Pre-Raphaelite Art and Shopping?! Heaven!

Firstly, I’d like to apologise for the idiotic length of time it has taken me to post a second entry up on here. I have been sans regular internet for most of the summer. But I have it back now, so let’s waste no time!

London: 16th August 2009

Today started with my friend Alexandra and I going to the Royal Academy to see a John William Waterhouse exhibition. It was utterly fantastic and I shall write more about it on Windmills.

Much as I’d like to say my sole interest today was Pre-Raphaelite artwork, I cannot deny that the Academy’s proximity to Regent Street made me very happy. I do not need to tell you that Regent/Oxford Street are great for the big flagships of highstreet stores, so I’ll just review the shops I bought clothes in.

 Mango

Mango is a Spanish chain which also happens to be one of my favourite highstreet brands. My hometown is severely lacking in one and I always find nice things whenever I go into the London stores. For some reason I always assume it to be expensive, but it is no more so than Topshop or other “higher-end” shops. The layout of most of their branches is also quite nice; it feels like a laidback boutique. I tried on a vast amount of dresses. Most of the things I liked were floral, folksy print dresses that wouldn’t look out of place at Cropredy, but they also have a lot of more hard-edged stuff (see the range being modelled in the latest campaign by Ms. Scarlett Johansson) including a wonderfully awful leather dress which I tried on, and subsequently got stuck in. Unfortunately, only one of the items I tried on fitted, but it was beautiful. A short, woollen early-60s style shift dress in a browny tartan pattern flicked with a gorgeous purple, and buttons on the chest. Total spend: £45. Not too shabs. Thumbs up.

Marshmallow Mountain, Kingly Court (off Carnaby St)

Kingly Court is a lovely secluded courtyard of shops, spread over three (I think) floors. Marshmallow Mountain is on the ground floor and it is FABULOUS. Really cute vintage finds – excellent for those awful-yet-wonderful-despite-yourself 80s prom dresses and loose fitting 70s sundresses. However, its main appeal for me is the shoes. The pairs in here are truly wonderful! Sadly, those with feet bigger than a size 5 might struggle to find many pairs. As with most vintage shoes, they tend to be on the smaller size. That said, they do have a whole rack for size 7/8 and I picked up a DIVINE pair of sparkly evening slingbacks. I will attempt to upload a photo of them once I get over my technophobia.

Stromboli’s Circus, Kingly Court

Stromboli’s is another Kingly Court vintage store. Fabulous clothes are to be expected, but what makes this place that little bit more special is that it is also a vintage lifestyle store. You can pick up old magazines, telephones, toys and all sorts of other knick-knacks. It’s just fabulous. No expense has been spared in cultivating the retail space into a kitschy, fun vintage wonderland which shows exactly how much the owners care for their little piece of London. You’re pretty much left to browse at your own will but the staff are friendly and helpful (the poor chap working their had to dismantle a carefully styled mannequin for me to try on a cute lacey dress that didn’t even fit) should you ask them anything. Just a lovely, fun place to shop.

Dahlia, Foubert’s Place (off Carnaby St)

 
This boutique is one of my favourites. A soft, blue facade with divinely attired mannequins in the window invites you in and then YOU NEVER WANT TO LEAVE! At least, not without having spent enough to singlehandedly restore our faltering economy. This is easily done – items tend to be around the £65-80 mark, but are completely worth it. Today was my second proper visit here. The first time I bought a beautiful orange/white stripe and navy playsuit, this time I purchased a fantastic green funnel-neck princess coat (again, pictures shall be uploaded once I find out how). It’s a small boutique, but well-loved and well-worth visiting. There’s always lots to lust after. You can buy Dahlia clothing on ASOS, and they also have their own website if you have trouble getting to the capital.

Liberty, Regent Street

Liberty is my favourite of the big London department stores. It’s always such an atmospheric experience here and feels as though one were rummaging through the house of a fabulously eccentric old lady. And that’s a GOOD thing. Of course, my budget stretched to absolutely nothing in here, but that didn’t stop me bursting an ovary over a divine purple bag that was precisely the Most Beautiful Thing I Have Ever Beheld. Liberty is always a fun place to look around, and if you can afford the lovely things then I’m very happy for you, you lucky thing! One day, one day…

And that’s another shopping day (finally) documented. Hopefully I won’t take so long with the next update!

Add a comment August 17, 2009

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside!

Brighton, 17th-19th May 2009

The formation of the blog starts after a lovely couple of days spent in wonderful Brighton! The official reason I was in Brighton was to see a friend in a play, but my real interest was, of course, shopping. Brighton has the usual good mix of highstreet fare, located closer to the seafront, but the main shopping gems are to be found in the North Laines area (http://www.northlaine.co.uk/). I’m pants with directions but any map of Brighton will tell you where to go.

