My adventures in cool COS and descent into Top Shop hell

I was in London for a few days and had lunch with a friend near Oxford Street. Lunch was wonderful, it was great to catch up, the sun was shining.. so, feeling happy and with a couple hours to wander around before meeting my next group of wonderful friends, I wandered around the neighborhood and into one of my favorite London stores, Liberty.

Sadly I missed the sale, but I found a shiny purple Stella McCartney shoulder bag that was a whole lot lighter than the leather bag that was currently wearing a groove into my shoulder. It wasn't my bag's fault, really, I had a desert trek ration of water, 8 lipsticks, a kindle, 2 phones (work & play), not to mention the 20 pounds in my wallet (and by that, I mean the physical weight of those coins, not their value!!), plus the random stuff that just sits in the bottom of bags. Unfortunately, however, this bag was GBP 430 or so, which translates to ca US$10,000 (roughly) and that just seemed a bit too expensive for a vinyl bag that was essentially a more '80s chic version of a le Sports Sac. (Stella doesn't do leather, as I'm sure you all know, so neither do her bags).

That didn't mean I didn't want it, though. I picked it up a few times, did the math again, and decided to run out of the store (I left it there! - no Winona Ryder, me!).

After I stopped running, I found myself right at a store called COS. They don't have this brand in NY, but I'd just read H&M's annual report (yes, I really did.. ) and was curious to see what H&M's more upscale sister was about. I also thought there might be a cheaper vinyl bag there for a fraction of the Stella bag's cost.

No such luck, but there were plenty of other things that caught my eye...I couldn't handle the structured wool dresses (too scratchy - I was a bit sunburned from the extended sunny pub afternoon the day before).. But there were some very chic basic pieces that looked much more expensive than the price tag would suggest. I was pleased - especially as there is no COS in New York, so I won't see many other people wearing the same stuff. I picked up a couple things for myself (see photo) and for others, too... (btw, the shirt is pretty simple, but not quite as plain as it looks in this terrible photo.) The skirt looks good with my boots, too..


Inspired by my success at a moderately priced fashion store, I decided I'd brave Top Shop. Now, I have been a Top Shop skeptic. I don't believe the hype - and it escalated to pretty high craziness levels when they opened a branch in New York.

Sure, it's fine if you're in high school and want to spend the change you made waiting tables on a new shirt, but magazines, blogs, etc, are trying to make this out as real fashion. To my eye, the clothes look cheap, the racks are a disaster, and, if you survive the endless lines to the fitting room and then again at the cash register, and actually make it out of the store with you and your purchase intact, then congratulations!! you now look like every other tragic fashion victim in London (and now NY). No thanks!!

But, as I said, I was willing to concede I'd been wrong - especially if they had a cool bag along the lines of that Stella one or some good cheap t-shirts with a bit of an edge.

Uh.. no... What I did find, however, was great photographic documentation of why I was right about Top Shop in the first place. Which I present to you now...

Exhibit 1: (main photo above)

Exhibit 2: fitting room line


Exhibit 3: for clothes like this


Exhibit 4: And this


Now, in my view, this jacket looked like one of those cheap tops made originally to be sold for $30 in some street market stall and that you can now pick up at Goodwill for $5. Why pay $250 for that?? In my eyes, it was proof of the "Top Shop is fashion" hoax..

And yet.. 2 days after my Top Shop visit, a daily fashion blog (Refinery 29) featured it as one of their "Top 5 trends to take home".


Are they kidding?? or are they part of the hoax? Did they not see it in person? Do you have to promote Top Shop to get any advertiser who uses Kate Moss? Am I just missing something really big here? I don't get it, i just really don't get it...

If one of you is a Top Shop expert and wants to show me how it works, I'll give it a try. But I'm not going back on my own...

Next one will be about the fairy tale shopping in wonderful Copenhagen.

Dress me!

My apartment is looking like a hurricane hit it. The last two bags of winter clothes headed to the dry cleaner for the season are by the door, sweaters are in piles waiting to be cleaned or put away, and there's an explosion of summer clothes that I've moved from the back of my closet but can't fit into the front since warmer clothes are still there. With temperatures ranging from the 40s to upper 80s this week, I'm confused: What season is this??

When I look through it all and try, unsuccessfully, to shove a few more hangers' worth into my closet, I get so frustrated I give up, and look instead for some new place to start a pile. This chaos has shut down my wardrobe creativity. I've forgotten how to dress for this season, so just go for the easy and obvious (and boringly safe). It happens each time the weather changes - suddenly the clothes I'd become so comfortable and familiar with and could mix up in a way I liked without even really thinking about it are gone and here are all these new guys that I need to get to know again. I have purged my closet pretty aggressively (I wrote about that in Closet Bulimia a few months ago), so this is all stuff I want. But I'm overwhelmed. I need a weekend to get reacquainted and see what works now. Some pieces I will probably wear the same way I wore them last year, but some looks won't work anymore since new styles and trends have affected my eye.

I know this could seem like a trivial point of discussion, but if you view your wardrobe as a personal form of design and as an expression of your mood and personality (as I do and as I know a lot of my friends do), it matters. A bad outfit might not ruin my day, but it can certainly get me started off on the wrong foot (or shoe).

I'll work it all out - these are all items that I've picked out and spent money on, after all. But my inclination to play it safe when overwhelmed makes me realize how helpful it is to have the help of an objective eye. I am really lucky to have friends who are fashionable - and some, like Jane, who work in fashion - and who can push me to be more adventurous and try new shapes or pick one piece that will bring new life to a 5 year old suit (which Jane did!). I do almost all my shopping with friends now and they have helped me define my own style much more than I could have on my own, as contradictory as that sounds.

I was interested to see that a lot of the hooplah around the introduction of Top Shop into New York focused on the staff, who are meant to function as stylists. I haven't been to the New York Top Shop, but if it's anything like the London one, I'll probably want to run out screaming. Maybe one function of the stylists is to prevent customers from doing that! Even if it's not to retain customers physically, I think it's smart strategy. At the higher end, shops offer edited collections and personal service. But, to me, stores in the middle just have racks and racks of stuff. It's too much. No wonder people end up buying what everyone else does. Will chain store stylists encourage more people to explore their personal style? I hope so! I love seeing people break out of "safe". I saw a woman yesterday who I'd guess was in her 60's, dressed in understated khaki, but with bright lilac tights. The surprise of it made me smile and point her out to my friend, Aarti, who said "that'll be you when you're 60." Something like that, I hope.