Amanda | The Womens Room

Things We LoveAugust 21, 2014

Gudrun Sjoden’s Elefant T Shirt for Ivory For Elephants

By Amanda

Gudrun Sjoden’s new AW14 collection is putting the protection of African elephants at its heart, to the extent that for every Elefant Top she sells, she will donate £5 to the anti ivory poaching charity Ivory For Elephants. As… Read More

Fashion & BeautyAugust 20, 2014

Older models, another success: Angelica Huston for Gap

By Amanda

I mentioned earlier this month about how big brands were starting to use older models in their all important September advertising, well looks who turned up in the Gap campaign… The awesome Angelica Huston. The adverts, entitled Dress Normal, are… Read More

Fashion & BeautyAugust 18, 2014

How to buy the best jeans, with Jean Stories

By Amanda

Oh, Jeans Stories, you are a clever idea, I wish I’d thought of you. Instead two clever American girls, Jane Herman Bishop and Florence Kane got there before me. Both Jane and Florence are denim experts who have practically invented… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingAugust 18, 2014

Completion by Tim Walker

By Amanda

After a few books from this summer’s must-read list had turned out to be non-starters, I was delighted to tuck into Completion by Tim Walker, a feast for anyone with a taste for a character-driven book set in many authors’… Read More

Health & HappinessAugust 16, 2014

Weekend Woman: Jo Pavey

By Amanda

There could only be one Weekend Woman this week, the amazing Jo Pavey, who has won a gold medal in the 10,000 metres at the European Championships this week. Every report of this tremendous win -her first gold in 17… Read More

Things We LoveAugust 16, 2014

We love: Yves Saint Laurent La Laque Couture Les Graines

By Amanda

OR leather-look nails to you and me. I’ve not been into the whole ‘nail art’ thing, I’ve admired it from afar and am truly amazed by the detail and colours around, but I’m just not sure it’s my style to… Read More

Home & GardenAugust 14, 2014

Rachel Vosper, candle chandler

By Amanda

This week I think I’m going to give everything up and become a candle chandler, and it’s all Rachel Vosper’s fault (above) Rachel invited us to a morning of candle making at her cute Kinnerton Street artisan workshop and store… Read More

Things We LoveAugust 12, 2014

Perfume review: Papillon perfumery

By Amanda

One of the great advantages of hanging out with people who REALLY know what they are talking about is that you get to learn about good stuff. At our Scent Salon, Odette Toilette introduced us to Papillon Perfumery, a brand… Read More

Fashion & BeautyAugust 12, 2014

Me and my fashionable mum, with a bit of help from Jaeger

By Amanda

Is it me or -hold on tightly to something -are we grown up women actually becoming fashionable? I’ve returned from my holidays to discover we are everywhere in the September editions of the glossies, it’s quite unnerving. Not only is… Read More

Home & GardenAugust 9, 2014

Weekend Woman: Jenny Eclair

By Amanda

Jenny Eclair makes us laugh like drains on twitter and any other medium she makes a noise on. She’s a joyously realistic, super-observant, occasionally grumpy voice being properly funny about what it is to be a woman today. Nothing makes… Read More

Fashion & BeautyAugust 8, 2014

Purple make up – would you?

By Amanda

I’m away this week, so today we have a guest blog from lovely Amy Dicketts. I was about to ditch a couple of the purple make up samples (this next season’s hottest shade, it’s as if the 70s never went… Read More

Home & GardenAugust 6, 2014

A special treat for stationery geeks, the extraordinary Paul Antonio, scribe

By Amanda

Today’s post is for the stationery geeks and anyone who yearns for the scratchy sound of pen on paper and whose heart beats a little faster when they receive a beautiful hand written letter. Have you noticed how little you… Read More

Home & GardenAugust 4, 2014

The total joy of fabulous smelling linen, with the White Company

By Amanda

My love of fragrance is not restricted to the perfume you spray on yourself, I am equally obsessed with smell in the home and in particular, making everything tediously domestic such as washing liquids, floor cleaners and bedlinen smell delicious… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingAugust 2, 2014

If I Knew You Were Going To Be This Beautiful I Never Would Have Let You Go by Judy Chicurel

By Amanda

This is a fabulous read, one that took me right back to the days of teenage love-crushes and desperately wanting to be a grown up, but scared of going too fast. I had nothing in common with Katie, the heroine… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 31, 2014

