The Early Bird...

Todays shopping expedition is not the first time I've been up early to catch a bargain, the earliest by far, however, was for the Angels sale
Angels- for those of you unfamiliar, is a historical costume supplier to films and individuals, they have a vast warehouse space in Wembly, and in 2008 they had a big clearout of clothing and accessories from the 1900's to the 1990's. You bought a carrier bag at either £20 or £50 and filled it with whatever you fancied

I got up at 3am, put on lots of layers (as we were warned it was freezing inside) and caught a cab to my friend Colins to collect him and Zakiya, he still had traces of make up on his face from his night out, and hadn't even been to bed yet (which may account for his vast overspending)
We arrived at Wembly for about 5am, and the queue was already massive - again people had camped all night- but we ere pretty close to the front. My brother James was ahead of us in the queue, so we were chatting on the phone, saying we should have bought string to tie the clothing up with (thereby getting more in the bag) the words 'string' went up and down the queue like wildfire!
By 9am they had opened the doors, and were in by about 10 (splitting up of course, no time for chat on The Hunt)
I wasted valuable time in military (need to get it out of my head that I can fit into mens clothing... I'm a size 6 and obsessed with mens vintage - tailcoats in particular)
Got to Victorian and thats where I picked up my best pieces- a corset and the jacket below
I also got: 1930's blouse and pencil skirt, military tailcoat and trousers x 2 (both went to my boyfriend) a waistcoat for him, giant fan for me, a load of muslin scarfs, crushed opera hat, hat for a drag queen friend, pair of cream linen trousers..I think that was about it, all for £50
The crush was unbelievable, the 1930's room you could hardly get in, all manners were out of the window with people pushing and grabbing through the boxes on the floor 
The jacket turned out to be a Parisian original, the sleeves were coming away but I decided to wear it out that night anyway, and they proceeded to disintegrate throughout until I had to take it off before the poor thing became completely un-salvageable....
I did feel terrible that this jacket, from the 1900's had survived so long, then one night with me and it was dead, but it did go on to provide the inspiration for a jacket I designed for the Biba range, currently being sold in House Of Fraser (and featured in Vogues September issue)

All in all, I'd say such shopping events are totally worth it- there is a real sense on camaraderie about them, and sense of achievement in scoring a bargain- be it affordable designer or vintage treasure, plus its funny to see people look so utterly possessed in their zeal

Lanvin Day @ H&M

Well, I tried to be civilised...got up nice and early to log on to buy my selection online, but of course the site started crashing at bang on 7am (it was like Madonna Ticket buying all over again)
So there was nothing for it that to sharpen my elbows and head into the scrum....
I got there for about 8.30, and very wisely H&M actually allocated wristbands for each customer to have a ten minute shopping slot (having been witness to a baby being knocked out of its pram at the Stella McCartney sale - mother oblivious until someone held up the poor infant and enquired who's baby it was, this was a very wise move)
10.20 was my allocated time (queue slight panic that the shoes, sunglasses, dress and blouse I had been coverting would be long gone)I headed to Starbucks for a Latte and to see what was going down at the other stores
There were people with sleeping bags outside the flagships at Oxford Circus & Regent St, who had actually camped out all night- personally, I think this is a push to far, no dress is worth the risk of the diseases I'm sure you would pick up off those filthy streets, plus its November....
By this time I had a list of things from my girls to get for them as well....
Headed back to my chosen store, where I was by now almost on first name terms with the manager and half the staff (this did not help bump me up the queue, unfortunately)

Come 10am and I had spied exactly where on the rails I needed to be - and achieved my entire list, apart from the sunglasses and shoes (which in truth may be a blessing)
If I bring one more pair of shoes into the flat, I fear my boyfriend will be out of the other door - I have become the Oskar Schindler of accessories, smuggling them in under nightfall, he does get a bit suspicious as to how many things he 'just hasn't seen before' but as long as I can confine the addiction to my allotted areas I think I can get away with it.... (said areas being Muji boxes stacked right up to our Victorian ceiling..)
He is very kindly buying me the dress for Christmas (but I don't think I can wait that long to wear it)
Came home and treat myself to some ASOS wedges to go with the dress (oops!) 


Here are some scenes from the day...I'm always suspect about these people with masses of bags, I'm convinced 60% of thats gonna turn up on Ebay (they did limit it to one size per style though, which was another good idea)