As I noted in my recent post about Austin's speciality coffee scene, I'd never been to Texas before this year and was pleased to have to opportunity to visit the state capital as part of a trip for work. 

I'm off on my travels again, this time on a work trip that will take me Washington, DC, for a few days before crossing the country to San Jose, California, for a conference.

Welcome to the first part of my annual Christmas gift guides. Yes, it's almost Christmas time, but there's no need to be afraid. Today's guide is for the female section of your gift list: I've selected ten gift ideas from a range of different categories, from beauty to homewares. Most are under £50, although two are slightly more expensive. Tune in next week for help finding the perfect present for the guys in your life, and for the final instalment of this year's series, which focuses on £15-and-under stocking fillers and Secret Santa gifts. So, without further ado, here are my picks:

My little brother is getting married this weekend. Technically, he is already married, but this time they are having a big ceremony and I will be attending in person rather than via Skype. I'm flying to Vancouver with my parents and we will spend a few days there before heading to Saskatoon — the Paris of the Prairies — for the wedding. It's been almost seven years since my last trip to Canada and I'm really looking forward to it. Here's what I've packed.

Part of the reason I took a slightly bigger than cabin-approved suitcase to Japan was so that I could indulge in a little retail therapy if the mood took me. I was particularly looking forward to a) the stationery and b) the weird and wonderful 'only in Japan' type items. Here are a few of my favourite places.

For my birthday last year, a group of my friends bought me a six-month subscription to Not Another Bill and I couldn't have been happier. I had come across the company a number of times before, including at DesignJunction, and loved the concept but it had always felt that bit too indulgent to treat myself to a subscription so I was delighted that my friends decided to treat me instead.


The idea is simple: you (or your friends/family/loved ones) select at least three categories from a list that includes jewellery, homewares and crafts, and you will receive a surprise present in the post once per month. The gifts are always immaculately packaged, and include a personalised message that tells you a bit more about your present and the brand; sometimes you even get a discount to use on other products from the company. You can also provide details about your working schedule so they know when to dispatch the package to minimise the pain of trips to the post office.

So far, I've received five of my six gifts and I've really liked them all. They are all things I would have chosen for myself and, in fact, I did almost buy one of them — the Ham screen prints — at DesignJunction. Based on the presents I've been sent so far, it seems that my friends selected stationery, jewellery and art as my categories, which is, of course, what I would have chosen for myself.

My first gift was the Hay plissé accordion folder from one of my favourite Scandi brands. It was in a cute mint green colour and perfect for someone who likes Scandi style and organisation as much as I do!



Gift number two was a gold wishbone ring from Astrid & Miyu (astrid in Swedish and miyu in Japanese both mean 'beautiful'). I recently rediscovered a wishbone ring that my grandparents gave me when I was ten, but sadly lost it when I went bouldering, so I was really pleased to get a replacement. The ring is adjustable and super-stylish.



The third gift was the screen prints from Ham that I mentioned above. I love bunnies and I love the playful, minimalist style of these prints, so I framed two of the three in the set and hung them in the hallway of my flat.



Sticking with the arty theme, my fourth present was a small, quirkily shaped mirror from Haidée Drew. I've been wanting a small mirror for my hallway for those last-minute checks before leaving the house, and this fitted perfectly next to my blackboard. Unfortunately, it arrived a few days too late for the selfie competition my company was running!


My fifth and penultimate gift was another piece of jewellery, this time a cute bracelet called 'Nine Lives' from designer Susannah Fairley. The bracelet has nine tiny gold hearts —if you like, you can make a wish against each one, and when the bracelet falls off they will come true. I hope mine won't fall off for a while, though, because I like wearing it!




I still have one gift to come and I'm thinking about extending my subscription by a few months. Not Another Bill isn't cheap (prices start at £60 for a three-month sub), but the gifts are immaculately curated and really good quality and, as I said before, I've loved every one. Compared to a beauty box subscription, say, which will set you back £12 each month and will likely be filled with samples you either don't like or won't use, Not Another Bill is much better value. It's also a great way to discover new designers. The presents you receive will often be limited-edition collaborations between the designer and Not Another Bill and if you like what you see, there are plenty of other products to explore.

