Major fashion retailers have upped their e-commerce game immensely over the past year, but Mango wins the trophy for the most fun, interactive online shopping experience.

Similar to Cher’s computerised wardrobe on Clueless, Mango offers shoppers a web tool called Mix & Match, to create their own outfits and style up a number of looks.

Mix & Match is incredibly easy to use and it really is rather addictive swapping pieces and editing outfits with just a few clicks.  Imagine how many hours it would take in the changing rooms to speed-style so many different looks!

I was inspired by the effortless, bobo-chic Parisiennes that I saw out and about around the Marais at Paris Fashion Week.  The Parisian look is all about simple key pieces that work with your wardrobe and can be accentuated with laid-back, luxury pieces.

The snug grey roll-neck sweater worn over a chic black day dress with three-quarter length sleeves is perfect for the Paris autumn. Add a trilby, chunky leopard print cuff and some for soft leather ankle boots for a quintessentially Parisian look.

So would you stroll around the Left Bank with a box of macarons in this outfit?  What would you add or change to improve the look?

Visit www.mango.com, try out Mix & Match and report back with your style tips.  Merci beaucoup, mes chéries!

Following her first full collection of luxuriously crafted clutch bags for the Paris concept store last year, Olympia has expanded the collection and diversified into equally covetable suitcases, tote bags and pouches.

Her signature clutch bags are hand-made recreations of first edition book covers, raided from her artist and book collector father, Pierre Le-Tan’s library.

For the AW 10-11 collection, Olympia was inspired by Paris, the 1940s, surrealism and books that were turned into movies.  One of the most striking is her range of boxy clutch bags, each featuring a play on the French word boite.

The bags are crafted a base of cotton canvas and are embroidered with silk thread, with felt appliqué in bold colours and lined with Liberty of London fabric.  Each piece also comes with a hand-stitched label inside that says, ‘Made in Paris with love’.

The clutch bags are priced between 950-1090 EUR, but there are also more affordable entry pieces, featuring printed illustration by Olympia Le-Tan and André.

The full Olympia Le-Tan AW 10-11 is available to buy online and in store at colette.

Luckily for us, for four days only, private sales club vente-privee.com are offering members discounted tickets to the cabaret’s acclaimed show, Désirs, in their one-off Flash Sale.

Included in the package is half a bottle of champagne, so you can enjoy the show in style and make it a fabulously decadent evening.

Located on the chic Avenue George V, just off the Champs-Élysées, Le Crazy Horse was opened in 1951 and remains a family business today, celebrating l’art du nu with spectacular visual effects, choreography and edgy costumes.

It has recently attracted glamorous celebrity pin-ups such as Pamela Anderson, Carmen Electra, Arielle Dombasle and Dita Von Teese, who starred in a two-week residency last year.

Directed by French choreographer, Philippe Decouflé, Désirs is inspired ‘by the endless theme of femininity’, with a nod to Parisian culture, and features magic and sketches between the nude dance shows.

Around five years ago, Steven took me to Paris for Christmas and arranged for us to go to the Moulin Rouge, where we got a front row table with a bottle of champagne.  It was one of the best nights ever and we enjoyed a glitzy, over-the-top show with glamorous dancers, a troupe of miniature Shetland ponies, a python in an 8ft tank and a ‘talking dog’.

The Crazy Horse is probably a completely different experience  to the Moulin Rouge, with the emphasis on seduction and light effects rather than pure spectacle and theatre.

The Flash Sale takes place at www.vente-privee.com from Thursday 10 June for four days and offers tickets for performances at Le Crazy Horse in Paris between 1 July 2010 and 31 August 2010.

If you book an evening at Le Crazy Horse and want somewhere equally stylish to stay, I’d personally recommend  Hotel Lutetia, in the heart of the literary Left Bank.  Dita stayed in a suite at the Lutetia during her two-week residency at Le Crazy Horse last year, and so did I (perhaps we shared the same bed).  Read my review and see the photos here.

Hotel Lutetia is celebrating its centenary this year with a programme full of special events and offers, including a 100 Euro gift voucher to be spent at the Lutetia,  for stays of 3 consecutive night until 31 December 2010.  For more information, visit the website.

Offering personally-tailored advice and a cool, clinical environment for men and women, La Pharmacie brings together Colette’s tried and tested products from the likes of Aesop, Kiehls, Bumble & Bumble, James Brown, Korner, Uslu Airlines, Christophe Robin and Joëlle Ciocco.

Colette has always had a great beauty section where you can find cult products from niche brands, store exclusives and limited edition products, and now you can browse their beauty wares without the distraction of the wooden Miu Miu-clad mannequins.