The Wax Factor – 24 Trafalgar St, http://www.thewaxfactor.com

The Wax Factor is a lovely little second-hand record and book shop. The place feels quite cramped, but this soon becomes a thing of joy as you realise that the shelves are packed full of all sorts of wonders! It also extends back quite a way, but the shop as a whole is fairly narrow. I was mainly looking at the books, but I could tell by the way that people were ferretting around enthusiastically through the vinyl that the music selection must’ve been pretty good too.  I adore second hand bookshops, not only because cheap books are like cheap crack to me, but also because of the lovely editions to be found. I also managed to pick up a copy of Kate Chopin’s ‘The Awakening’, a book for my degree course that would’ve cost me at least £6 anywhere else, for less than £2. The store has a section for ‘the classics’, but its main fiction section has some interesting titles to stumble upon. Not a traditional range at all. It also has books on politics, history, philosophy and, being in Brighton, gaylit. A lovely little place with staff who are non-intrusive, but whom you feel would know what they were talking about were you to ask them for advice. Just don’t take in a massive load of bags like I did.

Rainbow Books – 28 Trafalgar St

This place made me so unbelievably happy. I went in and saw a shop that, with its disarrayed shelves and seeming lack of organisation, resembled my life! There are some beautiful old editions of books to be found upstairs, including a lot of poetry – something that always makes me happy. The real joy, however, arrived when I went downstairs. Oh the wonderful chaos! Books literally scattered everywhere, across old furniture, on the floor! Such an enticement for a good rummage! Whilst the lack of organisation may not be to everyone’s tastes, I found it charming. The owner of the shop was happy to let you get on with your browsing, but there to help if you needed it. They also have a coffee machine and chairs, so you can relax and read your purchases. Utterly fantastic little place!

To Be Worn Again – 24a Sydney St

This vintage shop has a cute, hippie exterior – complete with flowers! – that is really welcoming. The guy beyond the counter was also friendly, containing his laughter when I started wailing that ‘THE SHOOOOOOOES NEED MEEEEEEE’ rather well. Well done, Sir. Sadly, I didn’t really find much to my taste in terms of clothes. Having said that, the womens’ section was a lot smaller than the mens’, so blokes you may well find more to suit you here. Despite this lack of desirable attire, this shop is well worth a nose in purely for its divine collection of vintage shoes. They were beautiful! Sadly they were all too small for my cumbersome giant’s feet, but if you’re a dainty-toed girly looking for something special to put on your tootsies this would be a good place. Upstairs there is a guitar store, but I didn’t really look there so can’t really offer an opinion.

Hope & Harlequin – 31 Sydney St

This place is a real treasure trove if you’re looking for one-off vintage pieces. It stocks a beautiful range, dating as far back as the Victorian era. A really nice touch about Hope & Harlequin is that the owner has written ‘how-to-wear’ suggestions on the tags, helping you to style the pieces with more contemporary clothing. My favourite items in here were some lovely 1930s bias cut gowns. I could never wear them – my body is designed to suit the more forgiving styles of the 50s – but I loved to fashionperv over them! Understandably, everything in here was way out of my price range, but most things were under £200 so if you’re looking for a fantastic event outfit that stands out from the crowd, this would be a good start. If I’m honest, the proprietor seemed a little stand-offish, but I’m guessing it was obvious I wouldn’t be buying. I’d hope for a little more politeness if I was genuinely inquiring about a purchase. Don’t let that put you off though, Hope & Harlequin has a lot of very rare and very beautiful things to offer.

Get Cutie – 33 Kensington Gdns, http://www.getcutie.co.uk/

Get Cutie is 50s fabulous! Some seriously wacky prints (I was drooling over a dress covered in pictures of Elvis) combined with lovely 50s cuts makes for gorgeous dresses! Things were pricey – most dresses were around the £80 mark – but for dresses this pretty and stylish I’d  be willing to fork out. A great thing about Get Cutie is that its sizing takes into account bust size, so you won’t have that hideous problem of having to buy two sizes bigger if you’re on the busty end of the scale. They offer S, M, L and XL bust sizes. Good on them! It’s about time that everywhere started doing this. A very enthusiastic recommendation from me.

Dirty Harry – 6 Sydney St

This place had a really nice selection of vintage, reworked and new clothing. The men’s shirts in particular were very good. I tried a couple of cute pieces on, but sadly they didn’t fit. However, there were lots of cute things at very reasonable prices on offer. The store also seems to take into account that whilst vintage patterns may be desirable, the cuts are often too dated to conceivably wear day-to-day. This problem was seemingly being solved by an adorable man upstairs who was very busy with a sewing machine! Lovely.

Starfish – 25 Gardner St

I went in here and immediately fell in love with the girl working there. She was a 1960s dream – red shift dress, white tights and white low-heel shoes! A very good start, that was not let down once I started browsing. A very good selection of reasonably priced vintage. Lots of very pretty things. I came over all girly. More girly than I usually am. The store has a very cute, fun atmosphere. I had exactly the right response to Starfish and would definitely go back if I’m ever in Brighton again.

And that’s Brighton, done and dusted. Where will my shopping adventures take me too next? Hopefully some kind of floral-print, vintage Wonderland!

1 comment May 21, 2009