PANDORA Jewellery introduces digital magazine

Jewellery brand PANDORA has launched a new interactive magazine. PANDORA Magazine is published globally every other month for members of Pandora’s customer club, offering interaction with readers. The magazine is built on a broad editorial line with inspiring fashion editorials, styling tips and lifestyle articles as in the traditional fashion magazines. Its interactive functions allow readers to post comments, rate articles and share their favourites with others. A unique feature of the magazine is that readers can share their own experiences with women around the world by commenting directly in the magazine. The magazine is published six times a year in four languages and is free to members of PANDORA’s customer club. The first issue appeared on 20 June online and featured Penelope Cruz on the cover.

www.pandora.net

Zone Models convert to iPads from model books

Zone Models has started using iPads as an alternative to model books following a pilot in January 2001 which received positive reviews from both clients and models. Model portfolios can be easily uploaded and taken to castings, allowing clients to see a model’s entire portfolio. Clients are also able to e-mail selections of their choice as the Zone Models website has been adapted for use on iPad and iPhone.

A Zone Models app is due for release later this year, providing a quick and easy way for clients to make selections on the go, with a section for aspiring models to upload iPhone pictures and apply. Contact Lucy Bolland at Zone Models for more information.

www.zone-models.com

Yahoo! launches new celebrity site omg!

Yahoo! has announced the launch of omg!, a unique online destination focusing on daily celebrity news, photos, exclusive blogs and interactive video content.

The combination of in-house content and premium partnerships will ensure the site delivers the most current and relevant celebrity content to potentially 27million monthly Yahoo! users (April Comscore).

omg! launches with Julia White as editor, previously deputy editor of OK! online, who will lead a creative editorial team to ensure omg! is fresh in content and relevant to its readers. The editorial team’s core focus will be to make the content both engaging and entertaining whilst offering an effective creative canvas for advertising partners.

Triple Success for ASOS at Handbag.com Online Fashion Awards 2011

The Handbag.com Online Fashion Awards in association with Medwinds, were revealed this week (27 June), with online fashion store ASOS winning three awards. ASOS was announced as winners of ‘Best New Fashion Site’, ‘Best Vintage Site’ and ‘Best Online-Only Site’.

Now in its fourth year, the Handbag.com Online Fashion Awards 2011 encompass twelve categories, naming a winner and runner-up in each. A panel of handbag.com industry experts including Show Me Your Wardrobe’s Jackie Dixon, DirectorsOf.com founder Leon Bailey Green, Drapers’ online editor Keely Stocker and ASOS’ Jemma Dyas, compiled a final shortlist of the best fashion sites on the web, before putting this shortlist to the public vote. More than 47,000 votes from handbag.com users determined the overall winners.

Full list of Handbag Online Fashion Awards 2011 winners:

Best accessories site
Winner – Accessorize
Runner up – Etsy

Best boutique site
Winner – Paul's Boutique
Runner up – Monica and Joe

Best British fashion blog
Winner – Style Bubble
Runner Up – The Style Bite

Best designer site
Winner – Net-a-Porter
Runner Up – The Outnet

Best high street site
Winner – Topshop
Runner Up – River Island

Best independent fashion magazine site
Winner – My Fashion Life
Runner Up – Fashion 156

Best international fashion blog
Winner - The Style Rookie
Runner Up – The Coveted

Best new fashion site
Winner - ASOS Marketplace
Runner up – Monica & Joe

Best online only site
Winner – ASOS
Runner up – Net-a-Porter

Best use of innovation
Winner – Girl meets dress
Runner up – Burberry

Best user experience
Winner – John Lewis
Runner up – Net-a-Porter

Best vintage site
Winner – ASOS marketplace
Runner up – eBay Fashion

www.handbag.com
www.medwinds.com

Debut Beach Tomato Awards winners announced

The winners of its first Beach Tomato Awards have been announced today. The judging panel for the awards included co-founder Tom Marchant, editor Kirsty Hathaway and features editor Katie Mulloy together with ELLE's travel editor, Sue Ward Davies; showmeyourwardrobe.com founder and photographer, Jackie Dixon; and the threegraces.com founder and beauty journalist, Grace Timothy, who together decided the best beaches around the world, beach fashion and beachside beauty products.

