How to survive the Christmas season in style...

I have countless times been extremely grateful that digital cameras, Facebook and Youtube did not exist when I grew up. The reason? It is a blissful thing to be young and be able to commit your own mistakes without getting it all out on the internet. 

Nowadays, it is seemingly a competition to be the first one to post party pictures after a night out with the girls / the Christmas party etc. and lets be honest, not all of those pictures are well thought through. It might seem as a great idea in the spur of post-party happiness to post the picture of you and your friend in whats can only be described as minimal outfits, kissing various boys or showing off a bit too much underwear. It is a little bit like "let's show the world how fun and cool our gang is!". However, I do not think that most (young?) people today get the fact that once it is on the internet, it is on the internet. It doesnt matter if you have a closed Facebook profile (your 500 friends can still see and copy your pictures). So what if you look great showing off your underwear at 16? Your future boss will still be able to find those pictures when you apply for your dream - and oh so serious - job when you are 32. Conclusion: not so cool anymore.

I do realise that I sound like old aunt Mabel right now, and I am very, very sorry for that. I am certainly pro having fun with your friends in the holiday season. However, I think some ground rules needs to be established. I cannot, and you cannot, deny people to take pictures and bringing their cameras or cell-phones to the festivities. But with a little bit of preperation, you should be able to avoid a Facebook/ Youtube nightmare the 1st of January. Regardless, I suggest a vast amount of untagging of Facebook pictures that already exist....

10 steps to survive the Christmas in style:

1. The obvious one: do not get too drunk. A glass of water now and then has never hurt anyone.

2. When wearing short dresses, skip the g-string and wear a full coverage hotpants /hipsters (be inspired of the girls in "Stricly come dancing/ Skal vi danse").

3. Black tights instead of sheer see through ones are a life-saver. I am actually close to saying that black full tights look better during the Christmas season anyway. + it keeps your legs a bit warmer ( no flu = more party for you).

5. Cleavage might be in, but nipples on Facebook are'nt. There is actually no excuse for showing off your front parts anymore. H&M sells great strapless bra's (same series as the ultimate push-up bra), boob-tape actually works, and you can even use a special tape (H&M, Anne Summers etc.) to tape ypur clothes to your body so they does'nt slip. Easy, invisible and widely used in Hollywood.

6. If your dress is made of something lycra'ish and is tight it will most probable slip up your body. I suggest to get rid of the dress and give it to the hookers charity, or use it as a tunic instead. Another opportunity is to use a good quality underwear-dress beneath to avoid slipping. Dresses around waists seldom look good on the dancefloor.

7. Shoes, shoes, shoes. Planning to wear those several inch Loboutins on ice? Are you sure? Not only can you crack your head (been there done that), but it is a fair chance that your fall will look extremely silly in the process. Manageable heels makes the evening so much more fun. In addition, you can by anti-slip soles to tape under your shoes at Bianco - highly recommended.

8. Nothing looks as silly as a girl, blue by the cold in a minidress with no jacket. Be sensible girls. No party is worth getting seriously ill for, and there is SO many nice jackets out there. (This point is especially directed to English girls, who seemingly is unable to put on a jacket even when dying of cold).

9. Waterproof mascara might be a good idea when snowing. Just saying.

10. At last, but not the least, please try to remember that less is still more. You do not need to look like a Christmas ornament, even though it is Christmas. A little bit of bling is nice, but there's no need to outshine the Christmas three. This tip might not help you avoid embarrassing situations on Youtube and Facebook, but you will thank me when you in ten  years time tries to find a nice old Chrismas picture, and you luckily does'nt look like Santa, his elfs and Katie Price combined.

So, with these words of warning, please have a happy, happy holiday, safely knowing that you will be able to meet January, with a little bit of dignity still intact. Cheers!

Big mistake. Huge..

I presume everyone remembers Julia Roberts famous quote from "Pretty Woman" : "Big mistake, Huge". She have just returned to the store where the snooty shop assistant earlier in the movie refused to help her, due to a presumed lack of money and style. Julia reenters with designer bags, looking like a million dollars, and make everone who has ever experienced a judgemental shop assistant feel very proud.

I was told once that you do not decide what you want to become when you grow up, you decide who you want to be like. As such, when I was little, I wanted to become a shop assistant. In my eyes they had all the power in the world, they were always nicely dressed, they smelled of the best perfume, and their make-up was always immaculate.

At 18 I became a shopping assistant in a boutique tres chic, and I quickly learned that all I thought I knew about being a shop assistant was wrong. I did not have all the power - the customers did.

The customers had all the money, the customers could come and go as they pleased, and if I treated them with just a tad of arrogance, they would most likely never come back.

