Welcome to this ‘festive feel’ instalment of Zips It Up. Yes, the most wonderful time of the year bearing down on us, with Christmas Day only 40 days away.

Christmas shopping should be fun. Think ‘Oxford Street’, bundled up in coats, hats and scarves, the smell of chestnuts in the air, with carol singers on the street corner. Year on year, retailers battle to out-do one another’s festive window displays in a bid to lure us (and our credit cards) through the door. 

Selfridges caused a big festive stir by being the first department store in the world to unveil their 2019 Christmas windows – a whole 69 days before the Dec 25^th.

Selfridges stores across the UK now feature more than 85,000 baubles, 200 Christmas trees and 65,000 pieces of paper confetti, as part of its “Selfridges Rocks Christmas”. Each store window has borrowed an element of a well-known Christmas story or fairy tale, such as Rapunzel or Cinderella, meanwhile giving it a modern twist.

Across the other side of London, Harrods has unveiled its Yule 2019 incarnation. The iconic store, founded in 1849, has transformed itself into an emporium of magic under its theme for the year: ‘The Kingdom of Christmas.’ Christmas has been brought to life through a series of street-facing wintry scenes, with festive animals helping Harrods and their brands in delivering seasonal gifts to children of all ages.

Harvey Nichols’ display has drawn inspiration from all things Scandinavian. The much-anticipated window display across all Harvey Nichols stores in the UK and Ireland is a fusion of Scandi-architectural influence, featuring handcrafted cedar slat panels draped with festive garlands, framing the windows and glowing like the Nordic night sky.

Of course, call me old school, as this may all mean nothing to you if you sit at home and order your gifts on Amazon. But personally, I can’t wait to get out and witness all of the window displays.

In this week’s issue of Zips It Up we check out Xmas gift ideas for the whole family, take a look at the debut fashion collection from a certain British Wimbledon Champion, plus, if you hate Christmas and simply want to get away, we have discovered the most fashionable luggage to breeze through Terminal 5 with.

It’s just 40 days until the big day. Put bluntly, that’s just one pay packet left. So, have you even contemplated buying any Christmas pressies yet? I bet you haven’t! 

Don’t worry, neither have I, but as usual Zips It Up is here to make life easier. This page of helpful suggestions is likely to earn you brownie points over the festive season.

Whilst a little more time-consuming to order than a straightforward “click-to-buy” type purchase, anything personalised is the way to go. There are literally hundreds of companies personalising anything and everything. But get those Xmas orders in ASAP.

Here are some suggestions – for him, for her, for the folks, for the little ones and for the teens Basically, we have everyone covered.  And it’s all on one simple website: 

www.notonthehighstreet.com

Here’s my pick of the best.

For Him
Personalised Birth Year And Nickname Organic T Shirt

by INVISIBLE FRIEND

£28

A great gift, that’s equally perfect for other landmark celebrations too, such as 30th, 40th, 50th or 60th birthdays.

This cool design features the year of birth in a stylish modern font, as well as the option of personalising the design further by adding a name, or nickname, plus an additional phrase such as ‘Awesome since…’, ‘Established…’ or anything else that takes your fancy.

For Mum & Dad

Personalised Single or Double Sided Photo Cushion

by THE DRIFTING BEAR CO

£36.95

A plush faux suede cushion, personalised with your favourite photo of the folks, handmade especially for you. These fabulous, super soft cushions, are made from either faux suede or 100% organic cotton. They’re especially useful for those wanting to give their loved ones a hug when said loved ones aren’t there in person.

For Her
Personalised Handmade Name Necklace

by ANNA LOU OF LONDON

£75

I have two of these. Think ‘Carrie’ in Sex And The City. Design and personalise an original Name Necklace, which is then laser cut and finished in London by hand.

Add a personal touch with this gorgeous name necklace with dainty cable chain. All of the Anna Lou of London personalised jewellery is handmade to order and can contain one name or word per pendant.  Contact them via the ‘ask seller a question’ button with any special requests or queries.

For The Kids

2019 Santa’s Naughty Or Nice Report

by IMPERIAL TELEGRAMS

£12

Capture the true magic and sentiment of Christmas with a personalised report from Santa. Award points and gold stars for good behaviour and reveal whether the recipient child has made it to Santa’s ‘Nice’ list.

The option boxes allow one to add child’s name and age, and award points for ‘kindness’ ‘politeness’ ‘sharing’ ‘tidying’ and ‘table manners’. Merit stars are then awarded (out of 5) and finally you can opt to place the recipient on ‘naughty’ or ‘nice’ list.