If you've heard about Not Another Bill before and weren't sure whether or not to take the plunge, I'd highly recommend it, both as a gift and as a 'gift to self'.

Last week, I revealed my Christmas gift picks for girls and for guys. Today it's time for my suggestions for stocking fillers and those often tricky Secret Santa presents. The price limit for all of these items is £15, but a few are under £10, in case your budget is a little tighter.

Stationery
1. Map and planner notebooks from Present & Correct. £7.50 each. I am a huge stationery geek, and thought that this pair of notebooks was really cool. One lets you plan out your week, simply and stylishly, while the other is divided into a grid section, where you can sketch out a map, and a section to mark in your itinerary. Yes, you could just use your Google Maps app, but there is something visually and nostalgically appealing about this low-tech option.


2. Pair of stripy notebooks from Quill London. £8.50. Quill London has great stationery and this pair of notebooks — one pale green, one pastel pink, both with metallic gold stripes on the cover — will look good on any desk or in any handbag.

3. Know-it-all pencils from Present & Correct. £11.75. I really liked this bright pink pencil set from Austique, but they were over my budget, so instead I'm recommending Present & Correct's know-it-all pencils, each of which highlights a useful fact. Perfect for the person with an answer for everything — or for the pub-quiz goer.

Food & drink
4. Custom-designed liqueurs from Alchemist Dreams. From £15. Alchemist Dreams lets you create your own liquer by selecting a combination of fruit flavours, herbs and spices. If you're uncertain, you can either pick one of their house blends or write a description of the recipient in a box and the Alchemists will seek inspiration from your words. You can also customise the labels, so this is a great personalised gift. A 200 ml bottle of your custom liqueur is £15.


5. Two-bag subscription to Pact Coffee. £13.90. I've sounded the praises on this blog before about Pact, a coffee subscription service that sends you a custom-selected bag of really good quality coffee for £6.95. As the coffee will usually arrive the next day, it's pretty convenient, and although I have a lot of other places to buy good coffee beans nearby, Pact does offer a great service. They will grind the beans for you, if you don't have a grinder, and their packs fit through most letter boxes (sadly not mine).

6. Clever Coffee Dripper from Clinton Coffee Company. £14.50. If the coffee lover in your life wants to take the next step towards coffee geekery, but isn't quite ready for an Aeropress, the coffee dripper could be a good choice. It makes a really good cup of filter coffee in three minutes — just add a paper filter, your coffee and some just-off-the-boil water, which filters through perfectly thanks to the ridged surface of the dripper. It will make an ever better cup of coffee if you use coffee from Pact, rather than a pre-packaged bag from your supermarket.

7. Christmassy treats from Hope & Greenwood: North Pole Party caramel-filled chocolates (£4.99) and Christmas Sweets Shaker (£6.99)*. In my family, no Christmas stocking is complete without a sweet treat (or five), and Hope & Greenwood have a great seasonal offering this year. The chocolate caramels are shaped like snowmen and Father Christmases, and the sweets in the shaker add a touch of retro that will go down well with the whole family: flying saucers, sugar mice, candy canes...well, you get the idea.


Accessories
8. Geometric leather purse from Luna & Curious. £14. A sleek, 10-by-15-cm leather purse with an embossed, geometric design. It comes in a range of colours: turquoise is my favourite, but the navy is also nice.

9. Happy Socks from Selfridges. £8. I like the idea of having socks in a Christmas stocking, and Happy Socks does have some lovely designs. Two pairs of socks in cute navy-and-red designs: one pair with big dots, the other with a contrasting toe and heel.

