Well, as you all may or not know, I went to London last Thursday. I mean Friday morning, no thanks to Aer Lingus canceling my flight 5 minutes before boarding, with absolutely no warning of a delay or anything… no, I’m not AT ALL bitter. Honest. Just as well I have friends in Dublin that I could call at half 9 at night to come rescue me. (for those of you not in the know I live in Galway, which is a 3 hour bus journey away from Dubin) Like I said not bitter.
Anyway, I got another flight for Friday morning and arrived to my lovely hostess/tour guide/ friend’s house around 11, so not too much time wasted! We had a quick breakfast of mimosa’s, scrambled eggs, smoked salmon and croissants (which is really the only way to eat after getting an early morning flight) and headed off.
I’m not sure if I mentioned it, but, the point of this trip was to get a bit of an idea of what the vintage scene around London was like. Ive been to London 3 times, and the first 2 times I was quite young and spent 12 hours wandering up and down Oxford street, with heart palpitations and my mouth hanging open in awe, along with my very empty wallet and overused credit card. (damn you selfridges and topshop) The last time was in 2007, and it was with my boyfriend (so no shopping) and we actually did some sight seeing and went to see the Chinese terracotta army exhibit in the British Museum. Its at this point I have to confess, I could not even remember what it was we saw at the museum (had to ask), my idea of sightseeing is in fact shopseeing, so it was a very different trip for me.
This time around, I wanted to check out some vintage spots, (given that it is my new career) so after stuffing my face, we headed over to our first area, East London. We basically spent the whole day wandering around the Spitalfield markets and Brick Lane. I visited a lot of really great stores and at one stage we randomly came across Gordon Ramsey, serving curry for charity. Well, he was actually done, and getting lots of pictures taken. (no i didnt get any)
The stores I visited were all fairly similar in their stock, with rails and rails crammed full of vintage and honestly Ive never seen so many vintage shoes lined up in any one place. The first ports of call were, Blondie, Rokit, Beyond Retro and Absolute Vintage. Out of these 4, I liked Rokit and Blondie the best, more to do with the layout and the way they were decorated as opposed to the difference of stock. I found Blondie to be the most boutique like, as it was less cluttered and it featured more dressy vintage. Rockit was more casual, but again it felt more organized then the other 2. All of them were great and it was nice to see so many in one area, as in Ireland they are few and far between.
I did visit more stores that day, but I dont want to overload it all into one post. Ill continue the London stories over rest of this week and the next! x
The All Saints Display. I would not let myself go in...
