Look Books and Birkenstocks...

Good morning girls and boys. It’s been a while I know but I was so busy sunning my fashionable self in Tel Aviv that I didn’t have a second to write to you and fill you in on the intimate ins and outs of my fascinating endeavours. Actually we had torrential rain for 3 of 6 days and Handsome D (don't worry my forgetful friends the glossary is right here) was diagnosed with diabetes but it’s nothing a spray tan and sugar-free diet can’t fix. Never fear Handsome - Beauty and the Beach do a fabulous ‘Dark & Lovely’ for only £20.

View from the apartment in Tel Aviv

Apart from that we had a great time. Tel Aviv is an amazing city-utterly urban and modern with the bonus of being on the sea which really gives the best of both worlds. I have a fabulous pink bicycle out there and cycle all over-to the beach, the restaurants, the galleries, the shops, for coffee, up to Jaffa, down to Hyarkon Park…Basically my Birkenstocked feet don’t hit the ground. Yes you read correctly-Birkenstocks. And before you mock please understand that I LOVE my Birkenstocks. They-along with my fat John Travolta T-shirt (he was normal John Travolta but age, multitude washings and the effects of my growing bust between the ages of 13 and 17 have disfigured him somewhat but I will never, ever give him away) are mainstay of my Tel Aviv wardrobe. Tel Aviv has an amazing design culture but fashion is relatively slow to catch up. This is beginning to change and I can see the ‘green shoots’ of £350 + handbags emerging but it is far from being a fashion Mecca and I must confess that I adore the freedom to make like a fashion icon in a pair of Birkenstocks and fat John T-shirt.

Actually I left London on a high and have been so excited to write this entry that I got a little overwhelmed and didn’t know where to start… Just before I packed my Giant Bailey and set off for supposedly sunnier climes we shot our SS10 look book. The shoot started off as a very neat idea of Grandfathers -our fabulous stylist and muse (because she is very a-muse-ing) the basis being that we wanted to go back to the roots of what we do as a very British brand with an ingrained English Eccentric philosophy and shoot the streets of London alive with Sara Berman. So we asked our girlfriends to spare a mo of their time and simply come as they are and pose with one of our new bags, jackets or jumpers in exactly the way they would wear them. Given that most of our motley crew wears SB anyway-this wasn’t an enormous stretch and the results are so fantastically cool, such an amazing point in history of all the relationships that make a life and define an era. The whole thing spiralled utterly out of control with friends bringing friends and friend’s friends bringing more friends! We ended up having to shoot over 4 days in 5 locations with 35 models. And what amazing models they were! Never have our clothes and bags looked so exactly and wonderfully perfect and fabulously cool. It must be said-our girls rock! A big thank you to all concerned.

A sneak peek at the SS10 Look Book