Amanda | The Womens Room

Fashion & BeautyDecember 6, 2013

Backpack research, part two

By Amanda

I’ve still not found my perfect back pack, despite Jane’s informative post, but the subject is clearly one close to your hearts, dear readers, as you got busy over twitter and the comments thread with some great suggestions. I’m listing… Read More

Fashion & BeautyDecember 5, 2013

Gudrun Sjödén: a style icon for all ages and sizes

By Amanda

Last weekend I met the Swedish fashion designer Gudrun Sjödén, whose colourful printed clothes are sold from possibly the most cheerful store in London, it’s almost impossible to be miserable in a Gudrun store, there’s so much uplifting colour and… Read More

Things We LoveDecember 3, 2013

Angela Flanders candle for Dennis Severs House

By Amanda

East London perfumer Angela Flanders created the smell for the Dennis Severs House, one of our favourite houses in London, to complement the amazing eighteenth century atmosphere therein. When you visit the scent is gently present in every room and… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 29, 2013

Present wrapping inspiration with Helen Musselwhite and The White Company

By Amanda

When we attended The White Company’s Christmas press day, we met super-talented paper illustrator Helen Musselwhite, who had created an extraordinary world of fabulous paper pictures, sculptures and present wrapping decoration for the company. Her work is beautifully detailed and… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 27, 2013

One thing to buy from Jigsaw – A Christmas bauble in skirt form

By Amanda

High street brand Jigsaw has been off our radar for a while as the last few years have been a bit hit-and-miss in terms of womenswear collections. I used to love Jigsaw back in the day, the very first store… Read More

Things We LoveNovember 25, 2013

Autumn Leaves Boxed Gift Tags & Twine from Rowen & Wren

By Amanda

We have some Christmas wrapping inspiration coming in a post later this week, but for those who need a bit of extra help now, try the ultra stylish Autumn Leaf boxed gift set of tags and twine from the home… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 25, 2013

Sophisticated Socks to wear with Chelsea Boots and Brogues

By Amanda

Can we return briefly to the Ankle Socks debate? Although I am not a signed up member of the ‘ankle socks with pointy shoes’ brigade, I am taking my socks much more seriously these days. For winter, my default footwear… Read More

Out & AboutNovember 21, 2013

The best Christmas windows are at John Lewis and Peter Jones

By Amanda

There’s been lots of attention paid to the big retailers’ Christmas Adverts this year, I think blogs have a LOT to do with this as of course we’re all posting the best ones and providing an excellent add-on marketing experience… Read More

Things We LoveNovember 19, 2013

Jo Malone Christmas ornaments

By Amanda

It’s possible I’m a bit late with this post….even though there’s still six weeks left until Christmas. These sweet little tree boxes from Jo Malone contain a handbag sized Pomegranate Noir cologne and tiny pot of English Pear and Freesia… Read More

Out & AboutNovember 19, 2013

Dear Mickey Drexler (of J Crew), Instagram is a good thing!

By Amanda

POST UPDATE Good news, we got a response, from Mickey’s Social Media Manager in the US, the charming sounding Lucy Laucht, who told us “We do actually allow (and encourage!) customers to take phone pictures and instagram in our stores. … Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 15, 2013

Buy Now, Wear Now clothes from Winser London (and some understated glamour)

By Amanda

We’re on the never ending cycle of press days for Summer 2014 here on planet fashion… just as we start to think about adding a warm vest to our daily dressing, your hardworking TWR reporters have to think about printed… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 13, 2013

Christmas present wish list: Susannah Hunter and Nikki Tibbles

By Amanda

Two of our favourite designers in flowers and handbags, Susannah Hunter and Nikki Tibbles, have collaborated on a project that might be of interest for your fantasy Christmas present list…should you have a generous budget. Susannah and Nikki got together… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, We Are ReadingNovember 11, 2013

Cloth by Cassandra Ellis

By Amanda

Another nice sewing projects book by Cassandra Ellis, with more lovely images to help you indulge your inner-domestic seamstress fantasy. There are over 30 good project ideas in here, from dip-dyed wool gauze panel curtains to pet beds, antique silk… Read More

Middle Aged MumNovember 11, 2013

Middleagemum.com: box-set fever and the lost weekend

By Amanda

I have just lost the weekend to the recently released box set of Mad Men 6. I started watching on Friday night and before I knew it, it was Sunday lunchtime. I tried to stop, really I did, but there… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 7, 2013

