Do Your Bit: Small Business Saturday 7th December

In recent years, the British high street has been slaughtered by the ongoing recession, we've lost an array of British manufacturers from Woolworths to Republic, the Great British high street is soon becoming a thing of the past with consumers looking to spend more on luxury goods, luxury and economy (Primark etc) are two of the most successful markets at the moment. 

Small, independent, local business are also being hit hard, which is why American Express came up with the 'Small Business Saturday' initiative which has now made its way over the pond to the UK. It basically encourages the public to, just for the one day, support their local stores and shun the massive chain supermarkets and restaurants. The idea started three years ago in the US to help small firms survive competitions from mainstream rivals, it boosted the turnover of small business by £3.5 billion.

It only makes sense that this idea would work wonders in the UK, MP Chuka Umunna agreed and so decided to start one up over here. The initiative has been supported by a host of high profile names such as Dragons Den's James Caan, Mary Portas and Made in Chelsea's Proudlock.
December 7th will be 'Small Business Saturday', so make sure to support your local butcher, restaurant, corner shop or vintage store next Saturday!

Suit and Tie: The Evolution of Mens Tailoring

Everyone knows a well tailored suit can do wonderful things for a man, theres just something about a well groomed man in a suit. So its no wonder the market for mens tailoring is steadily growing and growing and being approached by high street brands meaning whatever your budget you can always look sharp.

Most surprisingly perhaps, relatively cheap high street retailer New Look, who have just real eased their 'Downton' Collection as you can imagine, its a collection heavily inspired by British heritage so theres plenty of tartan, Herringbone, elbow patches and flat caps. Heavily cliched but the sharp tailoring does look impressive for the low price tags (£50 for a suit jacket, £18 for trousers) and will no doubt be a resounding success with the New Look customer.
Elsewhere in Europe, and a little more upmarket, we have Tiger of Sweden who have been making news recently after opening a store in Piccadilly recently and then casting Rafferty Law, 16 year old son of Sadie Frost and Jude Law, as the lead in a recent promotional film. In the short clip Rafferty Law plays the 'rebel' whilst modelling the Swedish companies sharp tailoring.

By the looks of things this is just a hint of whats to come for mens tailoring and I think its definitely one too watch to see what happens next. Below is the video for Tiger Of Sweden, let me know what you think!

Oxford Street Celebrates London Fashion Week

It seems that everyone wants a part in London Fashion Week this year, and being one of the biggest high streets it’s a wonder Oxford St never got involved before. This year Oxford St are launching a 17 day festival to coincide with Fashion Week, the festival will give shoppers the opportunity to mingle with top British designers and models in the build up to fashion week. The collaboration is part of Oxford Sts efforts to affirm itself as ‘the most powerful fashion destination in the world’. The British Fashion Council has teamed up with Oxford St to arrange various pop up events which will feature some of the biggest names in the industry offering make overs and advice for those wanting to progress in to the industry. Some of the biggest high street stores are also getting involved such as Topshop, Selfridges, John Lewis and H&M. To me this seems like a brilliant idea to promote both Oxford St and Fashion Week and is also a brilliant way to get involved if you didn’t (like many of us boohoo) many to snag a ticket to the prestigious event so make sure to get yourselves down there guys!

Nicole Farhi Saved From Administration by Maxine Hargreaves-Adams

It seems the norm these days that whenever there is news of the Great British High Street it is inevitably bad. The economic downturn and the need to save or look for cheaper alternatives has seen a great deal of once great stores going in to administration. 
Some brands are flourishing whilst others barely struggling to survive on the high streets of Britian, most luxury brands have managed to stay afloat but with Nicole Farhi filing for administration is this a sign of things to come for luxury brands?
Nicole Farhi has been around for just under 20 years and has six stores and nine concessions in high end department store such as Harvey Nichols and Selfridges, so how did they loose their consumers?
When you see that George and Galen Weston owners of Primark are the highest earners in the retail industry it seems that many consumers are now perferring to save and buy from discount stores such as Primark intead of splurging on luxury items from brands such as Farhi. The influx of designer copy cats finding their ways on to the shelves of Zara and Topshop have significantly helped these high street brands but has had the opposite effect on the initial designers. If this method means the death of the label who created the designs, where will the high street find its inspirtation then?
However with the news of a huge Dior store opening on Conduit Street and two new Chanel stores opened in recent weeks, the internationally renowned luxury brands seem to be coping. 
It has just been announced that Nicole Farhi has been saved from administration by Maxine Hargreaves-Adams (the daughter of the Matalan owner), who has bought out the brand and saved around 140 jobs. 

It was a lucky escape for Nicole Farhi, it would of been sad to loose a classic and loved British brand as there doesn't seem to be many left. However is this a sign to come? Will more luxury labels soon have to leave our Great British High Street thanks to high street chains such as Primark? Hopefully luxury brands can pull through this difficult time and young designers looking to break out in to the industry will not loose hope at this recent news. Only time will tell. Businesswoman Maxine Hargreaves-Adams has saved British label Nicole Farhi

Regent Street and Conduit Street: London's New Shopping Meccas?

We all know Oxford Street but it looks like theres a couple of new places looking to take the lead. Regent St and Conduit St are both looking to gain significant popularity with the arrival of new and exciting retailers which have the capability of turning Regent St and Conduit St in to shopping Meccas.
Regent St most recently opened its arms to Swedish brand '& Other Stories' (of the H&M, COS group), being the only store in the UK this got people talking, like COS but with H&M price tags the store has been a great success. 
And things don't seem to be quietening down at Regent St as 2013 will see the opening of the very first J Crew store outside of the US. The American brand has already established istelf as a big player after being spotted on the likes of Katie Holmes and first lady Michelle Obama, who claims its one of her favourite brands! Simple, chic, womanly silhouettes and with luxury twists on wardbrobe staples its not hard to see why the brand has done so well. 
Futhermore it has been annnounced that Hackett London, who's clientele includes Prince William, have payed Ferrari around £4m to take the lease for its Regent St store, while the Crown Estate will confirm on Friday that Watches of Switzerland will next year open the UK’s largest stand-alone watch store in the new W4 development. In a time of the dying high street, it seem Regent St is doing extremely well, their rental values have more than doubled making Regent St worth £2.6bn compared to its £700m in 2002.
 

Dior, Bond Street

Situated of Oxford St and near Liberty is Conduit St, home to more luxury labels such as Vivienne Westwood and Belstaff. The street is looking to be galvanised by the opening of a massive Dior store. Dior opened their first store in Conduit St 60 years ago and have just signed a 10 year lease on the 3,300 sq foot store, which will span over 3 floors. Dior will pay £308,500 pa, which equates to £360 zone A, the highest rent achieved to date on the street. Being right near Bond St means that it benefits from fierce demand from luxury retailers. The new store will be in addittion to the current store on Bond St and Anthony Selwyn, the head of Central London retail, has stated that he believes the opening of this store will lead to several more luxury brands to take space in the location over the next year.
Ill be keeping a close watch on new stores coming to both Regent St and Conduit St and will definetely visit the new Dior store! If you're in London make sure to visit both, they're the place to shop at the moment, our new shopping meccas!