Marni x H&M in Brighton

Yes, I was one of the fashion sheep queuing up for my ten minutes in the Marni x H&M pen today. As I'd cleared it with work to go in late - a fashion & retail editor needs to be top of this type of fashion frenzy, or something like that - I rocked up to the Western Road store at 8.45am. Not quite early enough, it turned out, but as I was in Brighton and not London (3am people, 3am), this secured me a wristband for the 9.55am slot.


Just enough time for an M&S lingerie jaunt and to feel the excitement build as I queued with my fellow fashion fans. Unlike the Versace hoards, this wasn't one for the teenagers. Marni being a favourite of chic Italian businesswoman, the majority of those queuing were in their thirties and forties, all anxiously watching as the groups in front of us frenziedly snapped up the pieces on their hit list.


When it came for my group's ten minute slot, many of the items I'd had my eye on - the polka dot trousers, bunny T-shirt and silk shirt - had gone, or existed only in a size 6 or 8. But I did manage to pick up the Sixties-style polka dot coat, cut in a lovely boxy, swing style, and cute jacquard top. Both very wearable and pretty reasonable at £79.99 and £59.99 respectively.


Shoppers were only allowed to take one piece of each style and the timed slots and re-stocking were managed with military precision by the H&M staff, so I didn't really understand the grumbles from those who joined the queue a little later. "So we might not get what we want?". "Well I don't have time for this". Erm, that's kind of the point, that's what 'limited edition' entails - why it's such a big deal...


I dropped by after work to see what was left and it was as if it'd never happened - every-day stock was back in place and the only hint of Marni mania left were two rails dotted with stiff and shiny patent leather tops and teeny tiny sizes.

What did you think of the collection? Did you manage to pick up your favourite pieces?

Christmas windows - Brighton Lanes

Fairy lights, foxes and decadent displays - the shop windows in Brighton's Lanes have infected me with Christmas spirit today. Ho, ho, ho!

Urban Outfitters opens in Brighton

After months of shielded building works, Churchill Square's old Borders store opened up as Brighton's first Urban Outfitters today. And it's well worth the wait.


The layout and offering of the huge upstairs women's section makes next door's H&M, and all of the other high-street chain shops in Brighton, look shabby and tired by comparison.

Boutique collections, a vintage section and homewares, books and gifts (check out this mini sewing machine) are presented as if in an eclectic designer bazaar, brought together by those with apparent excellent taste.

The dressing rooms are equally grown-up and spacious, and I spent an enjoyable ten minutes trying on some of the cutest Peter Pan collar pieces.


Left to right: t.b.a velvet antique collar dress, £150, Pins and Needles velvet collar blouse, £45, Cooperative school boy blouse, £42.

The shirt in the middle (currently sold out online) is so soft and versatile that it was swiftly added to my Christmas/January sales/whenever I have the money hit-list.

And to go with the 1960s/school-boy look I spotted some stunning box bags and satchels, such as the metal handle lady bag, flower tooled bag and old school olive satchel.

Of course, Urban Outfitters is that bit more expensive than its high street competitors, but the store experience and the unique pieces are worth saving up for.

A Bank Holiday hangover cure

After what had been a rather drunken Bank Holiday weekend – gigs, old friends, falling over – Irish and I thought it was about time we extracted our backsides from the sofa and away from the constant repeats of American Idol. So we headed off for a wholesome trip at the grandly named Hove Lagoon.

The Lagoon, in reality a small sailing lake between Brighton’s West Pier and Shoreham’s industrial works, is the preserve of young middle-class families. The dress code reads: Cath Kidston bag slung over the handles of a top-of-the-range pushchair: Small child with bike, scooter or similar erratically-ridden mini-vehicle: Overly-excitable dog optional.

Until recently I couldn’t imagine anything scarier or less-me than being a mother, but I’ve slowly been coming round to the idea of having children…one day. Perhaps because I’ve finally met a man who I think would be an excellent dad. But I’m still prone to veer from one way of thinking to the other, and did about twenty times during the trip to ‘this could be your future’ lagoon.

Cute, giggling child – yes, I’d like one of those please. Screaming, tantruming child – nah, you’re alright thanks. By the time we got to the lagoon, I’d decided that I could plump for a dog.

