Mayday, Mayday! Bracing for impact at the 2017 General Election.

Politics is in free fall. A shock referendum results in Brexit, the Prime Minister runs away, white with disbelief at what he's just done, and before we’ve even had chance to clear the carpet of canvassing from our doorsteps, a snap election is called.

Undoubtedly it was a process that Theresa May presumed was in the bag. Hashtag awks. Because in possibly the biggest turnaround of any popularity contest, Jezza is, in contrast, killing it. Which is funny when you think that his entire party thought he was an imbecile just a few months ago.

Over the past seven weeks we’ve been subjected to the usual cacophony of desperate - and dodged - debates, snide smear campaigns and enough lies to having us lolling ‘til Christmas. At least we’ve found a little lightness in the disaster that is Diane Abbott. Until she fell ill that is, or rather got locked in the stationery cupboard before she cost Corbyn the entire election. Perhaps he’s thrown in that report for her to read while she’s taking some time out to think about what she’s done. Because you didn’t read that report, did you Diane?

While May has been awkwardly power dressing in ill-fitting trouser suits in a desperate attempt to exert political strength and trying to look normal by having a cuppa with the locals, wor Jezza has continued to get dressed in the dark, upsetting the fashion police of the middle classes in the process. Nothing new there. But he doesn’t care. Nor does his tribe of tweeting teens. But then they can’t vote. Or don’t. Which is a shame, because his manifesto is built around popular policies that would benefit from a little playground peer pressure. It's for everyone, see. Including free school meals for Teddy and Pablo, whose daddy is more than able and, more importantly, willing to pay for their quinoa lunches and gap years round Asia.

But here lies the problem. In raising corporation tax, doing away with zero hour contracts and introducing a £10 an hour living wage, what Corbyn is failing to make clear is that the burden of these costs will also come down on the many, not the few. More businesses and retailers will close their doors, more redundancies will ripple through our economy, everyday items will cost us more, and more of the middle classes will benefit from services that they can, and, more importantly, would otherwise be willing to pay for. Perhaps Jeremy was too busy bumping and griming with Stormzy to flesh out the facts.

Or we stick with May and snuggle up to Saudi, bolstering the arms trade while administering a spoon full of sugar in the form of humanitarian aid to help the medicine, or rather the air strikes, go down. She’s worryingly out of touch, and more focused on feeding the fat cats of this country than the kids. Can she comprehend that for many children in the UK, that free school lunch is the only meal they will eat today. I wonder, under Theresa May's government, what they will eat tomorrow?

So, has she done enough? Has her last desperate push to win over the undecided through her new tough stance on terrorism moved the margin just enough? Because, who needs the European Convention on Human Rights after all, right?

I, like the many, not the few, am angry. I'm disillusioned. I'm tired of wondering why the leaders of our country are allowed to lie so outlandishly with minimal comeuppance. To wiggle backwards like a dog trying to free itself from its neck brace to lick its wounds after involuntary, yet very necessary, castration. To offer a menu of ideals that we, as a nation, cannot afford. Or to take away our credit card and replace it with the political equivalent of a Visa Electron. Where is the happy medium?

I don't want the course of our world, our everyday lives and our children’s futures to be at the mercy of pitiful politicians. I'd rather look to successful business leaders with extensive experience in economics, to the chief of police and not to Diane Abbott to protect the safety and sanctity of our country and all it stands for, to the doctors and paramedics and nurses who know, really know, where resources should be allocated to protect our pretty incredible NHS.

Those that can pay, should, with help right there for those that need a little extra support. Let’s offer great benefits to those in need, but let’s do so in return for local voluntary contributions, to build a better tomorrow for everyone. Let’s encourage our kids into the NHS by making it a great place to work, instead of forcing them instead to strike or to leave. Let’s forget Brexit, Scottish independence and international arms deals and instead focus on uniting our communities as a defiant fingers up to those who try to terrorise and divide us.

So deep breaths everybody and hold on for the ride, because whichever colour you choose to take us into tomorrow, our future is in their hands. Whether we crash or land, sink or swim, only time will tell. But when you're hurtling at white-knuckle speed into the unknown, there's little left to do but close our eyes, hold onto one another, and brace for impact.

See you on the other side.

Charlotte x

Sometimes you don't know, you just feel

Image: Stories.com

It's one of those stop and stare arm candy crushes that I can't explain.

You know when you catch someone's gaze on the tube and you're not sure why but you both linger for more before snapping your eyes away? Well I'm looking at it, it's looking at me. And I think we could have a beautiful thing going on here.

Yes, & Other Stories has gone and done it again. This time with a deliciously luscious croc bag, in refreshingly cool Grecian azure blue. Like a little vanity case to accompany your essentials (read: entire make-up bag complete with brush set, primer and creams), it's arrived right in time to take pride of place as our plus one, to gracefully accompany us through a summer of weddings, garden parties and park life.

