Before I go any further, apologies it really has been a while!  It’s been such a busy, wonderful year!  We have a new web site (check our post soon on the new site and the technology behind it – it is the most brilliant e-commerce platform!)  and a whole load of new brands on the site that I really haven’t had time to take a breath.  I’ll be back to post a lot more regularly as things have become a bit calmer.  I say that with baited breath as we are about to go into the Autumn/Winter season and already the new styles are flying out the door!

Take this new dress, the ‘Photo-Me’, it is so close to Mrs Beckhams recent addition to her wardrobe.  Now love or hate Mrs B, one thing we all know is that she sure knows how to put an outfit together!  Steal her look for £89! Although we haven’t tracked down the gorgeous fur stole she is wearing (fake we believe!), we think this could look just as chic with a black sequin bolero… of which we have found the perfect style!

Victoria Beckham Black Dress

I read a great quote by Philippe Starck (designer of the Sanderson Hotel, St Martins Lane and the Delano) who has now made a foray into fashion.  Or not.  He too sees the benefit in the colour black but he does not want his range to be called a ‘fashion range’.  No.  He sees his collection as timeless, enduring, sustainable.

Maybe I have finally found a man who sees things my way?

Till next time.

Roz -x-

People rallied from near and far on what looked like a bitterly cold day in Washington.  I have only been to Washington once, November 1992 but I still remember I have never ever felt that cold, not even today (on what I think is the coldest day Edinburgh has ever seen!).  Capitol Hill was crowded as expected and people were huddled together, keeping each other warm, nervous excitement and optimism no doubt filling the air.

Barak Obama taking the Oath Of Office

Michelle and Barack make a handsome couple and you could almost feel her emotion as she watched over her husband taking the Oath of Office whilst ensuring the ‘girls’ were ok.

I watched the inauguration ceremony from the comfort of my toasty den.  There was no ‘eureka’ moment for me in his speech,  no quote that stood out albeit he was a little nervous but he delivered a speech full of hope, fight, fairness and spirit.  All the expected issues were covered – withdrawal from Iraq, unemployment, environment, overseas aid, etc but he also made it clear that he is here for all Americans – from the wealthy upper class to the normal average joe (and those in the developing world) and you can rest assured that this is a man who will not forget his roots.  It’s hard to believe that this is a man who only 8 years ago could not get credit for a new car, never mind a seat in congress – the American dream, that was close to a nightmare may, just, be making a comeback.

Black really is the new black.

This is unchartered territory for many, if not all of us.  I for one can not remember the last recession so who knows what lies ahead for us.  Black continues to be a staple colour and many of you are still buying classic black items.  As the year goes on we will continue to work hard to find great value, unusual pieces in black to ensure you look stylish, confident and beautiful in your BE buys.

Right now at Black-Essentials.com it’s all about the dress and separates – women are investing mainly in both these pieces because of the flexibility they offer.  You can create so many different looks through the accessories you choose, conservative or sexy, dress things down for day time office wear and add some bling for evening glamour.  We all know that times are tough and if you have had to cut back on spending money on yourself, when you do decide to spend some money, make sure it is something that you will be able to wear time and time again – you’ll also notice how much more you enjoy your purchase when you don’t take it so much for granted but I say don’t follow high street fads, timeless black fashion is where its at.

And about the job….. if I could turn back the clock, I wouldn’t do anything any differently.

I read about all these amazing women who’s sheer hard work, determination, limitless energy and enthusiasm turned their kitchen table ideas into successful businesses and day dreamed of how amazing it would be to get recognition on this level – from GRAZIA! THE fashion bible – as we all know, what Grazia says goes in the sartorial world.

Fast forward to this year and in Spring I eagerly awaited the call for entries. I was so excited about the awards I actually phoned the magazine and emailed them (on more than one occasion) to find out when the awards would take place. When it was announced in August there are 3 stages to go through – 1. the application form, 2. the judging panel and 3. the award ceremony. For step 1, the application form … it is a really difficult task to complete the form – there are 10 questions to answer, each with a word limit for your answer (generally 100 words per answer) – it’s really difficult to put 18 months into 1,000 words, or less!

I am more than beside myself to have won the Scottish rounds and am now the ‘Scottish Finalist’ (it is surreal for me to even type this!) – a shortlist of 7 other women with fantastic ideas, many 4am finishes and all the blood, sweat and tears that is required when you launch a business and I met the judging panel (at my old place of work – Malmaison – speak about ironic) and talked about our experiences, our vision, our values. The day of judging was a little challenging in itself – I decided to wear the outfit I have on in this blog picture – the grey with white chiffon collar and cuffs (it’s stunning!) but I decided to iron the chiffon to freshen it up a little – I only went and burnt it! So I changed into the fantastic Rene Derhy Gabotte little black dress from Black Essentials. It was fate – I felt happier in this dress with a wide belt, silver tights and patent mary janes – I believe these things always happen for a reason!