VBites

The café at the lagoon was re-opened by Heather Mills as vegan eatery VBites last July, and whatever you think of her – in my case not too much – is a great success. For its target audience it’s bang on the money, serving healthy and affordable food with a conveyer-belt full of ‘scrummy’ cakes – ooo, naughty!

The décor is fresh and comfortable with plenty of seating at the bar, tables and benches and the turn-over is high. This is a fast-food café in the pure sense of the term and despite our reservations about the slightly robotic 'smile-fixed-into-place but head-in-the-clouds' waitress, we didn’t have to drool over our neighbours' fajitas for too long before our own grub turned up.

Irish’s smoky vegan hot dog with homemade salsa and guacamole was delicious and surprisingly ‘meaty’, my falafel pitta with mixed leaves was also suitably filling, albeit a little dry, and baked oven chips helped fill the remaining hole.

On our way back we stopped off for an ice-cream at Marocco’s Italian sea-front café – along with everyone else in Brighton and Hove – and even managed to avoid the lure of a late afternoon pint. How middle class are we…

What Misha Makes

Marvelling at the tiny trinkets on Misha Brigemohane’s stall at Brighton’s Upper Gardner Street Market a couple of Saturdays ago, I could feel that it was a love affair in the making. But Irish was becoming impatient – there’s only so much time he can spend riffling through dog-eared books whilst waiting for my magpie impulse to wear off – so I took down her e-mail address and voila, we has words on the topic (and a few pictures too):


How long have you been making and selling jewellery?
I started making charm jewellery two years ago just as a hobby to begin with, but by the following year I found I had so many pieces that the only thing for me to do was to see if anyone else out there would enjoy wearing them. Suggested by a friend who is also a crafter, I set up my etsy page, www.mishamakes.etsy.com, in January 2009 and did my first stall in May.

Where do you take inspiration from?
I take inspiration from everywhere - memories, eras, film, music, art and current fashion trends. I draw a lot of inspiration from trends on the high street - they help me notice more themed charms. I also love anything that looks vintage, even if it's not and love Victorian style.

Where do you source your materials?
I collect things from all over the place - buttons, beads, anything small enough to go onto a necklace or ring. I'm a bit of a hoarder! They could be from car-boot sales, antique shops, flea markets, haberdasheries to the deep realms of the internet. Most of my charms these days are from the internet as I don’t have as much to hunt around as I did.

What are proving to be your most popular items at the moment?
Every week is different from the week before. At the moment I've sold a lot of ‘Drink Me’ necklaces inspired by Alice in Wonderland which is incredibly popular now the film is out. I also always sell lots of tea themed items like tiny tea cup and saucers on rings and necklaces - everyone loves a cuppa!

What are the top trends in jewellery design at the moment?
Vintage styled jewellery and trinket charm jewellery have a really strong presence within design at the moment and have done for a while, but I honestly don't pay much attention to current trends in jewellery design, I tend to just go with what I want to do and what I like and hope for the best!

Do you find it difficult to create original designs when there are so many independent jewellery makers trading on etsy and similar sites now?
Not at all, I have so many designs that I want to create and will never have enough time to make them all! I make jewellery because it makes me happy to create: it's my hobby and so it doesn't matter how many other similar sites there are. Whatever I sell is just a great bonus and so far I've been pretty lucky to sell enough to continue with my hobby!

How often do you create new designs?
My weeks are pretty full but I love creating - making jewellery is my therapy. When I get home from work I make two or three pieces of jewellery in the evening while there's a television programme on in the background.

Do you make much money from selling your jewellery?
Well I still have a full time "day job" – working five days a week in a boutique in the North Laine - but I make enough money to pay for my stalls and for more stock and that's enough for the time being. I'm gradually building up my reputation and setting up my own website, so we'll see how it goes!
Do you sell your jewellery any where else?
I recently set up a new page on Folksy.com which is pretty much the British alternative to Etsy.com - it's less vast than Etsy which can be overwhelming. I'm also part of a collective of crafters called Handmade Cooperative, a group of crafters who make handmade items. They hold an indoor market every other month at the Komedia and are currently about to open a new shop on St James's Street, Kemp Town, with the same idea. All crafters get their own space to sell their wares. It should hopefully be open by mid April and I'll have my own little section in there which is so exciting, I can't wait!