Treat it with respect ladies, this one's a keeper.

Structured Croco-Embossed Leather Bag, £105. Available at & Other Stories (though not for long if I've got anything to do with it!)

READY-TO-SHARE: how social is shifting + shaping the seasoned pros

Ready-to-wear. Funny, when you think about it in its most puritanical way. Because in fact, it's anything but. Up to now the drive from catwalk to customer has been lethargic yet steady, turning religiously to the rhythm of traditional seasonal turns. But now the spin cycle of speed to market has been stimulated by the newest demonstration of consumer desire. What do they want? Catwalk creations. When do they want them? Now.

Fashion Week is back in business, and brings with it the latest hot collared debate to saturate our social scrolls. And it seems not even the most debonair of designers can deny their customers' demands. Brands like Burberry, Tommy Hilfiger, Tom Ford and Michael Kors are masterminding this new notion of immediacy, promising seasonless capsule collections in our feeds before Cara's even had a chance to Snapchat backstage.

It seems that no one is able to avoid the hunger for a social high street, with customers chewing harder at designers' heels as they feed their every fantasy. Some designers are snubbing the shows altogether - yes, we're talking about Misha Nonoo - who cleverly created her runway another way, and was there, ready and waiting, for her Gen Yer, when they landed on her social site. I'm sure the financial reward for her socially astute route to market alone was worth the plunge.

But not all designers are taking this evolutionary slide excitedly. Heritage icon Paul Smith is changing his formula, yes, but under the awkward duress of a twisted arm. For some, it seems, this is not a choice but a mandatory chain reaction ignited by greed, pressure and haste. A hostage situation, if you will. So, are we seeing a shift to a more entrepreneurial phenomenon, or is the industry being held at random by the harder, better, faster, stronger mantra of millennials?

In a way, I get it. Hands up anyone who's tried to buy a bikini in July or a coat in February. Who still packs away their summer wardrobe when the first pair of tights are reticently plucked from the back of the sock drawer? I've worked in fashion for 11 years, and I'm still to find a satisfactory answer as to why we insist on launching Spring/Summer in February while we're all wrapped up in knits, and why, when we're basking in the rationed warmth of our August days, we're expected to be pounding the high street in search of our winter coat.

But can we not stitch a little common sense into the strategy? Yes, designers are right to consider more trans-seasonal collections, and the industry surely must respond with speed and evolution into our social society. But can’t we permit them to leave a little for themselves? Fast fashion can't surely become the widespread norm throughout every echelon of the industry. We surely wouldn't want it to be. Isn't the very fabric of luxury brands their exclusivity? And style this good should be savoured, before it is shared.

DungaPLEASE! Not Yet convinced? Here's how to Pull off the latest come-back kid like the coolest clique in class

So, where do you stand on the latest come-back kid, the dungaree?  Here at BOUTIQUE & BRAND we're all for fashion comfort food once in a while, and this season's sports luxe saviours have had us feeling deliciously like we've blagged a duvet day with every wear.

Following in the onsie's feel-good footsteps, the dungaree brings a playful, childlike spin on dressing down, but can thirty somethings pull this off as much as their three year old counterparts? Ever the bastions of why-the-hell-not, the BOUTIQUE & BRAND mantra is simply to wear what works. It's all about how you feel, how you pull it off. How you style it up and how you dress it down. Feel good and you've just landed a spot in the cool clique, feel even the slightest bit unsure and you'll remember all too vividly that pang of realisation in turning up to Mufty Day in your school uniform.  

So, if you're going in for the all-in-one, go all in.  This is not a dip your toe dilemma.  So ladies (or gents for the really brave!) style them up, jump in with all fours and lilt with all the self assurance of the coolest kid in town. Because, when the sartorial world carves a conundrum into our style cues, it's up to us to show them how it's done.

CASHING IN ON SOCIAL MEDIA: how one customer convinced Topshop to oust the skeletons in their closet

It’s an issue that has been gathering speed within the fashion industry since the 80s, but this week the momentum of this social snowball culminated in a landslide victory for one Topshop customer and all who stand by her, as the retail giant pledged to halt any further orders of its alleged unrealistic mannequin frames. 

Laura Berry, who is a UK size 10-12, took to Facebook to vent her frustration at the potential destructive effects on impressionable teens, calling for mannequins to be more representative of the average female body size.

While the weight of the argument sways both ways, what is so poignant is the tipping point of the scales at this particular time. This was not in response to a national movement by size zero campaigners, nor was it a knee jerk reaction to the tragic and untimely end of life so often documented in the media of our undernourished models. It was, quite simply, one person, one post.

