I've been fashion blog tagged......

The ab fab Christina @ Fashion's Most Wanted has thought fit to include A Girl's Guide To Turning 50 in her list of fashionistas to be Fashion Blog tagged........touched, honoured, shocked, stunned, I'd just like to thank her, the academy.......anyway, who am I to disagree, as anyone who has ever read Christina's brilliant blog knows, the woman invented good taste an lives the kinda glamorous life style the rest of us can only fantasize about....thank goodness some one's doing it.

And so:

What is your favourite fashion accessory?

A Cary Grant look alike would be nice, failing that......sunglasses and a hat can cover a lot of sins.

Who is your fashion role model?

Well......I have a big love for Vivienne Westwood because lets face it, the woman is unique, I like things to be a bit quirky. And I like that Patti Smith does her own, age-defying-thing, and Diane Keaton gave me my Annie Hall moment. But I really like my Grandma's style, back in the day. I have a champagne, raw-silk, pencil skirt that was hers, that I adore and a fantastic, Pucciesque print, silk caftan top with matching Capri pants that can only be worn individually for fear the psychedelic design might send people crazy.

What do you always carry with you?

Rescue Remedy, a black, mole skin note book and my Transport for London Oyster Card........oh the glamour!!

How would you describe your style?

Desperate? Wanting?.......usually to be somebody else, eclectic......my closet's a bit like a dressing up box.

What's you favourite-jeans, sunglasses or heels?

It's got to be sunglasses, they make my jeans look glamorous.

What inspired you to blog about fashion?

I don't really blog about fashion and until last year I'd never ever read a blog. The whole blog thing started by accident when a friend was out of work and I was encouraging her to do it. She ended up getting the TV producing job of her dreams and never did it and here I am.......

What is your favourite fashion store?

Anywhere with the sign SALE in the window.......I tend to buy the majority of my clothes second hand, partly because of financial constraint and partly cos I love a bargain. I don't really do second-time-around Dorothy Perks or H&M, but seek out the labels. Most of my disposable income goes to Seconda Mano in Islington, who will sell your designer threads for you. Fortunately, I live in an area where a lot of people wouldn't be seen dead in last season..... so I hoover up all sorts of goodies.

What is your favourite fabric in clothing?

Anything you don't have to iron.......seriously, I'm a shake and go girl. I did buy an iron...for emergencies....my son was about 12 and asked me: "what is this?" I've been out with guys who've refused to leave the house with me, and actually ironed the offending item themselves. Also cashmere gets me every time.......what's not to love?

Who are your favourite designers?

Got to be Vivienne Westwood because she's just such a brilliant person. Barbara Hulaniki, I'm always keen to channel my inner Biba. I like Marc Jacobs, a bit of Prada and am quite taken with what's happening at Celine now.

Would you choose to buy something high quality or make it yourself if you could?

No........I'm probably the only person that can destroy a garment sewing a button back on.......recently snipped through the sleeve of a much loved cardi doing just that.....how did it

happen?

Who's left that hasn't already been tagged?

A Femme d'Un Certain Age
Forty Not Out

HELGA von TROLLOP

A Rose Beyond the Thames
STELLA'S ROAR

The secret life of lost things.....

I've lost my cardigan. Not just any old cardigan, my Luella Bartley cardigan. In the style of a twinset, a fine silk/wool mix of golden caramel with the little black, bat wing motif above the left breast, I loved that cardigan. It was the first new thing I bought after the great heartbreak of 2008. Something he'd never seen but that he, being a label junkie, would have loved. Ha ha. It was the beginning of a new me. It made my whole day a good day. I called it the cardigan of joy. Not only that, but I bought it for a snip at the Kids Company charity jumble sale, brand new kit, donated by the designers, all the proceeds go to charity. I also bought a Marc Jacobs skirt, £40 reduced from £500, it's no ordinary jumble sale, check out their website for the next one. I called it the skirt of happiness and wore it with the cardigan of joy. It was the cardigan that kept on giving.

Now the skirt's all on it's own. And the worse thing is, I don't know how I lost it. My cousin loses things on an almost daily basis: buggies left standing as she speeds off in the car, (after loading the kids in first of course), rings roaming free in bathrooms across the world, sunglasses, hats, coats hung on backs of long forgotten doors. I don't. And although the regularity of loss does little to dull the pain, she does at least have the 'oh-no-I've-left-it-in.....' moment. But this loss is a mystery. Frankly, it's just not possible. It was hot. I put the cardigan in my bag (red, felt, Vivienne Westwood warehouse sale) I bought Aspirin from Sainsburys Local, picked up my skirt (Antoni & Alison patchwork, pencil skirt, designer charity sale) from the dry cleaners and walked around the corner, home. The cardigan was gone. I've been back to Sainsburys and the dry cleaners. 3 times. WHERE IS IT? The bag is a deep, bucket of a bag, it couldn't possibly have fallen out, did some fashinista-felon sneak up, dig deep past the empty lunchtime tub of cous cous, ignore the bulging purse of pound coins, intent only on designer knit ware? Or did the cardi simply escape? Seize the opportunity when my back was turned, to leap out, arms flailing in the fresh air, and make a bid for freedom? To dance, unencumbered by a human body, in the bright sunlight before becoming impaled on a wrought-iron railing. Refusing to ever go back in the closet, fearing the day when it would lose the love it now enjoyed, banished to the dark end, no longer allowed to hang with Marc, Viv or Joe. Or worse. To be carted off to the charity shop and have to share rail space with Dorothy Perkins.........

My friend's husband was idly fiddling with his wedding ring one day, while they sped down the 405 in LA. Quite suddenly it 'blew' away. Gone for good across 6 lanes of traffic. They let it go. A year later, while holidaying in the Turks and Caicos Islands he found a man's wedding ring on the beach. It fitted and, dear reader, he wares it to this day.

Top tip: I recently discovered the soon-to-be-axed Six Music. I loved it and now it's been given a reprieve. I like to think me tuning in helped it not to drop out. Check it out and let Lauren Laverne make every day a sunny one.