So here I am – just delighted to be going to the national final in London on the 13th October. Amazingly enough I was the only person with no experience in fashion/retail or design. It has been more than a steep learning curve, I must say!

Recognising innovation and excellence in the small business world of the fashion industry, the Fashion X Award honours companies with brilliant ‘why-didn’t-I-think-of-that?’ ideas.

For my 18 month old business to be recognised on this level is more than my dreams come true. The prize for this category is a mentor in fashion for a year, which would be truly amazing – having no experience in this industry and learnt a LOT from a lot of mistakes to have a professional guide me would be priceless. If I won, I would take advantage of that year as I have so many questions – wonder how the mentor would feel of a year of no sleep with me constantly badgering them with questions!

The overall winner from all 4 categories (music, food and drink, technology and fashion) is £10,000 – (which would make a massive impact on any small business) would also be fantastic…

I have no doubt that the best person will win, but in this case, from where I stand, the winner does not take it all – regardless of what happens on the night, Black Essentials feel like a winner already!

I’m looking forward to having a great night in London, with my mum, and my two amazing friends Susan and Gill, who have offered ‘way beyond the call of duty’ amounts of support, enthusiasm, encouragement and reassurance – whatever happens, we’re all just going to have a great night!

To have come this far in this amount of time is overwhelming and if i’m honest I feel more than a little emotional when I think about it…

So…. Black Essentials has been going for 17 months now and although we have been to Manchester Fashion Weekend, for the first time ever we visited London Fashion Week. Earlier in the month I spent some time in the South of France sourcing new French brands then travelled to Paris to Pret a Porter although we didn’t sign with any new brands for the winter season…. the exchange rate makes a lot of prices a little silly so we’ll see what happens next year. Saying that, I will continue to stock Rene Derhy as they excel in beautiful pieces at a great price.

We’ve just completed a lot of the photography for the new collection and I’m sure you will love what we’ve got. Pink Soda Boutique collection is simply stunning – beautifully made and distinctive. I want one of everything!

London Fashion Week was great, unfortunately I had an unmissable event half way through the week in Edinburgh (more on that in next post) but I did make it to London for the last few days.

If you know me, you’ll know that I manage to fit in a little retail therapy wherever I go and my friend and I made a beeline for the new Banana Republic shop on Regent Street. I have to say it didn’t disappoint… the prices, as expected are more expensive than the US but the styles, the quality are what you would expect. BR continue to churn our simple, preppy styles – I love it. Unfortunately the gorgeous, simple shirt I liked was out of stock but I managed to track one down in the US, have it sent to a friend and it is now being flown over to the UK for me (thanks Sam ). Another shop not to be missed that we don’t have in Scotland is Massimo Dutti – some gorgeous knitwear to be had, but unfortunately no on-line shop so I could not order when I got back to Scotland…. oh well, guess I will just have to go back some time soon!

At the British Fashion Council Tents, one designer I particularly loved was Elizabeth Lau, easy to wear dresses, coats and separates that dress you up in an instant – simple, stylish, seasonless…. I’m hoping to get her on board for SS09 as some of the pieces are to die for!

London Fashion Week itself brought out a few interesting stories…. CILLA BLACK… put it away! I mean, what was she thinking? Obviously been spending too much time with Esther Rantzen…. see yourself..

We’re all familiar with the term ‘killer heels’ but some of these models seem to be taking it literally…. if I was to stick a pair on they would double my height instantly! We all remember Carrie falling over in the SATC Catwalk Show and we felt her pain…. this was a story but how painful (and embarassing) did it look for these poor girls who were put in these sky high heels only to loose their balance….. personally, I think my knee high flat boots pictured above are much more sensible (incidentally, I am frequently asked where these are from – Steve Madden in New York – another brand we are hoping to sell but they are still deciding if they like us enough or not!). Seriously, I am as big a fan of sky high heels as the next fashionista but we should all know our limits! KYLIE, not loving this look… sorry! The dress and the ankle boots has to be the look of A/W 08 for me – day time or night I think it rocks, but Kylie could actually fit her entire body into one….. too wide Kylie, sort it out If I didn’t know better I would think Kylie was wearing our black gabotte dress – we know she spends a lot of time in France, so it would not be surprising! Speaking of Kylie, not so lucky, lucky, lucky this week with Jason Donovan revealing some details that, quite frankly, I think he should have kept to himself about their love affair. Poor show Jason…. Kylie, I have a good idea for those killer heels…..

ps. If you’re visiting looking for information on google, I’ve moved the technical/advisory side of this blog to the dedicated blog thegorgeousgeek.wordpress.com. If you have any questions on this side, just email any time – roz@black-essentials.com.

This blog is now dedicated to my thoughts on fashion, what to wear and when and who’s wearing what…. and how!