One dress to buy from Gap

By Amanda

Just a quick extra post today to mention this extremely good indigo floral jacquard dress from Gap. Just ignore me if you’ve done all your summer dress buying, but if you have a need for a hard working mid summer… Read More

EventsJuly 31, 2014

Here’s what happened at our Scent Salon with Aesop and Odette Toilette

By Amanda

For the perfume enthusiasts amongst you who couldn’t make our scent salon, here’s a quick peak at what we got up to in the Aesop store last week with Odette Toilette (in pink, above). On what could have been the… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 29, 2014

A lesson in scarf tying with Cleo Ferin Mercury

By Amanda

One absolute joy of having our blog, is that we meet so many interesting people, including other bloggers, many of whom have turned into friends. Kirsty from Fashion For Lunch is my latest addition, her blog is great and she… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 25, 2014

A new bag love: The Original Satchel Store

By Amanda

How many handbags do you have? I thought I had enough hand bags, well I DO have more than enough bags, but then The Original Satchel Store sent along this soft leather tote bag for us to consider. As it… Read More

Things We LoveJuly 23, 2014

The perfect cherry stoner

By Amanda

A bit niche, but I recommend this excellent cherry stoner for anyone who has to work their way through a lot of cherries. You may remember I rent a cherry tree from er, RentACherryTree and this year has seen our… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 23, 2014

Great use of older models by jewellery designer Zorya

By Amanda

We mentioned last week the fab film by The Future Lab, which highlights how the beauty industry is being very slow to realise that using older models in their marketing campaigns might be no bad thing, since, y’know, there are… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 21, 2014

Summer (and autumn-launch) perfume review

By Amanda

It’s ALL about perfume this week on TWR, what with our Scent Salon happening tomorrow with Odette Toilette and Aesop…(are you coming?) Over the last few months I’ve inhaled more fragrance than is probably good for a girl. The number… Read More

Health & HappinessJuly 19, 2014

Weekend Woman: Anne Reid

By Amanda

I was wondering who to put up as this week’s Weekend Woman right up until yesterday, then I heard actor Anne Reid (b 1935) on Desert Island Discs and sorta fell in love with her over the airwaves. She says… Read More

Things We LoveJuly 17, 2014

Footner, AKA The Big Peel, for feet

By Amanda

You need to know about Footner, a rather weird sounding product that promises to restore your feet to baby-skin softness. I was alerted to it by an entertaining Mumsnet thread which indicated it was indeed good, but you had to… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 17, 2014

Wet weather protection perfection with Protected Species

By Amanda

I have been mightily impressed with some new rain wear that came my way recently. The nice people at Protected Species (Iove the name) sent me one of their parka rain coats to try, to demonstrate the London based design… Read More

Out & AboutJuly 15, 2014

Scent Salon with Odette Toilette and Aesop

By Amanda

Only a week to go before our fabulous Scent Salon with Aesop and Odette Toilette, have you bought your tickets yet? It should be a fantastic evening. For those that have and for anyone who isn’t quite sure what we… Read More

Health & HappinessJuly 12, 2014

Weekend Woman: Caryn Franklin

By Amanda

Oh how we love Caryn Franklin (b 1959), MBE, co-founder of All Walks Beyond The Catwalk, general fashion guru and talker of much sense when it comes to embracing what grown up women want out of fashion and beauty. We’ve… Read More

Events, Out & AboutJune 29, 2014

A Taste For Scent, with The Women’s Room and Odette Toilette

By Amanda

We are on holiday this week, but while we are away…..Exciting news! We are proud to announce we are having our first TWR fragrance event, in conjunction with the fabulous fragrance expert Odette Toilette and the beauty brand Aesop. A… Read More

Health & HappinessJune 29, 2014

We’re on holiday! Back on Monday 14th July

By Amanda

We are off on our annual summer holiday, we’ll be back on Monday 14th July. To keep you entertained until we return, can we suggest a few vintage posts? You might like the one where Middleagedmum: takes it to the… Read More

Health & HappinessJune 28, 2014

Weekend Woman: Debbie Harry

By Amanda

There was a great feature on Debbie Harry (born 1945) in The Telegraph last week (Hip Hip Harry) and I immediately thought she should be this week’s Weekend Woman. The awesome Ms Harry must be one of our greatest grown… Read More

Home & GardenJune 27, 2014

Badges to wear when you’re proud to be a knitter or crocheter, from True Brit Knits

By Amanda

I love these old school badges from True Brit Knits, they remind me of the ones I used to wear on my old school tie. Those badges were a weird thing, weren’t they? in some ways they were a a… Read More