Amanda | The Womens Room

Fashion & BeautyOctober 19, 2016

Our Top Five Buys From Emma Cook’s Revamped Warehouse Range

By Amanda

Actually, it’s going to be more than five. Back in the spring, when the fashion press gets to see winter, much was made of the talented designer Emma Cook taking over the somewhat down-at-heel high street chain Warehouse. The always-smouldering… Read More

Art & Culture, Fashion & BeautyOctober 14, 2016

Frieze Fashion 2016: Skirts, Colour and More metallics

By Amanda

Possibly the most fabulous skirt and shirt look at Frieze this year was the one above, which undoubtedly came from a fancy designer, but there’s a rather similar and very good one at M&S, it’s not in yet, but I’ll… Read More

Art & Culture, Fashion & BeautyOctober 14, 2016

Frieze Fashion 2016: Mono Everything and the Long White Shirt

By Amanda

Mono – black and white or navy and white – was a really big thing, clothes-wise, at Frieze 2016, it looked particularly fabulous when a graphic print or spot was worked into the mix. Cropped wide trousers and a white… Read More

Art & Culture, Fashion & BeautyOctober 10, 2016

Freize Fashion 2016: Gentlewomen styling, cuffed trousers and pink.

By Amanda

Frieze London came around again last week, can it really be a year since the last one? TWR is lucky to have VIP access and so I did my usual brief glimpse at the very best in contemporary art followed… Read More

Things We LoveOctober 6, 2016

Dr Sebagh’s Skincare at Urban Retreat in Harrods

By Amanda

Here at TWR, we wade through a lot of very average skin creams in order to be able to tell you about the good ones and when you find a good one, I always get a teeny bit over excited.… Read More

Fashion & Beauty, Out & AboutOctober 5, 2016

Makers House with Burberry, And Pop Up Fatigue

By Amanda

For those who live in London, had plenty of time on their hands and didn’t have to actually work for a living, the extraordinarily large catalogue of events and shows that surrounded the two weeks of London Fashion Week and… Read More

Fashion, We Are ReadingOctober 4, 2016

The New Garconne, How To Be A Modern Gentlewoman, by Navaz Batliwalla

By Amanda

The author of The New Garconne, Navaz Batliwalla, writes one of my favourite fashion blogs, Disneyrollergirl, so news that she was writing a book was greeted with excitement here at TWR Towers. Navaz has a clear sighted and pragmatic approach… Read More

Art & Culture, Out & AboutSeptember 30, 2016

Guest Blogger Elena Bowes: Carmen Herrera – 101 And Going Strong

By Amanda

Our intrepid guest blogger, Elena Bowes, has visited the Whitney’s exhibition in New York, on Carmen Herrara, one of the oldest living women artists still working. Still painting – and taking a small scotch after lunch – daily, Carmen is… Read More

Art & CultureSeptember 28, 2016

Best Books for Autumn -TWR’s Reading Round-Up

By Amanda

I’ve read loads of great books over the last few months, some of which I’ve added to our We Are Reading list, but others I’ve not had time to include so I’m rounding them up here, in case you’re in… Read More

Fashion & BeautySeptember 23, 2016

Trend Alert: The Super-Star Sleeve

By Amanda

I went to a Laura Marling concert earlier this summer (above, she is marvellous, do listen to her) where Laura wore a fabulous white top with wide, romantic, eye-catching sleeves. As she played guitar, her sleeves added an extra dramatic… Read More

Fashion & BeautySeptember 21, 2016

The One Where We Finally Got To Meet Jenny Eclair

By Amanda

When I finally got to meet Jenny Eclair last week (at a JD Williams ‘do’) after years of Twitter chatter between her and us, she greeted me with “Your blog is a joy!’ She is officially the funniest, smartest and… Read More

Things We LoveSeptember 18, 2016

Russell & Bromley’s Velvet Roxanne Boot

By Amanda

It’s all about velvet for autumn 2016, in case you haven’t been paying fashion-attention. I’ve been looking forward to it since the February catwalk shows indicated it was heading our way, it’s my Fav Fabric Evs. The velvety Roxanne boot… Read More

Novels & Biogs, We Are ReadingSeptember 15, 2016

A Certain Age by Beatriz Williams

By Amanda

I got sent this book ages ago, but couldn’t get passed the first page for some reason. Then on holiday, I noticed it on the shelves of a Greensboro book store tagged as a New York Times best-seller. Predictably, I… Read More

Fashion & Beauty, Out & AboutSeptember 12, 2016

Hudson’s Hill Store, A Little Bit Of Retail Heaven In Greensboro

By Amanda

My stay in North Carolina was hedged with some trepidation, due to recent state issues on LGBT. Should I have followed Bruce’s example and not go? But you don’t learn about stuff unless you travel and how better to experience… Read More

