A mini version came attached to the 10th birthday issue of Marie Claire, which is out now It has only 26 tantalising pages. When the real thing becomes available to the public for pounds 5, on 28 August, there will be 288 glossy pages full of fashion shoots by top photographers, and trend advice from the Marie Claire fashion team to reel everyone in.Lucille Lewin, owner of Whistles, is intrigued to see the results.”Mail order is an exciting medium to reach people who can’t ordinarily make it to our shops, and it’s all very seductive; everything looks great,” she says.Lewin has chosen her looks of the season, including a velvet bias-cut evening dress (pounds 175), a beaded crochet cardigan (pounds 125) and a silk camisole (pounds 55), items that, like the rest of the merchandise on offer, are easy to “read” without the need to touch and feel the clothes.The Book is sure to appeal to working women who know what they look good in, but who generally have little or no time to shop. Do I wait 48 hours for my new Jasper Conran suit/ Karen Millen embroidered jumper/ Diesel jeans, or do I schlep to the nearest town/city to buy it? The answer is obvious: staying at home is usually a far better option. From the high street Karen Millen, Warehouse and Diesel make up the ranks and there are even a few pieces of covetable silver jewellery from Guess and Dinny Hall.Everything featured in The Book is now available in the shops, which leaves a choice.

Ben de Lisi is there with Betty Jackson, Whistles, Paul Smith Jeans and Jasper Conran. We must be doing something right if we’re still here 40 years on.”. IF YOU’RE one of those people who secretly wish that glossy magazines doubled as handy mail-order catalogues – and, let’s face it, who hasn’t dreamt that Marie Claire’s 101 ideas could be magicked instantly into the wardrobe – then The Book is your dream come true. It is glossy and glamorous, and has the feel of a magazine. It even has a few pages of designer interviews mixed in with fashion shoots, but the bonus is that it really is a mail-order catalogue.
The Book was invented by a group of people well versed in selling clothes to customers in the comfort of their own homes. All have worked on the heavyweights in the industry, such as Freeman’s and Littlewood’s, who have already entered the high-fashion arena with specially designed diffusion lines – such as Vivienne Westwood’s range of T-shirts and Whistles’ offer on suits that are significantly cheaper (and less desirable) than those in their shops.The Book is different because it is aimed at solvent working women who know their way around the upper echelons of the high street.

He is a trustee of the museum, and hopes to include pieces such as a wild hand-painted coat bought in 1970 by Lady Lambton, Princess Michael of Kent’s wedding dress, and Diana’s going-away outfit.”The last time I saw the Princess of Wales, at the reception for the sale of her dresses at Christie’s, I asked what had happened to that outfit. She said she still had it.” It was one of the few outfits from the early days of her marriage that she held on to. One thing Diana never knew was that Sassoon had secret code names for his royal clients. “The Princess’s code name was Miss Buckingham,” he remembers fondly.With the younger generation of royals, such as Zara Phillips, more likely to buy their clothes from Alexander McQueen than from David Sassoon, the designer cannot afford to be complacent. But, as he remarks: “In the Sixties, we were at the forefront of designer fashion. These are certainly not the sort of thing you might expect Princesses Alexandra or Margaret to be wearing, and cost a fraction of the price of the made-to-measure couture version – around pounds 700 for an evening dress.Also on Sassoon’s agenda is the retrospective collection of dresses and outfits he is pulling together for the Zandra Rhodes Fashion and Textiles Museum, which is scheduled to open in Bermondsey in 2001. They will be able to choose from fringed devore shawl dresses, destined to become the season’s best-sellers, luxurious beaded Aran sweaters, and slinky, bias-cut slip dresses.