And it's moments like these that quantify the value of social currency. Its power to capitulate, influence and persuade the biggest powerhouses in our commercial landscape with relative ease. We may never know what made this post topple the debate, but what an enormous feat for a social age, and a precious precedent for campaigns to come.

KEEPING UP WITH THE KARDASHIANS

So today I was crowned A+ Spelling Genius. Ok, ok, so it may have been a Facebook quiz but, in this profession, 'can you spell the most commonly misspelled words' is not a question, it’s a challenge.  It may have just been five minutes of calm on the commute, but as I writer I wouldn't, and shouldn't, have been content with anything less than top marks.

It's an art I have full appreciation for, and I hope more than anything that everyone taking part gets a similar result.  I've always been one of those apostrophe-moving, comma-adding aficionados of the English language.  But are we a dying breed?  Do we still have a place around the table?

The societal shift is clear.  Digitalisation has polished our everyday, airbrushing our linguistic imperfections with one click of the auto-correct.  The convention of the Oxford dictionary is becoming increasingly overshadowed by its eccentric urban sister, as she cleverly vox pops the here and now, and concepts such as twerking and selfies take an official seat within our professional vocabulary.  But perhaps that’s just what we need to keep our brands fresh, dynamic, and on the cutting edge.  Put plainly, it really is about keeping up with the Karsashians to remain in the game.

My inbox is increasingly peppered with brightly coloured emojis, playfully celebrating the first signs of summer, or declaring love for the hottest styles to rack onto the rails of our favourite retailers.  It's a breath of fresh air to see brands like Urban Outfitters and Asos level with us, building a real rapport within a virtual world.  They understand their Generation Yers implicitly, and demonstrate in the process that they're as cool as their cloth.  Good on them for showing a human side to the giant commercial powerhouses that they are.  I'm sure the Urban customer does want to 'save loadsa £££' and no doubt they'll be category bound when they hear 'it's all about summer denim y'all'.  It's fun, it's fresh, and more importantly, it's demanding a lot more attention when placed alongside the repetitive quips that appear all too often in the inbox.

There'll always be a time and a place for well practiced lexicon, for perfectly written pros, but let's get real, take a deep breath, and cross those corporate lines of caution.  Our customers, and our bottom line, will thank us. 

STAYING SALE SAFE THIS SEASON!

Beat the bargain hunters with our favourite sale rail steals from Topshop and friends.

We know, we know, it's hard to resist that was/now sticker on the rose metallic jumpsuit, but you can avoid sale fail by following our top sale time tips for keeping standards high when prices start to fall: 1) If you wouldn't buy it full price then it ain't a bargain  2) Know your style and stick to it - no exceptions!  3) It's all about transitional pieces that work with the seasons - versatility is king!

COPYCAT KINGDOM

In the Information Age we live in it’s not easy to generate original, creative ideas that inspire, wow and pioneer their way through the metaphorical jungle of today’s wild and dangerous commercial landscape. So, can copycatting the big dogs ever be ok? For Boutique & Brand the answer to this is an outraged, finger-pointing, unequivocal “NO“!  Yes, keeping creative is a fierce challenge, but it’s this that keeps team B&B hunting for more.

What brands everywhere can (and should!) be taking from the kings of the creative kingdom however, is their unrelenting hunger, wild ambition, and bravery to take a walk on the wild side.

When it comes to copywriting, it’s brands like Innocent leading the pack, with their claws deep under the skins of their customers, while at the same time keeping true to their instincts. With big issues such as health, ethics and community top of their agenda, they are as beautifully benevolent as they are commercially cutting edge. And, most importantly, it suits them.

With a content strategy spanning no nonsense ‘Taste good does good’ ad campaigns, quirky ‘How to make a piggy bank from an innocent juice bottle’ blogs, and bold exposés of customer complaints across their public platforms, their vision is clear, their skin thick, and their confidence affirmed by their brazen tactics. Propelled, perhaps, by the inescapable bottling of Innocent’s key ingredients – energy, humour and vision – at their ‘Fruit Towers’ headquarters, which makes living the brand so effortless.  And it suits them.

Because let’s be clear. This is not about fruit. This is about welcoming us into a more wholesome and whimsical world that is better for us, inside and out. It’s about looking beyond the confines of the strawberry patch and roaming wildly into new territories. To festivals and charitable foundations. To encouraging us to make a difference. And to prove you can have fun doing it.

Wouldn’t it be a travesty if our sensibility prevented us from taking a step into the wilderness from time to time? Yes, it takes focus, wholehearted embodiment of the brand and well, let’s face it, balls to write as unabashedly and cleverly as this, but being truly inspired by their efforts is a very good place to start.

Boutique & Brand