Look at the prettiness…see the things that are smaller than they are in real life…you want these trinkets to make you happy? You will find them here:
www.mishamakes.etsy.com
www.mishamakes.folksy.com
www.mishamakes.bigcartel.com

Green for ice cream

This season's sun dresses take inspiration from the floaty feminine styles of the Fifties and Sixties, but why get a copy when you can have the real thing? Traid in Brighton is currently in the midst of one of its legendary dirt-cheap sales and I picked up this beautiful pleated skirt dress for just £4!
What really put the cherry on top of this particularly tasty bargain sundae was the colour - a gorgeous pistachio/mint green, my two favourite flavours of ice cream and a perfect fit with spring/summer's pastel trend. And as luck would have it, I spotted a pair of stud heeled courts in a similar shade in Dorothy Perkins, reduced from £30 to £12! So that's my favourite summer dress-up outfit sorted for the mighty sum of £16. And to accessorise? I think a mint and pistachio cone or five will set off the look perfectly.

Vintage treasures at Kate and Aud

If there’s one thing that Brighton isn’t lacking, it’s vintage boutiques and independent jewellery shops. But the former are often too cool for school – I’ll pass on the neon shell-suit at £50 thanks – and the latter overpriced. So I was delighted last weekend to stumble across a vintage treasure trove stacked full of cherry-picked pretty pieces and boasting decent prices.

On the cusp of the North Laine, just before you dive into Brighton’s best independent shopping district, Kate and Aud’s vintage and ethically-made gems spill out of their small boutique as if a well-stocked dressing-up box has burst open.
Kate (Katy Whittingham) and Aud (Audrey Taylor) had been selling their wares on markets independently for many years, Katy dresses and leather bags and Audrey charm jewellery, before they decided to join forces and move into the compact two-storey Trafalgar Street unit in November 2009.

“We both always wanted to have our own little boutique selling things we love,” Audrey enthuses. “We knew that we were hard working and passionate about what we did and if we brought our businesses together we would do really well if we had the right location. And so here we are.”
The shop offers a mix of vintage and modern pieces, bespoke charm jewellery made with beads, charms and unusual trinkets from Japan and America and hand-made leather bags and floaty summer dresses ethically-sourced from India.

The separate styles the pair bring to the boutique create a unique dynamic. “The good thing about us both is that we have very different tastes to one another,” says Audrey. “Katy is more classic and smart, where I would say I’m more kitsch so we buy things that are totally different to the other person. It works really well.”
The two employ people to source vintage items for them from all over the UK and America, with Audrey’s dad also picking up the odd piece when he’s in Scotland.

She explains: “We tell them what we are after at the time and they source them out. We have used wholesalers in the past, but sometimes you end up with a few goodies and the rest non-sellable. We might have to pay more money for each item this way but it’s so worth it.”
Prices in the shop range from £4.99 for a pair of charm earrings to £59 for a leather laptop satchel, with the majority of clothing under £50 - apart from the odd designer piece.

Kate and Audrey buy the majority of their own clothes from vintage shops and Ebay, name their style icons as Katherine Hepburn and Doris Day respectively and enjoy “rummaging around markets, charity shops and car boot sales”, so obviously understand their customer.

“You’ll always be able to get something totally different in a vintage shop and I think people are just getting fed up of the high street, you see the same thing in al the shops and it gets boring.”
Audrey names the boutique’s pocket watches, swallow, teacup and locket necklaces and silk chiffon mini dresses among her personal favourites. “We also have a couple of lace dresses that are amazing and an old Forties’ frilly umbrella and we’re going to try and get hold of some vintage wedding dresses too.”

Kate and Aud will soon be online via Ebay, but a visit to the over-sized dress-up box is a must for any vintage lover rooting for gems in Brighton.
Top image: Audrey feels right at home amongst the beautiful things

Brighton seafront: Night and Day

I'm getting very excited about the upcoming spring and summer in Brighton, especially now that I live so close to the beach. This town was made for the sun and the seafront has given a few tasters of its true beauty over the last couple of days. Now all we need is the warmth.

All Saints Brighton - Sewing machine display

These magnificent window displays, consisting hundreds of antique sewing machines, appeared overnight as All Saints transformed a former homeware shop in Brighton's South Lanes this week. An enticing prospect for vintage-enthusiasts and clothes shoppers and a welcome change from the 'Gold 4 Cash' and Christmas shops that have recently taken advantage of the empty-unit recession fallout.