Any new designer or small manufacturer who has tried to get an appointment with a buyer from a major retailer, will know how difficult it is to get a foot in the door without some sort of introduction. Many buyers would love to have the time to research innovitive new products but are time poor and often rely on established trade shows and companies to come up with new ideas, making it almost impossible for unknown designers to pitch directly to big retailers.
Britains Next Big Thing starts on BBC 2 next Tuesday at 8pm and provides new and unknown designers with the opportunity of a lifetime, by asking them to pitch their ideas to the buying teams of three major retailers. Entrepreneur Theo Paphitis follows the buyers and suppliers as they experience the highs and lows of bringing a product to market - from initial pitch to the shop floor.
The series starts with Liberty opening its doors to the public with a unique open day. From 6am, over 600 people queue around the block for the opportunity to pitch their product to the buying team, led by Buying Director Ed Burstell. With just three minutes to pitch their wares, the pressure is on and only a handful will be selected to take their products further.
Like a Dragons Den for the retail industry, it sounds fascinating and will no doubt have us shouting at the TV!!
You may have noticed we have been enjoying rather a lot of 70's style nostalgia lately, perhaps it's all the 1970's inspired styling we have been seeing on the catwalks, but we just cant seem to get enough of the decade that brought us the Space Hopper, flares, Angel Delight and Brotherhood of Man!
Chelsea Girl was one of our favourite teenage clothes shops, offering all the essential denim A line midi skirts and cheese cloth shirts a girl could want. In 1988 it evolved into River Island and eventually became a little too high street for us budding fashionistas, but we still have fond memories of the heart shaped sign and 70's styling.
Now the iconic brand has been revived and a new 40 piece Chelsea Girl collection is available in a pop shop in Selfridges and selected River Island shops. Designed by young graduate Lucy Moller under the guidance of one of the original Chelsea girl designers, the range is a tribute to our 70's teenage years and if we are honest, probably more appealing to our teen daughters, but we do quite like the look of the denim skirt.
Another staple of our teenage years was the weekly episode of Top of The Pops. In the days when there few (make that no) opportunities to see our favourites bands, Thursday nights at 7.30pm were the highlight of the week, including the obligatory 'is that a boy or a girl' comments from our Dads'!
Now the BBC has decided to revive Thursday nights TOTP's and every week for at least a year, depending on its popularity BBC4 will show vintage episodes from the equivalent week, starting with April 1976 - when incidentally Brotherhood of Man were No 1. Having watched some of Saturday nights documentary on TOTP's, we cant wait, and may even wear a Chelsea Girl outfit in tribute!
And finally, if you fancy another trip down memory lane, go and see the lovely coming of age film Submarine. Set in 1970's Swansea, it follows the story of 15 year old Craig Roberts and his attempts to save his parents marriage and negotiate his first real relationship. It's both is funny and poignant and the perfect combination of contemporary nostalgia (the soundtrack is by Alex Turner). It reminded me in parts, of one of my favourite dark comedies Harold and Maude, and it really made me want a duffle coat!!
For the last two weeks teen daughter and her friends have been experiencing what its like to go to work. As part of the state school curriculum, students are required to do two weeks work experience in year 10. The teen and her friends have loved dressing up, getting up on the bus/tube everyday and going to work. They are all lucky enough to have well connected parents and friends who have found them placements in some really interesting places. They have risen to the occasion and accepted the challenges thrown at them, and as parents we have seen them blossom as their placements progress.
I explained to my teen, do whatever they ask you to do, and do it with a smile, no matter how boring, as there are people with degrees who would love your placement. And she did and had a great experience.
This has not been the case for everyone from their school, with one girl walking out of a great placement as they were 'treating her like their bitch'. It was no surprise to anyone who knows her, as she is something of a wananbe WAG with an attitude.
Working Girls, the new series on BBC Three highlights the worrying attitude some girls have to work. Young women who have never had a job are given a chance to intern in really interesting companies and the way they approach this is a hideous insight into their unenthusiastic, lazy attitude. Feminism is not a word that figures highly in their vocabulary and their false sense of entitlement is staggering. The fact that over the last 100 years women have had to fight for the right to work and earn their own money, means nothing to them and one wonders what kind of role models they have at home.
Of course, as is the way with format TV, the girls in the episode I watched are mentored and encouraged to face their insecurities and the programme ends with them having a miraculous change in attitude and determined to find work in the future.