Tom Marchant, co-founder, says “We created Beach Tomato to be the friendly voice offering insightful and honest advice about beaches from around the world. Our first Beach Tomato awards are an answer to the eternal question that everyone stresses about year, which beach, what to wear and which beauty brand really delivers. Editor Kirsty Hathaway and the judging panel have truly uncovered the best of the beach for 2011.”

The three different sections within the editorially led site – Promenade, Preen and Place – dictated the different award categories – Fashion, Beauty and Travel. Additionally, Beach Tomato invited users to vote for a “People’s Choice Award”.

Fashion Awards
Best women’s swimwear - Mara Hoffman
Best men’s swimwear - Orlebar Brown
Best sunglasses - Retro Super Future
Best new swimwear label - We Are Handsome

Travel Awards
Best party - La Barra, Uruguay
Beast urban - Newport Beach, Orange County USA
Best kept secret (until now) - Baisha Beach, Taiwan
For the water - Simos Beach Elafornissos
Headspace - Anakena Beach, Easter island
Best overall beach - Baisha Beach, Taiwan

People’s Choice
Fashion - Don’t forget - Tallulah and Hope
Beauty - Beach saviour - Sachajuan
Travel - Best beach island - Jamaica

Beauty Awards
Best sunscreen - Clarins Sun Wrinkle Control Cream for Face
Best hair product - Moroccanoil Oil Treatment
Best beach prep - Sisley Intensive Anti-cellulite Contouring Care
Best self tan - St Tropez Naturals

www.beachtomato.com

Liz Earle wins coveted Which? Awards

The annual Which? Awards took place this week (23 June) in London and were hosted by hosted by Natasha Kaplinsky. The awards are entirely independant and aim to publicly reward the best businesses serving the UK customer and winners are chosen on the basis of Which?’s rigorous research and feedback from its members. Beauty brand Liz Earle won Best Online Retailer for lizearle.com and was shortlisted as the top performing online shop across the Which? survey for the third year running.

Which? Awards 2011 shortlisters and winners:

Best High Street Retailer
Winner - Richer Sounds
Shortlisted – Lush, Lakeland

Best Car Manufacturer
Winner - Hyundai
Shortlisted - Mazda, Toyota, BMW, Skoda

Best Supermarket
Winner - Waitrose
Shortlisted - Marks and Spencer, Lidl, Aldi

Best Financial Services Provider
Winner - First Direct
Shortlisted - NFU Mutual, The Co-operative Bank

Best Home Audio-Visual Brand
Winner - Samsung
Shortlisted - Panasonic, Sony

Best Large Home Appliance Brand
Winner - Bosch
Shortlisted - Miele, AEG-Electrolux

Best Mobile Service Provider
Winner - Tesco Mobile
Shortlisted - ASDA Mobile, O2

Best Online Retailer
Winner - Lizearle.com
Shortlisted - Lakeland.co.uk, John Lewis.com, ChainReactionCycles.com

Best Photography Brand
Winner - Canon
Shortlisted - Panasonic, Casio, Nikon

Best Portable Media Brand
Winner - Samsung
Shortlisted - Apple, Sony
Best Small Home Appliance Brand
Winner - Philips
Shortlisted - Kenwood, De’Longhi, Morphy Richards

Best Travel Company
Winner - Trailfinders
Shortlisted - Kuoni, P&O Cruises, Saga

Which? Positive Change Award
Winner - Barclays

Which? Consumer Action Award
Winner - The Co-operative Energy

The Good Food Guide Readers’ Restaurant of the Year
Winner - Orwells, South East

Which? Local Business of the Year
Winner - Mand Made, Electrician - Sheffield

www.which.co.uk

The Online Media Awards announces winners

The Online Media Awards, recognising the best in online journalism, announced its 2011 award winners last night at a ceremony in London. The event attracted entries from websites including The Guardian, The Sun, BBC, Sunday Times, Mail Online, Reuters and The Telegraph. On the international judging panel was Andrew Jaspan, former editor of The Age, David Mill former online editor of Mirror Group, Noel Young former group managing editor of the Daily Record and Sunday Mail, Charles McGhee former editor of The Herald and Jim Chisholm former director of the World Association of Newspapers.

