Cheers!

Merry Mary

For those of you stateside a heads-up that Mary Portas is someone we need. I've written about her before. In a retail/fashion manner she is the British equivalent of a tough-love Oprah Winfrey. She has taken on saving the "high street" (Brit for "main street")— independent retailers falling to the wayside due to Big Box stores and shopping malls—, has revamped the tatty image of charity thrift shops, critiqued fashion retailers from Asos to Zara and put the money where her mouth is by opening her own boutiques within House of Fraser department stores.

With all this activity she still manages to hit the nail on the head succinctly, as in this 10-minute cocktail for getting ready for the day:

If life is a cabaret, what better than the image of a fashion cocktail? And in case you can't decipher the ingredients, here they are:

THE MARY COCKTAIL

We all have crazy days where everything flies out of our brains and we can barely remember our names, let alone how to p[ut an outfit together. This is where the Pret-a-Portas Cocktail comes in. When you need to be up and out of the door in 10 minutes, with a mere five minutes to spare on clothes, this is the moment to think: "Cocktail".

ONE PART SIMPLE CHIC

Behind every great outfit is your simple chic foundation

CLEAN MODERN LINES that FIT & FLATTER.

my NO-BRAINER DRESS is a perfect example

ONE PART EDGE

Here's where you add your FASHION UPDATE with a SHOT of the SEASON'S COLOUR or a

 NOD TO THE TRENDS

DECORATE

this is where you go to

TOWN & add YOUR PERSONAL TOUCH

with your favourite jewellery AND ACCESSORIES

Kate White, now that you are no longer Editor-in-Chief at Cosmo— are you up to the job?

You wouldn't even have to change your hair