The brand Pono was named after a close friend of the designer who epitomises the “Aloha Spirit” of always being cool and mellow. Pono is known for its beautiful range of horn and resin cuffs hand-made in Italy and sold at Saks, Neimans, Takashimaya and Bergdorfs.

What we absolutely loved from their current collection are these brightly coloured handmade beaded bracelets made by Maasai women in Kenya and called the Brightness of Life collection. Pono has pledged a portion of the earnings from the sales of these vibrant hand-beaded bangles to The Give a Girl a Chance programme spearheaded by an NGO that aims to address and remedy the current imbalance of opportunity for women and girls limited by financial resources and cultural restrictions. 

Wear a cause on your arm with Brightness of Life.

Ex-model Tarah Smith knows bags…and she has her own idiosyncratic design aesthetic – forged as a very young girl playing dress-up in her mum’s tossed aside vintage wardrobe; as an adolescent in the world of performing arts; and then in her later years as a fashion model traversing the globe.

Her eponymous handbag line epitomises her unique life experiences as Tarah throws out conventions and disregards rules to create handbags which she says are a mix of “soul, funk and downtown outrageous style”.  We brought that style to Q….and we present Tarah’s Wino, Baby Mama, Lush and Penny Pincher!

Flowers herald in summer at Q where you can make an au courant statement wearing Brooklyn-based Alexis Bittar’s range of resin cuffs featuring Monet-style impressionist flowers or his gold-, silver- or gunmetal over-sized graphic cuffs. 

These architectural-style cuffs have taken the fashion media by storm and have been extensively featured in fashion spreads in Vogue, Harpers, Elle et al - indeed thats how we spotted the line!

No flash-in-the-pan man is Alexis whose design pedigree is varied, diverse and substantial…he designed Burberry’s first couture jewellery collection – translating their signature plaid onto HIS signature lucite, worked with Pat Fields on the jewellery for Sex and the City, co-designed jewellery for Oscar de la Renta and Geoffrey Beene, collaborated with Michael Kors and Tuleh to create jewellery collections, has bejeweled Carolyn Murphy in three global Estee Lauder print campaigns and is stocked at Saks, Barneys, Harrods, Takashimaya and now at Q.

We met Vita Fede designer Cynthia Sakai and her mum Chieko in Los Angeles recently – they took us for a delicious Japanese dinner. We were blown away by vivacious young Cynthia who is an inspiring combination of talent and energy. She also told us about the love of her life, her in-house model Faith (Fede is the Italian word for Faith). We loved this picture of Faith and here it is ….

Quick Note: Cynthia is also going to be designing an accessories line for an international high-end label. Watch this space for more details. And folks…she is only 26 years old!

One flip through the pages of People, Glamour, US Weekly and you will inevitably come across a picture of actress and stylish mum Angelina Jolie toting one of her babes in her slim arms, dressed in a plain white tank and slim black pants and always, always looking classically cool in a pair of aviators.

I love the look and set myself the task of finding the sunglasses. Mission accomplished this June – thank you Jeremy Lindberg from Agent 001 – the answer, drum roll please, is Beryll. T and I headed to the Santa Monica showroom and were wowed by the presentation made by Petra Berg, international sales director and wife of the designer Sigmar Berg. We tried and tried every single model in the showroom and with Petra’s sound advice chose over 30+ pairs excluding two pairs for me.

The sunglasses are different from any other I have ever owned - and I can not live without sunglasses. Not only do they provide 100 per cent filter from harmful UVA and UVB lenses, sit comfortably on the face but they are truly design-led. It makes sense, designer Sigmar Berg is an architect cum artist cum visionary whose totally handmade metal or acetate frames can be adjusted to frame each face. The tagline on each pair of Beryll sunglasses is “worn by good people”. Be one of them…