Named as Website of the Year and winning the Grand Prix was thesundaytimes.co.uk for its replication of its printed version online and its editor Gordon Thomson was named Online Editor of the Year. In all, sundaytimes.co.uk took home six awards.

Winners

Chairman’s Award - Nursingtimes.net

Chairman’s Award - Press Gazette

Best Brand Development - Mail Online

Online Editor of the Year - Gordon Thomson, editor, The Sunday Times

Best Site for news-led Journalism - bbc.co.uk & guardian.co.uk

Best Specialist Site for Journalism - physicsworld.com

Best Campaigning / Investigative Journalism -
thesundaytimes.co.uk for Insight investigations by the Sunday Times

Best Commentary/Blogging - huffingtonpost.com

Best Video Journalism - thesundaytimes.co.uk

Best Designed site - thesundaytimes.co.uk

Best Twitter feed - @naturenews

Best Use of Social Media - BBC London & mashable.com

Best Use of Crowd Sourcing or Citizen Journalism - BBC London for Mapping the Tube Strike - with your help

Best Use of Photography - thesundaytimes.co.uk

Best Commercial Innovation - FoodBev.com

Digital Writer of the Year - Emma Barnett, Digital Media Editor, The Daily Telegraph

Best Podcast - bbc.co.uk - Non League Football Show

Technical Innovation - guardian.co.uk - guardian.co.uk/data

www.onlinemediaawards.net

Online designer boutique farfetch.com has re-launched with new look & features

Online boutique marketplace farfetch.com has just re-launched, with a directional new look. Since its original launch in October 2008, farfetch.com has sought out independent fashion boutiques from around the world specialising in luxury brands, emerging designers, avant-garde labels and streetwise fashion talent. With the new design they also aim to emphasise the fact that farfetch.com is not an e-tailer but an enabler of independent businesses to e-tail, providing them with a marketplace in which to sell.

As part of the wider refresh, the farfetch.com brand identity has been redesigned to give it a new look, inspired by the multi-faceted concept of the site. The homepage includes a navigational animation that introduces users to the various aspects of the farfetch.com marketplace and community, and directs them around the site. New section ‘People’ allows members of the its fashion community including boutique owners, guest bloggers and team members at farfetch.com to voice their opinions on fashion and the product pages now offer more information. The new website places a larger focus on the boutiques themselves and the people behind them, and so a re-designed, easy-to-navigate boutiques directory provides images and insightful information on each boutique within the network, plus interviews with the boutique owners and buyers. Users are able to take a virtual tour of the boutiques via video and visual content, before shopping online from the expertly bought and edited collection held in-store.

www.farfetch.com

GO City Girl - a new online destination for London women

GO City Girl is a new online destination aimed at women in London. This is a new social networking site that enables users to shop online together using an integrated online shopping experience. Lifestyle functions and services are covered; from job-hunting to flat-hunting, to gossip and entertainment news.

GO City Girl, which went live in April, was founded in 2010 by a team of women who spotted a need for a portal catering to women getting the most out of city life. The result is a one-stop site that aims to meet the demands of busy women concerned with style and substance.

The site‘s design is built of individual widgets – interactive tools which include:
GO Clubs – to get on guestlists
GO Fashion – a London fashion blog section
GO Gossip – celebrity scoops
GO Shopping – browse and buy the latest styles
GO Jobs – search for a new job, or post one
GO Rent – property search area

www.gocitygirl.com

Terry de Havilland debuts e-commerce site & marks 50th Anniversary

Designer footwear brand Terry De Havilland has announced the launch of a new e-commerce site this year, offering customers the opportunity to buy direct from Terry de Havilland, as well as preview bespoke designs created by Terry de Havilland Couture.