10. Arne Jabcobsen letter cup from Heal's. £13. I picked up one of these handle-less cups with the iconic, capital-letter design a few months ago, and use it to keep the pens on my stationery shelf in order. You could use it as a mug too, of course, as long as you weren't drinking anything too hot. You could also buy a few and spell out a word or a set of initials.


* I was sent these Hope & Greenwood products to try. The opinions stated here are, as always, honest and my own.

Welcome to the first post in the 2013 edition of my annual Christmas gift guides. Today I'll be highlighting ten gift ideas for the girls on your gift list. Most of these items are under £50, but if your budget is a little tighter, check out my Stocking Fillers and Secret Santa guide. Or, if you have some extra pennies this year, some of the items in my gift guide for guys would work equally well for the ladies in your life. And if you need more inspiration, Selfridges has just released its annual Christmas discount voucher, which gets you 20% off almost everything in store and online from tomorrow until Sunday. Now, onto my selections.

Clothes and accessories
1. Kate Spade pop-top gloves from Selfridges (or the UK Kate Spade stores). £45. At this time of year, it's nice to have a pair of gloves that combines flexibility and style, and it's easy to convert these fingerless gloves into mittens when the threatened Big Freeze hits. I think the monochrome colourway is the chicest, but if you're into clashing, go for the pink and red combo.

Kate Spade pop-top gloves. Image from: Kate Spade

2. Medium zip pouch from Fossil. £49. Speaking of once-verboten colour combinations, I love Fossil's range of blue-and-green accessories. This leather zip pouch will fit an iPad Mini or most of your other necessities. The tote bag and clutch are cute too.

3. Cheek Thrills neon vest and knickers set from Austique. £35. I'm somewhat biased because turquoise and pink are my favourite colours and because I can never resist a good pun, but I think this lace-trimmed underwear set is great: cute and comfortable.

4. ThoughtBlossoms gold initial necklace from Etsy. $35 (about £22). I'm a sucker for pretty much anything with initials on, and these delicate gold necklaces definitely fit the bill. You can personalise the charm with one to three characters or a design stamp. F-A-B.

Home
5. Mean Girls poster from Print Club London. £40. In case you're one of the few people who can't quote along with the script of Mean Girls, this screen-printed poster, produced for Somerset House's 2013 Summer Screen season, will help you out. It's pink, but not saccharine. Just stop trying to make fetch happen, OK?

Mean Girls poster from Print Club London.

6. Le Livre 2014 diary from Present & Correct. £17.50. The polar opposite of item #5 on the decorum stakes, this week-to-view diary is très chic indeed. In fact, it's designed to look just like the novels published by the iconic Gallimard publishing house. The Present & Correct website is filled with beautiful and useful stationery, writing and organisation products, so it would be hard to go wrong gift-wise.

7. Three-bunch subscription to Bloom & Wild flower delivery service. From £40. Everyone loves to get nice things in the post and Bloom & Wild will send out a beautifully arranged posy of long-lasting flowers, carefully packed and preserved in a box small enough to fit through most letter boxes. For £40, your recipient will get three "bright & wild" boxes (you can choose how often you would like them delivered); larger, more indulgent options are also available.

8. Six Damien Hirst anamorphic espresso cups from Other Criteria. £85. I love this set of bold, colourful saucers that reflect their designs onto the plain, mirrored surface of the matching cups. You can also buy an individual cup-and-saucer set for £15 if you already have too many espresso cups in your life. Not that I'm projecting.

Damien Hirst anamorphic espresso cup set from Other Criteria.

Beauty
9. Laura Mercier Tarte au Citron travel set from Selfridges. £30. Laura Mercier does great gift sets, and her body products always smell good enough to eat. This luxurious lemon-tart scented set contains a body wash, body butter, hand cream and fragrance. You could also split the set into four smaller gifts or stocking fillers.

10. Dangerous Nail Files from the Conran Shop. £19.95. This set of three nail files, shaped like a gun, a meat cleaver and a chainsaw, would probably make a good companion piece for the Mean Girls poster, or for a copy of cognitive linguist George Lakoff's classic text, Women, Fire & Dangerous Things. They're a little bit girly and a lot tough.