La Pharmacie promises a covetable range of skincare, cosmetics, fragrances, haircare and a ‘cabinet of jewellery’, including hair accessories and head bands by Maison Michel and Hair Designaccess.

More exciting Colette news…their 10th double CD compilation is out now, with tracks selected by Michel Gaubert and Marie Branellec.  The first disc features artists such as Gary Numan, Caribou, MGMT, Michael Nyman and Koudlam and the second sees Jamie XX at the helm, with a selection of his remixes, including the brilliant dubstep remix of The XX’s Crystalised.

It’s a musical investment at 28 EUR, but Colette compilations have become real collectors items and Michel and Marie are always spot on with their mixes and track choices.  I’ve played Colette No.8 – a mixtures of disco, hip hop, Italo and electro with some weird kitsch stuff – at parties and it always goes down well.

Designing the bottle featuring his silhouette and a hot pink bottle top, Karl also indulged his other life passion and shot the campaign featuring Coco Rocha as his female counterpart, and one of his favourite boys, Baptiste Giacobini.

Coco revealed on her blog, Oh So Coco, that during the shoot, Karl decided the accessories weren’t quite right, so he went home and brought back some of his own trademark leather gloves, then took off his tie pin and rings for her to wear, giving Coco the real Lagerfeld look.

Karl Lagerfeld and Coca Cola go way back and according to biographer Alicia Drake in The Beautiful Fall, Karl used to down up to 25 bottles a day and once rode along the Côte d’Azur on the back of a moped with a hot dog in one hand and a bottle of Coca Cola in the other.

Since honing his svelte figure, Karl has switched over to Coca Cola Light and savours the taste in a large Lalique crystal goblet (à la Coco in the advert), although you can just imagine him swigging from the bottle adorned with his own silhouette!

A limited edition box set including the Karl Lagerfeld Diet Coke bottle and matching bottle opener is on sale at Colette in Paris for €60 and is a major collector’s item.

At the end of the month, the campaign will be splashed all over Paris and Karl will be on sale for the bargain price of €3.50.  No word yet on when they’ll be available in the UK, but Selfridges always stock the Diet Coke designer collaborations and now they’ve started selling online.

So what will King Karl turn his hand to next?  I’m guessing a limited edition monochrome iPod, ready loaded with Karl’s favourite tunes and interludes of Karl reciting his most notorious quotes – who wouldn’t want one of those!

It seems like a no brainer that fashion designers should try their hand at designing hotels. They have commercially proved their innate sense of style and obsessive eye for detail and are already tuned in to their customers’ dreams and aspirations.  Plus having a fashion designer on board makes hotels just that little bit more desirable for style conscious travellers.

Diane Von Fürstenberg is the latest designer to get the interiors bug, as she has redesigned twenty rooms and suites for London hotel Claridges, due to be unveiled in June 2010.

While Diane is the embodiment of all things New York and glam, she has revealed that some of her past collections have been inspired by the hotel’s Art Deco grandeur.  There’s no word yet on how the rooms will appear, but my bet is on bold prints and vibrant colours, a copy of her new Proud to be Woman compilation CD and perhaps a remodelled ‘wrap dress’ bathrobe.

Over in Milan, after two years of development, Maison Moschino has finally opened on the Viale Monte Grappa.  The surreal, romantic hotel is an ode to Moschino’s design philosophy and is just as flirty, vibrant and striking as their collections.

Designed by Rosella Jardini and the Moschino creative team, the four-storey hotel is located in an old neoclassical railway station dating back to 1840, and offers 54 individually designed rooms and 15 suites.  Most of the rooms have whimsical names like Clouds, Rose, Little Red Riding Hood, Sweet and Dress.

The hotel has a theatrical, Alice in Wonderland vibe, with oversized teacup tables, suspended flying bees, handbag lamps, a red dress bed and a surreal four-poster bed overgrown with trees.  The room on my wishlist would be the one with a bed of roses and petal-covered chandelier.

The super cool Clandestino restaurant is typically on-trend and innovative with chef Moreno Cedroni’s unusual creation of ‘colourful sushi’.  Breakfast is presented as a ‘Mos kit’ – a combination of 4,6 or 8 seasonal combinations inside a ceremonial lacquered box.  The restaurant goes through to a garden terrace and the hotel also provides a bar, spa and gym.

Maison Moschino is like the ultimate fashion fantasy world and would be best suited to travellers who like their hotels with modern, ironic touches and an artistic concept rather than traditional luxury.

Rooms start from £260 and can be booked at www.designhotels.com, where you can view a stylish insider’s video and access hotel images and information.

