I’m going out dancing tonight, for the first time in aaaaaages.  And for me, the best part of going out, apart from the dancing itself and, er, the wine, is ALWAYS the dressing up. 

At the moment I’m finding myself with a penchant for suede ankle boots, crisp white shirts and messy buns.  In addition to my well established addicitons to tan belts, midi length skirts and anything floral that cinches at the waist.  I also happen to think that a vintage Schwinn is unbeatable in the accessory stakes.  So if you’ll pardon me for coming over all frivolous of a Saturday morning, here’s some crisp, messy, beautifully cinched inspiration for us all to revel in (see what I did there?)…

Images above from Here, Here, Here, Here, Here, Here and Here.

Happy Saturday everyone.  Go forth with gusto in your hearts and smiles on your faces x

There’s a flurry of activity down on Princes Street at the moment that has nothing at all to do with the Fringe.  After years of deliberation (seriously – they’ve been talking about this ever since I moved here in 2004) Edinburgh is soon to become host to its very first Primark store.  And just in time for the shopping bonanza that will be Christmas 2011.

I no longer shop in Primark for an array of different reasons (and man did I used to shop in Primark!).  Ethics are the biggest and most important of those reasons, but there are others.  For one thing, Primark clothes fall apart.  The seams burst, they lose their shape, the buttons fall off.  I dream of a wardrobe of clothes so well made that I can one day hand them down to my children.  I do not dream of a wardrobe of clothes that I’ll have to replace come Autumn because everything in it is torn, burst or bobbled.

Another thing that annoys me about Primark is that I think it massively deceitful when it comes to pricing.  Now of course, if you have your stock made in Bangladeshi sweatshops you’ll be able to sell it cheaply, but I also think that Primark marks things down for another reason: the impulse buy.  I have a friend who once spent £90 on underwear alone during one particularly ambitious Primark shopping spree.  Why did she do that?  Because the stuff was so cheap she got completely carried away.  Would she have behaved the same way in M&S or La Senza?  Absolutely, 100%, not.  Primark’s cheap price tags dig deep into our brains, probing that part of us that always wants to have more stuff into action.  It signifies a lucrative stroke of business genius for the company shareholders and, sadly, often a total loss of self-control for us.

And it gets better for Primark, because people get bored with clothing very quickly these days.  When everything is so cheap, why not just throw that three month old dress away and replace it with this nice new one?  It’s only *insert price of two coffees*.  The volume of Primark clothing I see in charity shops these days is astonishing, and it also proves my point: little about the cheap clothing industry lasts.  Not the clothes, not the giddy thrill of the purchase and not even the seductive effect of that amazing pleated skirt or those super shiny brogues.  The only thing that seems to enjoy any staying power when it comes to Primark, it seems, is its amazing ability to make us spend more money than we intended, and then go back for more a few weeks later.

The poor quality and the sneaky pricing are trifling compared to the real issue I have with Primark, however, which is ethics (or rather, lack of them).  I’m fed up of hearing fashion bloggers attempt to absolve themselves of the guilt they so obviously feel about shopping in Primark on the basis that – while of course they care about ethical issues – “it’s too difficult” to find out what the situation really is with regard to the manufacturing of all those flimsy tea dresses.

And to an extent, they do have a point.  A cursory scan of the internet just informed me that Primark’s manufacturing processes are indeed anything but clear.  In fact, they seem to be shrouded in secrecy, with directors of the company continually declining to come out and talk to the media about its inner workings.  In fact, following a BBC investigation into its methods in 2008, Primark parted company with three factories in Southern India for failing to abide by its ethical policy (note that it parted company with the factories after it was caught with its hand in the biscuit tin and became the subject of public disgust, not before).  The rest of the time, it seems that when pressed on matters relating to the manufacture of its clothes, Primark fudges the issue with talk of economies of scale and organisational complexities.

Of course information that paints Primark in a dim ethical light doesn’t come from the Primark website.  The Primark website would have us believe that the company is a shining beacon of fair trade and an ardent supporter of  living wages for every one of its 700,000 workers.  But then Primark’s very own website would say nothing less.  Every high street retailer pays lip service to ethical trading these days – to do otherwise is to commit PR suicide.  As one commentator put it (in 2008): “In 2008, having a code of conduct and an ethical spokesperson is to the fashion chain what having a supermodel in your advertising was in 1995.  Unfortunately, as we are discovering, to have a code of conduct is little or no insurance against it being breached.”

