At a dinner on Saturday night I came face-to-face with my very own minister. The Minister for Abi.

No. Not what happened.

When the Rt Hon Ed Vaizey MP told me that he was Minister for Fashion and Ecommerce (AKA 'my minister' as he declared himself), I think I said something like: 'No way. I don't believe you. I can't believe there's a Ministry of Fashion'. My reputation for being gullible could not have preceded me on this occasion, given that we were strangers. I know nothing about politics. He is indeed Minister for Fashion (and Culture, Communications and the Creative Industries ... plus archaelogy, broadband and digitised technology...etc, etc.) - and, impressively, he appears to know much about it.

It turns out that he is in awe of the British Fashion Industry; taking very seriously the significance of the sector within the British economy (worth £1.6bn in retail terms) and also as a cultural export, whose creative reputation pitches it at the apex of the global stage. Recently he had been invited to attend a NEWGEN event. NEWGEN is a brilliant program that invests in, sponsors and consults emerging designers just as they are coming to prominence and therefore when they most need it. It is organised by the mighty British Fashion Council and sponsored by TopShop while the UK Ambassador for Emerging Talent, Sarah Mower, plays an instrumental role.

(Above - Backstage at Christopher Kane, autumn/winter 2010 at London Fashion Week February 2010. Christopher Kane was a beneficiary of the NEWGEN project)

Mr Vaizey spoke to me of Erdem, Christopher Kane and Browns. He said he was planning on installing a mannequin in his office whose garments are to be changed every six months in strict accordance with S/S and A/W. 'What about Resort?' I asked. Nonplussed, he got up to speak.

Still, what a breath of fresh air to hear an MP speak so excitedly about fashion and to really understand the importance of the industry not just on an economic basis but also on a creative level - for in the world of design it is this that leads often to profitability and not just a stark focus on the bottom line.

First thing this morning I engaged in a certain Monday ritual: cruising fashion blogs. I tell thee, seeing the title ‘Blackest of The Blacks’ – a recent entry from Style Bubble – is like being whopped across the face. Yes, my interest was piqued.

You see, black (the ‘colour’, not us) gets a mixed press. If you were to open up any Vogue Catwalk Report, no matter what season, among the florals, the metallics, the urban guerrilla, the military urchin etc, there is invariably a black page – positioning its status in the world of fashion as nothing other than mandatory.  This is often to the chagrin of many fashion editors. Despite being ubiquitous and incredibly popular its use is criticised for being the resort of the unimaginative. Two words to the contrary. Rick Owens.

Style Bubble’s blogger, Susie Bubble, was writing about an exhibition called ‘Black: Masters of Black in Fashion and Costume” at the Fashion Museum in Antwerp. While the exhibition explored the history of black in fashion and historic costume, paid homage to the fashion houses whose use of black resulted in creating masterpieces (Chanel, Givenchy, Yves Saint Laurent) and delved into ‘the potential of black in diverse materials’ (fur, lace, leather), its very presence led Bubble to feel a certain ambivalence about the role of black in fashion.

“I have an estranged relationship with the supposed cornerstones of fashion where black reigns and is apparently meant to be THE colour that dictates the foundation of our wardrobes.  Just to pull "xxx is the new black" as an example already gives the colour weight and superiority above all else”

She has a point. It’s not fair that an un-colour should hold such unrivalled hegemony in the fashion food chain. Yet I can’t foresee the colours ‘blush’, ‘taupe’ or ‘cerulean’ getting their own exhibitions. (Neither does Bubble). The more I think about it, the more the room at Harrods that houses Givency, Balmain and Lanvin et al could quite easily be regarded as a gallery of black artistry. I’d even skip Antwerp altogether and head straight to Rods for an education in the majesty of black fashion. Far from being the resort of the unimaginative, designers handling black have to work even harder than those with a rainbow of colours or prints to hand to bring the darkness to life. Look at the work that goes into creating this:

Givenchy SS10

Or this:

Balmain SS10

Or this:

Lanvin SS10

 Hmmm. I wonder whether we should start selling single gloves a la Lanvin ...  