Many fashion hotels are as reassuringly as expensive and exclusive as their catwalk looks.  As much as I long to, I think I’ll have to befriend a mysterious benefactor before booking into the Armani Hotels in Milan and Dubai, Donatella’s Palazzo Versace, Ralph Lauren’s Round Hill House in Jamaica, Oscar de la Renta’s Tortuga Bay in the Dominican Republic or the chic Bulgari Resort in Bali.

However, don’t be disappointed, as there are equally cool fashion hotels almost on city break route.  Hotel Missoni in Ediburgh’s Old Town has been on my hotel wish list since it opened last summer and I’m determined to pay a visit this year.

The seven-storey hotel on George IV Bridge is a vibrant combination of Italian style and Scottish heritage, with Charles Rennie Macintosh chairs and staff wearing custom-made Missoni kilts.

The 136 colour bursting rooms and suites were designed by Rosita Missoni and feature the label’s signature bold patterns and textiles.  The rooms include everything you could want for a comfortable stay and they seem to considered how annoying and inhospitable it is to experience a  minefield of hidden extras.

All rooms include two items of laundry, local calls, movies, high speed internet, the entire contents of the mini bar and the use of an iPod dock, Nespresso machine and Missoni bathrobe and slippers.

The top floor suite, Rosa, has the best views of the city, overlooking the castle and Rosita Missoni stays there whenever she’s in town.

Hotel Missoni’s first floor restaurant Cucina, a collaboration with Giorgio Locatelli, has become popular with locals and serves up seasonal, contemporary Italian dishes, created by head chef Mattia Camerani.

The bar serves Vestri hot chocolate (exclusively from the renowned Florence chocolate shop) and claims to have the most authentic Italian coffee menu in Edinburgh.

Doubles start from £135 per night and the 3-course dinner, bed and breakfast offer starts from £220 per night.

Over in Paris, Christian Lacroix rules with two bijou residences – Hôtel du Petit Moulin, a former bakery in the Marais and Hôtel Bellechasse on the Left Bank.

Christian Lacroix’s elaborate, theatrical style is stamped all over the two hotels and the individually designed rooms feature painterly scenes, astrological motifs and vibrant illustration.  The hotels are odes to diverse academic and cultural influences that have inspired his many collections over the years.

The hotel has a homely, intimate atmosphere and guests can mingle in the exclusive, private bar. At the Hôtel du Petit Moulin, Lacroix’s personal favorite is room 301 – the gold-and-black suite painted with a trompe l’oeil night sky.

At the Hôtel Bellechasse, jewel shades reign alongside sumptuous velvet drapes and beautifully illustrated ancient monuments, insects and playing cards.  The dining room is one of the most ornate in Paris and the hotel is just a short walk from the museums and galleries along the Seine.

Lacroix’s decadent hotels would be perfect locations for romantic trips to Paris and a totally unique fantasy experience.  With the departure of Christian Lacroix from the fashion world, it really would be like living in a time gone by.

Rooms start from 190 EUR At Hôtel du Petit Moulin and 152 EUR at Hôtel Bellechasse

* Dear readers, please note that I haven’t visited these hotels yet so I can’t personally recommend them.  This is more of a ‘dream hotels’ post, but if you’ve been to any of the hotels featured, please comment away and share your experience!

Read this feature and more arts fabulousness on Jotta.com

IKEA are promoting their best selling Ektorp and Karlstad sofas in some of the busiest stations in central Paris and they must be pretty confident that they’re good enough to withstand all the grime, sticky hands and jumping kids for two weeks!

From what I’ve seen in Paris on my travels, they have major points over the London transport system, with heaters in the main train stations, generally larger platforms and now pop-up lounges which just wouldn’t work in London.

Saying that, the number of people sleeping rough in the Paris metro stations in the evenings come winter is quite startling, so whether IKEA like it or not, at least they’ll have somewhere a bit more comfortable to rest.

If you’re in Paris, you can rest your weary bones on the platforms of  Saint-Lazare, Champs-Elysées Clémenceau, Concorde and Opéra.

Whether IKEA’s sofa sales will increase remains to be seen, but what a brilliant publicity stunt!

Photos via

The provocative FCUK logos that were so synonymous with the brash 90s have been replaced by a demure, intelligent advert with a typically French sense of humour.

The irreverent short film presents a critical study of ‘The Man’ and ‘The Woman’ and builds a story around their emotions, quirks and contradictions.  It references the stylish absurdity of French New Wave cinema and French Connection’s Anglo-French heritage with a little bit of ‘franglais’.

French Connection’s philosophy is that it is the woman or man wearing the clothes that gives them life and a unique personality. Their style DNA is based on well-made classics with a fashion-forward edge and as the film suggests, the quality of the clothes speaks for itself.

