Couture goes guerilla at the Dover Street Market in London

April 30, 2012

LONDON, UK – Ultra hot label Commes des Garçons’ designer Rei Kawakubo has long had a penchant for “guerilla” fashion.  From Los Angeles to Warsaw, she’s opened up barebones “pop up” shops that stay open for only a year or so.  These blink-and-you’ll-miss-’em suppliers have kept the focus on the… (more)

Therapy for your gray matter at Grays Antique Market

April 25, 2012

LONDON, UK – The medical world, it seems, is poised to tread upon the territory of shopping as fertile soil for newly coined disorders.  “Oniomania” is the term doctors use to label the compulsive need to shop, and the American Psychiatric Association is debating whether or not it should be… (more)

An ocean of whimsical curiosities at Octopus

August 15, 2011

LONDON, UK – Covent Garden is a true mecca for shopaholics and tourist types. The two-level market plays host to a plethora of eateries, street entertainers, and outlets that includes cutesy cupcake shops, tea palaces, and accessory-style boutiques. If nothing else, living in London for four months taught me that… (more)

Fab fabrics and other colorful curiosities at Liberty and Co.

July 17, 2011

LONDON, UK – Liberty and Co. is one of those London institutions that’s woven into the fabric of society — literally.  The iconic emporium known for its extravagant and eccentric fashions and furnishings has been around since 1875.  Its wide range of clientele, from genteel ladies to edgy fashionistas and… (more)

Selfridges, London’s rock star department store, ages well

July 10, 2011

LONDON, UK – When rock stars grow old, things can go one of two ways.  Some of those sex icons who agitated youth culture in their younger years mature into seasoned, sophisticated performers in later decades (case in point: Sting).  Others, unfortunately, go the way of Keith Richards, still parading… (more)

More posh than Portobello in Notting Hill

June 23, 2011

LONDON, UK – With all those years of royal rule and aristocratic consciousness, it’s perhaps not surprising that the British know how to tell really good tales of love that cross class lines. The newly wed Duchess of Cambridge aside, the entire Jane Austen cannon is obsessed with such goings… (more)

Cutting out the middleman at Spitalfields Market

June 9, 2011

LONDON, UK – One of the things I love about farmers markets is that you get to buy direct from the source. You can ask a farmer about his growing practices, which vegetable is at its peak, and what are the favored preparations for the produce he’s hawking right on… (more)

36 Hours in London: A Jetlagged Gal’s Guide to Shopping

October 24, 2010

LONDON, UK- Beijing-Dubai-London-New York in a week. It may sound like the gal-about-the-globe itinerary par excellence, but by the time I landed in Heathrow for the London leg of my adventure, suitcase hauling, jetlag, and one too many in-flight rom-coms had left me dazed and bedraggled…not exactly the jet-set chic… (more)

Excavating the upper crust on Bond Street

July 23, 2010

LONDON, UK – OK, I know this sounds just a tad strange, but whenever I visit posher-than-posh Bond Street in London’s Mayfair neighborhood, I wonder what alien cultures might make of all the upper-crust hoopla. Someday, when civilization as we know it comes to an end, and extraterrestrial archeologists visit… (more)

Be daunted (and delighted) at Daunt Books

June 10, 2009

LONDON, UK – In this age of Barnes & Noble, Borders, and the like, it is rare that I am truly “WOWed” by a bookstore. There are some that I really love, like Kramerbooks and Afterwords in Washington DC and The Elliot Bay Book Company in Seattle, but not too many… (more)