Chiconomise

I’m just a little crazy right now. I’ve been skitting around like a demented ladybug all week, trying to tie up all the loose ends and get everything done before I jet off on my holiday. My journey to the airport commences in a few hours’ time and I haven’t even started packing yet. Glurk. I’ll probably end up panic-packing – then wind up at San Francisco International Airport with four denim skirts, a pair of slippers and a muu-muu.

I have some great guest posts lined up as my holiday cover, and I hope that you will enjoy reading them. In the meantime, this plopped into my inbox today:

Chiconomise
Chiconomise is a new lifestyle newsletter featuring offers, sales & discounts for people who want to live stylishly for less. Founded by BBC One’s The Apprentice winner Michelle Dewberry, the newsletter aims to lead its readers to the best deals to be had in fashion, beauty, eating, drinking and going out. To find out more about the newsletter and to sign up to receive it, go to www.chiconomise.com.

Interesting, no? Right now the website is just a sign-up page and an About page, and references to “scouring the city” for tips makes me think that it’s going to be predictably London-centric. But I think I’m going to put my e-mail addy down anyway, and give it a whirl.

The two ladies behind Chiconomise are described as follows:

Who are the brains behind Chiconomise?
That will be two lovely ladies who go by the names of Michelle Dewberry and Phoebe Frangoul.

You’ll probably recognise Michelle as being the girl who fought off stiff competition from over 15,000 people to win BBC’s ‘The Apprentice’ (in fact, the only girl ever to do so in the UK, which we think is rather great!). Being a true Northern lass, Michelle loves a bargain and like all of us, loves to treat herself on the odd occasion too. Her friends may describe her as tight but she prefers to describe it as being chic-onomic.

Phoebe is a very clever lady who was previously editor of Glamour.com and co-founded alternative fashion magazine, Pamflet. She has written for The Guardian and The Sunday Times and blogged on Bridesmagazine.co.uk about her ‘DIY’ wedding. She is currently writing a book about planning a stylish wedding on a budget. She likes nothing better than unearthing something from the back of her wardrobe that’s so old it’s back in fashion, and is proud to order tap water in restaurants!

Both names are notable, for different reasons. Michelle Dewberry (pictured above, with good old Surallan), has top-notch business chops and a reputation as something of an ice queen. I am presuming that the Chiconomise newsletter is her latest, carefully-planned business venture – and I’d be interested to know how she plans to monetise it and turn a profit. (I’m nosey.) Advertising? Or will paid subscriptions be introduced further down the line?  I wonder.

I read Phoebe Frangoul’s blog on the Brides website a while back. It was called Misadventures of a DIY Bride, which drew me right in, because I was a DIY bride too. I even made my own tiered cake, with little cascades of sugar roses on the corners. (I wouldn’t do it again, though – far too breakdown-inducing.) But I think “DIY Bride”, in this case, meant going without a wedding planner. I read some of the entries, and they were about having £120/$200 massages and buying £75/$120 bras. It was a nice blog, just not what I was expecting. Mind you, my expectations were probably misplaced, what with Brides being the poshest of the wedding titles.

I’m sure that I’m not going to be the only one signing up for Chiconomise – I’ll report back in due course. If anyone else is signing up, what do you make of it?

UPDATE: Find my verdict on Chiconomise here.