sailorette’s diary - a diary writen by a sailorette for her loved ones to read after returning safely home from sea

Yes, I know… First I’d like to apologise to my blog, and then to you, my three readers… Alot has happened in these last 3 months.

• I’ve left my work; gone freelance
• celebrated christmas in geordie style
• act as the sole remainder of my family in this country
• moved into a new studio with two very grand scando neighbours
• started mass renovation work on my flat
• started part-time research work for Glasgow School of Art
• squeezed my brains, tore my hair and generally gone a bit looned out over a thesis
• designed a few websites

I will, very soon, give my undivided attention to each and one of these elements, and my little blog… but for now, here’s my leaving limerick to Topshop:

Twas come a young lass from the toon,
Not a duck nor diver nor loon
She performed a flip-flop
When she went to topshop
And discovered a whole basket of tunes

If you are a topshop customer, perhaps you’ve come across their denim branding, designed by Michael Nash Associates. Perhaps you’ve looked closely and noticed the small 6 digits that sit on top of the brand.

“What are they there for?”, I hear you ask yourself. Well those digits are actually the birthday of the buyer (backwards) who sourced the jeans.

So now you know.

During Topshop’s London Fashion Week Mania, a theft occured. Two black apple macbooks went missing from the venue at Covent Garden. Both these macbooks were set up to automatically upload photos taken using Photobooth to Topshop’s flickr account and the Topshop London Fashion Week website.

Now imagine our enjoyment when yesterday we noticed some new faces on our flickr account.

If you happen to have any information on the possible perpetrators, leave a comment.

view all the evidence here

UPDATE - 09th April 2007 To clarify: This is not a Hoax. Two computers were stolen from the Topshop London Fashion Week Covent Garden Venue, London, UK, during 11th to 13th February 2007. These computers were set up to automatically upload photos to the Topshop London Fashion Week Website via the Topshop Flickr Account. About a month after the theft new photos appeared on our flickr account and london fashion week website.

Whether the people in the photos are the theives, or have just bought a dodgy computer is still in question. As of thursday 5th April 2007, these computers had still not been recovered.

UPDATE - 12th April 2007 Thankyou to all those who offered constructive aid in this matter. One of the individuals in the photographs has come forward. Until we know more, the photograph above has been censored, and the flickr set hidden from public viewing.

This is one project that has driven everyone up a rather steep learning curve. Originally brainstormed as a vehicule to build bridges between the fragmented areas of London Fashion Week, the project has crossed bridges between two companies, pushed people to almost jumping off them and exposed our need for good engineers.

The idea was to blend the new technology and fashion by providing an online ‘hub’ that gathered live information from the London Fashion Week Venue in Covent Garden, and the London Fashion Week Lounge at Topshop Oxford Circus Store. Photobooths were set up in both venues, inviting Topshop customers and LFW atendees to take their photographs that were then uploaded directly to www.topshop.com/londonfashionweek/photobooth Topshop’s online editor and photographer could directly upload content onto the website from Mac Station set up at LFW Covent Garden. The plan was to install webcambs in the Topshop Oxford Circus Store window, the London Fashion Week Venue and the NewGen Cafe and broadcast live footage to the website as well as to a London Fashion Week Lounge at Topshop Oxford Circus. However, due to miscommunications, doors chewing ethernet cables and general LFW chaos, this ended up with three webcams at Covent Garden, and 30 minutes of recorded webcam footage.

The Aperture Area at London Fashion Week, Covent Garden

The Macbooth at London Fashion Week, Covent Garden

It has been a great leap for a company such as Topshop to join forces with new technology and really get excited at the possibilities. They are definitely way ahead of their peers in the fashion highstreet, and their courage to make mistakes while trying new ideas, will just widen the gap.

