It's usually around this time of the year that brands start to roll out their spring/summer collections, the days begin to lengthen and we all start to see the spring light at the end of the long winter tunnel. And with the unusually mild winter weather that has seen daffodils and snowdrops bloom early, we can all be forgiven for thinking that spring was on its way.

However, the recent cold snap which has envoloped the whole of the UK proves that Mother Nature does have a sense of humour.

With snow due to fall over the weekend and the cold weather looking set to continue, here are a few essential cashmere accessories that will keep you warm from head to toe.

Cashmere & Rabbit Fur Hat >>>

Classic Black Cashmere Shawl >>>

Black Quilted Leather Gloves with Cashmere Lining >>>

Grey and Ivory Long Cashmere Socks >>>

Mens Black Cashmere Beanie Hat >>>

Double Faced Cashmere Scarf >>>

Men's Rabbit Lined Leather Gloves >>>

Men's Grey Cashmere Socks >>>

Fashion tome Glamour magazine online, features two of Black.co.uk's Statement Necklaces in its 'Glam Goth' special. Picking up on a major catwalk look for A/W11 the publication notes:

"The A/W catwalks were awash with glamorous onyx blacks, gothic platform heels and ethereal ebony lace. Channel the trend with our pick of the high street and, if you're feeling flush, a few designer pieces too." See the feature here.

Among its pick are our Columba Crystal Bib Necklace (best-seller of the range) and the Lyra Shard Necklace; festooned in chainmail and sci-fi cryptonite elements.

Columba Crystal Bib Necklace | £75 >>>

Lyra Shard and Chainmail Necklace | £110 >>>

Let me set the scene. Marbella Old Town, inch-wide primary colour alleyways, terracotta tiles sun-baking under foot, bougainvillea lacing the balconies jutting out from the stacked houses that appear like walls stamped with towering wooden doors and framed windows and the smell of orange blossom hangs in the air ... In the corners of the labyrinthine streets are nestled miniature sacramental statues of Mary and/or Jesus while a votive flickers reverently nearby.

Deep within the maze of streets can be found a grotto occupied by a wizened woman of Franco-Moroccan descent, trading wares that expose her ancestry; cast iron lamps, silk kaftans and glitter shoes, olive dishes, wicker donkey heads, rugs, cushions scarves and shawls and all the hocus-pocus in between. Deeper still within the realms of her store were these pure silk throws, made in Morocco from the finest wild silk, each one unique and each yielding a bursting rainbow of celestial colour.

To cut a long story short, we liked her pure silk throws so much (and thought you would too) that we ordered a collection of them for our sister site BrightByBlack.co.uk and here are three of them:

Unique Magenta and Red Pure Silk Throw | £165 | 290 x 190cm >>>

Unique Blue and Silver Pure Silk Throw | £165 | 290 x 190 cm >>>

Unique Multicolour Stripe Pure Silk Throw | £165 | 290 x 190cm >>>

Shop all pure silk throws >>>

This is one for the ladies ...

If your body does this one minute

And then this pretty much the next

Then the acquisition of strategical accessories becomes all the more important. You see, in hindsight, a great big magenta scarf may not have been the best way to tone down my abdominal promontory and probably would not have led to a meltdown in the loos of a certain London restaurant when my husband and I decided to go for one last jaunt before the new arrival. So when we took delivery last week of one of my favourite autumn winter accessories for Black.co.uk; the rabbit fur* snood, I felt that salvation had come (albeit a little too late in my case ...)
 

Brown Rabbit Fur Snood | £175 >>>

Silver Rabbit Fur Snood | £175 >>>

Substantial, luxurious and brimming with Hollywood starlet opulence, this is a one-size-fits-all, go-with-anything accessory miracle. For the pregnant, this will draw your beholder's gaze to those parts of you that are comparatively concave given that it is neat in size and neutral in colour.

And for those of you magnificent before-picture people, no accessory will flatter you more this winter. Just add some diamondy sparkle and red lips to dress it up over a structured pencil dress or off duty with a black cashmere sweater or winter coat for glamour in an instant.

Lights, camera, action. 

* All fur used in our accessories is the by-product of the Italian meat industry

Here are a few statements to have spun out from the world today:

1. A US debt downgrade or failure to raise the debt ceiling would have "significant global repercussions, given the central role of US Treasury bonds in world financial markets"

(The International Monetary Fund, via the WSJ) Not good.

2. 'I fear Amy Winehouse made crack cocaine cool. She made alcoholism attractive. She made abusive, violent relationships exciting'.

(The Daily Mail's Amanda Platell) Not good.

3. 'It paid for my house - but it's full of chavs'.

(Actress Jane Horrocks on Tesco) Not good.

As you see, I have rated the above statements as 'not good'. High-calibre thinking. I would say that THIS, here, right now, 2011, is the Age of the Statement. People saying stuff all over the place (mainly Twitter) and then having to apologise (on Twitter) for saying it. The IMF doesn't need to apologise. For the IMF never gets stuff wrong. And certainly, it doesn't say slanderous stuff about actresses, footballers or front-bench MPs. It's too busy presaging the economic ruination of the universe.

It is, also, the Age of the Statement Necklace. Safe bet to say that kind of thing I have decided because the least I have to worry about is getting snarled at by fashion people because once you've been to pregnancy yoga having vocalised that some sort of childbirth pain relief on the horizon then the odd fashion-world snarl is mere piffle. I'm telling you. Don't. Mention. The. Epidural.

Here are our new statement necklaces. They're saying:

"HEY YOU! WEAR ME AND ONLY ME."

They're big, black, sparkly, leathery, robust and will transform a meek and mild everyday outfit into an urban, rock and roll masterpiece. And they are rather good at toning down a burgeoning protuberance. (Sorry pregnancy yoga, but I cannot wear cling-film tight garments in salute to Nature's miracle. I just cannot.)
 

