My last post may have sung the praises of Topshop for their amazing handbag collection but it is a fickle world and a fashionista is entitled to change her mind.

I now have a problem with shopping in Topshop or at least their swimwear department (that’s if you can even call it a department).
Trying on swimwear in any shop can be an ordeal for most women. Bad lighting that exposes all your lumps and bumps and hideously fattening mirrors can make you wonder why you booked that beach holiday in Spain at all.

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse imagine going to try on lots of lovely bikinis at Topshop only to find that you can only take three at a time into the fitting room (each bikini counts as two pieces of clothing and six items is the max). Now if that’s not enough to put you off imagine going into the changing room to find the bikini tops and bottoms tagged together “for security reasons”.

I kindly asked one of the shop assistants if they could untag the items and retag them in a more convenient way so I could try them on. They refused saying that I could just try on one piece at a time. How ludicrous! Isn’t the whole point of trying on bikinis so that you can see how it looks TOGETHER? You can’t try on a triangle top properly if the pants are tagged to the neck ties now can you?

I suggest Topshop rethink their bizarre policies but until then I will stick to lovely swimwear boutiques such as Heidi Klein and Melissa Odabash. The bikinis might be slightly overpriced but at least you can actually try them on and in decent light too!

It’s been a frustrating 18 months in the handbag department - yes, that is the last time I splashed out on a new bag! Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely love my Pauric Sweeeney bag which cost me a month’s rent but the truth is that the world of designer handbags has become an overpriced market more about what bag, which WAG rather than design. Then there are all the rip offs, walk down Portobello Road on any day of the week, fancy a PVC Marc Jacobs Stam? A vinyl Chloe Paddington perhaps? You want it? You got it!

No thanks. I don’t want to spend the best part of a grand on a Louis V or a Miu Miu only to find German tourists buying cheap imitations down the road.

That’s why Topshop’s new range of high quality but reasonably priced leather bags is a godsend. Starting at £45 for a medium sized handbag and going up to £120 for an oversized holdall, they might not be Balenciaga in terms of design detail but the washed leather gives them a touch of quality rarely seen on high street handbags.

And at those prices you can have a different bag for everday of the week!