Home & GardenSeptember 9, 2016

Porch Envy: Why We All Need A Place To Rock

By Amanda

There are many things I’m missing about my holiday in North Carolina, but one in particular is the beautiful front porch we had on our very nice Air B&B house. Before visiting and semi-owning a porch (albeit for only a… Read More

Fashion & BeautySeptember 7, 2016

A Neat Holiday Backpack from The Cambridge Satchel Company

By Amanda

Just before I left for my summer break, the Cambridge Satchel Company got in touch to ask if we’d like to wear-test some of its new styles. Nice timing, as I was wondering what bag to take on my holidays.… Read More

Art & Culture, Home & Garden, Out & AboutSeptember 5, 2016

Guest Blog: Elena Bowes visits Brooklyn Botanic Gardens

By Amanda

Part of my recent summer break was spent in New York, where I went to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens, tipped off about it by our regular guest blogger, travel writer Elena Bowes. It was a treat to visit, as she… Read More

Art & Culture, Out & AboutSeptember 1, 2016

The Elsewhere Project in Greensboro North Carolina

By Amanda

We are back! Hope your summer was good and you didn’t miss us too much. For part of our summer break, I ended up in Greensboro, North Carolina, because Middleagedad had an Artist in Residence spot for five weeks at… Read More

Health & HappinessJuly 26, 2016

We’re Off On Our Summer Break!

By Amanda

We are off on our summer break for the next few weeks, we’ll be back September 1st, fully refreshed. As Jane mentioned last week, we need a good long digital detox to recharge our creative batteries, but we will be… Read More

Out & AboutJuly 25, 2016

Guest Blog: Elena Bowes visits Hayward House

By Amanda

Apologies, Elena and I had a bit of a techie glitch on her Friday post with images, she visited two shops for us in her New York Like A Local blogpost series, so here is what happened in part two… Read More

Out & AboutJuly 22, 2016

Guest Blog: Elena Bowes visits Creel & Gow

By Amanda

Another post from our roving New York reporter Elena, who has found another local gem worth putting on your to-visit list if you are visiting soon. If you’re in Manhattan’s Upper East Side on the lookout for something eye-catching, unusual… Read More

Out & AboutJuly 20, 2016

What the Heck is Pokémon Go?

By Amanda

After Jane’s successful post on explaining Snapchat to us all, I thought I’d fill you in on the latest phone-based phenomenon, Pokémon GO, mostly because 1) Pokémon were a huge thing for twentysomethingsons when they were young – remember the… Read More

UncategorizedJuly 18, 2016

Summer Style Inspiration With Sandra Semburg and Amanda Brookes

By Amanda

A very quick post this morning, as other deadlines loom with the day job, but now the weather looks like it might actually be summer, I thought I’d share my new favourite Street Style blogger, Sandra Semburg. There are so… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 14, 2016

Amazon Hair with Rahua

By Amanda

One of the great things about reporting on fashion and beauty is the (occasionally) fascinating people we get to meet. So it was with Fabian Lliguin, renowned New York hair stylist and passionate environmentalist, who founded the all natural Rahua… Read More

Home & GardenJuly 12, 2016

Neptune Home Furnishings – Who Knew?

By Amanda

Last week I discovered a very good range of home ware I didn’t even know existed. Neptune has been going for 20 years and is like the love child of The White Company and Marks & Spencer. Although clever home… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 8, 2016

Friday Athleisure Shoe Lust at ASOS

By Amanda

Athleisure isn’t just influencing clothes, shoes are also morphing into a mix of sporty comfort and smartness as new trainer hybrids appear to tempt us. I spotted these Lost Ink Terissa flatform plimsoles on a very stylish beauty editor this… Read More

Home & GardenJuly 6, 2016

The Calming Values of Japanese Incense

By Amanda

Last week ended for me in the most calming way imaginable, at a traditional Japanese incense ceremony. After a week of hurling verbal abuse at the radio as yet another politician did something unbelievable, it couldn’t have come at a… Read More

Home & GardenJuly 5, 2016

We Have A Winner! The Secret Linen Store Competition

By Amanda

So, we have a winner for our recent Secret Linen Store competition, lucky old Eleanor O’ Neill and her idea of adding corner mittens to her duvet so her hands wouldn’t get cold when she whacked her alarm clock in… Read More

Food, We Are ReadingJuly 4, 2016

A Bird In The Hand by Diana Henry

By Amanda

While helping M.A.D with his vinyl pop up, I checked out the local charity stores – East Sheen has a staggering number for a small place -and discovered this fabulous cookery book in one of them. The joy of the… Read More

Fashion & BeautyJuly 4, 2016

Georgia O’Keeffe at Jigsaw

By Amanda

Georgia O’Keeffe’s new exhibition opens this week people…Regular readers will remember I’ve been practicing dressing like Georgia since here and never before have I been more hopeful that some great art will lift my spirits. Much like with the Barbara… Read More