This really has to be the most useful, essential item in a ladies wardrobe in the cold winter months. A good black coat will not only go with everything but it wont show the dirt either! How often have you got in or out of the car or train and looked down to find a long muddy line on your lovely coloured coat. Get a black one and you wont need to worry – simply wipe off the mark and carry on as normal.

There are three styles tips on your winter coat in black that might help you. The trick is though, get the style right. If you are tall, you can easily wear a longer black coat. This military style Great Plain black coat is smart, warm and looks great with long black boots. It was £125 but its in the sale at only £62.50. Just click on this picture and take a look for yourself.

If on the other hand you are looking for a shorter style ladies winter coat or jacket, our Savoy Jacket by Great Plains as pictured below is a real steal at only £60. This short black jacket is very easy to wear, looks great with smart trousers or jeans. This style of jacket is particularly good for ladies who are more petite in height and will give the impression of length to your overall outfit.

If you are looking for a basically black coat but with a little added colour, have a look at the Abbey Coat by Great Plains. This swing coat style is very flattering because it is not fitted and will make your legs look longer and slimmer. Another great bargain down from £110 to only £66. Click on the picture and take a closer look with the zoom.

It’s official, fashion’s perennial favourite becomes a spring summer staple. You just can’t go wrong with a monochrome capsule wardrobe. Worn as separates or combined in striking prints, springs bold black and feminine white not only are a marriage made in heaven, but they are sure to look elegant, sophisticated and very chic.

Latest catwalk reports from some of the biggest glossy magazines like Vogue, Harper’s Bazaar and In Style confirm this mini trend is official. Monochrome is big on the runway for all the top designers like Chanel, Moschino, Celine, Prada and Yves Saint Laurent. Top tip on how to wear Black in this summer – flash plenty of skin so that black pieces don’t look too heavy, and mix textures like silk with linen.

Keep a look out for the beginning of our spring/summer range of stunning monochromo, prints and styles in black and white coming very soon.

In the meantime, if you are looking for a great bargain, our winter sale is still on – click here to see  black dresses, black trousers, black knitwear, Coats

It’s cold! It’s icy and it’s getting a bit boring now so here is a very funny story I came across which made me laugh anyway! Hope you enjoy it too!

We’re an hour into the stationary tail-back. The M40 snakes back through South Oxfordshire; an inert mass of cars filled with would-be shoppers. You know it’s bad when people start getting out of their cars, sitting on the hard shoulder with make-shift picnics and swapping numbers with the family in the Touran next to them. We haven’t done badly so far; forty-seven rounds of ‘three little monkeys jumping on the bed’, a box of raisins each and a bottle of water which has been rolling around the footwell for the last six months. I knew I’d left it there for a reason. The children are in surprisingly good spirits considering lunch is due any moment and we should by now have been at John Lewis enjoying an egg sandwich each.

Despite representations from the back seat, I pause the kids’ nursery rhyme CD to listen to the traffic update. I snap off the radio in disbelief and sit in stunned silence for a second or two. The entire motorway will be closed for another three hours, and we’re in it for the duration. Three hours! Three hours with three toddlers who need food, sleep, lashings of Calpol and a good few hours running around hitting each other, before they will consider it a satisfactory afternoon. I can facilitate none of those things. Not even the nap – damn Gina Ford and her black-out blinds. Why couldn’t I have been one of those mothers who let their children fall asleep anywhere? God I need the loo.

I think wildly of my options; surely they’ll give me priority, like the AA? I could use the hard shoulder, squeeze unobstrusively past the terrible accident at the front, and be on my way. Or maybe they’ll helicopter us out; you know, if it gets really bad and E does that air-raid-siren scream thing she does. Why didn’t I go to the loo before we left? I got in the car over an hour ago already needing a wee – you have no idea how much my bladder hurts now.

I look at the change bag lying innocently on the passenger seat beside me, the edge of a nappy poking out of the top. I couldn’t. Could I? Of course I couldn’t. I’m going to have to. I’ve given birth to twins. Twice. My pelvic floor struggles to make it up the stairs without minor leakage, it’s never going to manage three hours holding back several litres of morning tea. Decisively I pull out the nappy and open it. Hmm, this is going to be a logistical challenge. I’m wearing skinny jeans, I’m in the driver’s seat of a people-carrier and I’m cheek-by-jowl with hundreds of near-stationary vehicles all occupied by bored people looking around for entertainment. Well boy am I about to give it to them.

