Amanda | The Womens Room

Home & GardenDecember 2, 2011

Martha Moments: make your own Christmas decorations

By Amanda

We come across some very clever people when we do shop visits, and this week was no exception. Over at Nom de Plume, co owner Pippa was busy putting up her home made Christmas star balls as window dressing. “They… Read More

Things We LoveDecember 1, 2011

Frog rings by Appartement à Louer Paris

By Amanda

When we went to the Precious Christmas pop up this week, we were given one of these fantastic frog rings by Kate as an early Christmas present. They are going to be our Christmas party rings. Very well priced at… Read More

Things We LoveDecember 1, 2011

Camisole top and great trousers by Lucza

By Amanda

We really like the Lucza range of easy-to-wear pieces, which we saw up-close at the Precious Christmas pop up this week. The silk used in the camisoles is stretchy and SO comfortable (above), we also loved the Audrey and Katherine… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 30, 2011

Precious and Lucza pop up in Spitalfields

By Amanda

As I write this, Radio 4’s You and Yours is saying that smaller shops and independents retail figures improved slightly compared to larger stores this last quarter, it appears we are definitely buying locally from stores that really appreciate our… Read More

Things We LoveNovember 28, 2011

Natural History: bird notebooks

By Amanda

These are lovely hummingbird notebooks (£30) with stylish covers that might appeal to other stationery lovers like us. For bird appreciators you can pick from a variety of birds or bugs, if entomology is more your thing. They are from… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, We Are ReadingNovember 28, 2011

Stitch! by Cath Kidston

By Amanda

A good one for budding cross stitch enthusiasts, Cath Kidston’s Stitch! is a colourful, jolly introduction to cross stitch tapestry. Just flicking through it makes me want to start embroidering and if you think it’s a bit girly, take a… Read More

Out & AboutNovember 28, 2011

Tokyo’s best vintage kimono store

By Amanda

One of the best places I visited when I was in Tokyo recently was Gallery Kawano, a vintage kimono shop, tucked away in Omotosando. For anyone who might be visiting at some point, I suggest you bookmark this post, because… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 26, 2011

TWR inspiration shots: Hammersmith Vintage Fair

By Amanda

Hammersmith Vintage Fair, which happens approximately once a month, is not just great for vintage clothes, it’s also a place to watch women dress creatively in both vintage and contemporary dress. If you get there early, as I normally do,… Read More

Food, We Are ReadingNovember 24, 2011

Recipes for Everyday by Jane Cumberbatch

By Amanda

This is a lovely looking cookery and gardening book that would suit a first time house or home maker (probably more girl than boy orientated due to a very feminine feel to the thing). I liked it as soon as… Read More

Art & CultureNovember 23, 2011

We love: Suri’s Burn Book

By Amanda

This is a wickedly un-PC post, it involves innocent children being mercilessly made fun of by another child, which is pretty much bullying, until you realise that the children belong to celebrities who are often hiking their kids around for… Read More

Out & AboutNovember 22, 2011

Green Retail in Japan

By Amanda

Back to Tokyo and a quick look at some of the retail shops around the Shibuya and Omotosando areas, where ‘greening up’ the front of the store is very popular. Again it’s often done with small pots of plants, artfully… Read More

Out & AboutNovember 20, 2011

Suburban Japan

By Amanda

I’ve been in Japan this week, working with World Co as part of the day job. On a walk through suburban Tokyo I was struck by how, despite the small amount of space the average Japanese family has, they still… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 18, 2011

We love Sally from Undercover notebooks

By Amanda

We are self confessed stationery geeks here at TWR, as you know, so when we stumbled across Sally Leonard-Morgan, who runs Undercover UK, a stationery company that makes fabulous notebooks, paper goods and other wonderful leathery-things, at a press day… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 16, 2011

On the subject of pencil skirts….