If only life were actually like this, as anyone who works knows, it is a big commitment to take on an intern and very few people have to time to devote to helping someone who is rude, ungrateful and work shy, why should they, when there are lots of hard working, willing young people, grateful for a chance to show their worth. In real life the girls in this programme would almost certainly have been asked to leave after only a few days.
I have written before about the lack of role models for young girls and how reality TV is giving them unrealistic expectations. And while I appreciate Working Girls is an attempt to show the girls the benefits of working hard and earning their own money, isn't the fact that - A. they are on TV, therefore 'living the celebrity dream', and B. it is totally unrealistic to think they could turn their attitude and lives around after only one week - providing yet another false view of the real world?
I am huge believer building teenagers self esteem and encouraging them to follow their dreams, but watching reality TV (however well intentioned) is creating a generation of women who aspire to nothing more than shopping and being married. Isn't it time that young women rejected these fake, dumbed down role models and started to be proud to call themselves feminists?
Feminist writers Liz Stanley and Sue Wise said 'Feminism directly confronts the idea that one person or set of people has the right to impose definitions of reality on others'.
We couldn't agree more. Any one fancy starting a reclaim feminism campaign?
If you have the new cable channel, Sky Atlantic (sadly we don't) starting this week, you will be able to watch the entire series of Thirtysomething from beginning to end. For some forty somethings this will be massive news, but if you are actually thirty something (or even twenty something) it will probably mean nothing to you, and if you do watch it, might be left wondering what all the fuss is about - because you had to be there.
The ultimate 80's drama, Thirtysomething summed up the mood of the time, focussing on the lives of Hope, Micheal, Elliot, Nancy, Ellyn and Gary. For four years we watched the characters struggle with relationships, marriage and break ups, babies, career issues, illness and even death (how much did we cry when Gary died). And even though we were actually only twenty something when we started watching it, we identified with the domestic and professional lives of the characters and realised that as we fast approached thirty the serious issues of babies, career, meeting the right man etc etc were looming in the future.
The characters weren't glamorous in a Desperate Housewives type way, they were ordinary and Hope was even a little bit dull, but they were believable and we liked them. We wanted them to do well and be happy, as somehow their success meant we could potentially be too. They gave us hope and made us excited about the future.
The show ended in 1991 and we wonder what the characters would be doing now if they made a Thirtysomething - where are they now, special. Would it be like real life? Would Micheal would have a beer gut, be angry with the world and be buying a midlife crisis sports car, would Hope be on HRT and not so secretly hate Micheal. Would Ellyn have had massive amounts of botox and be struggling with an alcohol addiction and would Nancy have discovered she was a lesbian and have left Elliot to live with a woman in the Catskills? Or am I being horribly cynical? Either way, we are not sure we want to know, as somehow that would be too much like real life and we would prefer to think they are still living that 1980's dream!
Thirtysomething is on Sky Atlantic everyday at 10am and 3pm.
After only the second episode of Upstairs Downstairs, we are well and truly hooked. We grew up with the Bellamys of Eaton Place and I have to admit to a slight childhood obsession with Edwardian maids, and spent a great deal of my childhood insisting I answer the door and serve afternoon tea, dressed in full Rose/Ruby regalia!
The original series was created by Jean Marsh (Rose) and Dame Eileen Atkins, who have also written and star in this series. Eileen Atkins plays the feisty Lady Holland, battle axe in residence and proud owner of Solomon the monkey and Mr Amanjit, her Indian manservant. Her years in India has given her a penchant for ethnic inspired clothes and eclectic colour combinations. Her unique style, acid tongue and unshakable opinions, mean she is fast becoming our favourite character and latest style icon. Although we are not sure we would want her as our mother in law!
If like me you can quote lines from Victoria Wood, Absolutely Fabulous and Catherine Tate, then you will love BBC sit com Miranda. If you haven't already, you simply have to buy the box set of series one and catch up with series two on play back (it's not out on box set yet).
An unashamedly middle class comedy with more than a touch of slapstick and every single character is hilarious in a very British way. It's not very often I actually hoot with laughter at a BBC sitcom, but this one is right up there with all the female comedy greats.
So this evening, if you have had enough of present wrapping/cooking/making lists/planning your hideous journey somewhere in the snow, pour yourself a large glass of something strong, open a box of Christmas chocs and have a comedy moment all to your self. But remember don't watch with the males in your house, they won't (and quite frankly shouldn't) get it!