French Connection has always been about affordable luxury, with feminine tailoring, the perfect LBD and well-cut jeans being the foundation of any wardrobe.  They have established their bestsellers and reintroduce them each season, building up a collection of French Connection ‘classics’.

But lets not forget about ‘The Man’!  Monsieur is the stereotypical French belle-bête, complete with beard, furrowed brow and philosophical air, modelled on Serge G

Curated by Saint Laurent’s long-term life and business partner Pierre Bergé and under the patronage of the First Lady of France,Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the exhibition will cover 40 years of creation, from 1962 to 2002. On display will be 300 pieces of Saint Laurent’s haute couture and innovative prêt-à-porter line, Rive Gauche.

The exhibition ranges from Yves Saint Laurent’s beginnings at Dior as Christian Dior’s successor (including his debut trapèze collection) in the 1950s to the Scandale collection following the May 1968 Paris riots to his evening gowns just before his death in 2002.

Yves Saint Laurent turned style rules on their head and revolutionised Paris fashion with his use of masculine tailoring for women.  His signature look Le Smoking tuxedo has been reinterpreted dozens of times and he’s also responsible for popularising the safari suit and the beatnik look.  Pierre Bergé once said: “Chanel liberated the woman, but Yves Saint Laurent gave them power.”

Also on display will be a number of drawings, films and photos chronicling the history the house of Yves Saint Laurent, including an image by photographer Jeanloup Sieff, depicting Yves partially naked for his eau de toilette campaign, and French film star Catherine Deneuve’s entire Yves Saint Laurent wardrobe.

The exhibition also sheds light on Yves Saint Laurent’s influences, such as opera, cinema, theatre (his early collections referencing the theatre sets of Christian Bérard) and painting – his . His travels to Morocco, China and Russia are well documented in the ‘Chinoiserie’ and ‘Opium’ collections that are presented in the exhibition.

Yves Saint Laurent’s influence has been been Marc Jacobs, Jean-Paul Gaultier and Tom Ford .  The house of Yves Saint Laurent still thrives today under the direction of the talented Stefano Pilati, whose deep respect for Saint Laurent’s aesthetic is evident in the collections.  Unlike Tom Ford before him, Pilati understands the subtle sexiness of the strong Parisienne, but isn’t afraid to drive the house forward with futuristic references.

The garments are drawn from the collection of over 5000 piece at the Fondation Pierre Berge – Yves Saint Laurent in Saint Laurent’s former atelier on the Avenue Marceau.

The exhibition runs from 11 March to August 29 at the Petit Palais.  Tickets are €11.

www.yslretrospective.com

The two stores will open pop-up shops in London and Paris in March and will be selling a limited edition collection of products designed and created by merci Creative Director Marie France Cohen, exclusively for Liberty of London, using the iconic floral Liberty prints.

merci was opened last year by Marie France and Bernard Cohen, the founders of childrenswear couture house Bonpoint, and is known in Paris as ‘the store that gives back’.  Mixing fashion with philanthropy, merci donates all of its profits to the Accueil des Sans Abri foundation to help women and children in Madagascar.

The store is set over three storeys in a beautiful loft space in the Marais (3rd arrondissement) with a used-book literary café, restaurant, florist, Annick Goutal perfume laboratory and a secret city garden.

It stocks a diverse range of clothes, from vintage finds to Parisian staple designers Isabel Marant and A.P.C, alongside high end pieces by Chloé, Marni and YSL.

Many designers have donated furniture and clothes to be sold at merci and they often create limited edition collections exclusively for the store.

The merci for Liberty range will include clothes for women, men and kids, accessories, stationery, homeware, soft furnishings, fabrics and gifts.  The fashion collection is set to be popular for Spring, with strappy sun dresses, playsuits and bikinis in classic Liberty prints such as Betsy, Eloise and Meadow.

There are also mini-me version of the womenswear for kids and the boys can get comfy with printed pyjamas and kurtas.  Babies can also get wrapped up in Liberty florals with adorable floral bloomers smock tops and pretty shirts.

You can also give your home a floral make-over for Spring with an adorable range of mugs, notebooks, stationery, storage boxes and gadgets like merci’s ingenious reusable napkin roll. I’ve got my eye on this beautiful Liberty fabric necklaces adorned with the merci medal.

Liberty and merci really do make an excellent partnership – Liberty have built on their strong heritage, making florals c0ol again and merci have completed redefined the boutique department store experience.  As Carnaby Street is celebrating its 50th anniversay this year, Liberty’s flower power is as vital to the London fashion scene as ever.

With beautifully designed products for all budgets, the pop-up shop is definitely worth a visit. Merci beaucoup, Liberty!

at merci opens 1 March and continues until 21 March.

merci at opens 8 March and continues until 1 April.