Aside from confirming that she plans to relocate to England 'in the interest of pursuing other opportunities' and blogging, not much has been said about the reason behind Amanda Brooks' shock departure from the Barneys.

Speculation about the real reason behind her decision to leave ranged from her simply losing interest in the role to the move being a way to support her brother-and-sister-in-law, Charlie and Rebekah Brooks, who were recently charged with perverting the course of justice. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Brooks' decided to shed more light more about her decision.

'It was because of Ree Drummond's blog, The Pioneer Woman," said Ms. Brooks, who has recently returned to a blog, ILoveYourStyle.com, that she started after publishing the 2009 book, which had the same name. Reading a New Yorker profile last year of Ms. Drummond, a mother of four who lives on a cattle ranch outside Pawhuska, Okla., and posts prolifically on subjects like how to make cornmeal pancakes (using catchphrases like "yahoo, yippety") "got me really fired up," Ms. Brooks went on. "It's the idea of having a career on your own terms, anywhere.'

In the piece Brooks hints that the demanding nature of the job had a part to play too resulting in her losing a lot of weight due to the '14-hour days and then all the travelling.' Despite trying to scale back, she's still keeping busy and has a second book in the works, 'which will focus on stories of inspiration and influence over her 20-plus years in the fashion industry,' Bee-Shyuan Chang wrote. 'I've spent my entire career devoted to the vision of others,' Brooks said. 'This year is for introspection. For myself.'

Image via Jessica Biel Twitter

Back in July Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen launched their new handbag line for the The Row at Barneys and while the collection was all really good, nobody could stop talking about their black crocodile skin backpack that retails for a whopping $39,000. 'I think if you were every going to spend $39,000 on a bag, that’s the bag you should buy because I think you’d wear it for a really long time,” Amanda Brooks, former fashion director at Barneys, said at the time. 'There’s enough design to make it interesting and beautiful but they truly are classic bags–and I think you also might be the only one who has it.'

While that might be true, we haven't seen anyone sport the bag or more importantly, actually purchase one, but it looks like Jessica Biel might be the first person to actually own it. This week she posted this image of her wearing the backpack on Twitter saying, 'In love with my #therow backpack. Thanks Ashley!' Biel's version isn't the crocodile skin style but still comes in at around $10,000. The tweet made it clear that she didn't actually buy it but she's definitely the first star to get their hands on one.

Are you a fan?

When Amanda Brooks confirmed that she had resigned from her role as fashion director at Barneys, a role she had been in for only a little over a year, we were all surprised. At the time she said the move was part of a plan to relocated to England 'in the interest of pursuing other opportunities' but didn't explain exactly what these were. Yesterday we learnt a little bit more about what she has planned.

In her first blog post after announcing her appointment at Barneys, Brooks wrote:

Hi there. I’m back!

So, recently my family and I made the decision to spend a year on our farm in Oxfordshire, England. I am calling it my “creative sabbatical.” First on my agenda? To get my blog and up and running again. I also have ambitious writing plans for the next year, and you all will be the first to know about them as they unfold. In the meantime, here is a look at my future dwelling, all about which I will share when I arrive there at the end of June. Stay tuned!

Read more after the jump