Dangerous Nail Files from the Conran Shop.

When on Monday I received an email from J. Crew, I almost ignored it, but then I spotted the words "pop-up shop" and "King's Cross." Yes, that's right: the mailing was inviting us to preview J. Crew's autumn/winter 2013 collection at a concept store, which is being held in collaboration with Central Saint Martins, an art school with a branch round the back of King's Cross station (next to Caravan and the canal, and just across the road from KERB). The shop was open yesterday and it's also there today until 5 pm.

Follow the arrows to J. Crew

J. Crew men's collection autumn/winter 2013

Yes, it's that time of year again. As the Selfridges pre-Christmas 20% off voucher is already out and as pre-Black Friday shopping madness will be commencing over the pond later today, I figured it was time to bring out the first in my 2012 series of Christmas gift guides. This edition contains my present suggestions for the ladies in your life. I tried to keep the price-tags around the £50 mark, and some more wallet-friendly girlie goodies will be featured in my forthcoming Stocking Fillers and Secret Santa gift guide. And looking for a present for a guy? My picks are here.

Jewellery and accessories
1. Floral electricity scarf from Anthropologie. £44. Cheerful and stylish, this modal scarf adds the perfect pop of colour to a neutral winter outfit. I like the way you can highlight different colour combinations depending on how you wrap it. My first choice of scarf was this one from KJ's Laundry, which is really quite different, but I realised I included a starry scarf in last year's list too, so I went with the Anthro option.

Anthro's floral electricity scarf

2. USB ring from Kate Spade. $50 (not available online in the UK, although it should be in stores.) I know I'm a geek, but how cute is this ring? Beautiful...check. Useful...check. Plus, Kate Spade's packaging is even prettier during the festive season.

3. Mellis necklace from Dowse. £22.50. Dowse have a range of simple and elegant but inexpensive necklaces. I went for the geometric honeycomb, of course, but this playful ice lolly design is fun too.

Mellis necklace from Dowse

4. Cashmere wrist warmers from Highgrove (also available in Selfridges). £25. It's not like I'm the Prince of Wales's biggest fan, but I sure do like my wrist warmers. My office is very drafty, so I usually carry a pair with me from about October to April. I usually buy them from Brora but I saw a purple pair of Highgrove's in Selfridges and couldn't resist, especially as they are £10 cheaper than Brora. The pink colour are cute too.

Beauty
5. Laura Mercier La Petite Patisserie Quartet, Crème de Pistache, from John Lewis. £25. Laura Mercier's body and bath products feel gorgeous and decadent and smell even better. This travel set includes a cream body wash, soufflé body cream, hand cream and Eau Gourmande, which all have a rich, delicious nutty fragrance.

6. MAC Fabulousness: 5 Neutral Eyes palette from House of Fraser. £32. For the make-up maniac in your life, this would make a great gift. You get five very wearable eye shadows that are perfect for both holiday party and everyday looks. The packaging is cute too. Other colour-ways, including warm and smoky, are also available.

MAC Fabulousness: 5 neutral eyes palette

7. Voucher for the Selfridges Beauty Workshop. Selfridges launched their new Beauty Workshop earlier this year and one of its selling points is the wide range of treatments they offer. With manicures from £19 and facials from £25, you could just buy a Selfridges gift voucher and make up a nice gift card with a treatment menu and let her pick her own treat.

Etc.
8. Mini "Blessing of Rain" folding stormproof umbrella from Senz°. £44.95. It's unfair to say that umbrellas make boring gifts when they can be as stylish and functional as this little baby, which has an aerodynamic, wind-resistant design, and is asymetrical, placing more emphasis on canopy length than width.

Senz's mini folding umbrella in "Blessing of Rain"

9. Limpet multicoloured coat hooks from Made. £19. Made is a great company that sells high-quality design homewares at a reduced price, which they can offer because they work directly with the designers, commissioning the manufacture only of products that have been ordered. There are great savings to be had and these cute, playful coat hooks are one of the more affordable items on the website.