All hail, the Statement Necklaces ...

Andromeda Leather Statement Necklace

Crux Chainmail Charm Necklace £140 >>>

Columba Crystal Bib Necklace £75 >>> (Personal favourite)

Indus Leather and Bead Tangle Necklace £99 >>>

Lyra Shard and Chainmail Necklace £110 >>>

Orion Silk Sateen Bib Necklace £89 >>>

Shop all STATEMENT necklaces >>>

... is a bit like the naming of cats. As T S Eliot distinguishes, a cat has three names:

1. His sensible everyday name
2. His peculiar, dignified name (a name that never belongs to more than one cat) and;
3. The name that only the cat himself knows.

It's worth underlining at this point that I understand that scarves aren't cats.

However part of my job is to name the products we make.

"Why don't you just call a scarf a scarf and be done with it. Who cares?"  you might proclaim.

"Fair point," I might reply. And then I would run away as I am scared of a) strangers and b) confrontation.

After a while, I would catch myself in reflective isolation considering your question and would respond in this manner:

1. We have in our inventory around 40 different styles of scarf so each requires a name to set it apart from the other.
2. Within this inventory are six different fabrics: woven cashmere; knitted cashmere; hand-woven cashmere; 50:50 cashmere silk blend; 70:30 cashmere silk blend; silk; silk and wool; merino wool; silk, wool, linen and cashmere. And each of these has its unique tactility.
3. There are also five different sizes of scarf ranging from 160 x 33cm to a whopping 200 x 100cm. Size matters in the Land of Scarf because it dictates how a scarf can be worn and its weight.
4. The internet precludes the sense of touch when it comes to shopping. This sense holds a key function in decision making in the physical realm that must be somehow bolstered in the virtual. One way of doing this is through the power of language. Words can trigger the touch memory; 'feather light', 'sandpaper coarse', 'whisper soft' helping our customers to visualise the weight and feel of our fabrics on their skin.

Case in point:

The Mist Scarves (pictured: Lagoon Mist)

I know what you're thinking. Blue Steel.

This is indeed a highfalutin name for an accessory. But when I tried it on and felt its silken softness; the way it slipped gracefully through my fingers and how the light, liquid colours gave way to an immediate sense of summer, I thought 'to heck with it. This is my Blue Steel'.

So in the tradition of the naming of cats, what we have here is a:

1. Blue and White Cashmere and Silk Shawl
2. Lagoon Mist Cashmere and Silk Shawl
3. [never you mind]

Let’s just say that my foray into the corporate world wasn’t an illustrious one. And let’s just add that its end was punctuated by the presence of a mango and takeaway coffee lobbed at such velocity that even today it stains the tenements facing the office building at which I once worked. 

I spent much of the preceding time not really knowing what I was doing and being scared to death while not doing it. 

Nowadays, things are different. Mangos are prohibited and we drink our coffee from mugs. I know what I am doing (most of the time) and fear doesn’t feature in the doing of it.

And (and this is the point) I am on the other side of the corporate world; producing luxury bespoke corporate gifts to some of the world’s most illustrious companies, such as Virgin, Vodafone, Time Fortune and Renault. So far we’ve made own-brand embroidered cashmere scarves, gloves and beanies, own-brand embossed travel wallets, passport holders and jewellery rolls and have shipped out luxury cashmere throws, Swarovski crystal studded scarves and a host of other goodies.

So this is a message to those of you working happily and knowledgably in the corporate world: If you are looking for luxury corporate gifts, come to us. We know what we’re doing and have been doing it fearlessly for years. Read what our clients have to say about our products and our service.

I have always wanted to be on the television. I don’t know how, in what form or to what end. But an awareness of there being something of the ridiculous about me has been quite prohibitive.

 
It was therefore fitting that on my very first appearance I should be a hefty 20 lbs larger than my normal self, waddling along in front of the camera at 6 months pregnant looking faultlessly moronic.  

 
It is for this reason that my colleague (and bro), Toby – fine figure of a man – is doing all the talking and pointing and generally being very good at television while interviewed about Black.co.uk during the House & Garden Spirit of Summer Fair in London’s Olympia last week.

 
I’m not for one minute suggesting that you idle away a Wednesday afternoon on this piece of digital craft but Toby comes across rather well and says much of interest about our company. Failing that, perhaps you’re having a fat day and could use some cheering up in which case a gander at me blobbing along in the background should do the trick.
 

Click this link to view the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxJOqpaLtDA

Did someone say 'bandwagon'? Too right! I don't think I've ever been this excited. I don't think I was this excited this time last year when it was my wedding ...

Feels only right to do our bit for posterity and mark the event somehow, in fact, the only way we know how. WITH CASHMERE.

Thus our silent auction for our luxury hand-spun, hand-woven, hand-embroidered pure cashmere wedding ring shawl, so called because the cashmere from which it is made is so fine that it can be threaded through a woman's wedding ring. Fine indeed.

To enter the silent auction, click here and simply follow the instructions on this page (boy).

(Off now to string out the bunting and roll out the barrel).

It's the time of year again when Black hoiks itself out of cyberspace and makes an appearance in the physical realm.

From Wednesday 11 May until Saturday 14 May Black is exhibiting at the Spirit of Summer Fair in London Olympia. The fair is resplendent in all things blissfully summery; luxury homeware, jewellery, accessories, kaftans, clothing, food, garden pieces mixed with presentations from summertime aficionados.

We are giving away TEN PAIRS of tickets worth £30 per pair to 10 lucky winners. To enter the giveaway, simply visit our Facebook page and 'Like' the TICKET GIVEAWAY for Spirit of Summer. We will then select at random and announce the 'likers' on May 3.

Enter Now >>>