It’s the perfect weather to be thinking about the Next Autumn/Winter 2012 collection. Or at least so it seemed when the invitation to a blogger event to view the collection came through a few weeks ago. This was before the summer started, when we were all still grappling with the idea of switching our heating back on in June. The invitation also included a gift card to buy myself and the geekdaughter an outfit from the Autumn/Winter collection to wear to the event, and at the time I couldn’t imagine how much the weather would change…
And that’s how it came to be that the geekdaughter and I arrived at the beautiful venue in the middle of the Northamptonshire coutryside last week, on possibly the hottest day of the year so far, dressed entirely inappropriately for the occasion. I had selected a lovely pair of skinny grey jeans with a floral blousy top, and the geekdaughter fell in love with the red cloud dress (as pictured). The temperature was approaching 30 degrees – thankfully the venue was air conditioned and the clothes were light enough that we didn’t boil!
Having attended a previous Next blogger event, I had high hopes for this one, and I wasn’t disappointed. There were two different children’s entertainers to keep the kids happy, and a room full of beauty therapists offering massages, manicures and other beauty treatments to allow us Mums a little pampering. Once she’d got over her initial shyness, the geekdaughter was quite happy to be left alone with the entertainers, allowing me the time to treat myself to both a manicure and a pedicure, which felt like a real treat.
There was also a delicious lunch, and plenty of time to chat with my blogging friends, and also to embarrass myself for failing to put names to faces again!
And then, of course, there was the chance to look at a selection of clothes from the Autumn/Winter collection for kids. I’m sure I’ve said it before, but I don’t know much about fashion, however I saw several things I liked in the new collection. It was lovely to see some brighter colours coming into the boys lines, with yellows and blues featuring. I see a lot of boys clothes in more muted browns and greens, and it’s nice to see something brighter. The poor geekson, having two older male cousins, gets a lot of hand-me-down clothes, which means I don’t usually have to buy very much new for him, and also don’t get a choice in the clothes that he wears, but I’ll definitely be picking up some things for him from this collection.
I tried to get some feedback from the geekdaughter on the girls’ range, but she was too busy winning a dancing competition, having invisible coins pulled out of her hair, and watching a drawing of a face come to life and talk! I suspect she’s going to love the combination of shorts and tights which seems to be the fashion for this season, and again there’s a lovely selection of colours to choose from.
As at the previous Next event, members of the buying team from Next were in attendance, looking for feedback from us as Mums. I like that they are interested in our opinions, even though I personally couldn’t think of anything I wanted to feed back to them!
The Next Autumn/Winter collection is available now in stores and online.
Disclosure: Next paid my travel expenses to attend this event, and in addition provided a gift card which I used to purchase outfits for the geekdaughter and myself to wear. We were pampered royally at the event, and had a goodie bag to take home. The geekdaughter’s goodie bag contained a hat, scarf and gloves, and I am having a heck of a job convincing her that she really needs to wait until it gets a bit colder before she wears them!! Thank you Next for another fantastic day out.
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I was the same, they looked at me hopeful for feedback but I couldn’t think of anything. They had pretty much covered all bases! It was lovely to see you again and I shall be eternally grateful that you actually knew who I was!
x
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