Style Icons: Tziporah Salamon and Kansai Yamamoto

By Amanda

I have a terrible middleagegirlcrush on Tziporah Salamon. We’ve mentioned her before on TWR because as a New York based stylist, model and fashion-muse she is featured regularly on Advanced Style and in Bill Cunningham’s fashion reports. She also has… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 5, 2013

We love: Emma Shipley scarves

By Amanda

Young Emma Shipley, the tremendously talented textile artist, won the Best Emerging Fashion Brand at the WGSN Global Fashion Awards on Wednesday evening and we’d like to say ‘well done’ with a blog post on her. Actually, we came across… Read More

Things We LoveNovember 5, 2013

Fresh Sugar Face Polish

By Amanda

I read about this on Into the Gloss, as I was developing a crush on the inspiring Catherine Walsh, SVP at Coty and user of Nivea Creme to make her hair looks this good….It is an inspiring interview, Catherine sounds… Read More

Art & CultureNovember 1, 2013

Mother and Daughter artists: Michele Deiters and Bibi van der Velden

By Amanda

During Frieze week a while back I got to meet Dutch mother and daughter sculpting team Michele Deiters and Bibi van der Velden, who had a small show at The Couture Lab in London (it’s on until Nov 8th). Both… Read More

Things We LoveOctober 31, 2013

Leighton Denny Nail Repair Cream

By Amanda

You know when you take nail polish off and your poor nails dry up like fragile chips of old waxed paper, brittle and flakey and sucked of all moisture? Well, get yourself a tube of Leighton Denny’s nail repair cream… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 30, 2013

Advent Calendars For Grown Up Girls

By Amanda

Sod the children, advent calendars are a great way for grown up girls to get through the painful, never ending-ly social month of December. Forget chocolate-filled windows excitingly opened daily by tiny fingers (or as happened in our house, the… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, We Are ReadingOctober 28, 2013

Knit Your Own Zoo (Best In Show) by Sally Muir and Joanna Osbourne

By Amanda

For those of you who loved This and This, now you can move onto giraffes, meerkats and armadillos with Knit Your Own Zoo, by the lovely Sally and Joanna. I mean who wouldn’t want a hand knitted fruit bat with… Read More

Things We LoveOctober 28, 2013

Weleda Calendular Weather Protection Cream

By Amanda

This is good. A honey coloured and nice smelling cream that is a multi purpose mender. It protects skin in cold and windy weather, softens hands, cuticles and skanky-dry feet skin as well as cracked lips and dry elbows. Being… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 28, 2013

We Love: Food 52

By Amanda

Last week my half of TWR was celebrating our last autumn half term ever (youngestson’s last year at school) by taking a short holiday in New York. As well as eating ourselves two sizes fatter, I got the chance to… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 24, 2013

Fashion and Feminist Art at Frieze 2013 #2

By Amanda

Back at Frieze Art Fair, which really is just a big art shop for very rich people, here are a few more shots of some great female-made art and outfits…As an aside, this year I noticed the men were really… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 22, 2013

Feminist Art and Fashion at Frieze Art Fair 2013

By Amanda

At this year’s Frieze Art Fair, horrified by recent women in art figures, I wanted to find as many women artists as possible to show alongside the stylish women I usually see. You have to look quite hard to find… Read More

Art & CultureOctober 19, 2013

Furniture at Frieze Art Fair 2013

By Amanda

Sorting out my Frieze photos for next weeks posts, I realised in a few of the galleries had better furniture than art. I don’t know why the furniture was so good this year, but here are a few of the… Read More

Fashion & BeautyOctober 18, 2013

A few things to buy from MiH Jeans

By Amanda

We have been a little slow in acknowledging the success of Made In Heaven jeans, I can almost see some of you rolling your eyes at our tardiness. But truth is I hadn’t really seen it up close anywhere and… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 16, 2013

We are Five! Happy Birthday everyone!

By Amanda

Blimey, time goes fast in the blogging world….Happy Birthday to us because we are five years old this week! Our first blogpost went up on October 13 2008, sounding positively upbeat just as the economic world crashed around our ears… Read More

Fashion, We Are ReadingOctober 14, 2013

Memos, The Vogue Years, Diana Vreeland

By Amanda

We can never have enough Diana Vreeland, so this new book, a collection of 250 of the best of the memos she sent while she was Editor in Chief at Vogue, is an exciting new addition to our Vreeland collection.… Read More

Out & AboutOctober 14, 2013

The return of Aqua Manda and an afternoon spent with the Rebel Cake and Perfume Club

By Amanda

If you were called (ahem) Amanda and were a teenager in the 70s, there was a very high chance that you’d find a bottle of Aqua Manda bath oil or perfume in your Christmas stocking or birthday present pile. It… Read More