For Inbetweeners

Personalised Embroidered Patch Bomber Jacket

by MALCOLM & GERALD

£40

This Personalised Embroidered Patch Bomber Jacket is perfect for fussy teens and ‘inbetweeners’.

Each jacket is bespoke and hand embroidered in the UK, packaged in a customised M&G box (however, please note that if multiple jackets are ordered, they will be consolidated into one box).

Jackets come with a selection of embroidered patches containing your personal initials. You can choose as many patches as you like and where you would like them placed on the jacket. I know my other (fully grown) half would love this.

Each jacket is totally unique and makes a perfect gift.

He’s not exactly the most exciting sportsman in the world, and I’d be unlikely to use the words Andy Murray and ‘fashion’ in the same sentence, but Murray has just launched his first sportswear range – and it’s eco-friendly.

 Since his (now reconsidered) “retirement” announcement in January, tennis and sports-lovers alike had been waiting with baited breath to see where Andy Murray would go next. After all, having won both Wimbledon in 2013 and 2016 and Olympic gold medals in singles in 2012 and 2016​, the 31-year-old has quite some collection of strings to his bow.

And the answer, it seems, was turning his hand to fashion design, with the launch of the apparel line AMC, in collaboration with luxury British sportswear brand Castore.

This marks Murray’s first foray into commercially available sportswear, but such is his belief in the range that he has vowed to exclusively wear AMC’s products for all on-court activities.

The line includes a range of tennis tees, polos, shorts, jackets and accessories, which have all been made from regenerated nylon and recycled yarn.

Each product name acknowledges a city where Murray won a tournament or place with particular meaning to him and tennis – there’s the Rio Performance tee, and the London Stadium jacket amongst the sentimentally-named garments.

The debut AMC tennis line is available from today in the Castore Kings Road Store and at castore.com from this weekend. Prices start from £30.

The range will no doubt generate quite a sartorial racket

Supreme have released another limited-edition range of suitcases, a second luggage collaboration with suitcase stalwart, RIMOWA. The collection sees the streetwear brand lending its stylistic touch to RIMOWA’s Check-in L and Cabin Plus aluminium suitcases.The range is available in two sizes – “carry-on” and “check-in”.

The two brands first got together last year, with a suitcase collaboration that reportedly sold out in less than a minute.  Just like everything ‘Supreme’ does. After all, have you ever seen the size of the queue outside a Supreme store?

RIMOWA x Supreme 

RIMOWA was founded in Germany in 1898, while Supreme is a skateboarding brand which originated in New York City in 1994.

While neither brand has commented on how much the pieces will cost, in the last collaboration, carry-ons sold for in the region of £1,500 and larger cases for around £1,650.

This is the latest in a string of collaborations embarked upon by RIMOWA in recent years, including a much talked-about range with Fendi.

The Supreme® / RIMOWA collection will be available for purchase in limited quantities online and at selected Supreme and RIMOWA stores from this weekend. 

Welcome to this wintry edition of Zips It Up, and I thought I’d kick off with a bit of fashion gossip, as well as my first Christmas present recommendation.

In the latest news, Lady Gaga is set to grace the silver screen once again, in a film about the Gucci family fashion dynasty.

The Oscar-winner is set to take on the role of Patrizia Reggiani, the ex-wife of Maurizio Gucci, grandson of the Italian fashion house’s founder, Guccio Gucci.

Wealthy Italian socialite Reggiani had two children with the fashion boss, before their divorce in 1985. She was later tried and convicted of hiring a hitman to kill her estranged husband on the steps of his Milan office in 1995, and served 18 years before being let out of jail in 2016.

In an interview with Italy’s La Repubblica, she stated that it was her desire to work for Gucci once out of jail. “I still feel like a Gucci, the most Gucci of all,” she commented. Since being released from prison, Reggiani has reportedly worked as a jewellery design consultant in Italy.

Maurizio Gucci was the last of the family to personally run the fashion label, having resigned as chairman and selling his 50 percent stake in the company for $100 million, two years prior to his death.

The film will be Gaga’s first since she starred alongside Bradley Cooper in the 2018 box office hit “A Star Is Born”. She won an Academy Award for best original song for the feature’s hit “Shallow,” was nominated for best actress at this year’s Academy Awards, missing out to British actress Olivia Colman.

The movie is directed by Ridley Scott and I can’t wait to see it.

It’s time to start thinking about Christmas presents and PJs are always a winner. These caught my eye and if my other half puts them under our tree, I’ll be very happy indeed.

Not only are they top quality by trusty M&S, they’re my fave colours – pink and red – as well as featuring my all time favourite print – STARS. They are cute as hell, and M&S will donate a percentage of every sale to Breast Cancer research. Go online and check them out.

