So many people dress well in London. Not classic like the Parisiennes, or polished like the New Yorkers, but here people are trendy. The 13 year old girl, and the 55 year old woman are all dressed in the latest fashions (although sometimes the women dress a bit too young…)

Ever since I arrived in London I’ve been trying to figure out why everyone here is wearing the latest fashions, while most of Vancouver can barely manage one great trendy item, let alone a complete look. It took me a while to figure out why, but then it dawned on, it is obviously becasue they can access the latest fashion at a very low price. The British High Street is the best fast fashion shopping in the world, because it has all of the best international brands and a ton of incredible British brands. Topshop, Miss Selfridge, New Look, Primark, River Island, Oasis, and Marks and Spencer are some of the British brands that sit next to the likes of Zara (Spain), H&M (Sweden), Uniqlo (Japan), Bikbok (Norway), Mango (Spain) and more. Every store is packed with the latest styles at amazing price points, although that’s not necessarily a good thing. I can understand why there is so much criticism here about people buying too many clothes, since there are so many clothes readily available, and extrememly cheap.

I came here intending on hitting all the deparments stores, but then I realised I am more excited about the high street clothing, which is cheaper, and a lot more fun. Plus I can afford more of it. I am trying to to buy things I will wear for a while, not super trendy pieces (well, not all super trendy pieces), although a lot of the very trendy stuff probably won’t be in fashion in Vancouver for at least another season or two, so I’ll get a longer life from most of it.

Imgaes from their brand’s websites. New Look black and white striped tunic, £18. New Look black and white bralet, £20. New Look Gold by Giles Deacon striped cap sleeve top, £35. Oasis nautical sweater, £45. Richard Nicoll for Topshop knotted t-shirt, £32. River Island shoe, £59.99. River Island bag, £29.99. Topshop peach cropped tank, £10. Topshop black puffy skirt, £60.

Jason and I did a little field trip to Metrotown yesterday. I haven’t been there in about 15 years, so I figured I should have a look at one of Greater Vancouver’s biggest shopping centres.

I wasn’t expecting much, so I was pleased to find a few interesting shops and brands amongst a lot of boring, repetitive fashion.

I know it is holiday season and winter, but I don’t understand why every store insists on stocking seas of sequined dresses and big wool coats. That is not all we wear in winter.

Black BCBG dress and Blue

Black dress by BCBG and blue dress by Urban Behaviour.

Red coat by Bebe and check bomber by Urban Behaviour.

A terrifying sequined window display at Mariposa, although what can one expect..

Another disappointment is the merchandising. I can understand cheap stores piling as many sequined dresses as possible onto one rail, but when those dresses are 100 dollars or more, shouldn’t they keep some of them in the stock room? It doesn’t add much value to a product when you see another 20 of the same thing on the rail. And who wants to browse through rails that are so jammed with goods you can’t even get an item out without yanking another four pieces with it?

Bebe store: this is not the way to sell 100 dollar cardigans.

Another Metrotown favorite (particularly at Old Navy) was displays of one boring item in WAY too many colours. Ok, we like having our basic tee in black, and white, and maybe grey. But we don’t need it in every bloody colour of the rainbow.

Rainbow displays of boring basics at Old Navy (although not nearly as boring as the stuff in the background.)

I was also surprised to see the Guess Jeans store. I remember Guess as a denim brand in the 90s with sexy, big lip blond models and that fab triangle logo at the back. It then because desperately unfashionable, and yet now they seem to have revived themselves a bit. The only problem is, they are still unfashionable. Their store is full of slutty sequined dresses (like everyone else) and boring jeans. I wish they would put that logo triangle back onto the back pockets, then we could wear them as retro pieces. I say bring back Jordache as well!

One last thing before I get to the good parts…

I noticed both Jacob and Gap were selling fragrances. Am I wrong to think this is weird? I mean, almost everyone can afford designer fragrance these days, they are totally accessible, entry-level luxury products. So who would buy fragrance from the Gap? The packaging suggests that the product is quite “classy” but if you want something classy, you go designer. I am a fan of Gap they do great basics, and I have a bag of theirs, and probably some jeans too. But I don’t understand their mentality behind launching fragrance, they should put their energies towards something more interesting, like more of those cool pop up stores, or organic jeans, or more designer collaborations. Something their customers, who are probably mostly middle class and up, would want to buy. Not fragrance please.

Now to the good stuff.

My first trip to Forever 21 was not as exciting as I’d hoped, but they were definitely a step above  the other fast fashion retailers in the mall. Banana Republic had these amazing white t-shirts on sale, I bought 3. Nothing beats a great white t-shirt (note I didn’t need or buy one in every single colour of the rainbow.)

The perfect wide V-neck, long, and thin cotton white tee.

Zara’s patent red high tops were the coolest shoe in the mall. By the way, one fast fashion retailer who has got merchandising down pat is Zara. Bebe should follow their lead, rather than making things looks cheaper than they are (Bebe) make everything look more expensive (Zara.)

Nice!

And my latest brand discovery is JNBY. This is the closest thing we have to COS in Canada, their cuts and designs were unique, interesting, and reasonably priced. I don’t know about quality, but I’ll report after I buy something (which is bound to happen soon.)

The first thing we noticed is the visual merchandising. All the garments are suspended from the ceiling, rather than using rails.

Some images from www.jnby.ca, not recent collections, but still very interesting.

Now to the shoe department at Holts…