Suzanne's Tips and Tales

Unique Christmas gift

How about this for an undeniably different gift this Christmas…

A Gift Voucher for a personal stylist could change someone’s life…

 It’s a truly special gift and ideal for clubbing together with friends and family.

 Top 3 reasons why it will work

1. Shopping is easy - you don’t have to think about it. It’s perfect for Christmas  - just give me a call and I’ll sort the rest for you.
2. It doesn’t collect dust and will win you serious brownie points for being so unique. 
3. The love of your life – mum, spouse, partner, secretary, sister, aunt (you get the picture) will think that you’ve been really thoughtful and LOVE you for it.

 Prices from £35 for a place on a Workshop or £45 for a one-to-one consultation.

 Call me, Suzanne Jaya on 07833 780006 or email suzanne@suzannejaya.com

 NOTE: Last postal dates are less than two weeks away

 

Posted by Suzanne on 5th Dec 2011

The Purple Poppadom

Normally I talk about colour analysis and colour consultations - today it's about purple poppadoms, or to be more precise the Purple Poppadom restaurant in Cardiff.

Okay, so this is an entry about food really but I love the colour purple so it seemed apt.  Anyway,  who says that fashion and food shouldn’t go hand-in-hand and who said style was all about clothes. Believe me I’ve seen food done without style, never mind the normal things we associate with style such as hair, interior design, gardens, and oh yes, clothes again. Style is Style – whatever the subject matter.

So for today, I’m going to blog about food and try to draw parallels with fashion. When someone has ‘style’ we don’t just mean what they wear, it’s more than that – the subtle things like demeanour or the way they gesticulate or smile or do something thoughtful when we’re ill or feeling down. 

After clothes, I think restaurants and food rate next on my ‘Styleometer’. The most stylish restaurants are NOT necessarily those with the most expensive interior design nor the ones where you can’t get a table for love, or can’t afford the menu. I’ve seen women and men wearing top-end designer labels, yet all the other elements of style were missing – you know, nice manners, shiny shoes, positive body language, so price really isn’t the issue here.

Back to food.  To my mind there are some essential ingredients that are pre-requisite to a ‘stylish’ restaurant.

• Recipes and dishes that are conceived and prepared with LOVE.

• Passion and genuine desire to serve.

• Friendly, efficient and knowledgeable staff.

• A strong ethos and core values with a distinct brand.

• Quality food ingredients.

• Good presentation.

• Remembering their regular customers.

It doesn’t matter if the restaurant in question is a burger bar, a greasy spoon or a fine dining experience – the essential ingredients need to exist to provide genuine value for money, irrespective of price. If a portion of chips and curry sauce from the takeaway isn’t just how I like it then that represents poor value for money even if it did cost only £2.

Scoring high on my restaurant Styleometer this week is the Purple Poppadom in Cardiff. Today marks its official opening and I attended the launch event on Friday. Based on that experience and having dined at its former incarnation at a previous location, I am predicting that The Purple Poppadom will exude its own level of style – friendly, knowledgeable front-of-house staff, great chefs, fabulous, authentic and inventive food. Owner and chef, Anand George cares enough about all his customers to go the extra mile to serve and please them.

He has an unrivalled passion for what he does; he is polite with the right balance of entrepreneurial spirit combined with humility and bashfulness about his craft (a rarity with chefs – just look at the TV) and he has a team of staff and customers who have been loyal to him for years – to the point where they have followed him from one restaurant to this newly opened venture in Cardiff. His demeanour and core values filters down through the ranks.

For anyone who experienced his last success story at the Mint & Mustard in Cardiff, then it comes as no surprise that the M&M founder Chef Anand George has moved on – he needs no introduction to his followers.

But for anyone yet to discover him – get there quick before you can’t get a table for love nor money. With a string of awards, this man means business and his sole aim is to redefine Indian cuisine and cook up a real treat.  The ingredients are fresh – not like the curry houses where you find the same sauce just tweaked and poured over some meat or vegetables. No, this is proper Indian food at its finest, freshly cooked to order, delicately spiced and flavoured, ingeniously conceived and presented by genuinely happy people.