Sadly, I do not believe that all girls and women (or boys for that matter) working the shop floors, have gained the same insight as I did.

Let's face it. There is some pretty bad service going on out there.

Let me give you some examples, and hollar if you hear me:

Example 1.  I enter a store, there are no customers in the store, but approximately 3 or 4 employees chattering away by the till. I am browsing around for about 10-15 minutes, noone even looks at me once. I enter the dressing room and realise I need another size. Bummer. Noone askes me if I need any help. I leave the store, noone as much as glances in my direction as I am walking out. Am I invisible?

Example 2. I enter a store. A pretty expensive one. My salary is just in and I am ready to burn some serious money. However, I am coming straight from a class and are wearing jeans, a pretty normal jacket, sneakers and have my computer in my bagpack. Perhaps I get a hi, perhaps not. But noone offers to help me, and the thing is, I like to be offered help when I am shopping for expensive stuff. It just comforts me a bit to just have been asked. I will most likely decline, but I would enjoy the courtesy of being asked. But noone asks me or offers to help. Then, a lady enters the store. She is wearing designer head to toe, and oozes of Chanel no.5. The whole flock of employees gather around her like a little bunch of personal assistants. I find a jacket I want to buy and try to ask if they have got my size. When finally being able top draw some attention to myself, they look me up and down, their heads sizzling "do'nt she know the prize...silly little girl". Turns out they do not have it. And they do not suggest any further options, and I leave. The Chanel no.5 lady leaves too, in her hand, not with  a  full shopping bag, but a free gift and an invitation to a special customers night. 

I have come to realise, that if I want service, I need to dress up, put on my war make-up and strap on my Mulberry bag. Another choice is to bring the man in the house and force him to wave around his AmEx while I am prancing around being the most arrogant I can be.

During my years in the service industry I learned that no matter what people are wearing, no matter how their hair looks like, and regardless of age, they are your customer. And customers are king. Without customers you would be pretty bored at the best and out of business at the worst. I learned that the most unlikely people, entering the store in dirty trainers smelling like they just came out from the barn, might end up shopping for more than I usually sell during a whole day or week.

There are just too many people in the service business that has forgotten why they are there in the first place - to give a service. And I am sorry to tell you this, but in today's environment, with all the choices customers are given - you will not get very far if you do not provide an excellent service (if you have'nt got it by now, this post are referring to rather luxurious or high end stores).

You have to compete on either service or price, and if you can't compete on neither - you are out of business in no time.

But hey, there are exeptions. I was visiting Bergen last weekend and I had a really good shopping experience at a store at Galleriet. I cannot remember the name of the store, but i know I am definitely going back. All it took was a hello, a smile, and a "are you looking for something special today?".

See how easy it is. Now, go out and practice.

British Fashion - is that a belt or a dress?

I am tempted to quote an old Shania Twain classic: "That don't impress me much". Now, do not get me wrong. This post is not about British designers, they actually do impress me, over and over again. I love Stella, McQueen (may he rest in peace) and the whole lot. I really do. No, this post is about how British people really dress, and in particular, the British girls - the young English roses.

As a Norwegian who for most of my youth was living in a pretty small city, situated between forests and farms, the fashion options was somewhat scarce. Later, living in Oslo, I experienced the "big city" aura, and found a broader shopping arena. Most girls in Norway dresses pretty nice (but believe me, there are exeptions). However, if you dress badly in Norway, or boring even, you actually have an excuse - the options are indeed limited, and the Jante law (you are not supposed to believe you are better, or anything different than anybody else) has a pretty firm grip on society, whether we acknowledge it or not.

But the British girls on the other hand, they have no excuse. They are surrounded with high street stores like Topshop and New Look, which all do a pretty good job copying the catwalk looks (often before the looks has even reached the designer stores). In addition, fashion comes cheaply (something I don't necessarily endorse), and I hate myself for saying this - even Primark sometimes can make something look rather decent ( again, I will never, ever shop there - it is a matter of sticking to my beliefs). So I hope I have made my case clear : The British girls has no excuse if they dress badly, they are surrounded with fashion, and it is indeed affordable. So how come so many of them look like they do not have a mirror(or abest friend to say "no-no") at home?

In my opinion it is a courtesy towards the people around you to try to look nice.

So does the British girls lack respect towards others? If you have never been to the UK, you probably do not know what I am talking about. And if you do live in the UK (and you are British), you are probably a bit offended by now. However, it is not my intention to offend (many of you look very nice), but I do intend to explain how some of the British girls have created a bad fashion reputation, making innocent stylish British girls suffer (or follow due to bad taste - as stated in an earlier post - bad taste is rather sticky and contagious).