Do you remember when we asked you all if anyone wanted to test Panasonic's new Pure Line TV and Sue's comments won you all over ?...we even had poetry. Well Sue has completed the testing and her review is below. We had no idea when we picked Sue (well you picked her really) she was such a good writer, she's is a hard working English teacher at a boys grammar school in Kent, so we are really grateful to her for both testing and writing about her experience...so Sue, what was the Pure Line TV from Panasonic actually like?
"Years of insisting that I only watched the nature programmes (interspersed with millions of hours of every reality/home/cookery/corset and bonnet extravaganza/iconic UK and US drama and comedy series, of course) meant I had never actually bought my own television. Instead, I enjoyed the fruits of the ‘home entertainment’ industry by relieving every friend who ever upgraded, of their unwanted set.
When my favourite blog, The Women’s Room ( yeah! thank you! ed), offered a spanking new set on trial my teenage and twentysomething daughters demanded I ask/beg for the chance to test drive it. If the chic on-trend, ‘forever 30s/40s/50s’ were interested in State of the Art High Definition, then surely I should be too?
Always inclined to follow up the rear (I’ve always been a series late… Thirtysomething, The West Wing,The Sopranos and even Mad Men had to bed well in before I was truly hooked) I have to admit that the simplest elements of owning a really good TV are the best. Unclunky remotes that don’t have to be inches away from the screen to work, pitch perfect diction , buzz and low level hum free, instantly and effortlessly responsive to channel changes (oh and I can hop and surf!) and simply the most beautiful, sharp pictures.
To the converted who are scoffing at my childish delight at finally enjoying decent electrical equipment, your words are drowned out by my own 3 daughters “We told you that we should have got a decent set, like…a hundred years ago”.
There is pretty ropey snap of our new baby above, (anyone out there keen to convince me that a new camera might be in order? My Box Brownie is not easy to slip in a pocket…) typically for this time of year, parked next to the tree! We hope to keep the set over Christmas so we can ‘channel’ the Royle family in style – let’s see the man from Panasonic wrestle it from my girls’ grasp- before a New Year trip to John Lewis's electrical department.
Thank you, The Women’s Room, Jamie (who organised everything from Panasonic) and the lovely ladies who blogged and felt I deserved this glimpse into the more stylish world of up-market couch potato-dom. Watching Gillian, Shaun and Stacey et al in all their critter munching best was a sight I will truly never forget."
Thanks Sue, and you can buy the Pure Line Panasonic from a number of retailers, try Hyperfi or The Electric Shop for some of the best prices.
I love Downton Abbey, Modern Family, Mad Men, even Newsnight and I am a big fan of BBC4. I love culture of all kinds, and I mean all kinds. I love galleries, weird interactive theatre, read a couple of (serious-ish) books a month and listen to Radio 4 constantly.
Oh yes, dear readers I have all the right middle class/middle aged female credentials. But I also have to admit to a serious trash TV addiction! I like to tell people it's research for the day job, as it's vital for me to be tuned into the most recent fashion and lifestyle trends, but really it's because I am terribly nosey and voyeuristic. So consequently, Eastenders could be my specialist subject on Mastermind, I have watched all 11 series's of Big Brother, Thursdays wouldn't be complete without What katie Did Next and I was banging on about Come Dine With Me, long before anyone else had even heard of it.
The latest offering from ITV 2, The Only Way is Essex ticks all my trashy TV boxes and then some. A cross between a soap, documentary and reality TV show, the UK's answer to The Hills/Jersey Shore is truly the most hideous/fabulous thing to hit our screens in a long time. The clearly scripted docu/drama follows the lives and loves of glamour model Sam, wanna be glamour model Amy (who is so fascinating and not in a good way), playboy/nightclub entrepreneur Mark, his on/off girlfriend Lauren and Kurt, the 'jeal' (Amys abbreviation) almost boyfriend of Amy.
We learn that Lauren has had Marks name tattooed on her pubic hair line, watch Sam have a vajazzle (a glittery vagina, to you and I!) and see the boys spend vast amounts of money on watches and clothes.
It truly is an insight into another world and perhaps sums up why so many young girls increasingly see being 'glamorous' as a career. In a few weeks time I will no doubt be composing a feminist rant about how programmes like these rot our impressionable daughters minds, but for now I'll sit open mouthed on Wednesday and Sundays nights, screaming with horrified glee.
Nanny Pat does Marks ironing
BTW my favourite characters are Harry, Amys camp cousin and Nanny Pat, who has so far turned up at Marks flat with a Sausage Plait and a Bread and Butter pudding. She is the perfect Essex nan and believe me, will become a massive star in her own right! Remember we told you about her first!