By Amanda

Next season it’s all about the pencil skirt, they are everywhere. here’s our favourite two so far from the spring 2012 press days. Above is the sweetest one from Boden in a lovely tangerine slubby linen with this raised ribbon… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 16, 2011

We love Whistles handbags

By Amanda

Last week it was about spring, due to the press days and the general vibe is that clothes are really going ‘modern grown up’, with neat tailoring and gorgeous dresses, so good news for us. So far my favourite press… Read More

Home & Garden, We Are ReadingNovember 14, 2011

Vintage Flowers by Vic Brotherson

By Amanda

Scarlet and Violet is one of my favourite florists, I first found it at Tom Dixon’s store last year, as a pop up during the London Design Festival, I went home and tried to make my flower vases look like… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 14, 2011

Frieze extras

By Amanda

We had some nice comments left on the Frieze 2011 posts saying that you really liked to see our ‘street shots’ of what real people are wearing, so I went back through our Frieze photos and sorted out a few… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 12, 2011

Christmas decorations, a quick round up

By Amanda

It’s ok to start thinking about Christmas decorations now, mostly because if you don’t , they will all have sold out. Earlier this year (July in fact, Christmas seems to go on for ever if you are a fashion hack)… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, Fashion, We Are ReadingNovember 11, 2011

100 Years of Active Resistance by Vivienne Westwood

By Amanda

Dame Viv’s been busy recently down at Occupy London, supporting the protesters, but she’s (as always) been ahead of the protest curve for quite a while. This is her timely new book of 100 great images on active resistance, This… Read More

Home & GardenNovember 10, 2011

HRH The Prince of Wales’s pop up Christmas Shop

By Amanda

Should everything go ‘bottoms up’ for our current heir apparent, he could definitely make it as a retailer. I’m not talking about the Duchy Originals brand, although heaven knows that’s been successful enough, I’m talking about the Highgrove range, which… Read More

Things We LoveNovember 9, 2011

Boden’s jewellery

By Amanda

For anyone needing to nudge a partner into Christmas present ideas, please feel free to print off this post and leave it lying around the house (highlighting, obvs, which ones you prefer) , should these Boden fine jewels fit the… Read More

Home & Garden, We Are ReadingNovember 9, 2011

Nomad, bringing your travels home by Sibella Court

By Amanda

Haven’t actually read this yet but it’s Sibella Court and we love her. It would be a nice present for a creative person (big hint family, if you are reading).… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingNovember 8, 2011

Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? by Jeanette Winterson

By Amanda

Heard this on Radio 4’s Book of the Week. Captivatingly brilliant. We think Winterson is magic.… Read More

Out & AboutNovember 8, 2011

Today’s music crush: The Civil Wars

By Amanda

Do you ever have that thing where you find a new album that you LOVE and you play it over and over because you love it so much and everyone else screams at you to stop? I am currently at… Read More

Art, Culture & Craft, We Are ReadingNovember 6, 2011

The Twelve Knits of Christmas

By Amanda

Since we are on knitting (see the knit-your-own-cat book on the book home page) why not knit your own Christmas Decorations too? From the author of ‘Knit your own Royal Family’, which is really all you need to know…..… Read More

Things We LoveNovember 6, 2011

Notions from Merchant & Mills

By Amanda

Since we’re on Christmas present watch, we can speak very highly of the Notions Box from Merchant & Mills, which comes beautifully wrapped and contains little jewel boxes of treasure -well made haberdashery things- if you are a sewer. Non… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 6, 2011

British Heritage Collection from Fat Face

By Amanda

We’d been hearing good things about Fat Face’s brand revamp from friends in the industry and when I visited Westfield Stratford City, I liked the look of the new store concept, which featured less of that funny little skull logo… Read More

Art & CultureNovember 4, 2011

Christmas gifts for middleagedad

By Amanda

Middleagedad is a tricky one to buy for at Christmas and special birthdays, but we may have stumbled across a new form of Dad Art with these great vinyl pieces by Keith Haynes from Art Partnership. We asked Keith to… Read More

Fashion & BeautyNovember 2, 2011

Perfume review: CB I Hate Perfume

By Amanda

This doesn’t look the most inspiring of shop fronts, does it? When you also add on the fact that it’s tucked away in a slightly mean looking street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, you probably would walk away, smarti-sh, rather than go… Read More

Home & GardenOctober 31, 2011

Dear Jonathan Adler, can we move in please?

By Amanda

In our ongoing quest to find shops we’d like to move into, we’re adding the New York SoHo store of Jonathan Adler to the list, which I visited when on holiday there last week. Jonathan Adler is a talented ceramicist,… Read More