Ucon

Oprah Winfrey saiys, "Love is in the details." And I'm inclined to agree.

So many brands these days push out t-shirts with no love in them. Nice graphics or "funny slogans" quickly printed out on whatever blank t-shirt they find. The range by inline brand Ucon
seems to be an exception to the rule. My two sexy new purchases were filled with love and details, from the cuff detail and back should print, to the fact they actually appear to create their own tees (rather than buy off a wholesaler) so the fit and texture of the tees is...like Goldilocks said...Juuust right. MMMMm. Well done guys.Love it. All these guys are rollerbladers, creating clothes for kids just like themselves. And the results are awesome. A little bit of insight (and love) goes a long way.

Word

Z. x

Service malls...

I've been bending the ears of all my chums about this concept for years. But as everyone seems to be gabbing on about how now its all about 'experential retailing' and how we all need to offer the consumer something a little more. How about offering service and usefulness. Simple? Am I stating the obvious? Yes. But tell me you haven't been stuck in a bank queue recently, or been mad at spending your lunch break running around like a maniac doing all kinds of rubbish errands. Good old The Pirate Geek posted on a number of services to help combat these problems a while back. But unfortunately these services are pretty spendy. As post offices shut left right and centre, and banks are relocating and your nice dry cleaner man is shutting down cos he cant afford the rent. Those pesky errands are becoming more and more time consuming/a pain in tha ass/completely impossible.

My answer, a service mall. A nice little plaza, that is essentially a high street. With your banks, post office, dry cleaner, shoe repairer, key cutter, laundry, zip fixer etc....Now all these things are all in one place it should cut down your silly running around time. Or you can call the conceirge, tell them all the shit you need to do and they'll schedule all your appropriate appointments for you. Then, all that could be added it is a manicure bar, hairdresser and a nice place to eat so you can sit back and treat yourself while your bank sorts out that pesky bill and your clothes are spinning round the washer.

If you are lucky enough to have a nice high street with all these things, or have all the time in the world, then ignore this post. It means nothing to you. But the rest of us can dream on about a time when we can squeeze in lifes annoying little errands into our lunch hour, and maybe come out with pretty pink fingernails.

Z.

x

Tumblr...

For those of you who haven't already checked it out...check out tumblr.com. Its super clever and fun, aggregating your uploads from your flickr, delicious, youtube, digg, twitter and quite a lot of other sexy stuff too. Another web 2.0 type thingy I hear you sigh...what makes this one special? In their words 'If blogs are journals, tumblelogs are scrapbooks.'

Its so cool and new, I don't even have one yet. But you can check out my good chum Magics' at tprkr.com. I like it, it feels very 3D. And it seems like a lot less hassle. Just get on with your regular online life, and it blogs it all for you. Love it when things actually save you time.

As a marketing tool type thing...how fun to create a tumblr for your characters or brand. (You can easily buy cheapy domain names and still use the technology.) What news would Superman be reading? What would he be listening to? What pictures and vids would he be posting? Could be fun!

Z.
xxx

My bikini scale...

A die hard day dreamer I spend a large amount of my life planning the shopping trips and holidays I'm going to be taking when I win the lottery/premium bonds/horses whatever...anyway, I find a good tool to help me visualise my impending 'rich girl' warbrobe is net-a-porter, in my many hours of dream surfing I found a nice little D&G cherry print bikini that I thought would be very nice for one of my jaunts to somewhere hot. But, its was about £130 quid, which, even if I am a millionaire, seems like quite alot. Dream over...

Back in my real life, on my daily jaunt to do the banking (an exciting excuse to get out of the shop and get some fresh air) I often wishfully window shop as I stroll through town and the twee high street that is home. Anyway...one of my preferred routes takes me past trendy gym wear store Sweaty Betty (my mate Ben says it may as well be called...Yummy Mummy..but thats another post entirely.) So anyway, walking past Sweaty Betty, and in the window theres an awesome looking bikini...blue and white stripes, red trim, nautical, you know what I'm saying. Its awesome, good shape, and a nice variant from the triangle/tube boob options that most other high street haunts offer. So, I save it to the wishlist in my mind and wait for payday...For years and years I've gone the TopShop route, cheap and cheerful, £20/25 quid, job done. But my most recently purchasedTopShop bikini failed me, as it would appear, that Topshop now only cuts its clothes for 13 year old girls with no bums or norks yet. So...no more Topshop Bikinis for me as I'm definately not 13 anymore...

Payday arrives and I eagerly nip into Sweaty Betty to purchase said awesome nautical bikini (by Seafolly as it turns out). A quick glance at the price tag..£38, awesome.....hang on a minute...thats just for the top, and the bottoms are an extra £30! £68, I understand that isn't mental, but to me this seemed like loads for something thats (just) Sweaty Betty. And herin lies my point (Finally...thanks for holding on this long guys!!) Most people have a 'brand scale' in their heads. A range from bottom to top like Tesco value to Tesco finest. Obviously everyones scales are different, some people are never going to go as low as H&M or Topshop, some will never have luxury brands on their scale. My scale is going to vary depending on my what it is im buying and how my moneys feeling, but its something you do with most of your purchase decisions...(pack lunch, pret a manger, sit down lunch out).

In terms of Bikinis, my scale reads, Topshop, Sweaty Betty, D&G. An in my head, The price of the Sweaty Betty bikini was way over its scale position, that brand doesn't hold that value to me. I wont pay it, I would rather shell the extra £50 for the D&G and get my brand value for money.

But, while the extra £50 is not in my possesion, I remain bikiniless. Dang.

Z.

x

Word

My friend Ruby said that I needed a blog. So here it is...
Yea, it's a quick introduction type thing...

Z. x