The brand is also set to take production and sales in-house as the brand marks its 50th Anniversary. As part of a strategic move to ready the business for new initiatives, the company will now control all elements in-house. One new initiative will be creating a bespoke pop-up concession in Selfridges London to mark the anniversary, which will run from 15 July for one month (See DIARY dates). The space will include a retrospective of Terry’s work throughout his five decades in business. In addition to commissioning four limited edition exclusive styles, Selfridges will also be stocking the AW11 collection.

more! to create special Facebook issue in June

more!, is to produce a co-created Facebook issue. The weekly will be edited by its Facebook fans to celebrate reaching 100,000 followers this month.

more! has begun the editorial planning process from today (31 May), posing questions to its Facebook fans including choosing the cover star; contributing to regular features; and deciding on the fashion shoots and creating beauty pages - with Skype meetings scheduled to agree and discuss content. The magazine will also recruit five fans to come into the office and work directly on the pages with the more! team. Each page of the issue will have been co-created with Facebookers, with all contributors credited in the masthead.

This issue will go sale on 14 June.

www.moremagazine.co.uk

handbag.com announces Online Fashion Awards 2011 shortlist

handbag.com announces the shortlist of the Handbag Online Fashion Awards 2011, in association with Spanish fashion brand Medwinds. The panel of handbag.com industry experts sifted through scores of nominees to decide on the shortlist of six in each of the 18 categories. Handbag.com readers now have the final vote to decide which fashion website is crowned category winner and overall Handbag Online Fashion Award Winner 2011. Those who vote get the chance to win one of three prizes:

1st prize - A £500.00 shopping spree at Swarovski Crystallized, Great Marlborough Street, London, including champagne in the Swarovski Crystallized Lounge. Plus a one-night stay for two, including breakfast, at the The Langham Hotel, London.
2nd prize - A Coquette vintage glamour pamper day, worth £180.00, for you and a guest at Kettner's restaurant and champagne bar in Soho, including a meal at the restaurant and champagne. The lucky winner and their guest will also an extra-special Benefit goody bag.
3rd prize - Two runners-up will each receive a year's supply of VO5 products, a VO5 hairdryer and a VO5 Ceramic Hair Straightener.

Voting closes on 20 June with the winners being announced on 27 June 2011. www.handbag.com
www.medwinds.com

NOT JUST A LABEL celebrate three years with website relaunch

NOT JUST A LABEL, the designer platform for showcasing contemporary fashion has celebrated its three year anniversary with a redesign of its website. For press and media, the new site will offer a new designer directory, which allows access to new talents, tailored to the industry’s demands. A section showcasing new collections aims to provide a real-time avenue for finding new talent, and an improved editorial section will bring more focus to fashion journalism; concentrating on topics not covered by mainstream media. For designers, the new site will offer more exposure opportunities and an improved retail function to finance progression independently. It also provides a platform to promote and publicise independent design with increased functionality. Finally, the retail side of the site will include exclusive collaborations with London-based designers including Katie Eary, The Rodnik Band and Fannie Schiavoni.

www.notjustalabel.com

New online beauty destination NUUSUITE.COM launches

NUUSUITE.COM is a new online beauty destination launched today (10 May), offering a selection of premium-branded hair and beauty products for both women and men. Targeted at 20 - 40 year olds, from busy professional women and mothers, to men who want to look good without the fuss; the website aims to make niche UK and overseas brands more accessible to everyone. Founded by make-up artist Debra J. Francis, who has over 10 yearsʼ experience in the beauty industry, each product is selected by Debra and her team of experts based on its quality and the results it produces. Brands that can be found on the new site include: Lubatti (founded by facialist Tracy Malone, sister of Jo); menʼs grooming brand Jason Shankey; Amazon Series, a collection of Keratin-infused hair products; plus UK exclusives including award-winning LA-based make-up brand Make-Up Designory (MUD). Other key brands include Gielly Green, Natural Empathy and Mineralogie.

