At last……..

Another pretty busy week – with a whirlwind 24hr trip to Glasgow. Having spent tuesday morning in sign off meetings, we headed for Heathrow, taking a late afternoon flight north. Following a fabulous night out in Glasgow, we set off for our store in Kirkintilloch the next morning, to look at the planned layout for the next few weeks. It’s an important day, as it is the first of these with new AW12 season stock, and I have to say, seeing all the new product, laid out as we had planned it, made me very proud – it looked really strong! Both the buying teams and the VM teams have done a fantastic job to get us to this point and I sincerely hope that all their hard work is translated into great sales!!!

Back in the office on wednesday and more sign off meetings – back down to earth with a bump! Its never easy being stuck in the basement for meetings which last hours, particularly as temperatures hit the 30’s, and everyone was clearly tired, overheated and grumpy! It did not go well! Why is it that just when I think I’ve got one or two product areas nailed, another couple fall off their perch? This job is really turning into the ultimate multi-tasking challenge! I think maybe we all need to be a little more honest with each other about what products we really love and believe in, and learn to leave the “nice”, the “average” or the “ordinary” behind!

After a big M&Co night out on thursday, which involved consuming plenty of Pimms whilst outside the pub in the beautiful evening sunshine, getting waterbombed several times by the kids off the housing estate next door (yes, really!), Friday dawned very blurry, and rather more successful. Great meeting with the stylist for our up coming Christmas photoshoot, followed by another sign off, this time lingerie, which was infinitely more straightforward and successful.

So now I am disappearing for a couple of weeks to recharge my very depleted batteries, hopefully on my return I’ll be fully of energy and bright ideas!