If Primark’s refusal to fully disclose its manufacturing practices should tell us anything, shouldn’t it be that those practices aren’t up to scratch?  Retailers know that ethics are important to their consumers these days.  We all want to buy with a clear conscience and no one wants to feel that they are in any way responsible for the horror that is children as young as eight years old spending their days stitching maxi dresses for the UK Summer for five pence an hour rather than playing outside with their friends.  In a world where image and reputation are all things to many people I find it hard to reach any conclusion other than if Primark truly had nothing to hide when it came to questions over its ethical astuteness it would make pretty well sure that we all knew about it.  As matters stand, Primark says little about what really goes on behind the scenes.  And as far as I’m concerned, that can only be a bad thing.

Of course it’s not just Primark over which an ethical question mark is suspended.  Half the high street is at it with the child labour, and as so many people have correctly pointed out, high pricing is not an indication of ethical practice.  Neither is the high street the only place for issues such as these to come to the fore.  The purchasing decisions we make every single day have an impact – sometimes a negative impact – on someone or something somewhere in the world.  The coffee we drink, the eggs we bake with, the products we use on our skin and hair.  I single out Primark simply because it’s my own personal bugbear, and the one store that I’m committed to living without.  I’m well aware that my decision to avoid shopping there has no impact whatsoever on the company’s profits.  I know that a boycott of one won’t force it to do anything about its manufacturing practices.  I also know that not everyone feels the same way about ethical shopping or, indeed, about Primark.  Nevertheless, I avoid it because I believe in avoiding it and because I genuinely do think that the world would be a better place without it.  The world, and more locally, Edinburgh.

Quote above from this article by Lisa Armstrong in the Times, June 17th 2008.

Image above from Flickr – thinkretail.

How were your weekends everyone?  I had dinner with a friend, bought a new hairbrush (snigger all you will – this was quite the event considering I’ve had the same mop tamer for almost a decade) and unintentionally watched what is probably more than a healthy number of chick flicks on TV.

Some highlights, then, from the past week:

• Flying through The Pleasures and Sorrows of Work by Alain de Botton.  You know that joyous feeling you get when you read something you’ve previously thought about but never got round to articulating?  That’s what this book gave me at almost every turn.  Brilliant.
• Charity shopping for my working wardrobe – results and substantive post to come on this later in the week!
• Escaping to the seaside for a night.
• Catching up with colleagues and friends from my used-to-be workplace.
• Listening to Tom Hodgkinson at the Edinburgh Book Festival.
• Making smoked mackerel pate for an easy, no heat required Saturday night dinner*.
• Watching Cowboys and Aliens at the cinema.  I made a big effort to leave my sarcasm at the door with this film and it paid off – I actually enjoyed it.
• Painting!  Getting round to doing some work on a canvas I began almost a year ago.  Just call me Rolf from now on.

August is almost over already – can you believe it?  This week I’m going to practice being more mindful.  I really hate feeling like the days are slipping by without me even noticing.  What are your plans?

Image above from here.

*Super easy to do – mash together mackerel fillets, garlic, lemon juice, parsley and a small spoonful of mayonnaise.  Apply liberally to fluffy white bread, drizzle with olive oil and enjoy.

I mentioned the other day that I’m spending this week attacking the job of putting a working wardrobe together.  Given that I like to use blogging as a means of distraction/information gathering, and also just because it’s fun, I thought I would ask you guys for some tips and advice in relation to that often tricky topic that is dressing for the office (this is not an exclusive post – although I’m concerned mainly with dressing for an office environment, I welcome input from all fields!).

Before I began my first job in an office, I entertained a series of recurring daydreams about what I was going to wear.  I pictured myself swanning around in high waisted pencil skirts, tucked-in chiffon blouses and immaculately polished high heels.  I would wear nothing but ladder and fluff-free tights, my jewellery would always be well-chosen and demure, and never would a hair on my head have cause to be out of place.

Needless to say these visions were almost never realised.  I gave up wearing heels to the office inside about a week, my tights were frequently clad in washing machine fluff and my hair would usually be hovering somewhere between messy chic and utterly shambolic.  I rarely even thought about jewellery.  Don’t get me wrong: if I had meetings to attend I’d make a special effort but seriously, crawling out of bed on a Tuesday morning just to get dressed up for sitting in front of a computer was never high on my must-do agenda.  I preferred hitting the snooze button, lingering over a cup of coffee or even spending a while in the kitchen preparing a lovely lunch to brighten up my afternoon.  To put it plainly, I just wasn’t really all that bothered about the clothes.