New online accessories store Femme-Enfant launches

Femme-Enfant is a new independent online accessories and footwear boutique that opened for business on 1 May. The new site offers a range of accessories with most products only available for a limited time. Styles include shoes, handbags, umbrellas, lingerie and jewellery. Key examples are; pointed stilettos with red and gold reversible sequins (pictured here, priced £60.00), fuchsia satin peep-toe (£45.00) and the gold satin peep-toe sling back with mirror-ball effect strap (£50.00). Also featured is a range of retro-inspired rose print umbrellas (£30.00 each) as well as polka dot parasols (£25.00) that come in a variety of colours such as pink, purple, red and white – all with a lace edge. Founder Louise Woodhead comments: "I set out to create an independent boutique that is inspired by seasonal trends but dares to differentiate. In Femme-Enfant I wanted to capture the free-spirited and indulgent transition from girl to woman."
www.femme-enfant.com

DIRTYloves launches online fashion shop

New online publication DIRTYloves, focusing on fashion, music and art has now launched its online shop with a collection of own brand womenswear, accessories and collections from Sugarhill Boutique. This new UK based online shop, with worldwide shipping, will offer the latest fashion trends adding new lines each month. The first DIRTYloves own brand, womenswear collection includes a selection dresses, playsuits and separates with an average retail price range of £32.00 to £55.00 as well as an accessory range priced from £10.00.

www.dirtyloves.com

New online luxury destination launched by former Creative Director for Links of London

Elizabeth Galton, previous creative director of Links of London, is launching Elizabeth Galton Studio on 5 May, a new online luxury destination for contemporary jewellery and accessories. The new website (www.elizabethgaltonstudio.com) will feature 35 creative designers for men and women from around the world that have been handpicked by Elizabeth, with a focus on emerging talent. Elizabeth Galton Studio will offer a wide selection of designs as well as Gift, Bridal and Bespoke pieces. These include silver pieces, ranging from £100.00 to £900.00, fine jewellery from £900.00 to £35,000.00, luxury fashion jewellery brands from £50.00 to £400.00 and soft accessories from £40.00 to £150.00.

Lara Bohinc launches e-commerce website

Luxury goods label Lara Bohinc has launched a global online store that offers its full range of handbags, designer jewellery, fine jewellery, shoes, scarves, small leather goods and online exclusives. Providing full access to Lara Bohinc’s collections and products, customers can choose to pay in sterling, US dollars or Euros and shipping is available to 170 countries worldwide, free in Europe and the US. www.larabohinc.com.

New luxury loungewear brand LUCZA launches

LUCZA is a new luxury loungewear brand specialising in modern wardrobe essentials. Karen Scofield established LUCZA after unsuccessfully searching for pieces she could throw on after work and look chic yet comfortable. LUCZA launches as an e-tail brand with a capsule collection of 14 styles all available in a range of neutral classic colours: gold, champagne, pewter, ivory and black. Simplicity is key with tunics, peasant blouses and palazzo trousers in silk satin. The collection features a racerback maxi dress in soft modal washable jersey, racerback vests and soft modal cotton leggings with contrast grey cuffs. The trousers are available in three lengths and a key aspect of the collection is the shelf bra with adjustable support. All LUCZA items are made in England, using Chinese silk and Austrian yarns. Prices in the LUCZA range start from £60.00. www.lucza.com.

Fashion labels Tucker and Donna Ida collaborate for exclusive collection

Premium label Tucker has produced an exclusive collection of printed silk blouses for Donna Ida. Launching this month in boutiques and online, the blouses retail at £240.00 each and come in an array of bright colours and prints. To celebrate the new prints, Donna Ida is working with the London College of Style where students have planned and designed four window installations for the launch of the collection in each of the Donna Ida boutiques. The Donna Ida exclusive Tucker blouses are available from 11 April in-store and online.