M&S COLLECTION

Sateen Star Print Pyjama Set

Price£35

Onto this week’s instalment, and we discover the most comfty thigh length boots ever, as well as uber cool winter tights, plus the new hot and cold anti-aging trend everyone from Mossy to my friend Liv are trying.

First spotted as a bohemian trend on Kate Moss and Sienna Miller back in the early 2000s, the fur-lined boots had enjoyed a heyday, before becoming so common, your Grandmother started wearing a £5 copy to the Bingo (as well as every mother on the school run).

Until last year that is. Alexander Wang sent plush black UGG style velvet boots down the runway, and after collaborations with Jeremy Scott and Phillip Lim, it heralded the iconic footwear’s return to fashion-forward status.

Even today, UGGs are amongst the most divisive fashion items to ever walk the streets. Me? I’m a HUGE fan. I don’t care how UGGly people think they are.

The Californian (but Aussie originating) brand has partnered with avant-garde Parisian label Y/Project to bring fresh energy to its designs. The results? A little bonkers and rather brilliant, and definitely light years away from the “cutesy” styles so loved by Sienna and Paris Hilton et al back in the day.

Glenn Martens, the Belgian creative director of Y/Project, is known for infusing humour into his conceptual, boundary-pushing collections. He describes putting your foot in an UGG boot as “putting your foot in a warm pot of butter.” 

When considering his take on the Ugg, Martens said “I thought why not…immerse your full legs, so we decided to design an UGG boot that climbs up to the crotch and covers the whole leg.”

Martens has applied Y Project’s unisex, streetwear-inspired aesthetic to the Ugg designs, which were shown at both men’s and women’s Paris fashion week. “You’ll see the exact same piece on a man as on a woman, just styled differently,” he notes. “The importance of duality can be seen across this collection.”

All the classic Ugg DNA is present: the sheepskin, the chestnut tones, but this time around it’s all a little more outlandish. There are shin-high and thigh-high styles as well as UGG sliders, which all come in camel, chestnut and black. 

The UGG x Y/Project collection is priced between £195 and £995 and available now.

Plunging yourself into minus 85-degree cold is always going to be a shock to the system, but there’s something adrenaline-inducing about plunging there straight from a sizzling 90 degrees.

‘Shocks’ aren’t always a bad thing. For the skin and muscles, they can work wonders — enter the Harvey Nichols’ ice-cold cryotherapy chamber and its new heat pod: a full-body, infra-red cocoon designed to make you sweat.

This exercise is known as biohacking: a process of “tricking” our bodies into implementing the same responses it would if you were freezing cold or hot and sweaty. Or, for maximum results, both in quick succession. Experts say that the two together will burn calories, boost muscle recovery and leave skin glowing.  

The treatment is popular with athletes and A-listers looking for instant results: subjecting the body to -90 degrees Celsius for two or three minutes constricts blood vessels, producing a fight-or-flight response in the body.

Circulation and collagen will increase, inflammation will reduce and muscles will relax — plus you’ll get a rush of endorphins. Everyone from Kate Moss to Cristiano Ronaldo have given it a go.

Heat at Harvey Nichols is a dry-heat, infrared sauna body pod set between 30 and 90 degrees centigrade, the first of its kind in the UK. It’s designed to make you sweat, and even at 65 degrees, you’ll be dripping within minutes. The 30-minute treatment has you lying in a space-like machine, head peeking out, in front of a touchscreen. From there you can adjust settings to suit your mood: to up the sweat count, you can do a HIIT class with resistance bands or some (really) hot yoga — the screen shows your calories burned and experts say you can burn up to 600 calories in one half-hour session.

There are also meditative options. The pod comes with a choice of aromas and LED light colours, a massage option using vibrations. You can have also a facial in there.  Sweat produced during our Heat sessions promotes detoxification of cholesterol, heavy metals and other toxins.

Then it’s time for the Cryotherapy Chamber. The two chambers used in tandem is the “ultimate” form of contrast therapy, a technique known for stimulating metabolic activity and circulation without putting it under stress. This makes it a popular injury-recovery method but it’s not just for athletes.

Going hot and cold has known benefits — results include improved cardio fitness, muscle recovery, cellulite loss and better sleep.

It’s a wonder treatment for skin: heat makes your blood rise to your body’s surface and opens pores. Cold brings the blood back to vital organs and contracts pores to regular sizes, reinforcing your body’s natural defence system. Sessions have also been proven to increase endorphins.

