Advanced Style

Impeccable style fascinates me. It transcends age, as proven by the photographer Ari Seth Cohen who captures immaculately presented older men and women on his blog, Advanced Style.

I am well and truly in awe of everyone featured on his blog - I can only hope I look as good and make such bold style statements when I reach a more experienced age. Here are some of my favourites.

And of course, no mention of style at a more mature age would be complete without the incomparably brilliant, Iris Apfel. "More is more, less is a bore."

All images from Advanced Style by Ari Seth Cohen

Cath Kidston Newcastle Store & Giveaway winners.

At the end of last week, I ventured into Newcastle to check out the new stand alone Cath Kidston store. Set over 2 floors on the beautiful Grainger Street, the store has a great mix of fashion, homeware, childrenswear and Christmas merchandise, along with some lovely, considered displays for the store including a wall full of framed Newcastle paraphernalia.

I spoke to CK Newcastle's store manager, Alex, to find out a bit more about the store:

Welcome to Newcastle! I’m so pleased Newcastle finally has it’s own stand-alone store, following on from the success of CK’s concession in Fenwick. How does it feel to have a base in the North East? Thank you. We are all really excited about the new store and being able to offer Newcastle a chance to see the whole product range. From just being open a couple of days, we can already see that everyone is really as excited as we are here. The reception has been fantastic.

What can CK’s Newcastle fans expect from the store? 
I’m really excited by the faces of our customers as they walk through the doors of the new store. They will be taken aback by so much colour and brightness. It’s such an expressive brand, so uplifting.

CK is all about print – which prints do you think will be most popular with Newcastle’s CK fans?
Print is so important to Cath Kidston, all of our prints are unique and inspired by Vintage. The products are colourful and fun and bring a smile to your face. Our spot prints are really popular and spray flower in our china is a best seller, both these prints are very classic Cath Kidston and never go out of style or date.

As the festive season is upon us, does the store have anything special lined up for it’s Newcastle customers this Christmas? 
We have opening promotions going on over our launch day and the weekend. We also have a shopping spree competition for the customer to win £250 shopping spree with Cath Kidston.

And now to reveal the winners of the Cath Kidston giveaway.

After randomly selecting names out of a hat (well, a decorative bowl in this case), the winners are...

Cath Kidston Laptop Case - Sophie-Anne from Decisions, Decisions
Cath Kidston Tote Bag - Katie Coward

Well done ladies. If you could please drop me an email with your address details in, that would be marvellous.

Cath Kidston - New Store Opening - Newcastle, UK

This week sees a real treat for North East fans of British brand, Cath Kidston: we are finally getting our own stand-alone CK store in Newcastle upon Tyne.

The brand have had a small concession based in Fenwick Newcastle for some time now, and now to help strengthen the brand presence in the North East, CK now has it's very own space. Set over 2 floors on the Toon's wonderful Grainger Street, the store will feature products from homeware, kidswear and accessories through to fashion and special one-off vintage pieces, all including CK's iconic print designs.

GIVEAWAY NOW CLOSED: 
To celebrate the store opening, I've teamed up with Cath Kidston to offer a special giveaway for readers of AMB. I'm exclusively giving away a beautiful spotty tote bag and laptop case to 2 lucky winners. Simply leave a comment below stating which item you'd prefer to win and why, and I will randomly select 2 winners to receive these wonderful prizes courtesy of Cath Kidston.

Only open to UK residents,  and the winners will be announced at the beginning of next week alongside a Q&A with the Newcastle's store manager and a look at the store. So get to commenting quick sharp! 

The store opened today, 8th November, so if you're one of the lucky few who've had a chance to visit already, tweet me what you like about the store @alicemarybarnes.

 Cath Kidston, 136 - 138 Grainger Street, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 5AF 

The Gentlewoman Autumn/Winter 2012

My favourite magazine has released it's A/W 2012 issue.

Behold The Gentlewoman.

And can you think of a better cover star than Angela Landsbury? I think not. Enjoy.

Urban Night Feast, Newcastle

Last night, Joe and myself headed off to Urban Night Feast, to sample the delights of some of the North East's finest street food vendors. Having heard brilliant things from the event on Thursday and Friday nights, I couldn't wait to dig in to some of the goodies on offer. 

UNF was held in the beautiful Stephenson Centre, an amazing industrial space behind Newcastle's Central Station. We arrived just before the night kicked-off, and my god, I'm glad we did as soon there was a hefty queue of hungry punters forming outside.

We kicked off proceedings with a pint from local ale-crafters, Wylam Brewery - Writer's Block for me and Red Kite for Joe.

Next we headed to the stall run by the brilliant team from, Broad Chare, one of my most favourite places to eat in Newcastle. We grabbed ourselves a Scotch Egg, beef and Newcastle Brown Ale pie and a pork pie with homemade piccalilli. I can't say enough good things about these 3 dishes - the scotch egg in particular was perfection. Warm and just runny enough in the middle. Delicious.

Next we sampled delicious salt and pepper squid from local fish supplier/seaside mecca, Latimers. The squid was cooked in front of us and was out of this world - perfectly cooked.

We stayed for a couple of beverages to soak up the atmosphere, and on the way out stopped at Riley's Fish Shack, from our local Tynemouth, for a fishy treat - and we weren't disappointed. We both had the Mackerel wrap - the fish and the flat bread were cooked right in front of us and I can honestly say it is one of the best things I have ever tasted. I can't wait to catch these guys at the Whitley Bay St Nicholas Festival and Tynemouth Christmas Fayre over the next couple of months. Follow them on Twitter to find out which foodie event they'll be at next - @rileysfishshack

The organisers of UNF really did a great job and the venue was absolutely packed. The vendors were a good mix of established North East chefs/restaurants and passionate new North East producers, all set against a fantastic backdrop with brilliant tunes to match - we heart CoolAid Events.
Same again next year please guys.