What do I know? Well, I’m Anglo-Indian, grew up eating spicy food from about the age of four (I even add chilli powder to Baked Beans) and I love Southern Indian cuisine especially. The Purple Poppadom ticks all the right boxes and I only wish my Bangalorean father was still alive to experience it – he’d have loved Chef Anand George and more to the point the food, especially the veggie dishes.

Oh and by the way – when it comes to what to wear there – pretty much anything goes!  I wore purple – but it’s certainly not compulsory!

Follow them on Twitter and check out the reviews – their website comes soon.

 

 

 

Posted by Suzanne on 5th Dec 2011

Heart to Heart

Grab a cuppa, because you and me are going to have a little chat. I might sound a bit evangelical, but do you know - when the chips are down and I'm having a really bad day I remind myself of some of my personal triumphs and I can guarantee that it pulls me up sharp and I stop feelintg sorry for myself - just found this article which I'd like to share with visitors to this site. 

Times can be really tough with my health - I'm stuck with the 'condition'  for life along with the pills and potions that keep the blood circulating and the ticker in working order. In the main I grit my teeth and get on with it.  It's why I like helping other people to reach their full potential.  During the periods when I feel and look really bad I retreat, take cover and rest in order to recover.  The Patient Association GUCH (Grown-up Congenital Heart) has helped me get to where I am now,  so if anyone knows any young person with congenital heart disease then do pass their details on.

Sometimes we don't see what's going on behind the gloss - the nice clothes and lippie.  What great amunition we women have. Yesterday morning I was on the road at 5.30am - I felt privileged to see the dawn sun rise - usually I'm in bed.  You really know that you're alive when you wake that early and tiptoe out the door to a quiet street.  While others slumbered, I experienced 'newness'.  Indescribable, so I won't try. Today is a good day, tomorrow could be so-so or dreadful - who knows, but all we can do is wake up, marvel at the wonder of nature and the world and be thankful we've woken to a brand new day x

 http://www.guch.org.uk

 

 

Posted by Suzanne on 8th Aug 2011

Who's the best dressed 'real' man in Wales?

Now which one do you fancy in style terms?  Are these the best dressed and most stylish 'real' men in Britain or do you know someone else?  If so, do send me a picture and we could run our very own competition for the most well dressed 'real' man in Wales.

http://fashion.telegraph.co.uk/galleries/TMG8680898/Are-these-Britains-best-dressed-real-men.html

If you want to know my favourites - one of them is in the pic above - good posture, the right mix of attitude and edge for my age, nice combination of textures, his sleeves are long enough and he doesn't look like he's wearing his ill-fitting school uniform. Sorry fellas, but in some of the pics,  the clothes are definitely wearing the man!

Posted by Suzanne on 4th Aug 2011

Fashion Blog : Trend Alert - Maxi Mayhem

 Don’t wait til next year to find out if your current season’s maxi dress is a hit or a miss.  All the trend predictions for Spring/Summer 2012 (yes, we are looking that far ahead) look set to make it a winner.

The resurgence of the maxi dress during the past three years (prior to that, not seen since the 1970’s) has made it a ‘classic’, i.e. it’s been around for so many seasons that it’s become a staple piece in the wardrobes of many a stylish and canny woman. 

Ignore the men who prefer their women in shorter lengths, based on the fact they think them too floaty, bohemian and an unnecessary volume of fabric!  Actually gentlemen, 2012 looks set to bring us the ‘sheer’ maxi length – yes you can see through it!

WE women know that maxis are great pieces that take us from day to night with minimal fuss.  They are great on ‘fat days’, can look stylish with a little cardigan or textured knit or with a tailored jacket and flat sandals or flipflops.  In fact very little needs to be done except put it on. Fab for the beach, cocktails by the pool or lounging around the house.

And the good news is, even if you’re sick and tired of wearing it, then just chop a bit off the bottom (professionally hemmed of course) and turn it into the ‘new’ length Midi for next’s summer coolest looks – how can you possibly go wrong?

