of tomato juice
• fresh black pepper
• lemon wedges
• celery, to serve

1) Put everything in a jug, stir, grind some black pepper in, drink.

Allegedly you should take a bite of celery stick between each mouthful to enhance the flavours – did you know that?

1) Another week, another dream house on WowHaus. This time, it’s a 1970s ski chalet in the Alps. I love the view, of course, but what I like most is that this place resembles a slightly shambolic greenhouse, perilously perched on the edge of a cliff. Find out more and see the wood-tastic interior here.

2) My vintage game hasn’t been on point lately, but I am quite taken with this sea-shell print dress which I picked up in Rokit last weekend. It probably needs to wait until summer to be really enjoyed, but I gave it an outing this week and remembered that a) I love vintage because people like to comment on a pretty dress and b) I hate vintage because man-made fibres are prone to stinking.

3) Mishkins has been tweeting all sorts of sneaky teasing photos – and they also revealed that they’d be opening on 25 November. That’s ONE WEEK AWAY!

4) I had a smashing hair cut at Windle and Moodie this week thanks to my buddies at Beauty Seen. Half the visit was spent nattering about why SE14 is so awesome and I left with a fantastic cut and the most perfect curls in the world. If you want a central London salon that has zero attitude, nice people and so many fun things to look at that it feels like you’re in an art gallery shop, I heartily recommend it.

5) Just in time for Christmas, Lomography has launched three shiny golden cameras. My favourite is the Diana F+ (on the far left) – 60s styling, spangly casing, a chain attachment and oh, I guess you can take pictures with it too?

“Here’s to alcohol, the rose-coloured glasses of life.”

The Beautiful and the Damned, F. Scott Fitzgerald

Picador has just released a handsome hard-back copy of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s collected alcohol-themed musings, On Booze. Published earlier this year, this new edition boasts a rather more stylish cover than the original, making it an ideal Christmas present for the booze-hound in your life.

Midcentury Modern returns to Dulwich College this Saturday, which means a) an ideal opportunity to invest in some lovely 20th century design and b) a chance to stroll around the educational surroundings enjoyed by P. G. Wodehouse.

Find out the times, prices and all that other useful stuff here.