The Spike

Rather than a Friday Spike today I am bringing you new stuff from the very excellent Hush.

After years of sucking up to them and going on and on about how much I love Hush and their T-Shirt and their scarves and their catalogue and just everything, I was invited to a special Spring/Summer preview of their clothes. This is very exciting for me, to be an insider rather than an outsider for the first time, probably ever.

Anyway this collection is not available yet, but will arrive online mid-February (I will keep you updated). These are my favourites:

Okay I know I said no more grey sweatshirts but I like this short-sleeved one: very Eddie Murphy in Beverly Hills Cop (this is a good thing).

Nice pair of boyfriends, if you haven’t already got some.

Blue shirt. Tasty.

Hush’s first foray into sunglasses – these are great and very wearable.

This sits just below the knee – so not as hard to wear as a true midi-skirt. This would look so terrific with a white t-shirt tucked in and a colourful necklace.

Loose navy trousers. Navy is just one of the most useful colours there is, really.

Great colour for the sunshine.

You’ve got to get your underwear really sorted to wear this top but it’s lovely if you can.

Flamingo print bed shorts! Just try to stop me wearing them on the beach though.

Navy midi sundress. So comfy after a day in the sun (she says wistfully).

The Spike’s LA correspondent, Becky B, writes with this news:

“I’m obsessed with necklaces from Dylanlex but saving up because they are so $$$ and I’m back into converse black leather boots in a big way.

I love my new earring from Anine Bing [main picture] and all Illesteva sunglasses.

Fucking hell there was a GIANT cockroach in my bathroom yesterday. Jumped out of my wash bag. I nearly fucking died.

You crave mini eggs here – the choc is so shitty. I would kill for a Curly Wurly.

[…redacted…]

You cannot bake any tried and tested recipes here as the flour, sugar and even baking powder is fucked up. I reckon that’s why no American ever raves about a chewy cookie – they’ve never fucking tried one! It’s impossible.”

Thanks Becky! Wow LA sounds so wacky and awesome! Now get yourself to the beach, girlfriend! I hope you drown.

Hi babe, it’s Esther here… I, uh, I can’t come in for work today, okay? Can you cover for me hun?

Just working on some stuff for my patrons, who make this blog, y’know, financially possible. Back soon!

I said THERE’S NO SPIKE TODAY TOM YOU DEAF GORGEOUS MAD HUNK. I’ve been a bit up against it the last few days and can’t post right now you know so I’m fucking SORRY OKAY?!

Coming soon – Hush preview SS16 and 2016: the year of socks.

Stay with us.

Alright alright so I am probably the last person in the world to have started watching The Affair. But I refused to watch it for ages for the specific reason that, as a married woman, any mention of affairs of any sort makes me quite nervous.

Most close female friends confess to me at some point, half-joking or not, that they are terrified that their husbands are going to have an affair. They (the wives) are always grumpy, they have got fat and look shit, they don’t put out enough… why would the husbands not stray?

I pass no comment on this, only to say that what I don’t want to spend my evenings doing is watching some bloody man getting his end away with a nubile temptress while his wife and mother of his kids sits about oblivious. Especially if my husband is sitting right next to me.

BUT!!! The Affair is not like that. Why does no-one say? Take every assumption about a story about an affair you’ve got in your head and toss it out of the window because this show isn’t about that. Not like that.

Anyway if you’ve got even half a mind on thinking that you need a new boxed-set, (to give it its correct yet inaccurate and terrible name), The Affair is not what you think it is.

AND it’s got Joshua Jackson in it!! He was such a massive crush of mine when he was in Dawson’s Creek – ranking highly in my list of crushes for the year 1995-2000, alongside Angel in Buffy the Vampire Slayer (series 1-3 only) and Drazic in Heartbreak High. Do you detect a theme of bad-boy/nutter here? I am so predictable.

God knows how long it will take me to start watching Sarah Jessica Parker’s new show, Divorce.

Obviously as I finally splurged more than a Ton on those UGG Adirondacks, it gets really warm. Always the way – hey ho.

But in fact, although I enjoyed the cold snap hugely, it’s nice to have a bit of mild weather back so that getting dressed in the morning isn’t quite so much like going to war.

I rescued this green and white geometric printed dress from my “before kids” clothes pile. It is far too unforgiving these days on all major body areas, despite all that spinning and “dieting”, so must be worn for decency’s sake with a  denim shirt on top. My rainbow clutchbag was a little bit much for the nursery run… but how can rainbows ever really be a bad thing?

My stuff from Weekday finally arrived – it ships from somewhere in Scandinavia (naturally) and takes its cool time.

Anway I was in love immediately with my Borg “tee”, in love later with my dusk dressed joggers and sent back immediately the cropped swing jeans, which were beyond revolting in every regard.

Feeling a bit too fashion the other evening, I wore the Borg t-shirt with some silky culottes, long black socks (seriously) and my clumpy witch stripper shoes. This may have been ill-advised looking back on it, but I thought I looked terrific (and sometimes that’s all that matters).

The Borg t-shirt is perfect in every way but it is, as you can see from the photo, not especially kind to the old tum-tum – not one for fat days.

The dusk dressed joggers are on first look nothing special, but they are in fact a good value useful pair of black relaxed trousers, which you can either wear for slobbing round the house in or to be out and about. They are a loose but reasonably flattering fit and they won’t get the dreaded “knees” that jersey joggers do so love to develop.

I saw a woman on the street the other day wearing an ox blood sweater with a navy blue scarf. It looked rather chic so here I am copying it. I have toned down the innate sluttiness of this (p)leather skirt with a navy cable sweater and giant snow boots.

Buy…

… new pyjamas. Just because you’re exhausted doesn’t mean there’s any excuse for wearing some stinky old free t-shirt and some not-for-best pants to bed. There’s no need for slinky lingerie – I love my Bodas shortie pyjamas. I’ve got some in light blue but I have recently also been eyeing up this pair. Not cheap at £88 for the set, but worth it. Night night.

Watch…

… Black Sails on the Starz channel if you have Sky (I think it’s channel 371) on Saturday night or on Amazon Prime on Sunday night. Black Sails is probably my favourite TV programme ever made – I am not exaggerating – and we’re into Series 3, so if you haven’t seen 1 & 2 I am SO ENVIOUS that you get to binge-watch them. It’s hot and incredibly rude and dirty, but also smart and gripping. It’s like Game of Thrones with pirates, but better than Game of Thrones… because it’s about PIRATES!!!

Start thinking about…

… your summer holidays. Literally this weekend, sit down with whoever you’ve got to go on holiday with and MAKE A PLAN or you will be left with no summer holiday, like I was last year. For families I hear good things about a) the Abama in the Canary Islands and b) Ile de Re in France. Ask me no more questions about it than that, as I will be busy this weekend going slightly doo-lally trying to book mine.