London update

I've spent the past two weeks relaxing, seeing friends and family and eating way too much. English food does not match its reputation: people are obsessed with food but they largely eat at home. English supermarkets are divine. I often wander around in a daze thinking about all the items I want to eat, circling stores repeatedly to the bafflement of my companions. Nobody can believe that the huge American grocery stores seen in all those movies can really be filled with so little of interest and so much that is bad for you. When I lived in Pittsburgh, I swear the only grocery store chain in town (a particularly abject specimen) filled its shelves with potato chips and varieties of cheap cooked meats. I should also add that English deserts, like English chocolate, are particularly sublime and if I don't stop eating them, I'll not be able to fit in any of my clothes.

London is also filled with little patisseries, cafes, concession stands and the like, many with the prettiest macaroons, flans, fruit and chocolate pastries. It's a good job it is a walking city.

I have done little shopping but the sales are good and the exchange rate very favorable (weak pound, strong dollar). Yesterday and today, I tackled the sales, first with my dear friend Sarah in tow, then on my own. Sarah is pictured above. She is a great singer and her first album comes out this spring (www.sarahgillespie.com).

Sarah and I hit Selfridges yesterday and found excellent reductions on underwear, bags, and some contemporary lines. Alas, most of the items that interested me were full price. I also thought that the contemporary selection was not as strong as Barneys, and saved my money for when I returned to NYC. We did, however, see Victoria Beckham's dresses, tellingly placed next to Roland Mouret's RM line. A brief inspection suggests they are clearly from the same mind and producers. Her dresses were tiny and strongly boned. They felt more like costumes than dresses--stiff, unyielding, heavy. I imagine they will last forever but can't imagine they'd be fun to wear.

Sarah and I also tackled some of the high street stores. First, Topshop at Oxford Circus which was hell to get into and unbearably crowded inside. Nothing much appeared to be of interest--they had ripped off Steven Alan's gathered cotton plaid shirts, one of which I was wearing (Sarah commented that they had copies of "my shirt"). I paid $49 for mine at the Outlet last month; Topshop were charging £49 for poor quality knock offs. Other than that, the store was packed with racks of cheaply made sale items, many of them creased and shopworn. Topshop is hit and miss. They sometimes have great items but this wasn't the case today. I also find I don't wear my cheap Topshop finds very often.

We also hit COS, the higher end H&M store clearly influenced by Marni, Dries and Prada. I'd been excited to go there: the higher price points and the beautiful lookbooks had raised my interest even though it's not really my style. Alas, it just looked blah--most pieces looked more suited for older women and the muted colors were the wrong side of drab.

Today, I hit the shops alone (Sarah had a gig and had to rehearse this afternoon). My plan was to go to higher end stores and boutiques--after all, Selfridges impressed me the most yesterday. I wanted to go to Browns and Matches (two higher end stores that supposedly stock Mayle) and end up at Harvey Nichols, perhaps the nearest thing to a Barneys in the UK, another Mayle stockist, and the store much loved by Ab Fab's Patsy and Eddie. Browns was rather unimpressive--I think the uber-high end labels mixed with smatterings of Phillip Lim (improbably most highly regarded in the UK right now) appeared stale in the same way as Zirna Kabete, except the people in Browns were nice, unlike the snooty staff in ZB. I asked about Mayle and they had no idea what I was talking about but they were very sweet about it. Finding nothing in Browns, I headed down South Moulton Street (a street reminiscent of Madison Avenue in terms of its stores, if not its appearance), popping into Whistles (a grown up Topshop), All Saints (a new British store that seemed to have an identity crisis--part goth, part deconstructed oatmeal sweaters, part ersatz Vivienne Westwood) and ended up at Fenwicks. I've never been impressed with this store--it is poorly laid out and its buyers consider Tracey Reese cutting edge. I didn't change my opinion today.

I couldn't find Matches, so I headed off to Harvey Nicks and went looking for Mayle. I hit paydirt in the 70% off section on the third floor. They had Pitsula in cream, Pina in ivory, Leda in almond, Bebel and Zandi. I know that Bebel looks awful on me, but I tried on the rest. Pitsula looked as bad on in the cream color as it did in the floral, Zandi was horrible on me--I confess that I didn't like the print at all and always thought this was one of Jane Mayle's rare misfires. Pina was disappointing in ivory--it was the wrong shade for my skin--so I crossed it off my wishlist. I'd come close to getting Leda last April in Mayle's sale and today, it came home with me. As I went to pay, I noticed a slight lipstick stain at the top and got another £10 reduction. It was £120, which should be about $170 or so at the current exchange rate. I am very happy with my find--it will work well with a t-shirt underneath as well as on its own. If anybody knows how to remove a lipstick stain (albeit a barely visible one) from a cotton dress, I'd love to hear your tips.

Alas, Harvey Nicks did not carry recent Mayle collections--and I suspect few London retailers do. It appears resort 07 was the last line stocked as there were no traces of more recent items. I happen to think Mayle's resort and holiday lines are amongst her strongest so I was happy to get a dress that I had on my wishlist.

Tomorrow, Sarah and I are planning to get breakfast and hit a few boutiques. I feel I should look for European labels but I'm no longer an expert in London retail and can't seem to find much Isabel Marant, APC or other smaller, interesting lines. Finding Mayle took some work too, but I am happy, if largely spent out for this vacation.

Incidentally, I have lived in my Steven Alan gathered and reverse seam shirts, Inhabit cashmere sweaters, Earnest Sewn jeans and denim skirt and Odette coat this vacation, with occasional dress days where Pina, Eniko and Mariya have come out to play. When I get home, I'm heading over to Steven Alan to see what's new in the outlet and I'm hoping that I can get the LC Tuttle sandals that are on sale in Bird as well as any reduced Mayle items in Barneys and the-soon-to-be-much-missed Elizabeth St. store. I swear, then, I will be on a shopping freeze for a long time. At the very least, I will try.