This cute little back was, until a couple of days ago, covered with raging eczema. I’ve tried endless creams and different brands of washing powder, including various eco ones,  none of which had any effect. Then I tried this:

And two days later the eczema was gone. It’s available at Ocado/Waitrose and I thoroughly recommend it.

New sunglasses

They’re by RetroSuperFuture, a brand I’d never heard of two weeks ago but am suddenly seeing everywhere. They were £110 from Goodhood, which while not cheap, isn’t nutso expensive for designer sunglasses. Victoria Beckham wants 495 quid for hers.

I also love their collaboration with Liberty:

Woof woof

Did you know that, every morning between 8.30am and 9.30am, Hoxton Square becomes a dog park? And there was you thinking it was just for drunks and wankers.

Where oh where…

Did she get these leopard-print trunks for her son Michael? I want me some for my boy. You don’t see nearly enough mother-baby coordinating swimwear.

APC comes East

APC has opened in Shoreditch’s fashionable Redchurch Street, which is great news if you love its pared-down schoolgirl aesthetic and don’t mind paying 80 quid for a stripey T-shirt. It’s a bit man repeller, but I like APC because it makes me feel chic and Gallic, and does a nice line in playsuits for the over-30s.

Check that forgiving longer length!

But the Redchurch Street shop is disappointing, stocking a small, slightly half-arsed collection. Unless this is a soft opening and they’re planning on shipping in a ton more stock, it’s not worth travelling out of your way for – the Mayfair branch is way better.

I don’t know what it is about well-known brands that move into Shoreditch, but they don’t seem to make much effort. Take the Nike store that opened to zero fanfare in Bateman’s Row, a tiny side street that attracts precisely no passing trade. Surprise, surprise, nobody came, and now it’s closed down. They clearly wanted to attract a crowd that would rather eat tramp sick than visit the Oxford Circus branch but still, you can be too underground.

I’m guessing these brands want to dip their toes in and have a presence in that trendy Shoreditch, without actually parting with any cash. Hence the new Boxpark concept, due to open as soon as they can flog the retail space this summer in a wasteland next to Shoreditch High Street overground. It’s billed as ‘the world’s first pop-up shopping mall’ and the Standard has already written an unnecessarily sneery piece slating the idea. I disagree – it’s replacing a depressing piece of wasteland, not Xanadu. My objection is only that I can foresee it being a bit crap, housing all those brands that think they’re trendy but aren’t – the G-Stars, Diesels and Superdrys of this world. The Carnaby Street brigade, in other words.

Bare naked bulbs

Article in today’s Times about the bare lightbulb, which is making a comeback.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/life/property/interiors/article2948459.ece

Some nice examples here, but all at the pricier end of the market. To this I’d add the NUD bulb, with its visible filament, available at SCP for a mere 18 of your English pounds (OK, quite a lot for a lightbulb, but it boasts special features, dunnit?)

The picture actually does it no justice – it looks way better in real life. Just add taxidermy and a Victorian bell jar, preferably containing some kind of antique doll part, and you’ve got yourself one cool, if spooky, house.

 

 

Rupert Sanderson factory sale

This was the queue for the Rupert Sanderson factory sale at the Music Rooms near Bond Street today:

Or rather, that was half of the queue – I only thought to take the pic once I’d been there 20 minutes. It was carnage. But some excellent deals to be had, as prices started at £40 (those were for pretty ropey old styles though). I spent £110 which, when you consider that these things retail at upwards of £385, explains the queues…

Shoreditch – the best coffee in London?

According to Time Out, this men’s boutique in Shoreditch High Street serves the best coffee in London.

It certainly has the nicest machine:

But my friend Nicole reckons that Taylor St Baristas, tucked away in a car park next to Vice magazine’s offices, serves a better brew.

The Observer disagrees with them both. It reckons you’ll find the best cup at Jeanette Winterson’s shop Verde:

It certainly wins the prize for Most Beautiful Shopfront, even if everything in there does cost a billion pounds. And yes, technically it’s in Spitalfields, not Shoreditch. But surely this all points to the fact that London’s best coffee can be found in the East End?

 

The joy of fungus

This is pretty disgusting, but for the past couple of weeks I’ve had the most raging case of athlete’s foot (yes, I know – overshare). I blamed the husband, since he’s susceptible to it whereas my sweet toes have always been fungus-free. Admittedly we’ve shared a flat for 12 years without him passing on any infection, but why let a boring thing like rationale get in the way when apportioning blame?

Then, after a eureka moment, I discovered the culprits:

My Fitflop Mukluks

Yes, I know they’re disgusting. And I don’t believe those bullshit toning claims, either. But, my God, are they comfortable. It’s like sinking your feet into a marshmallow duvet. I haven’t taken them off all winter, even indoors, when they can get a bit sweaty. And that’s when I had the eureka moment…

Bad marketing ideas

This morning I strolled around the block and came face to face with this:

Interesting, I thought, Peroni has built a cheap, plastic pop-up cinema. How lovely. Strange they’ve chosen the ugliest, most traffic-riddled junction in London on which to do it, but hey ho.

Cinema Peroni though – that sounds a bit like Cinema Paradiso. They must be showing some really interesting films. Oh no, they’re showing one film on a loop, which appears to be an advert for Peroni.

Now I know the advertising world is struggling to adapt to the changing media landscape and marketers are having to think of increasingly inventive ways to make us buy stuff, but really, whose crap idea was this?