10. Workshops from Make Lounge. Based in Islington, Make Lounge hosts a whole range of crafty workshops. A lot of them are priced around the £50 mark, so your lucky lady could make her own luxury chocolates, luxury skincare products or a leather-lined purse, for instance.

Bonus: This year, it seems that advent calendars for adults are the new Christmas gifts. I didn't include any of these in my guide, because you would probably want to hand over the calendar before Christmas, but I thought these were interesting ideas. For £38, Ciaté's Mini Mani Month will give you a mini nail polish a day. For a more varied selection, YOU Magazine and Latest in Beauty are selling a Beauty Advent Calendar for £59, which contains products worth over £200 from a range of high-end beauty brands.

The most dangerous part of US branches of Sephora for anyone on a budget is the little display they have near the cash registers with a selection of their top-selling products, from a range of different skincare, haircare and make-up brands, often in travel sizes--most things under $20. You might be able to talk yourself out of buying a $38 Philosophy moisturizer, but what's the harm in a little $10 travel-size version?

Following a similar principle, Selfridges have recently opened the Beauty Workshop, taking over a 5,000-square-foot section of the floor previously occupied by posh stationery and smart leather goods. According to the Jayne Demuro, Selfridges Head of Beauty, in the Selfridges style blog: “For years Selfridges Oxford Street has been THE most successful Beauty Hall in the world. Selfridges revolutionized the way the world retailed beauty, by placing the department at the front of the store. With this retailing innovation in our DNA, we are always striving to bring extraordinary new experiences to our customers.”

L: TopShop nail varnishes. R: Assorted beauty goodies.

It's an epigenetic beauty revolution, don'tcha know! If you want to shop by brand, you can go to the existing beauty hall, which looks like a typical department store beauty hall. There are also areas for certain brands within the Beauty Workshop, but things are a little more mashed up. I was very tempted by the Sephora-like displays filled with small beauty products and gadgets from a range of brands, including a number of foreign and less well-known companies. Things that caught my eye included the new limited edition Pink Bubbly Vaseline, a lip balm by TokyoMilk and a ball of sparkly hairbands (not pictured).

L: OCC lip tars. R: Bumble & Bumble (top) and Paul & Joe (bottom)

Elsewhere in the Beauty Workshop, there is a decent-sized TopShop counter with a particularly good nail varnish collection, a gorgeous Paul & Joe counter (their make-up and make-up bags are so beautifully packaged that they would make excellent gifts) and a new and improved Bumble & Bumble counter. The latter stocks a number of travel-size products, so I might finally be able to give their Surf Spray a try--now that summer is ending, of course. They also stock Obsessive Compulsive Cosmetics, a vegan and cruelty-free brand from New York. Some of their lip tars and eye shadows are a little scary in colour but they certainly are eye-catching.

All in a day's work at the Beauty Workshop

But the Beauty Workshop isn't just about shopping. You can have all manner of beauty services, from brow-threading and blow dries, to manicures and tanning at the St Tropez booth (which "promises ultimate privacy while allowing you to tan at your convenience"). Sure, lots of department stores offer these kinds of services but the new, roomy Beauty Workshop feels a lot less crowded and a lot more luxurious than some of its older rivals. As London Fashion Week is on at the moment, there were lots of fashion types and a fair few fashion bloggers checking it out this afternoon, making it feel like a cool place to shop, as well as a fun one.

Last year, I went to London Fashion's Night Out for the first time. I had a good time, bought a few things and got quite a few freebies but my fun was somewhat curtailed by my pre-New York shopping restriction and my inability to drink. This year, I didn't have any such restraints and I brought a two friends along for the ride. We took a similar route to the one I took last year--starting at Kate Spade in Covent Garden and then working over to Regent Street and Oxford Street. I had such a hectic day at work that I didn't really have time to look on the FNO website to find out the best freebies and experiences on offer and being with other people meant I was bolder when it came to asking for things but that we took longer to move around and by the time we reached Oxford Street, soon after 9 pm, things had started to shut down.