I have just returned from a meeting with colour consultant, Manina Weldon, in Kensington.  Red Leopard, her company, advises people on the colours that will best suit them in order to draw attention to and augment their finer features; particularly the face.  While I was there on business grounds (Red Leopard will be selling a number of BrightByBlack.co.uk scarves to their customers from this month onwards, including a number of exclusive colour-ways) I had a fascinating insight into which colours should be worn on whom.

Now, it should come as no surprise to regular readers of this blog that I like black and wear it often and will by hook or by crook find a way to wear it in the summer (thank you black Bamford silk mac). Manina told me that black was not my colour. It was like taking a bullet.

Luckily today I was wearing colours that are ‘me’ (navy, tan, Babylon Scarf, light denim) and ‘me’ is blond, blue-eyed; generally of the ‘yellow’ ilk. The world is divided into ‘yellows’ and ‘blues’ it seems and the ‘yellows’ should focus mainly on wearing soft spring and summer colours such as blush, peach, terracotta, turquoise, pastels, coppers, tans; in short soft, delicate colours. Meanwhile the ‘blues’, (Manina - brown/black hair, cocoa-brown eyes) are rather enviably licensed to wear winter colours such as black and bright, bold colours including red, magenta, emerald, cobalt.

While what I gleaned from the short time I was there was merely surface-scratching stuff, it was nonetheless intriguing and I plan to run an experiment on myself, wearing ‘yellows’  to find out if my life gets perceptibly better. I fear, however, that this endeavour may go the way of the Monday morning diet and I will revert to blackness.

I wonder, was Coco Chanel a blue or a yellow?

(Red Leopard, 1 Thackeray Street, W8 5ET, redleopard.co.uk, 0207 937 2222)
 

The leopard has prowled its last round on the fashion safari. Zebra is slowing its blackwhite canter down to a  trot...But the tiger,well, the tiger is the one to watch. It's so hot right now. I'm certainly feline it. IT. IS.  FIEEEEERCE. OMG.

I guess it was inevitable that tiger would be the last logical character in the animal-print hall of fame. Probably something to do with the food chain. It's gobbled up all the other animals that had their day in the sun and now it intends to lie around our necks, fat and happy in a post-carnivorous langour all summer long.

What's that you say Mr. Tiger? 'Have I got a problem with that?'

Oh, no. Not at all. Jump aboard.

Very Lightweight Hot Pink and Black Tiger Print Scarf

100% Cashmere

£165

 Very Lightweight Two-Tone Neutral Tiger Print Scarf

100% Cashmere

£165

Secretly, when everyone else is going 'when will it ever stop' and 'this is relentless' and 'this is the worst I've ever known it to be' (worth noting here that 'they' aren't talking about my deft conversational skills but rather the recent bad weather) I am on the thrilled side of happy.

'Why [you lunatic]?', you might ask. Because, I might reply, I have these heavenly cashmere mittens

So delightful are they that after writing this entry I plan to write to the Oxford English Dictionary about the worthiness of renaming mittens 'smittens', purely as an economical measure to stop those (i.e. me) who possess them from gushing endlessly about them, thus absenteeing themselves from productive work by writing to the OED and therefore doing NOTHING about our staggering budget deficit. 

London Fashion Week is in full-throttle, so we thought we'd get stuck in to some straight-up fashion talk. We are no strangers to the formula of fashion magazines; Grazia, Stella, Style, InStyle and our (obvious) favourite, Vogue. And all the blogs. And the tweets. And Facebook updates. It's fair to say that we have been driven to this. It is brilliantly infectious.

So, we (and by 'we' I mean 'I' - we are not yet a steaming juggernaut and there is no squadron of FashEds behind this facade...but 'we' will keep saying 'we' because it makes 'us' feel authoritative) came up with little, er, 'carefully edited' selections of accessories that we think go BRILLIANTLY together and that we have of course worn out and about and have road-tested, on the street, in the dales, underwater to insure against guffawing, sniggers or shrieks of 'what the HELL is she thinking??!!!'

'Our' favourite selection is this:

We would ask what your favourite collection is if we thought we would get an answer, but you need look only to our Facebook page for the probability of that.

Here are some words most of us don’t hear often hear:

 

Some called me insane. Some called me a maverick. Some had better things to do with their time.

 

 Black.co.uk Ladies' Leather Driving Gloves featured in this weekend's Times Magazine. £38. Take a closer look.