Now that building works in our house are finally finished and we are trying to regain our social life, we invited a few friends and neighbours over for drinks a few nights ago - partly as a 'thank you' for putting up with six months of dust and noise and partly to show off the result. But despite the 'oohs and aahs' caused by our spanking new kitchen and extension, it was what I call 'my private Egyptian Library’ that almost stole the evening.

I fell in love with Egypt and its history when I was six and my father bought me my very first encyclopedia. The beautiful bright colours and symbols, the animal-headed statues, the fabulous monuments with their stunning painted walls, the grandeur of the pharaohs and their beautiful queens… I found it all utterly fascinating and, as a child, I wished I could travel back in time to be Cleopatra or Nefertiti with their beautiful black straight hair and perfect fringes (fellow tweeterer Muireann C Campbell, a.k.a. BangsandaBun would approve!), their Kohl eye make-up and, of course, their fabulous gowns and oversized statement jewels!

Interior of Ramses IX tomb, Valley of the Kings

Ramses II cartouches, Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak Temple

Temple of Ramses II, Abu Simbel

Egyptian guide Mohammed and Marisol
outside the Temple of Medinet Habu in 2000.
All pictures by Marisol Douglas

That was a long time ago but my passion for all things Egyptian continues to this day and some of that passion is reflected in a few of our pieces at Caradiaz. The Amarna necklace, bracelet and earrings, the Kiya necklace and the Nefer necklace and bracelet are all Egyptian-inspired pieces designed with elements of the Eighteenth Dynasty in mind, one of my favourite periods in Ancient Egyptian history.

Amarna bracelet

Kiya necklace

Nefer bracelet

I would have loved to graduate on Egyptology at UCL but work and other time constraints always got in the way. So, it looks like the degree certificate won’t be replacing the Birkbeck Diploma in Ancient Egypt hanging from my office wall any time soon...

If you are a regular of the Caradiaz blog, you will know by know that I am a big fan of American fashion. I love the freshness, simple elegance and understated luxury of clothes by designers like Calvin Klein, Donna Karan, Carolina Herrera, Michael Kors, Carlos Miele, Narciso Rodriguez, Tory Burch, St John, Eileen Fisher and so many others.

Unfortunately, not much of the American ‘fashion produce’ has been available online in the UK, other than through Net-à-porter, My-Wardrobe or Selfridges – but that was until now… Let me introduce you to shopbop.com.

I came across shopbop.com through my fashion bible – American Vogue – and the promise of free international delivery within three days or ordering certainly got my attention. So I clicked away and discover an Aladdin’s Cave of clothes and, more importantly, bags I have not seen online anywhere in the UK, let alone at American prices. For instance, I saw a beautiful pair of leopard print flats on the Tory Burch online shop (which unfortunately doesn’t delivery outside the USA) and when I called the London shop to see whether they had them in stock, I was shocked at the price difference – for exactly the same pair of shoes.

You may be thinking that, of course, everything coming from the US is subject to custom duties, hence the higher prices at this end. But having now placed an order with shopbop.com, I can confirm that I was not charged any custom duties on delivery – you have the choice of either paying shopbop.com an estimate, which they refund if not charged, or paying on delivery, which I chose. The fact that the parcel was marked ‘goods for personal use’ probably helped.

I did make a little mistake though and ordered the Tory Burch shoes in the wrong size. In my defence though, I placed the order around midnight and my brain wasn’t functioning. I did look at the size table to get the equivalent US shoe size but when I added the shoes to the shopping basket, I still clicked on ‘7’ (UK size) rather than 10 (US equivalent).

However, this mistake meant that I actually got to experience the whole shopping and after sales service of shopbop.com and, ladies and gentlemen, I cannot fault it. Not only did my order arrive within 3 days as promised but the returns procedure couldn’t be more straight forward. Following the instructions on the shopbop.com website, I arranged for DHL to come and collect the shoes the following day completely free of charge. The shoes arrived in the US on Friday of the same week and I received my refund confirmation the following Monday.

The rest of the items I received where just as beautiful – or even more! – than they looked on the website. I am totally in love with my Marc by Marc Jacobs oversized tote in military khaki and the Tory Burch card holder.

This was just a test order but, having passed such test with flying colours, I shall most definitely be buying from shopbop.com again - I actually have a rather big shopping bag at the ready for Santa to get take through the checkout this Christmas…

Not since Linda Evangelista, Nadège du Bospertous and Stella Tennant in the 1990s, had I come across another short-haired brunette making it to the top in the modelling industry. I’m talking about Dutch beauty Saskia de Brauw.

