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 >>>

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 >>>

BlackWatch is, officially in the world of Black.co.uk, the Saturday shift.  From 9am(ish - it is Saturday after all) until 5pm, one member of Team Black is on Customer Services duty, answering weekend calls from our customers asking for advice on cushions, throws, scarves and so on. This is done via rota. BlackWatch makes it sound a bit Special Ops, which I guess is why it's stuck.

Yet as I was reading April's Vogue this weekend (my Saturday off) it appeared to me that, in its hypnotically-perfumed pages, was the perfect application for the term: BlackWatch. Here it is in action:

"I wear black and white - and black. Colour looks shit on me. It just does". Kate Winslet, pictured in Tom Ford, Vogue April 2011. Looking breathtaking. Gulp.

BlackWatch from henceforth will be known as the spotting and documenting on these 'pages' of certain illustrious individuals championing the brilliance of black.

Forgive me, blogosphere, for I have sinned. It's been 40 days since my last entry. The silence for the first 30 is not technically my fault; it was however a fault technically. It just stopped working over Christmas. How to account for the last 10 days' silence? Some of us were busy busy buying in Florence and Paris while at Black HQ the rest of us were all hands on deck due to the annual hoopla that is the VAT Holiday, where all products are at VAT-free prices.

Meanwhile in this moody month, the release of Black Swan appeared to pique the interest of the fashion world. I haven't seen it; I am too afraid to having seen one film by the same director called Requiem For A Dream that scarred me for life. 

However, after a glimpse at what our industrious fashionista fans over on Polyvore had been doing to combine Black Swan and Black and I felt something had to be noted.

Here it is:

Black Swan

Black Ballerina Gloves £55

 A marriage made in psychodrama heaven ...

If you're new to our store, then this is something you need to know, ladies (and gents buying for ladies). Our best-selling pure silk scarf is back in stock after some time in the accessory wilderness.

Steely anthracite grey set off with a beam of shining silver, this scarf has depth, lustre and sheen - the perfect companion to sensuously, deliciously, simmeringly moody black ...

Reversible Supersheen Steel and Silver Silk Scarf - 100% Silk | £39 | Shop Now: http://bit.ly/aGbwQa

Dégradé is a dyeing process by which one colour bleeds into another, creating a vibrant, eyes-on-stalks contrast. Having had such great success with these shawls throughout the summer in our BrightByBlack collection (featuring luscious and tropical red-to-purple, blue-to-green and the phenomenal orange-to-pink), we set about creating a range for Black for A/W - summoning up our classic palette of earthy, natural colours (plus our signature magenta) and casting them across a hand-spun, hand-woven cashmere canvas.

Here are the results:

Dégradé Military Green to Fire Shaded Pashmina Shawl | £195 | Shop Now>>>  http://bit.ly/csUn4k

Dégradé Black to Magenta Shaded Cashmere Pashmina Shawl | £195 | Shop Now>>> http://bit.ly/bYpAMc

Dégradé Flame Shaded Cashmere Pashmina Shawl | £195 | Shop Now>>> http://bit.ly/ahXCDn

* We mean 'dégradé' here. The internet can bring utility companies and sovereign wealth funds to their knees, but it can't apply an accute accent to a blog title. That said, the notion of a 'degrade' cashmere shawl is certainly curious.  

On Friday night at around 10:30 I arrived back from holiday into Gatwick's North Terminal. Joy and rapture. Because, just as our flight touched the ground, so did 11 other flights which meant frantic must get in the fastest queue must get in the fastest queue mania at immigration and then an hour long wait eyeballing the baggage reclaim screen with the apocalyptic zeal of hedge-fund shorter followed by another hour tracking down a cab. It was fun and certainly did justice to a good holiday (see gratuitous blurry Blackberry holiday snap). Ah Espana.

Then came the domestic stuff: unpacking, washing, drying, ironing, shopping and disinfecting the Gaggia. Followed by the work stuff: scrutinising the emails that, days earlier,  I had merely scanned with a glibness of heart and a fluttering of soul. Then yesterday was our management meeting and boom! adrenaline injection what with all the enormous Christmas (yes indeed Christmas) preparation to do, sales reports, traffic reports and so on. Business. Boom!

This morning, however, was my husband's first day back and so begin the 5:30 starts, at desk by 7. As a consequence my days also start this fiendishly early. So I like to break in the day by doing the following:

1. Updating our Twitter page
2. Checking our  Facebook page
3. Analysing our website's traffic for the previous day.

The latter is the most fun.  This is because as well as providing us with vital information about the traffic we get to our site at www.black.co.uk, we also see what terms or keywords people type into Google that lead them to our site. In among the searches for the products we actually sell such as women's scarves, women's scarfs (sic), men's scarves, wraps, pashminas, leather gloves, cashmere throws, cashmere socks* and so on are searches for products and 'things' that we certainly do not sell.

Here are a few gems

1. 'are leather placemats a good idea'
2. 'cashmere mother of the bride'
3. 'bedroom accessories for men'
4. 'i want to buy hair of a black woman'
5. 'straw Robin Hood'

... needless to say there are also searches that should never see the light of day...

The wonders of the internet. Rivalled only by the wonders of the British Aviation Authority.

ps. Are leather placemats a good idea?

* Over-done linking here is at the behest of our SEO guys. Reads easily doesn't it?  

We have chosen not to have a testimonials page because (from our point of view at least) testimonials can often read as if they have been written by the company itself. We are very lucky indeed to have customers who are incredibly generous with praise for our products and our service and receiving these comments is great for motivating our team.

Every so often, however, we get an email from a customer that stands out for one reason or another. We think that the comment below is especially interesting for our new international customers. Perhaps you live in the US, Australia or Japan and question when your order will get to you and in what timeframe. Our main method of international shipping is with sovereign postal services rather than blue-chip couriers and costs a fraction of those to boot (£13 approx $20). This customer ordered her gloves on the Monday and they arrived on the US West Coast by the Saturday. We were thrilled with the United States Postal Service and can't help feeling that the enormous growth of online shopping has been a contributing factor to their increasing efficiency:

Hello,

I want to thank you for such good service after I placed an order for your Black Bow Cocktail Gloves. The order was placed at the last minute, and I had them sent directly to  my hotel in Portland, Oregon for an evening wedding I was attending last Saturday. The gloves were waiting for me at the front desk when I arrived and are just gorgeous! I had so many compliments from everyone. They looked absolutely elegant with my dress and jacket and really "made" my outfit. And I cannot thank you enough for such prompt service and a wonderful product.

Back in stock - our consistently best-selling piece of jewellery, the Single Black Tahitian Pearl Necklace. Subtle beauty, elegance and refinement, this continues to be the favourite gift purchase for hundreds of our customers.

Price: £110

Pearl Type: Round, peacock-tinted, barely speckled.