Sunday 30 January 2011

I'm giving £1m to charity on an ordinary salary

Reading an article in the Financial Times first thing this morning has left a little imprint on me.

Toby Ord, a Junior Research Fellow at Balliol College at the University of Oxford, has chosen to make a pledge to donate £1m to charity over the course of his working life.

While reading the article I was asking myself how I feel about this idea.  Frankly, it's a beautiful idea. It's one in which it gives your working day a purpose whether you have a great job or a job that's sapping the very energy from your being.

I barely have a few beans to rub together and I have a perpetual fear that if I don't have enough pennies saved I don't have the freedom to do something else.

Toby Ord writes in his article a quote from the philosopher, Peter Singer - an Australian, "the money we spend on luxuries could be used to save people's lives in developing countries if we so wished."

Ord goes onto to ask, "How then can we justify choosing the luxuries? This is a strong argument, and quite confronting."

Saving people's lives. That's the difference that makes you confront what you are doing and if you have any antenna for the world outside of your own.

Ord calculates that over his working life he could save between 2,000 and 10,000 people by donating a not insignificant amount to supporting his chosen two areas that he feels support can most affect, tuberculosis and parasitic infections.

The article had me questioning whether I could do something similar and challenging one of my fears.

Could I do it though? I do not know.

The Financial Times Article can be found here
Toby Ord's Oxford Uni site here
Giving What We Can site here

Wilma & Winston

Wilma & Winston is growing! We've had an awesome week of visitors to the store and some amazing growth in visiting numbers and the numbers of purchases from the store is amazing.

W&W have got some really exciting things coming up too and we're looking to really push on in 2011.

We are very closely following the latest trends in womens and mens clothing this year. We're trying to support the customer by charging reasonable prices for pieces that you may have to spend significantly more on in a High Street shop.


The clothes trends for 2011 are exciting and you will see loads of fashion ideas you can do yourself or purchase from us if you want something entirely unique, vintage or retro.

You may have noticed the range is expanding week on week and that's because we have been working hard to deliver to demand with more stock to our customers.

The demand levels during December were simply incredible and we struggled to keep up.








We have some great pieces in store now and have some great pieces sourced and coming up in the future too. Look out for some little changes in the next few weeks and months...

See the blog for Wilma & Winston here
See the shop for Wilma & Winston here

Thursday 27 January 2011

All Saints Collection

There are very few brands that I like to wear in terms of men's clothes fashion. My influences are pretty eclectic and I like style that's understated, comfortable, wearable and edgy. The edgy bit is important. I need something that I'm wearing that darkens me. My soul needs to put this out to people around me.

I don't want to try hard, I'm uncomfortable with too much effort put into how I look. Paradoxically there's also the element in me that puts clothing on in the thought that I know it's going to be different from what other people are wearing and therefore must in some way have 'effort' put into it.

All Saints sits right on my bones.

Check out their new season stuff here





Tuesday 25 January 2011

Latest Fashion Trends

It's exciting times at Wilma & Winston. The shop is getting more product in that is tickling the fancy of the latest fashion trends and new fashion trends.

People are demanding individuality, set-out from the rest. Vicky's been working so hard on finding, re-engineering pieces and making brand new pieces for our customers that it's generating a beautiful little following.

It's taking the fashion trends that have started in 2011 and pushing them to unique pieces and affordability.

It's not just vintage clothes anymore at Wilma & Winston it's some handmade, customised, absolute unique pieces too.

The success of the store is evident. In December we had over 19,000 page hits! Wooo! That's really special and we realised quickly that people were liking what was going on.

Just one of our plans for 2011 is going to be evident in the next two weeks and it will all help to take Wilma & Winston up another level.

Vicky's put some clothes in store now, have a little look and see if there's anything there for you!




Sunday 9 January 2011

Political Mother

With having a little dancing girl as a fiance you see new things that you otherwise wouldn't have ever seen and new people you wouldn't have met.

I have a much wider appreciation for dance now. Not only is it because Vicky is a little dancer but also when you get wrapped into it you see the power of the dancers and the music.

Hofesh Shechter choreographed this piece: Political Mother.

Saturday 8 January 2011

Monday 3 January 2011

Valentine idea...

Christmas & New Year have gone.

I'm planning my 2011 as we speak and as I was finding inspiration and researching things that I want to achieve I stumbled across this...


It's Valentine's Day in a little over 4 weeks! Send the one you love or have a crush on a little postcard to jolly up their day!

You can purchase these little items at SUCK UK

They cost £3 GBP.

Post the love people! xx

Close up and Private

On-going project by Sergei Sviatchenko.

I am drawn to several things on this site; the clothes that the individuals are wearing, I like the classic look mixed with some really visceral colours to brighten the looks.





The photographs themselves are little works of art with a mixture of fluid movement in some and stills in others.

Interspersed within the site are works of art. What a little gem to browse.




Close Up and Private