Posted by Suzanne on 3rd Aug 2011

Wardrobe Workout Part I

Have you noticed that the light is changing now – the sun is lower in the sky, it gets lighter later in the morning and there is that August haziness that prepares us for the mists and mellow fruitfulness of September harvest. 

Now if all that sounds a bit too poetic then I’ll change tack – listen up… this is the time to be sorting out your tights and socks drawer and dusting down your winter woollies.  Trust me – you will thank me when it gets cooler, when the new season’s fashions shove the last of the summer sale items out of the stores and you need to keep your legs warm in the autumn mornings.  What’s more when you return from your summer holiday most of the hard work will be done for you.

This morning I couldn’t sleep, on account of the changing light and my changing body clock, so instead I sorted my ‘smalls’ drawers – gone are the tights and socks with holes, they have been washed, defluffed – that’s what walking on a white carpet does to the soles of black opaque tights!

Tomorrow I’ll start on my wardrobe – debobbling woollies and washing them by hand and getting coats dry cleaned.  Just for info some dry cleaning shops offer money-off incentives if you get your winter clothes cleaned NOW!!

What are you waiting for?

Posted by Suzanne on 3rd Aug 2011

Beach style for women

The picture says it all.

Posted by Suzanne on 28th Jul 2011

Beach Style

A bikini is a bikini and trunks are trunks – it’s hot and sunny and they do the job.  The solution when it comes to looking stylish on the beach is one simple rule – MORE is MORE - rather than les of it (yes I know it’s hot) - this is the dilemma we have when it’s not quite hot enough to strip off, or when en route to the beach or sitting in a beach cafe – that’s where most people get it wrong.  Keep it simple and fresh and of good quality and reserve the tat and the itsy bitsy Speedos for the back garden!

Posted by Suzanne on 28th Jul 2011

Beach Style - the Do's and Don'ts

Another trip to the beach in Wales!  Another day of style and wardrobe horrors! Trust me, I’m no Ursula Andress when it comes to raising the temperature on the sea shore, but I do go prepared with a reasonably stylish variety of layers to take off or put on.   

One does not just happen to find themselves on the beach on a hot day – especially one that can only be accessed by car and after a certain amount of forethought has gone into the said road trip.

So tell me, why did I have to do a double take when I saw a chap – a dad I hasten to add wearing his underpants – well they looked like it, either that or very old pair of 1970’s swimming trunks that leave nothing to the imagination.  Anyway, I digress, so he’s armed with a fishing net, a dull grey t-shirt, his underpants – only part of which was visible under his t-shirt – and the wrong part!.  He was untanned and he wore….wait for it, black socks and white daps (daps are a Welsh and West Country term for pumps or plimsolls – not trainers - they are DIFFERENT). 

Maybe he burns easily and wants to avoid sun damage – granted, but I didn’t get why he was prepared to show the briefest of pants to expose his pale legs, yet cover his feet up.  Anyway, the mind boggles.

I wanted to take a photograph and post it on here, but I respect privacy and as much as I sound like I’m poking fun – fashion is my job and I hate the fact that we are judged by what we wear (but there you have it).  I’m also mindful of the fact we’re in a recession and …this is the most important bit for anyone who buys clothes for the sake of it – He and his sons were happy having fun on a UK beach, taking time off school and work and just praising the lord for giving us a sunny day.  Nothing offensive about that – just pure simplistic enjoyment. We should all try it more often and not give two hoots to who thinks what about us.

Posted by Suzanne on 28th Jul 2011

Ssh - I know something you are about to know

I have two choices for the month of August – rummage for bargain summer sale items or get a sneaky look at what’s ahead for Autumn.  Much as it pains me to look at or even touch woollies – and the mere thought of donning a pair of boots makes my hair stand on end – and it’s curly enough already… I have to say that there is some appeal about Autumn/Winter clothes. Maybe it’s the texture and the glamour and the cosiness of it all, but I’ve set my sights on saving up for some Lauren Vidal pieces from Ushi’s in Cowbridge and Cardiff - I wore my pieces from last year to death.  I love the knitwear and so will you – they’re hitting the boutique very soon so tell them I told you.

Posted by Suzanne on 27th Jul 2011