Sabina Lucia

A pound yer bananas, two pound yer pear and fifteen good British pounds for a kilo of vintage fashion. There were plenty of vintage fruits to pick from at this affordable sale in The Rag Factory just off Brick Lane and not a marathon runner in sight. Established almost a year ago, it’s a new concept by the people behind Glass Onion and The Affordable Vintage Fashion Fair, hosting events in Leeds, Nottingham, Newcastle, Manchester and London.

Easy to shop with the clothes displayed by type there is around two and half tonnes of on-trend clothes and accessories from the ’60s to the ’80s with a seperate gallery for jewellery. With rails of dresses, skirts, jackets, blouses and trousers including menswear and boxes and boxes to rummage through, there’s something for everyone.  Myself and my friend Vicky managed to find some polyester pretties in the form of some ’80s dresses. My red and black Liz Claiborne number reminds me of my favourite item from that decade (yes, I’m of a certain vintage too); a red-and-black-striped zip-up puffa jacket. Well…everyone’s allowed at least one fashion faux pas aren’t they?

Lady Luck provided the pit stop with home-baked red velvet and cream cheese frosted cup cakes and ice-cream cone sponges washed down with tea all served on beautiful ’50s Midwinter crockery in keeping with the vintage theme, it was afternoon tea at its best. Lady Luck will also be at Rummage, a jumble sale with a difference. London’s best illustrators have been invited to clear out their studios, declutter their homes and also show off some of their artwork. Details on Lady Luck’s Facebook page

There’s another Affordable Vintage Fair in London on Sunday 9th May with men and women’s clothing from the 1920s to the 1980s and Lady Luck will be there to provide delectable, edible temptations. Enjoy!

The perfect antidote to a big shopping centre like Westfield, the small alternative market at Merton Abbey Mills in SW19 was, untill 1970, the printing works for famous London department store Liberty’s but is partly named after the mediaeval Merton Priory one of the most important monastries of its time. Restored and opened in 1989 it has nearly half a million visitors a year with many shops open during the week as well as 10am to 5pm at the weekend. Situated on the river Wandle, the grounds are beautiful and on a sunny day as it was yesterday you can sit, meditatively watching the water wheel go round as the sun flickers through the weeping willow on the other side of the river.

I hadn’t been for a while but was pleased to find that there is a really exciting range of arts and crafts in both the shops and outdoor stalls. For your own piece of nature, these distressed leaf metal pendant necklaces would make a fantastic talking point at the lovely Tiffany Moore’s stall, Kool Kaftans. True to name she also does gorgeous silk kaftans with pretty designs.

The Craft Connection Gallery is a co-operative of 20 different artists and crafts people which has been open for over fifteen years.  You can find everything from a rainbow coloured sock monkey to the most fun piece I saw: a Heinz baked beans sculpture with mini skulls in ‘tomato sauce’ by Skulls! Skulls! Skulls!. Human beans on toast anyone? Perhaps not, unless you’ve been stranded by the volcanic ash no fly zone and are feeling particularly cannabalistic. Ththththth…

For the Gaga fans amongst you and I’m not talking radio…, get yourselves to Funky Finger’s stall. It takes the lovely Darren a whole four days to make his hand decoupaged shoes but it’s worth the effort. He makes funky (of course) woolen jewellery too.

There’s also something for the home too with these cleverly designed Chinese food bowls that have holes to rest your chop sticks in. They’re hand made by the lovely Stephen Llewellyn who has a pottery at The Wheelhouse on the grounds. He and his wife Claire (also lovely) are actively involved in the work of Wandle Herritage and keep the section of the river next to The Wheelhouse free of all sorts of detritus including the odd safe! If you fancy a go at throwing your own pot, they do lessons too.

It was really great to meet the people behind the business; it makes the shopping experience so much more personal when you can have a chat about the designs and find out how the pieces were made and with live jazz playing under the bandstand in the afternoon, what better way to shop! Nice.

© Sabina Lucia 2010

It’s strange, I know,  for a former personal shopper to not love high-street store shopping but I don’t. All the queuing, the 6 item limit at the changing room, crowds of people all clammering after the same item; it’s all just  so uncivilised and I’m a laaaaady don’t you know.  So – despite being invited to a preview and it being open for eighteen months already, I have avoided visiting London’s newest mega-mall (are we really calling them malls now?) Westfield.  My friend Claire who probably thinks I’m the last person in London to go, took me there yesterday.  The visit was a revelation and has changed the way I feel about this kind of shopping.

As I entered I was struck by the beauty of the architecture; the  Knippers Helbig-designed iconic roof is an incredible feat of engineering and its undulating diamond panes shower Europe’s largest urban centre in light. With enough space to fit in thirty football pitches there is none of the crowding of Oxford Street making it a much more enjoyable and relaxed experience. The soft edges and curves make it very calm and the trendy leather husband/boyfriend seated waiting areas are a genius idea.

As many Londoners will already know, there are over 270 stores including forty sumptuous designer shops in The Village as you enter including Louis Vuitton, Prada, Gucci and Christian Dior.

As well as being able to buy original art at Lavanta Gallery, many of the stores have art displayed in their windows. A giant shoe installation made up of tiny paper shoes frames the entrance to Aldo, and Topshop has collaborated with Japanese artist Houxo Que  for their neon colour injected window display.

It’s exciting to learn that Westfield’s next venture: an even larger sister centre near the Olympic site in Stratford will have a permanent art gallery – the first in a British shopping centre. With Tracey Emin acting as one of the advisors on the project it promises to be very interesting indeed.  The new site will have a more eclectic, East London feel with 10% of space being reserved for independent edgey retailers which should give the centre a hint of Spittalfields, Shoreditch and Hoxton’s appeal. Can’t wait for it to open! I loved Westfield so much I’m going back today to try out one of the fourty restaurants and pick up textile designer, Vanessa Harrington’s Book Of Charms from Oasis. With twelve stirling silver charms including a dancing flamingo and tea-cup and saucer, there’ll be a different one to put on the necklace for each month of the year. Charming!

© Sabina Lucia 2010

The first thing that struck me about The Brick Lane Gallery was how nicely the exterior is decorated; the bird and flower- painted black walls promise an interesting show inside and the gallery doesn’t fail to deliver. Art In Mind is a regular group exhibition showcasing the works of emerging UK and international artists. I took my friend Paul who, once he got over the fact that he was missing the football, enjoyed the private view experience. He particularly liked the work of Argentinian artist, Claudio Gianni whose confident, sweeping paint strokes depict modern day city life and iconic characters from the old Buenos Aires tango scene. His favourite was a very striking painting of three black figures on a red background entitled Guapitos, that could be the three musketeers or swaggering cowboys.

We wondered at the technical achievement of Sharmila Agnihotri’s intricate mandala-like black and white symmetrical ink drawings. With her experience as a midwife you can see she has drawn on nature as inspiration, I found them very pleasing and loved the fact that although on first inspection they looked flawless, each drawing has little, intentional imperfections .

Of the 10 exhibitor’s work, I found myself most drawn (pun intended) to the digital textile prints by Norwegian, Didi Bjornerud who after studying at Central St Martin’s did an internship with Alexander McQueen. Depicting fantastical, dark scenes; Wonderwood -  a horse rearing as if through time with lightning and supernatural light emerging from a dark forest being my favourite.  Didi maintains her fashion link, having designed a series of prints for the designer Deborah Henning and prints for handbags which would add an arty edge to any outfit.

The exhibtion ends today and the next show begins April 15th. If you’re an artist and you’d like to submit your work email info@thebricklanegallery.com

© Sabina Lucia 2010