Everybody wants to be number one – we all look after number one, want to be somebody elses number one, but strangely my life has become all about being number one on google. Who would have thought ten years ago that my life would start revolving around something called ‘google’ – I would have laughed out loud if somebody had told me that! Remember the days of MSN Search, Alta Vista, Hotbot, Yahoo… with the exception of Yahoo, what happened to the rest? Wiped out by Google. Googled up. Googled and gone.

The story of the Google team is very interesting and the rags to riches is completely inspiring (if it is true – I have it from a reliable source it is romanticised somewhat) but sadly I only managed to read half the story as it was a summer holiday read and inadvertedly ended up at the bottom of the pool. Another read for another holiday.

Anyway, back to Google – for those of you with businesses you want it. The first 3 positions on page 1. Knock the rest of the competition off the top spot and you think it is straightforward – lots of copy with the keywords you want – update regularly et voila.

No. If only life was that simple…. first of all – is your site built in a format that is compatible with Google? My first site was not, it was built by a company called Shopcreator that I thought were credible due to the great names they had – MyWardrobe.com, BHS, Kelly Hoppen. WOW…. I was taken in… I too could have what MyWardrobe had but for £100 a month. Deal. Sign me up!

In the beginning ShopCreator looked like they could maybe work for me but the alarm bells rang faintly on the first weekend of launch. I worked hard to get great press for the launch week and on the Saturday morning there we were, 5 of the favourite item, the little black dress, on a double page spread in a Scottish paper. I was delighted, I bought the paper at a garage at 12.01am and proudly poured over and over it….. at last Black Essentials was brought to life. But Shopcreator let me down…. ****MY SITE WAS DOWN ***** this could not be happening, but sadly yes it was. I tried to contact them, phone, email, all day Saturday but nothing.

Sunday came and the Scotland on Sunday Spectrum magazine featured our lovely Louise Hempleman handbag but still no site. Furthermore still no contact from the folks at ShopCreator.

Monday arrived and I was told that i was not on a package that would give me an out of hours service – that was the megabucks option…..

Alarm bell 2 went off with ShopCreator when the shopping cart started to empty at checkout stage but they blamed it on the internet connection. More on Shopcreators shopping cart in the next post….

For more of my technical posts see The Gorgeous Geeks blogspot.

Wimbledon is nearly over (Laura Robson Junior winner – well done, looks like we will be seeing a lot more of her!) and poor Andy Murray losing out to Nadal but there is always next year! On the subject of Andy, what oh what oh what was he thinking with his popeye impression showing off his muscles. I cringed for him, didn’t you?!

So with the tennis comes a lot of celebrities – the predictable Cliff Richard is always sitting beside the centre court and Sue Barker always presents. Did Venus really comment on Sue’s shoes today? If the rest of her outfit was anything to by I think not (we didn’t get to see them, did we?!).

Anyway, this is my favourite of the 2008 Wimbledon Statements:-

No 4: ~ Nadal. Let’s face it this man would look good whatever he did (or didn’t!) wear. He is perfectly pleasing on the eye although a little David Beckham for me – nice to look at but don’t open your mouth pleeeeeease!

No 3: ~ I thought Ivanovic (who I’ve been told I look like ) looked great in her simple little black dress. Just goes to show that you don’t need hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of diamonds to stand out. What did surprise me in the womens final was that Serena and Venus were still wearing some bling? I don’t think it works well on the tennis court!

No 2: ~ Maria Sharipova gets 10/10 in my books for turning her old waitress shirt into a top fit to wear at Wimbledon…. who thought of this! Good on her for taking her style on to court!

No 1 :~ This girl, Kim Sears, is the girlfriend of Andy Murray (strangely). I thought she looked cute and preppy in a very American way…. but she’s young and I think we may see a Coleen McGloughlin type transformation here. Wisely she has said it is all about Andy and not her so she likes to take a back seat, it’s her call of course though – I remember a demure Abi Titmuss saying something similar while John Leslie was going through his court case, but then the necklines dropped and the hems rose and before we knew it she was the face of a rude TV channel….. I don’t think this is likely for Kim…. I have a much better feeling about her!

Work wear, evening wear, black tie wear….. there are many ways to wear a black shirt! Victoria Beckham wears her black shirt beautifully with tuxedo style jacket and a low cut open black shirt….. wear if you dare for a black tie event. I love the wide black headband and the well cut trousers. I do love Victoria Beckhams style, although am not entirely sure how much of the styling is done by VB herself but I do think she wears fabulous clothes!

Kirsten Dunst wars her black shirt with a high waisted red pencil skirt and statement black sunglases – a simple look that works well for day wear.

Penelope Cruz never sets a sartorial foot wrong in my opinion, her latino looks can carry off any style from red carpet chic to beach casual with minimal effort. Here she is signing autographs wearing a simple black shirt, black shades – a simple look that i would be happy to wear day in day out if i could capture an ounce of her style!