See for yourself

Kate, Tab and I decided to start up a blog to rival topshop, “To-sho-”. It’ll be generally focused around the flibberish world of fashion, and aims at the proper fashion geek.

www.topshopstyle.com/blog

The little christmas widget is now available for hire. It will act out little elf tasks right there on your desktop like fetching a gift-a-day and telling you how many shopping days you have left till christmas.

download it here

p.s. big thankyou to nunziefluff. Without you, little widget would still be hiding in santa’s grotto. x

Most days I cycle to work and enter by the ‘batcave’ of the garage. So most days I miss the fact that people queue to get into the arcadia offices where I work. I mean they really Queue. Its almost as if Nintendo have released a new game console, or the Hoff is giving signings of his new book. And as we all know, the english are champion queuers.

A new Topshop.com has launced and thanks to those lovely people at POKE it looks, and navigates, like an f1 car. And now the guantlet of style guidelines has fallen at my feet, and with it the responsibility to maintain the high standard of design and typography over the site.

So far its been the most interesting, and toughest, design job i’ve had what with pushing out fortnightly podcasts, weekly features, monthly events, and a myspace page, with the odd micro-site or two thrown in.

It’s very interesting to witness an old system like arcadia group, as it changes and restructures itself to become a self-sufficient online provider.

I kept my expectations non-existant over the brand conference that my place of work has every year. My outfit reflected this - a ‘uniform’ of poo-pants, sneakers and t-shirt. This t-shirt, with its rather revealing opening at the back was the only clue why four girls would turn up that morning with the same topshop black dress, and after much squealing, chase each other down to the local franchaise to purchase a more unique alternative.

Fastforward to 20 past 3 pm. I and 1500 other employees around the country are creating pinstripes through the streets, waiting for oversized coaches to take us to THE location. We get lost. We arrive. We wait. All 1500 alight. To relieve our waiting we are given feel good drinks. I Feel good. We sit. We watch ourselves watching ourselves watch others. Rows on rows lit up by our glowing faces. I ask a bouncer where the toilets are. Tactics. A bit too fancy for my wee. Theres hand cream too.

Topman’s fashion show surprises me. Then the bouncer stands up to give a speach. Next comes miss Jane Shepherd, rather more at home on the mike than the bouncer. Following her are skeletons in oversized hats and baggy clothes.

We wait. Awards are given out. People clap. We wait.

Then I see the dodgems. Katey and I smile. I can’t wait. But I know everyone wants to socialise. Drink. Talk about the conference. Gossip. I don’t want to seem to one-track minded or pushy. Finally Tab is my saviour. The wirlygig she cries. We wait. We run. Tab instructs me how to get the most whirl out of our gig. But our gig has lost whirl. Finally, a girl whirls our cries of disappointment into cries of hedonistic delight.

whhhhhhhhhiiiiiiiiiiirrrrlllllll.

I’m high. Everyone else is medium. We chat. We explore. I hear people lose themselves on these conferences. They lose their loyalites, memories and skirts. Amongst the discussion is a dodgem break. Kate dodges us with subtle style. We decide to get up on stage and do Rage Against the Machine. That would be the perfect end to the night. A song you don’t sing but Ssream, ‘Fuck you I won’t do what you tell me’. Shame we couldn’t be squeezed in between ‘These Boots Were Made For Walking’ and ‘Should I Stay or Should I go’…

ha! I arrived 5 minutes earlier to work today.
And that included being delayed by hungover hugging.

Hello everyone!!

You will find me now in a land of intranet where people communicate to each other through their mouth, not through 1’s and 0’s. Where people walk to other offices to talk about things rather than type at their own reflection. Where people talk of the “System” as if in the movie The Matrix. It is a strange and different world, but one that will teach me more than I realise.

Even with all this verbal communication I’m feeling a little cut off. I have a lovely computer but no email, and no way to access it. Its a challenge. But I believe, there is no NO, only possibilities.

Maybe you, on the other end of this screen, is wanting to talk to me. If so you can either pick up the phone and dial:
0207 291 2281

or come over and visit me at:
Topshop Online
4th Floor
Colegrave House
70 Berners Street
London
W1T 3NL

or leave a comment on this post.

xx