eLuxury Sale

Hello America. Aren’t we lucky? Not only do you lot have the largest economy in the world, access to cheap Marc Jacobs accessories, and the best TV, you also get to save up to 40% on the eLuxury sale, which also offers free shipping… to the US only. No fair.
At eLuxury you can get your mits on some great big name luxury brands including Dior, Y-3 and Phillip Lim. Some of the goodies on offer in the sale include a Just Cavalli silvery puffer jacket (pictured); a cable knit sweater from Alexander McQueen’s McQ label; a gold-buttoned pea coat from Band of Outsiders; and a Paul Smith tie with charming wiggly lines.
But it’s with Dior Homme where the most exciting bargains can be found: a tweed frock coat; a gorgeous leather and shearling coat; a classic Dior Homme two tone blazer;  a smart dress shirt with a closed collar; and a perforated gold bag that is to die for.
Honestly America, sometimes it’s almost as if you don’t want us to like you.

Be your own designer with made-to-measure shirts from Marks and Spencer

M&S have launched a brand new made-to-measure shirt service through their website and it’s fun fun fun!
You have a range of options to choose from. The first is the type of fabric, which seems to dictate the price (£30-£49.50 – bargain!). Next up you choose features such as collar and cuffs, hem and placket (one of my favourite words incidentally). You can also select a Monogram of your choice, but I think that’s a bit poncey myself. Finally you choose between three fits: slim, traditional and tailored.
All you have to do then is to enter your height, weight, collar-size and age and the clever people at M&S use a unique algorithm to create a shirt tailored to fit you.

Obviously this isn’t the same made-to-measure service you’d get in Saville Row. If you’ve got long gorilla-arms or a pigeon-chest, I don’t suppose they’ll be able to work that out from the scant information you’ve provided. Still, it will be a lot more personal and comfortable than an off the shelf shirt.
Between this and the ads with Twiggy and Erin, Marksey’s are really spoiling us this Christmas.

Ronnie Wood has a kip at The First Barbarians screening

Heard of The First Barbarians? Me neither! Apparently they’re the band that Ronnie Wood formed after leaving the Faces and before joining the Stones. Just in time for Christmas Ronnie is releasing a CD/DVD boxset of previously unreleased material from 1974 which is great if you don’t know what to get your dad this Yuletide and you don’t want to add to his mountain of socks.

Anyway Rex Cinema had a private screening of the DVD footage on Wednesday and the darkness obviously got the better of poor ol’ Ronnie who decided to go for a kip… Doesn’t he look cute!

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7th on Sale launches 15th November

Today (Friday) is the first day of 7th On Sale, the world’s biggest sample sale, where all proceeds go to providing care and services to those living with AIDS and HIV. Hundreds of designers have donated items which will go on sale at special shopping events in New York over this week-end. For those of us outside NYC, eBay are also taking part in the initiative, giving us the opportunity to bid on new items every day till 6th December. Each item starts at 10% of the retail price so there’s potential bargains to be had. Those nice people from the MAC AIDS fund will be matching each dollar spent.
There isn’t much information on where the money will go, but most of the charities supported through the scheme so far seem to be US based.
At the time of writing, there’s only a couple of men’s items posted, and if I may be brutally frank, I wouldn’t beg either of them. I will be checking back on a regular basis though as I’m hoping to snag these Tom Ford slippers.

Last Night’s TV: Trinny and Susannah’s Male Dress Code

It seems that Tranny and Spewsannah, have tired of thinking up new things for women to have complexes about and have turned their gorgon gaze onto men. But because men are little better than amoeba, they’re keeping it really simple. These broads have written whole books detailing a brand new lexicon of shapes to describe women’s insecurities; we men get a pamphlet. And a patronising pamphlet at that. Their Male Dress Code is downloadable here.
The design is based on the highway code cos men like to drive. When we can stop our knuckles getting in the way of the foot pedals that is. Ugg. There are 3 mercifully simple principles to follow: Know Your Shape; Look for Ideas; Try it On.
Look, I know its confusing, but try and keep up.
Using the handy illustrations, you first identify which of the 6 shapes that men come in, best describes you. Are you top heavy, or thin or do you have a thick neck, beer belly, short legs or man boobs?
Once you’ve positioned yourself on this axis of evil, you can find the right page in the leaflet and it will tell you what you should and should not be wearing. Warning: This bit’s in writing so you might need an adult to help.
Continues… [Image: Getty Images]

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Marc Jacobs wins Designer of the Year Award

Have you all seen what’s happened to Marc Jacobs lately? He’s gone from being the shy, nerdy almost invisible man behind the label (left, 2006) to a sort of manga version of Tom Ford (right, 2007): all tanned muscles, blue hair and budget tattoos (M&Ms anyone?). By his own admission, he’s having a mid-life crisis, but he says he’s enjoying it so I won’t pass judgement other than to say I’m a bit surprised so much of this formerly self-effacing designer’s energy seems to be going into creating his own celebrity brand.
In any case, on Monday he received the award for “Designer of the Year” award at the Annual ACE awards in New York. The Accessories Council Excellence Awards were set up in 1996 to recognise individuals who have raised awareness of the accessories industry. Jacobs, with his tenure at Louis Vuitton as well as his own two labels, is a deserving recipient if you ask me. I can’t speak for LV, but Marc Jacobs and Marc by Marc Jacobs accessories are great. And cheap! You can score some serious points with designer gifts which look like they cost a lot more than they did. Check them out on-line.   [Images: Getty Images]

Mika at the MTV Europe Music Awards

I don’t get Mika. I don’t get his music, I don’t get him in interviews, I don’t get his dated ‘showman’ posturing, his constant mugging to camera or his self-satisfied manner. That’s all, of course, fine: I don’t have to like him. But what really bothers me is that I don’t get is why he doesn’t look better.

He’s got all the right ingredients: good colouring, cheekbones which could cut butter, great hair and a long-limbed skinny body which should look good in nearly everything. He also seems to be willing to wear most things and can carry them off with aplomb. In fact I’d go so far as to say with panache. I would, I’d say panache!

And yet I feel like he always gets it slightly wrong.

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Elizabeth: The Golden Age UK Premiere

It seems a bit odd to me to do a sequel to a historical biopic. I feel like if we were that bothered about finding out what the future held for our Liz we could’ve read a history book. Still, for all those who’ve spent the past 9 years wondering what happened next,  Tuesday night saw the UK premiere of the new Elizabeth film: Elizabeth: The Golden Age. They should’ve called Elizabeth II, that would’ve been funny.
Newcomer and hot buzz in the film world, Eddie Redmayne, worked it out on the red carpet in a neatly tailored double-breasted grey suit. Double-breasted jackets have been out of favour for a while but they’re making a return. The only danger with them is that they can make you look quite squat, so this one’s a good choice as its narrow between the buttons, which lengthens rather than widens.
It’s all good till you look down at Eddie’s trousers. The shape’s fine, but could you not have got them shortened Eddie? They’re all rucked up. I would have liked to see a longer jumper too, to cover up some of that wide expanse of pelvis that is the curse of many skinny boys. Ha! They get no sympathy from me. Still, top marks for effort. Perhaps a new style icon in our midst?
Alan Cumming, on the other hand, looked like he got dressed in a skip, see after the jump for images.

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