C-wise from top left: Chanel vending machine, Juicy Couture cocktails, ice cream at Kate Spade, Bailey's hot choc, scarf styling at Liberty.

We still had a great time, but most of the freebies we acquired were of the liquid nature--plenty of glasses of prosecco, assorted cocktails, a Bailey's-spiked hot chocolate with marshmallows at a Ralph Lauren Rugby-style men's clothes store and even a refreshing OJ. We nabbed an ice cream at Kate Spade but were a little disappointed to find that the fish and chips on offer at Ted Baker were actually made of chocolate! I also picked up a few beauty and fragrance samples from places like Sanctuary Spa and Juicy Couture (NB I wouldn't normally enter Juicy, but they were handing out Cosmopolitans).

I didn't buy very much tonight. First, there was a grammar geek's dream pair of earrings from Kate Spade--well, I would have preferred a semicolon and an em rule, but I thought a question mark and an exclamation mark were pretty cool too. The 20% discount didn't hurt either. In Anthro, apparently if you arrived early enough and were willing to donate enough money, you could have the opportunity to marble your own custom scarf--with expert guidance, of course--but I had to settle for a glass of Prosecco and a pre-made scarf. The one I picked up was in a pretty, deep teal with white dots. I thought it was fairly good value at £38 (minus the 20% discount) but it actually came with another scarf in a shimmery silvery colour. I don't wear much silver but it might be nice for glamming up an outfit for the evening; plus the two scarves look good when they are wrapped together and worn as a pair. I also got a free Anthro tote with my purchase. I was almost tempted by the petite black trench coat in Banana Republic, but they weren't doing discounts and I'm pretty sure that if I'm patient enough, I can get it for cheaper than £125.

My Anthro scarves, Kate Spade earrings and assorted freebies

I spotted a couple of other fun things. At the new Chanel beauty store in Covent Garden, we saw people queuing up in front of these Chanel "vending machines," which were offering the brand's new "Twin-Sets" in which you get a nail varnish and co-ordinated lipstick in seasonal colours. People were coming out of the store with giant tokens, which they were putting into the machine, before receiving a mini Chanel bag, and we hoped (foolishly, of course) they might be free, but sadly, they were full price, so we gave it a miss. We also just missed out on getting a free manicure and styling session at Liberty, unfortunately.

I will definitely go to FNO again next year, and I think I have converted my two friends. Next year, unless work gets crazy again, I will try to do a little more research and plan ahead, to avoid missing out on some really cool things.

I've always been a big-bag kind of girl, which is why I love my Mulberry Mitzy so much: it allows me to tote all of my worldly goods around with me. Earlier in the year, though, I fell for Rebecca Minkoff's Mini MAC and I bought it in black with gold hardware when I was in New York. I've had to make a few adjustments as to the things I carry around with me when I'm using it, especially if I'm wearing it to work, but to my surprise, I can fit most of the essentials inside.

Rebecca Minkoff Mini MAC

My standard contents are: my iPhone and earphones, a hairband, umbrella (swapped with my sunglasses on the rare occasions when the English weather behaves), a Fizbag fold-up tote, Soap & Glory hand cream, Longchamp purse, ibuprofen, chewing gum, keys, a pen and my Maybelline Baby Lips lip balm. I can also fit either my camera or a 250 ml squeezy bottle of water (not pictured). The fold-up tote is essential because the rest of these items leave no room for a cardigan, scarf or shopping, and I have to use the Longchamp purse because my usual Mulberry wallet and Oyster card holder won't fit. Another sacrifice I've had to make is carrying around a book. If I'm going into the office, I will either carry a book or make sure I have an e-book on my iPhone. Now that the Olympics have started in London, I've been walking to and from work a lot more often, which means less time for reading on the go, anyway.

