The One and Only Coco

Now we all know that there are a whole heap of fashion blogs out there which cover anything from fashion shows to the latest trends and what celebrities are wearing. However not all of them possess the passion and knowledge that you will find in Coco's Tea Party. Set up 2006, the blog looks at the parallels between fashion and celebrities and the popular hit and miss feature scrutinises the wardrobes of the rich and famous. I caught up with Coco to find out the real deal about Coco's Tea Party.

What made you start blogging?

I don't really remember why I started and to be honest I never planned to. I was just bored one day, and I get through magazines so quickly I thought it would be something constructive to do while waiting for the new issues to come out. But over time I really got into it and now it is much more than just filling time.

Describe the concept behind Coco's Tea Party.

Well my ideas change all the time. When I first started Coco's Tea Party was probably 80% celebrity fashion and it's probably more 50/50 between celebrity and designer now.

You always have an interesting image on the header, how do you go about choosing it?

Well since I came up with the 'We'd rather go naked' quote I always choose images of naked celebrities. It is slightly odd when googling to look for a new one. The first naked star I had was Chloe Sevigny and I loved that header. I changed it to Lindsay Lohan once and there was outrage, so that one only last about 24 hours - it will never be her again. At the moment it is Madonna and I don't think I'll change it for a while.

How do you think bloggers have made an impact on the media?

I think the speed you can get a story out and the fact it is free to read has probably impacted it the most. I often see stories in weekly magazines (which I won't name) where they claim to have just discovered something and it has normally been on some one's blog weeks before. I think it's nice to have the option to read both blogs and magazines - I wouldn't pick one over the other, they each have their strong points.

What do you do when you are not working on your blog?

If I'm not working on my blog I am probably doing work for my degree in Fashion Journalism. I don't think a day goes by where I don't write about fashion at some point. But outside of writing at the moment I am seriously obsessed with watching Brothers & Sisters, I could do that all day.

Describe a typical day.

The first thing I do when I wake up is go online. I don't think I have a 'typical' day as such but there will normally be blogging involved. Haha.

Name your top fashion icons.

This is hard; I love Diane Kruger, Nicole Richie, Mary-Kate Olsen, Carine Roitfeld and Chloe Sevigny. There are so many women. I love Rachel Zoe's look too, the 1970s is one of my favourite decades for fashion so I love how she references it so strongly in her style. I always go back to Ashley Olsen and Sarah Jessica Parker when I need inspiration though.

Name five blogs that you read religiously.

Fashionista, Fashionologie, Just Jared, Lainey Gossip and Discotheque Confusion as me and Stevie started blogging around the same time and I always love to see what she's doing.

How do you see Coco's Tea Party evolving over the next two years?

I don't really have a plan with Coco's Tea Party, and I never had which odd for me as I'm so OCD. It's the only thing that I've ever just let float along. I would like some magazines to give the blog a mention, which I know isn't really that important but it would be quite flattering, especially as I've been writing for almost three years now.

Single Women Can't Cook

I was watching that new series that started last week called Brothers and Sisters. It is a drama starring Calista Flockhart, she of Ally McBeal fame who plays Kitty Walker, a hard driven career woman. Brothers and Sisters is an ok drama, nothing remarkable apart from one scene where Kitty is making dinner for her boyfriend. She is on the phone and then we see her rush to the oven and take out some burnt dinner. Yep, girlfriend might kick ass as a TV host but she is totally wack in the kitchen. If that scene sounds familiar then it is probably because you have seen it a thousand times before. How many times have we seen single career women on TV being portrayed as undomesticated and unable to boil an egg? Let me see there was the tough DC Jane Tennison played by Helen Mirren in the award winning Prime Suspect who lived on recipe dishes. So lame was she in the culinary stakes that her boyfriend who was also a Policeman had to come round and rustle up a tasty dish for her after witnessing the sad contents of her fridge. Funny how he managed to cook and hold down a career at the same time. As much as I loved Sex and the City that show also let me down in the kitchen as well. Neither of my gals could cook to save their lives and in fact a couple of them seemed proud of it. The closest Miranda ever got to the kitchen was when she was putting her Chinese takeaway onto her fancy plates and Samantha only seem to go into her kitchen when she was looking for the wine corker. The hopeless Susan from Desperate Housewives couldn't cook either, oh and neither could Bridget Jones - the ultimate singleton. I once saw a documentary a few years ago about modern relationships where a bunch of guys where discussing the perils of the modern lady. One of them said that if you went to a young lady's home and you looked in her fridge you wouldn't see any food but you could bet on finding a couple of bottles of wine in there. How cheeky!!


I am a single woman but I can cook, in fact if I couldn't cook I would probably starve as there would be no-one else to cook for me. Either that or I would go bankrupt from eating out all the time. I am sure there are lots of single woman who cannot cook but there also are loads that can and I think it is ludicrous and harmful to consistently present single ladies who do not know one end of the kitchen to another. Most of the women I know simply adore cooking and love trying out new dishes and the majority of them have fantastic kitchens to cook in. With food being the new black and chefs such as Jamie Oliver and Gordon Ramsey now household names it is time TV bosses got real and started portraying single women in a realistic view. Great in the boardroom and fabulous in the kitchen. Thank god for Nigella Lawson with her wonderful foodie programmes, as well as the delightful programme, Dish it Up which features singers and best chums, Neneh Cherry and Andrea Oliver.