And that was fine.  While I might not have appeared immaculate, I was always firmly on the right side of the line between presentable and scruffy.  I was also good at my job, which I’m pretty sure was more important to my employers than what I was wearing could ever hope to be.  I recently read an interview with Kirsty Wark in the Sunday Times magazine which focused on her working style.  Wark’s dry but brilliant response to being asked whether she deemed it important for women to dress up for work went something along the lines of ‘to be honest, what you wear doesn’t matter a hoot – it’s what comes out of your mouth that counts’.  Wise words I feel (and relevant to both genders!).

But despite it being your brains and not your blouse collection that counts at work, many of us are still required to dress in a certain way for it.  The office I’m going to in three weeks’ time is – from what I can gather – a little smarter than my former place, but not so smart that I’ll need to wear a suit every day (I’m deliberately refraining from using the nebulous to the point of being utterly meaningless term ‘smart casual’ in these lines).  I’m also going to be cycling to and from work every day, so whatever I choose to wear while I’m there will have to withstand being folded into a rucksack and bumped over Edinburgh’s cobbled-come-potholed streets for four miles before I spill tea/my lunch down it.

Finally, I’m on a very tight budget, so trips to Hobbs and Jigsaw are most definitely out of the question for now (I’m more like Hobbs/Jigsaw via sale rail in charity shop at the moment – I can dream, can’t I?)!

So my questions:

• What do you guys wear to work?
• Do you employ any time-saving strategies when it comes to getting ready in the morning?  If so, what are they?
• Do you cycle/run to work?  If so, how do you go from sweaty, flushed athlete to pristine office queen on arrival?
• How do you incorporate elements of your own personal style into your work wear?
• What are your thoughts on dressing up for the office (if you have an office!)?

All thoughts, ideas and musings – relevant to the topic or not – are, as always, both welcome and encouraged!

Image above from here.

Some weeks my highlights posts are harder to put together than others.  In fact, sometimes I completely forget what I actually did with my week let alone what was good about it. Then there are weeks like this one, when the highlights come flying in from all directions and I have a hard time choosing what merits a place on the list and what doesn’t (I realise I could just list everything, but really, too much talking about oneself is rarely a good thing):

• Films films glorious films.  I’m taking full advantage of my new-found cinematic freedom at the moment by gobbling up as many sittings as I can find the time for.  I saw Harry Potter Part 7 Mark II for the second time on Tuesday (a perfect slice of escapism for a drizzly August afternoon) and Horrible Bosses on Wednesday (watchable, but highly likely to induce spontaneous and prolonged bouts of cringeing.  Do not see this film on a first date).
• I also watched Fair Game this week, which made me really rather depressed about the state of the world.  Good film though, so a highlight nonetheless.
• Devouring Tina Fey’s book Bossypants in two days.  Read my review of it here.
• Cooking up several storms over the course of the week.  On Monday I made chicken adobo, the recipe for which I found on the fabulous Budget Bytes; on Tuesday I made carrot and coriander soup (using my home-grown coriander shoots – oh the self-sufficiency!) and on Wednesday I made chicken and mushroom risotto.  Delicious, and leftovers a-plenty.  Win.
• Finding THE jeans I’ve been waiting for my entire life in a charity shop on Friday.  Dark indigo denim, low rise and straight legged as opposed to skinny (my round-hipped, full-assed figure needs that extra width on the ankle to stop me looking like an upsidedown pyramid teetering on its point). Originally from Gap, but snapped up for a princely £6.  Huzzah!
• A late-evening walk along the Union Canal on Wednesday.  A quiet drink at the other end and a slow stroll back.
• Visiting the recently re-opened National Museum of Scotland on Friday.  Or to be more specific, visiting two rooms plus the coffee shop of the recently re-opened National Museum of Scotland (the place is HUGE).  All marvelous.
• Caravanning the weekend away with my boyfriend’s sister and her friends.  Eating lots of cheese (totally fell off the skin improvement wagon – will haul myself back on it this week), drinking lots of red wine and completing the infamous Elie chain walk in one piece despite being chronically underprepared in the footwear department.

So to this week!  I’m currently sans plans, but thinking I might try and sniff out some cheap/free Fringe tickets and see some comedy.  I’m also going to scour the charity shops for work attire, given that my new job starts exactly four weeks today (eep!).  What are you up to?

Image above from here.