Carnaby and Vans

There are quite a few things that allure me onto Carnaby street Beyond Retro, Liberty’s, Pret a mange, and the Vans store now mainly ok it’s for the cute guys but it’s also for the cute shoes and the fact you don’t feel completely none existent, like when you walk into a designer shop. It’s down to earth it’s a little over crowded but it’s really chilled and sells affordable pretty cool stuff. It is very boy orientated and I myself prefer the boys shoes to the girls, I don’t know somehow when they try to make girls shoes they make them for Avril Lavigne, all they need to do is make the boys shoes in girls sizes if I’m honest. The shop is on two floors men’s ground and women’s upstairs. The men’s is like a little hut, wooden with metal features, with a games section in the back where they sell all the ski equipment and mainly shoes at the front, which is the focus point of the store as that’s where Vans started out. In-between are plenty of thick jumpers, hoody’s and chequered shirts in browns and purples rather than last year’s oranges. The staff are really friendly and approachable they ask if your alright and let you get on with it. Prices start at about £15 and whenever I’ve been in they’ve always got some sort of sale going on shoes. The mannequins are odd a bit like the character from that god awful offspring song made in Britain worst ever I don’t know what they were thinking.
http://www.vans.com/vans/intl.html
God awful mannequin man from the offspring... blargh

webpage

lush vans

gorgeous

I’ve lived in London for about a year and a half now and until today I had been down Bond Street once. When you hear about it you imagine it to be a different world, a better more wondrous place where the footpaths are made of coble stone and the roads are dead or closed of at least, because it is the pinnacle of indulgent spending people travel across country to come to this very street. But the reality is a letdown loads of vans loads of taxi’s lots of business men and for some reason lots of rich German people in eccentric hats. Though Coming here at Christmas time was the best idea to date, all the window displays are lush, Miu Miu has a mannequin covered head to toe in large diamond gold sequins, Tiffany’s jewels are inset into carved white paper fairytale scenes and Nicole Farhi has 4ft tool snowballs in the window, the size of the window may be small but they make the most of it. Me and knitwear are having a love affair and the one place before even thinking Bond street, but just in general was Pringle and there it was in all its Bond street glory on a corner facing Fenwicks. Pringle of Scotland has one of the larger window displays on bond street the privilege of being on a corner I presume. One wall has a grey and white geometric print on it with the current autumn winter show playing on an embedded television and the other side, outfits suitable for evening wear are displayed, a short black knitted dress and a girl flying towards the window with a cardigan covered in orange and brown feathers, gorgeous. You enter and a smartly but ever so friendly guard sheepishly says hello and then even in my parka I felt half decent to walk in, I was in fact the only customer in the shop and so all eyes were on me, I did have rather large pockets maybe they thought I would steal something, wouldn’t surprise me, anyway the shop was more like a boutique it was lush, the floor is a dusty white and all the tables are made of glass, walls are finished with black wooden shelves. Everything is spacious and music is modern & chilled. Clothes were mainly hung on rails, sectioned off into looks and only one item of each garment was hung. This gives it an air of limitedness and also means to try your size you would have to talk to the sales assistant I went upstairs, great winding ones. There is no real separation of day and nightwear it comes across as if these outfits were for any occasion, the menswear was at the back and made up of a much smaller section. The layout was the same upstairs minimal and rectangular, a little less luxurious garments were on show but still as highly priced then at the back is a large till which behind it has shelves neatly folded Pringle jumpers in loads of different colours are placed. Prices range from £600 to well I don’t know a lot. The sales assistance said hello but were slightly moody , such a shame when I was enjoying looking at all these clothes up close rather than on style.com. I love Pringle though the garments definitely sell themselves. The jist of shoppers around Bond street are either young arty types 1930’s style circle glasses and rolled up trousers or fussy old ladies with real fur neck scarves and a broche most probably of something furry also maybe a claw of some kind, you can imagine.

More Pringle Loving

these images clarify i must go to Bond street and must go in Pringle of Scotland ASAP

Pringle is Sexy

Oxford street...shop report times

I chose to begin my shop report on Oxford street, pretty much everyone’s heard of it, and it’s like the shopping epicentre of London everything seems to come off of it . Leicester square, Soho, Saville row, Bond and Carnaby street and well there are just a ridiculous amount of shops to chose from round there, some good Topshop, American apparel and urban outfitters and some not so good..Bik Bok and ones without names that sell tourist crap and cowboy hats that I’m still uncertain to how they manage to pay for rental on possibly the most expensive street around .I came out of the Underground bustle via floating, the Christmas shopping is upon us as are some very pitiful Christmas lights. I was so kindly carried out by a heard of young women and found my feet at the newly sorted traffic light system facing Nike town, the streets were mental and to be honest I was rethinking my shop report tactics, would I have been better to come first thing like really really early the answer yes!. I’m getting the sweats from just thinking about it. So I moseyed up Oxford Street passing Topshop which was followed by me walking back on myself and actually going into Topshop. There Christmas stock is to die for all sparkly and lacy with huge beautiful black knits. I only bought some sparkly tights ...note to self don’t go in again before Christmas or I will leave with EVERYTHING. So down Oxford street I go passing Urban outfitters, American Apparel, La Senza, Uniqlo, GAP, Zara, H and M those kind of things and though I love most they’re real commercial and well I’ve been there done that I want to explore shops I wouldn’t normally. I get home and realise that all I’ve learnt and reported on is what I know I’m not going to do and that’s Oxford Street it’s too mental for me to handle at Christmas. I have a little google map time and come to the conclusion that Oxford Street is the epicentre but my shop report will take place in Carnaby and Bond street....NEXT TRIP BOND STREET.