jo orr

We’re Back….

The Women’s Room launched in a crazy week in 2008 when we entered a period of uncertaintity, considered by many economists to have been the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression. But enough of the good old days!… Read More Read More

Mid Life Moving Continued: How To Cope

After Jane’s mini-rant last week about how she’s thinking of moving to the seaside, our correspondent Elena Bowes mailed in an update on how her move to New York was going. Regular readers will also remember Sue Evan’s Adventure Before… Read More Read More

What We’re Buying: Artisan Workshops with No5 Workshops and Janine Pope

According to the latest piece of research by J Walter Thompson on us mid lifers, many of us are graduating towards the creative world, either as a second career or just to return to learning. The research also highlights findings… Read More Read More

Summer Reads: Best Books To Take On Holiday

I read an enormous amount of words every week of the year, mostly to do with work. My daily consumption of fashion reports, consumer analysis and fragrance goings-on is always interesting but quite serious and thought provoking. That’s before we… Read More Read More

Frida Kahlo: Making Her Self Up at the V&A

Oh womenfolk, this is GLORIOUS. Among us fashion folk, Frida has superstar status due to her artful style, use of colour and accessories and empowering feminist views on life. She was also a magnificent artist and her work sells for… Read More Read More

Middleagedmum.com: Lives for sale

It’s not news that social media can have a negative impact on mental health – particularly for young people – but recent studies have found that Instagram rates as the worst above other platforms. The sheer amount of content, the… Read More Read More

London Craft Week 2018: Our Highlights

Our regular craft correspondent Julia Little toured London Craft Week for us again this year, searching out the best of the HUGE selection of what was on offer. It was the thoughtful presentations and workshops put on by the smaller… Read More Read More

Guest Blogger Elena Bowes goes to Surface Work at Victoria Miro

There are easily a dozen paintings in Victoria Miro’s latest sensational show Surface Work that I wanted to smuggle home. Over 50 female abstract artists from across the globe over the past century are shown in this stunning, historical glimpse… Read More Read More

The importance of a good office chair

At the end of last year I attended to an evening dedicated to wellbeing organised by organised by Amara Interiors. We we’re treated to a series of workshops on Aura & Chakra Photography with Sankar, Kinesiology Therapy with Ella Owen, … Read More Read More

Dear ST Style: Please don’t ignore us

Over the last few months I have been disappointed in the direction the Sunday Times Style magazine has taken. Claudia Winkleman’s view on fashion (however witty) had been annoying enough, but the introduction of Georgia Toffolo’s column had me raging. … Read More Read More

Guest Blogger Elena Bowes Interviews Novelist Elise Valmorbida

Anyone who’s walked passed Liberty recently will have seen its excellent tribute to the Suffragette Movement’s Smashing Windows campaign from March 1912, where many of the store’s windows were broken. Nine modern women are celebrated, including Florence Welsh, Anya Hindmarch,… Read More Read More

Perfume Inspiration For Mother’s Day

Not only is it National Fragrance Week -hope you’re all double-dosing yourselves with your favourite scents in celebration- but it’s Mother’s Day on Sunday too, so I’m living in a very perfume orientated world this week, as it’s a busy… Read More Read More

Working through the Menopause

Around five years ago – roughly around the same time I started my business, I started feeling anxious. Not just a little bit stressed and uptight, but super anxious, anxious, in a panic attack way, that made me feel like… Read More Read More

A Year Of Buying Better Starts With Careful Sale Shopping

So, after such a drought of purchasing, you may be wondering what it felt like to buy after a year of abstaining. And WHAT I bought on my first shopping spree. Or not, sorry if I’m boring you on this… Read More Read More

Inspiring Grown Up Women: Kristina Karlsson from kiki.K

What is it about the Swedes? They seem to have been scattered with just a bit more style dust than the rest of us. That’s what I was thinking when I met up with Kristina Karlsson, founder of kiki.K, the… Read More Read More

Guest Blogger Elena Bowes: Notes On Manhattan

Our guest blogger Elena Bowes has finally moved into her new apartment, but is finding things are a little different from the last time she lived in Manhattan. Love seems to dictate where I live. I moved to London three… Read More Read More

Frieze Fashion (and a bit of art) 2017

It’s hard to believe we’ve been writing up Frieze London Fashion since 2010, so much art and so many clothes! In Jane’s excellent Frieze Colour yesterday, she mentions she’s a little cynical about the art and the insanely rich people… Read More Read More

Guest Blogger Elena Bowes: What’s Cooking In New York This Autumn

Our New York correspondent Elena Bowes has rounded up some exciting cultural happenings in the city this autumn, just in case you are visiting, or you’re one of our NYC readers. Not jealous. Nope. Not at all. Over to your… Read More Read More

Guest Blogger Elena Bowes: Stephan Janson, Milan’s Best-Kept Secret

Our roving reporter Elena Bowes has been in Milan, where she spent an afternoon with a designer you’ll likely never have heard of, yet whose influence is extensive; Mr Stephan Janson. Here he offers up a very grounded view on… Read More Read More

Older Models At Evans Bikes

Well done Evans Cycles on using this image of a stylish grown up woman – Anne, apparently- on their A Match Made In Evans advertising. Good to see. I’m a keen urban cyclist, although I rarely do distances longer than… Read More Read More

A new brand to love: Arket

If you are reading Amanda’s attempts to buy ‘no new’ clothes with interest and are considering the amount you buy, you might want to check out the new H&M brand Arket, which is hoping to pioneer a conscious approach to… Read More Read More

Middleagedmum.com: Parklife

It was only after the birth of my son that I started to visit our local park on a regular basis. Seeking out somewhere to walk with the pram and meet up with my NCT friends, a visit to the… Read More Read More

Be trans, be proud — but don’t call yourself a “real woman”

Jenni Murray’s article in yesterdays Sunday Times suggests that men who undergo sex change operations cannot be “real women”. Previous similar claims have generated and angry response from transgender activists and Jenni says she “realises the implications of making such… Read More Read More

Middelagedmum.com: Better late than never

Last week after a 5.30am start and meetings all day, I was on my way home from work when I got a text, “sorry I’m going to be 10 mins late”. I had completely forgotten (due to the 5.30 am… Read More Read More

Podcasts For Grown Up Women

Firstly, thanks for the AMAZING responses to the Nothing New post from last Monday, I am hugely motivated by all the support and I hope to keep you entertained by my ‘no new clothes’ journey this year. Moving on. Podcasts… Read More Read More

Lives, Loves and Loss at Fenton House, with Traces London

My absolute favourite way to experience historical houses is when they put you in an immersive, imaginary, day-in-the-life-of kind of way. You may have been to Denis Severs House, where the multi-sensory aspect is done magnificently; as you enter each… Read More Read More