Getting full

I've really got used to convenience of the hands-free Mini MAC. I love the versatility of the bag: it hits me at a good length wearing it either cross-body or on my shoulder and you can also double up the straps if you want a more traditional shoulder bag. I may struggle to fit everything in once winter starts drawing near and I will need to bring a scarf, gloves and a hat with me, but it's a great bag for spring and summer.

I can fit all of this (and a little more)

On a related note, walking through Selfridges yesterday, I spotted a series of "urban survival kits" they have put together for the summer season. My favourite, of course, was Emma Hill's Mulberry bag. For a mere £1,500, you get an Alexa-style backpack, card holder, coin purse, scarf, brolly, sweeties, keyring and Wallpaper London guide. The Kiehl's and Anya Hindmarch bags are slightly more reasonably priced.

Selfridges' Mulberry urban survival kit

Fifty Shades of Grey might be the talk of the town, but most of my favourite New York shops seemed to be filled with fifty shades of every colour apart from grey. I love bright colours, so I was very happy. I didn't find much in my usual favourite store, J. Crew, although I picked up a pair of blue shorts (pictured below), which I wanted to buy in fuchsia but they were sold out in my size. I also picked up a leather belt with a pop of hot neon pink from Madewell (pictured below). A couple of green-hued tops from Loft (one pictured below), a purple dress from Bloomingdales (pictured below) and some cropped running leggings from Lululemon were about the only other clothing purchases I made on the trip, although I did get the seahorse necklace in the photo below free courtesy of Brooklyn Charm's promotion on Bedford Avenue last weekend.


I discovered a few new shops while I was in the city, one of my favourites being C. Wonder, which is on Spring Street in SoHo (they are opening another store soon in the Columbus Circle shopping centre). It's a little bit like a poor—or at least, slightly less rich—man's Kate Spade, mixed with a dash of Ralph Lauren or, perhaps, LL Bean prep. They sell a range of clothing, accessories and homewares, which come in many bright colours and most of which can be monogrammed. I really liked the initial bangles, but they didn't have a B in a colour I liked. The prices are pretty reasonable too, for the quality--more like J. Crew than Kate Spade. At the lower end of the price range is Joe Fresh, which seems to be a hybrid of Uniqlo and Cos. Like Uniqlo, they sell a basic clothing items in many different colours, but they borrow a touch of minimalist chic from Cos. I didn't buy anything on this trip but I'll be stopping by again on future visits.

Top: J. Crew on Fifth Ave. Bottom: C. Wonder and Joe Fresh

Another favourite new discovery was Henri Bendel. I don't know why it took me so long to venture inside this Fifth Avenue department store, but I'm glad I did. It's probably most similar to Liberty in London, especially because of the ground floor, which is devoted to frivolous girly things, such as make-up, handbags and jewellery. They also sell a beautiful range of own-branded bags and accessories, many of which are really stylish and would make lovely gifts.

I've left my favourite purchase until last and I'm still very excited by it. Regular readers will not be surprised to learn that it is a handbag, although it wasn't an impulse buy; I have been lusting after this bag for a few months and even considered ordering it online from the US. I saved about £60 by buying it in New York though. And it is Rebecca Minkoff's Mini MAC in black with gold hardware. I have rediscovered black lately and I wanted a smart black clutch bag for the evening. I love the classic design, but the added edginess of the studs and the animal print lining (slightly annoyingly the lining was supposed to be blue with black spots, like the dustbag, but in his efforts to get me the bag with the nicest leather, the Saks sales assistant managed to give me one with leopard lining instead).

Mini MAC, Mitzy's little sister

Better still, you can wear the chain strap full length for cross-body looks, you can double it up to wear it as a shoulder bag (pictured) or you can remove the chain altogether and wear it as a clutch. Very versatile, then, and, after a few years of a Mulberry obsession, relatively reasonably priced, for a designer leather handbag.