I look forward to winter as an excuse to ‘bundle up in knitwear and cosy coats’. But the plummeting temperatures have a frosty downside for your wardrobe too, namely giving up the lure of bare legs.

If ‘tights’ are your thing, then forget about the standard black 80 denier black opaques. It’s all about cool patterned offerings.

• Shirt, £35, Topshop 
• Bodysuit, £8, Boohoo 
• Tights, £19.99, Trasparenze 
• Heels, £19.99, New Look 

Not generally known for putting function first, the fashion industry has for once embraced tights.

Designer brand bosses usually like to imagine that everyone has as big a budget for Ubers as they do, and therefore will never need to shiver after a big winter night out. In previous years, tights had almost zero protection against the elements. 

This season however, warm legs have received the seal of approval from big-name brands such as Burberry, Fendi and Balenciaga. And even the world of celebrity has wrapped up and gone all “sensible”.

Our favourite TV psychopath Villanelle — Jodie Comer from Killing Eve — teamed her little black dress with a barely-there pair.

Actresses Katie Holmes, Reese Witherspoon and singer Rihanna have all pulled on sheer styles too.

A thinner denier looks great with a shorter hemline as they flatter your legs instead of camouflaging them, which a thicker count will.

Lighter deniers will also look party-ready, while still providing some coverage, meaning you won’t be left with goose pimpled flesh by the end of the night.

And midi skirts might be a big hit this season, but the right pair of tights will see you being able to wear minis right through until spring.

There are a host of styles and deniers to choose from — from the classic 20 or 30 denier count that will go with anything in your winter wardrobe, to Sixties-inspired polka dot prints, and even out-of-this-world star designs.

• Bodysuit, £45, Dusty Daze at Asos 
• Tights, £14, Pretty Polly 
• Shoes, £59, Carvela at Kurt Geiger 

And if you are unlucky enough to cause a rip in your pair — a blob of clear nail varnish or spritz of hairspray will stop a ladder from spreading further.

• Jumper, £85, & Other Stories 
• Tights, £11, Calzedonia 
• Shoes, £59, Kurt Geiger 
• Bodysuit, £12, Boohoo 
• Panelled tights, £15.99, Le Bourget 
• Shoes, £59, Kurt Geiger 

It’s November, and I’m back in the UK, after a week of scary moments – none of which were Halloween-related.

Happy Halloween by the way… and the best costume goes to….

I took a week off from writing Zips It Up to spend some time with my parents at our house in Ibiza.

It was October half term, which generally holds a 50/50 chance of decent Balearic weather. Certainly, in previous years I have come back with a suntan, having spent a week by the pool, enjoying some late summer sunshine.

But not in 2019. Instead, our neighbourhood in Ibiza was struck by a tornado, which ripped apart some parts of our house, over seven minutes of pure hell. I was on the terrace with my mother, watching the dark skies above, when the wind and rain suddenly cranked into a state of mayhem and we ran for our lives.

I posted pics of the storm and the damage it caused on my Facebook page this week, if you want to have a “nosey”. 

Anyway, suffice to say, I didn’t get any shopping done and didn’t come back with a tan.

And guess what? Typically, it’s absolutely beautiful in the Balearics this week, now we’re back home in London.

At least it’s something to tell the grandkids one day.

Anyway, moving on, it’s now November and time to crack on with winter and Christmas. This week, I zip uppossibly the most extravagant Christmas advent calendar ever, take a look at next year’s must have footwear and break the news that my favourite Gallagher brother has lost his fashion label.

Yeezy Crocs in 2020

It’s November, so let’s start looking forward to 2020’s most random footwear fad.  And the first person to set the trend is a six year-old.

It’s rare for a six-year-old to cause such a ruckus, but when said child is North West, the daughter of two of the most famous people in the world, and she’s wearing her Dad’s (Kanye West’s) new Yeezy range, we pay attention.

North was pictured at Disneyland with her mum Kim Kardashian earlier this summer, sporting an unconventional white foam slipper.

The sartorial choice raised eyebrows at the time, but now all the pieces of the puzzle are slotting into place. Instagram account ‘YeezyMafia’, which has a following of 2.1million, has leaked images of the shoe, reportedly named the Yeezy Foam Runner.

The shoe, which Twitter users are dubbing ‘Yeezy Crocs’, appears to be constructed of a foam material and perforated sole, similar to that of Crocs.

It’s believed that the Yeezy Foam Runner will be available sometime in 2020, although no official statements from the brand have been made about a release date or its price point.

Would we wear them? They’re still ‘Crocs’ in nature, but adorned with the infinitely cooler Yeezy label.

I’m a fashion victim, so it’s a yes from me.