TZ-UK contributors back Miele

A fellow called PS ranked Captain on the TZ-UK forum, the friendly place to discuss watches without oppressive moderation, has decided it is time to talk washing machines!

“Does anyone own a Miele – if so, what is the general experience with them in terms of reliability?”

Quite a few responses have come in and on the whole have been positive. Goat is unsure of the model number but doesn’t let that discourage him from offering his experiences to the thread,

“Very pleased with my Miele. Not sure on the model number but it was the cheapest that John Lewis sold at the time – about £500 if I recall correctly, really has been faultless.”

And maybe the most striking recommendation comes from Treebirch,

“I have had quite a bit of experience with Miele on super yachts, generally they are industry standard based on the fact they are pretty much the only machine that can run 24/7, use very little water, make minimal noise and clock up epic usage. Last year I heard of one that had done 25,000 hours, getting rolled around on a busy charter sailing boat! Impressive!”

If you want to read the full thread just click on through, or if you have an opinion to share leave a comment below.

Miele Fashion Prize entry deadline approaching

The deadline for entries to the Miele Fashion Prize 2010 is fast approaching, but if you’re yet to enter, there is still time.

If you believe you can put together a design for a spectacular fashion masterpiece inspired by Miele’s washing machine garment care programs then you have until the 31st July to get your entry in. The winning designer will not only see their creation made a reality by Jasper Garvida, but they’ll also recieve £1000 worth of Miele appliances.

All of the details for the competition can be found in this Forever Better post and on the Miele Fashion Prize page, along with the entry form and template on which to draw your design.

Jenny the Style PA has also posted a reminder on the competition which features the 2009 winning design from Nathan Jones (pictured above),

“To enter this year’s contest, you have to design a dress which reflects one of the special fashion care programs on Miele’s laundry machines just like Nathan’s honeycomb idea. Find out more about wash cycles here.

You don’t need to be a fashion designer to take part, just grab a pen and paper and put your creativity to work. Who knows, you just might have what it takes to win.”

Indeed you might! Enter here.

You and Miele: Lola Re

In our latest installment from ‘You and Miele’, Vivian from Lola Re talks about why garment care is so important to her, and what we should all be wearing this summer. USA football kits anyone?

1. If Lola Re were a book, what would the blurb on the back of it say?
If you asked Lola Re her interests, she’d say ‘Cultural revolution, fashion, forward thinking and my hair – but not neccesarily in that order.’ Her blog reflects that; it’s a unique mix of musical refererences, profiles of emerging young fashion designers, daily style photos, and skin & haircare product reviews. She’d say it’s a work in fashion progress.

2. Aside from fashion and beauty, what other passions / interests do you have?
Dancing, holistic health & independent film. I also love camper vans, tea and my family.

3. How important is garment care to you? Do you have favourite items that require special care?
That’s a great question and one I think should be focused on more by young fashionistas. If you’re going to build up a collection of unique and significant pieces, then you should take proper care of them! Ironing is a good start… Miele makes a Rotary Ironer that is incredible. You sit down at it and feed your clothes through, and it has multiple settings and a little arm that swings out to hold the items you’ve just ironed without creasing them. It’s brilliant!

4. We noticed you’ve been getting involved in the World Cup festivities. So, who’s going to win it?
I am probably the least qualified person to say! I do however wish I could meet whoever designed the USA’s team uniforms. How dashing is the white sash detailing across the front?! It makes the players look like princes.

5. You graced our presence at last year’s Jasper Garvida catwalk show. What kind of events would you like to see us run in the future, for Fashionistas like yourself?
I loved attending the Sparks & Miele charity fashion show last fall. I realised that we fashion bloggers can use our newfound influence to help causes. Let’s get everyone in a room, throw a fashion show, raise some money and maybe even donate some clothing. We could call it Charity Shop 2.0. That would be so much fun!

6. Finally, we at Forever Better could do with some fashion pointers… What sort of clothes and accessories should we be adorning ourselves with this summer?
I am currently infatuated with chunky wooden heels and clog sandals. Now, these can be quite tricky to style into an outfit, so I’d recommend an open toe design and tousled, windswept summer hair to balance out the bulk of the shoe. I like the ones I stole from my sister.

I think one of the bright crocheted dresses from Jasper Garvida’s S/S 10 collection would look incredible with chunky wooden clogs and a brown leather bag on a Saturday afternoon in some London market… Dreamy.

Thanks vivian. Head over to Lola Re to see all of her latest outfits and find out more about Lola Re.

Miele at Grand Designs Live

Forever Better visited Grand Designs Live and two of our guests, Gary and Jenny have put together their thoughts on Miele’s presence at the show.

Gary, The Inspirational Geek, has provided an in depth and visually rich rundown of what the day involved, in particular the Miele stand,

“The Miele stand was once again showing off their new range of kitchen products. Steam ovens, coffee machines and induction hobs that look great and have the industry renowned function to accompany. It’s also credit to Miele that some of the smaller brand stands were even using Miele ovens and fridges to surround their own products, they are the industry level of association and image other people want.”

He also talks about the live demonstrations and especially enjoyed the ‘hilarious’ Nancy Lam who was demonstrating Miele’s induction hob and submerged wok work station.

Jenny, The Style PA, has written a post at Yell.com under the interior design section. There’s talk of all that the show entailed and how seeing the state of the art homes of the future was a real eye opener.

In regard to Miele Jenny lists the products that impressed her and gives her thoughts on the Miele appliances,

“[…] their appliances are the most intelligent I’ve seen. This is one company that really has thought of everything, and we’re not talking gimmicks. As a Miele representative gave me a demo of the range you could see how every feature was a real solution to a problem or a way to make people’s lives easier.”

One thing that Jenny really loved was the Miele collaboration with SieMatic. Together they’ve utilized wireless technology to create a multimedia system that is integrated with the kitchen and can all be monitored and controlled from a single head unit. Very cool.

You can read the full posts at Yell.com and Inspirational Geek (Gary also has a photo set of the day at Flickr) where you can leave your comments and let them know your thoughts.

If you’d like to get involved with Forever Better and Miele then let us know by getting in touch below.

Grand Designs Live – a grand day out

Saturday saw Forever Better attend Grand Designs Live in the wonderful company of Gary @gthornton101, Amy @lipgloss86 and Jenny @the_style_pa.

The exhibition is huge and after an initial stroll about the space investigating what was on offer it was time for some lunch. Having secured seats in one of the in-house restaurants everyone was able to fuel up for an afternoon of design based discovery.

This began with Miele’s Live Kitchen Experience. Thanks to a Twitpic courtesy of Gary, you can see the setup, which gave everyone the opportunity to watch experts demonstrate the many uses for the Miele steam ovens amongst other things.

After that there was a seminar given by Andreas Enslin, Global Head of Design at Miele on what the future holds for the design world and how appliances will improve in line with such changes. This was followed by enjoying the outrageous, excitable and all round crazy (in a good way) Nancy Lam cook up a beef stir-fry on the Miele stand.

There was still time for some more exploration of the show, in particular the Philips Home of the Future. The power of a disco mirrors…

If you want to know more of what went on keep your eye on the blogs of Gary (Inspirational Geek), Jenny (The Style PA) and Amy (LipGloss86). Jenny as already uploaded some photos to her Flickr photostream and we’ve got ours set up here.