Short-haired beauties
Clockwise from top left: Linda Evangelista, Nadège du Bospertous,
Saskia de Brauw and Stella Tennant
Image source: London College of Fashion Library

I first spotted Saskia a couple of months ago in the Versace ads for A/W11 but she is now a regular in the fashion magazines, although not quite making the covers yet (I’ve only seen her in five so far). Mind you, since Anna Wintour realised that ‘celebrities playing models’ sold more magazines, every fashion publication seems to have followed suit and these days seeing a top model on the cover of any fashion magazine has become a truly rare occurrence. But we’ll talk about that some other time…

Some of Saskia's covers so far
Image source: Condé Nast, Numéro and Hearst Magazines

Saskia started young as a model but quit at 16 to study textile design at Rietveld Acadamy in Amsterdam. After graduating, she went back to modelling and one of her first jobs was to replace fellow countrywoman Lara Stone as the face of lingerie brand Eres. Her big break though came shortly afterwards at the hands of none other than Carine Roitfeld and Franca Sozzani, both of whom chose Saskia to done the covers of the March 2011 issues of Paris Vogue and Vogue Italia, respectively.

Needless to say that Saskia has been a ‘busy bee’ since, doing campaigns for Chanel, Versace, Moncler, Dsquared2, fashion week shows on both sides of the Atlantic and countless features in the top fashion magazines.

Chanel Resort by Karl Lagerfeld
Picture courtesy of Chanel's Press Office

At Caradiaz collection we love Saskia’s natural beauty and wish her every success with her already sky-rocketing modelling career.

Veel succes, Saskia!

Not happy with floral prints every spring/summer, fashion designers have now extended their love of camellias, dahlias, daisies, gerberas, roses, tulips and other ‘blooming’ flowers to their winter collections.

Don’t get me wrong, I do love flowers but I much rather use them to decorate my home than my wardrobe, unless it is in the form of a corsage, a necklace (see Caradiaz’s Flower Power collection) or some other kind of accessory.

Caradiaz Flower Power

This season, Jil Sander has taken it to extremes for my liking, with their ‘full bloom’ looks for this season, whereas Versace and Cacharel have -thankfully - gone with more wearable versions and Paul Smith has opted for a bit of ‘Chinese blossom’.

Clockwise from top left: A/W11 Jil Sander, Versace, Paul Smith, Cacharel
Image source: www.style.com

All in all, it looks like we have a very flowery winter ahead!

Have I told you that I am crazy about (my husband would probably say ‘totally obsessed’ with) handbags? Yes, the ‘bag gene’ runs in my family: my sister has it, my niece has it and even my 3-year old daughter is already showing the signs.

Luckily for my bank account though, I’m not designer-crazy so I’m as happy with my Mulberry Bayswater from last year, as I am with the leopard print and black leather River Island tote I bought a few weeks ago. As long as the bag is my style and I love it, I’ll have it.

Designer versus High Street:
Mulberry's oversized Bayswater tote vs. River Island oversized tote

I was very tempted by the new Fendi felt shopper bag when I saw it in Grazia magazine about a month ago. I really like felt bags not only because they are very light but because, unlike suede or other delicate materials, if you get caught in the rain or the snow, the bag and its contents don’t get totally ruined. Still at £390 for the Fendi, I thought my money would be spent better – or even saved – elsewhere. I may still put it on my letter to Santa Hubby though…

But I did manage to find a very nice – and much more reasonably priced at £98 - felt bag at Swans Fashions (a Caradiaz stockist) in Cranbrook. It’s by German shoe and bag maker Abro. OK, it’s not a Fendi but who cares? It may serve me even better. Not only is it a capacious handbag in a very discreet way – it’s not at all bulky - but it’s handles are just long enough to allow you to carry the bag on your shoulder, as opposed to the Fendi one which, as a shopper, comes only with short handles and it would be a pain to carry after a while, considering the amount of stuff I carry with me on a regular basis...

Fendi felt shopper versus Abro felt shoulder bag

I took the Abro catalogue home and when I looked at it, I wish I hadn’t done it. Their Autumn/Winter collection is absolutely gorgeous and I would have any of them any time. Unfortunately though, it seems that the company underestimated the success of its collection and most of the models I enquired about are no longer into production, apparently due to lack of raw materials. An oversight or just playing it safe?

Some of the Abro beauties