I loosen my seatbelt and surreptitiously unzip my jeans. I start to feed the nappy down the front of my knickers, whilst simultaneously clenching my pelvic floor to prevent myself weeing on my hand, and giving darting glances in every direction like a paranoid robin. No-one seems to be looking, but I can see a pick-up truck in my rear-view mirror which will have a birds-eye view if it gets any closer…

Once I’ve stuffed as much Pampers as possible down my pants I start to work a hand down the back of my trousers in an attempt to pull the nappy through to cover the critcial area. Oh my God I can’t believe I’m doing this; I’m actually sweating. Just as I grasp the edge of the nappy and start to pull it backwards, the queue of traffic starts to move. Oh holy fuck…. My right hand wedged down my jeans, I put the car into gear and move off one-handed. In the rearview mirror I see the white pick-up move into the lane next to me, which is going at a marginally faster snails-pace than my own. Oh shit shit shit…

My foot hovering over the brake pedal, I grasp the back of the nappy and yank it several times, giving a little jump in my seat each time I do so. The pick-up draws alongside me and the queue grinds to a halt again. I just manage to evacuate my hand from my bottom before the two guys in the truck glance over and smile. Are they smiling because they’re being friendly, or because they think I’m touching myself? For fun? In a traffic jam? Oh God please get me out of this. I really need to go… Oh God I’m just going to have to do it…

You know, it’s a funny thing, trying to pee in a place you’re not supposed to. No matter how desperate you are, there’s a piece of your brain frantically shouting, “what the hell are you doing – you can’t wee there!” I wriggle on my now-padded knickers, desperately trying to relax my muscles enough to relieve my aching bladder, but not wanting to at the same time. I’m trying to calculate the capacity of a nappy, based on the three or four hours of baby-wee it holds. Can it take an adult wee? What if it bursts? Oh God I really need to go…

I’ve got an idea; I won’t have a whole wee, I’ll just let out enough to take the pain away and stop me sweating. Then I’ll hold the rest in till we get off the motorway and I can find a loo. It’ll work. I feel better about it already and I smile gleefully back at the pick-up pair. The passenger smiles back and drops me a slow, sexy wink. Oh sweet Jesus, he’s flirting with me. He really wouldn’t be doing that if he knew what was in my pants. I snap my head back to face front and give in to my poor bursting bladder. Just a teeny bit… I reap the consequences of my Kegel-laziness as the entire contents of my bladder begin to empty into the nappy. I attempt to stem the flow with pathetically weak muscles, but it’s like trying to stop Niagra with a sieve. On and on it comes. I feel the seat frantically, expecting disaster to strike at any moment, but it seems to be holding. I think I’ve risen a couple of inches off the seat, but it’s okay – it’s going to be okay.

And so the last vestiges of my dignity disappear.

Hand ups if your New Year’s resolution was to lose weight? I read recently that something like 40% of us plan to start a diet and/or gym programme this January, but personally, I can’t think of a worse time to try to shed the pounds. Most of us still have a cupboard full of fattening little treats from Christmas (rum truffle, anyone?), and when it’s cold and dark outside, the idea of a jog round the block and a little light salad is, to say the least, less than inviting.
So my advice would be to save the diet plan for spring, and go shopping instead. Whether you’re top or bottom heavy, or just plumper than you’d like, you can look taller and slimmer without losing a single pound, just by choosing the right clothes. I did a little survey of my best-dressed friends – of all shapes and sizes – to find out which clothes work miracles for them, and these are our tried and tested tips:
• Black, black, black. Everyone swears by it – slip on a well-cut black suit, or a curve-skimming dress, and you’ll look ten pounds lighter, instantly. If it’s a bit too harsh for your colouring, wear something light-reflecting near your face – pearl, mother of pearl or not-too-shiny silver work brilliantly.
• Boot cut or slightly flared trousers and jeans work wonders on chunky hips and thighs, because they balance out your silhouette. Try on a pair of tapered trousers and then some bootcut ones, and you’ll see the difference instantly.
• Wrap tops, V-necks and scoop necks are all great for making you look taller and slimmer, because they lead the eye downwards. If you’re not comfortable revealing your assets, the trick still works if you wear a contrasting camisole or vest top underneath.
• Wearing the same colour from top to toe makes you look taller, and therefore slimmer. That doesn’t have to mean the same shade – different tones of the same colour can work just as well. Wearing tops and bottoms in contrasting colours cuts you in half and makes you look shorter and wider, which unless you’re going for a part in Teletubbies, isn’t the aim (yes, I know Teletubbies are one colour from head to toe – but just imagine how much fatter they’d look if they weren’t).
• The shops are full of fabulous long knitted cardigans and coats, which are great for disguising lumps and bumps. Choose finer knits rather than enormously chunky ones, and go up a size if necessary, so they skim over your hips and bum. Yes, it’s painful to get that next size, but everyone knows high street sizing is totally arbitrary anyway, and no one’s going to see the label, are they?
So how about you? Do you have a ‘magic’ outfit that always makes you look and feel slimmer? What are the most slimming cuts and fabrics for your shape? Share your tips by posting a comment below, and we’ll all look fabulous in 2010!