For me what young girls in the UK wears and their fashion sense, can be placed in three main categories:

1. Amy Winehouse look-alikes (I never thought she could be a role model until I moved to the UK, but surprisingly she is). These girls wear way too much eye make up, their clothes are dark and often a bit shredded. They tend to be either a bit too fat or too skinny, but they never dress to their shape. Above all, they love high hair and false eyelashes. Their killer heels are sky high, and that often lead to very bad bruises after a night out. Bambi on ice.

2. Jordan wannabes( also known as Katie Price followers). Their dresses look more like big belts than actual dresses, they just LOVE to show off their panties. Every weekend they run off to the beauty saloon and get a refill of Fake-Bake and extensions, and then they run off happily to the club with their orange skin, showing off everything nature has given them, and drink themselves silly drunk while singing girl power classics.

3. Kate Moss/Agyness Deyn overachievers. They are too cool to be cool. These girls probably have the best taste, but they just don't know when to stop. They have chosen classy role models, but they pursue their look in a very unclassy way. They stack up on everything that is fashionable at the moment, they mix and match things that should never be mixed and matched- just because they can't choose which style to pursue. They want it all, and they end up looking like cheap wannabe's, and indeed, they love the belt/dress as well. All those mentioned above do actually. (Worth noticing: the real Kate and Agyness rocks though - FFL-Fashionista For Life).

Let me explain the belt/dress. It is those dresses that make you think "Is it a belt or a dress?Belt?Dress?Belt?Dress?I reeeaaaally can't decide...". They are often seen on supermodels, and lately the style has caught on like a bad flu (some few lucky chicks pull it off with style, and their dignity intact). But I have never been anywhere where the phenomenon has been as widespread as in the UK. The girls wear them in stormy weather, in snow, and in sunshine. They wear them regardless of weight, skintone and blemishes. Needless to say, sometimes it looks rather awful and trashy ( two words : stuffed turkey).

I have a very fabolous French friend who describe the style of the British as:

"They do not understand the art of suggestion".

What do my French friend mean? Well, while French girls is known for being (mostly) classy, the British girls really like to flaunt it. They don't let their clothes suggest whats underneath, they let the lack of clothes show what's underneath instead. Not always a good choice, and if you ask the British boys (nice young chaps), they will answer that showing it all off, makes you rather uninteresting and boring.

I could probably say a lot more about the clothing worn by a lot of British girls, and perhaps someday I will as well. However,my goal is not to trash a nations style. My goal is rather to guide you away from pitfalls that are pretty easy to avoid if you know about them.

So, here is my list of the top 10 things to avoid, if you do not want to fall into one of my three categories of british girls:

#1 If you are not sure if you are wearing a dress or a belt, it is always a belt. Always.

#2 If your heels are too high to walk in sober, you will not become any better at walking in them after a bottle of wine.

# 3 There is such a thing as too much animal print. Enough said.

# 4 If you wear a short dress, wear hotpants and forget about the g-string ( it is out of fashion anyway).

# 5 If you can't button up the top button in your trousers, they are probably too small, or you should stop eating chips all the time. (Chips is not a vegetable, and will never, ever be healthy, even though the british seems to think it is).

#6 If your lashes are too heavy to open your eyes, you have probably exaggerated on the lash extensions.

# 7 If your hair make you look like Barbie, that's how you are going to get treated as well.

# 8 Fake bake(the english term for spray tan) usually make you look like a citrus fruit. Never do it the same night as you are going out, and some should never do it at all.

# 9 If your boobs is almost falling out of the dress when you are home, they will definitely be falling out when you are hopping around in the club. Wear something else and give the dress to charity.

# 10 And for Christ sake, loose those UGG's during summer. No way it is comfortable in + 30 degrees celsius, and stylewise , it is so 2000&late...

A lesson learned, a lesson shared..

Just like every woman should have a black leather jacket in their wardrobe, every woman need a trench coat. I had been looking for the perfect trench since I was 15 (not that easy finding a classy grown-up trench in size xxs) when I during the spring of 2009 encountered a rather splendid one (size xs-s) from Benetton. I could not believe my luck and bought it asap. However, I did a stupid, oh so stupid, thing last fall, when I washed it in my brand new laundry machine (naughty naughty). Indeed the trench ended up being the size I longed for and was looking for at 15, but at 24 the same size did not actually fit that well anymore. I looked like a stuffed doll. So yet again, I was trench-less. I was on the hunt and pretty miserable until I found this gorgeous one from Gant. I am meeting the autumn with a smile, and I will do my best not to shrink any more favourite garments in the future. A lesson learned, a lesson shared.

Have you ever treated your clothes badly, or destroyed a favourite item?