Sabina Lucia

Hey everybody,

As Australia sees in the new year, I am thinking of the one we leave behind and a question set to me by my friend @KateLister -          ” “What Did You Learn In 2011?”

I will share with you some of the lessons I learned, and have been reminded of, over the last year.

1.  I learned that loss is part of everybody’s lives and once we accept this, it is easier to deal with. Nothing is permanent, not even the universe, so when we lose somone or something it is best to remember the good and forget the bad, whilst retaining the lessons we learned.

2.  I was reminded that despite tragedy, sadness and loss, we can find happiness and love again. ‘Love like you’ve never been hurt’ is how it goes is it not?

3. I learned on a personal and professional level that a few people working together can make a difference. I read somewhere that it is in fact, the only thing that ever has. With the non profit group I do social media and PR for, Greener Upon Thames, we called for a ban on plastic bags at London 2012 Olympics and the very next day, Boris Johnson, whose team have been helping us, called for a ban on plastic bags across London in time for the Olympics which of course is even better.

4. As a very cerebral person I am learning that sometimes you have to forget what your head says and just follow your heart.

5. A lot of amazing health and nutrition information from this group on Facebook PREVENTION AND HEALING – NATURAL CURES including cancer prevention and cure.

6.  That there are hundreds of people with Rh negative blood type  like me (A Rh-) that are researching where we come from and finding out lots of interesting facts about our ancestors and the importance of our blood type in terms of diet and pregnancy and a whole lot of other reasons.

7. TRUST your INSTINCT. I had such a strong instinct NOT to go somewhere towards the end of last year, but despite protestations I was convinced by my partner at the time that everything would be fine.  I even stopped again, and repeated my warning of a strong gut feeling that it was a bad idea to go to this place. To cut a very long story very short, we went and I am now physically and mentally scarred for life as a consequence of the events that unfolded that evening. I hope, no…I WILL, do my utmost to not allow myself to be persuaded to act against my instincts again.

8. Giving up buying at least one pair of shoes a month is doable. I am no less happy and have more money to spend on things I actually need. Having said that fashionistas, I did manage to finally find the pefect-for-me shoe boots, or ‘shoobs’ as I like to call them. For under £20 from New Look.
Bargain!

9. Made some great discoveries about PR, writing to celebrities and reaching out to a wider audience through social media which I am really enjoying. Thanks for your help @Zangmo and @firetown with inspiration and tips.

10. When one door closes another opens.

What did you learn in 2011?

Opening the door to 2012. Must dash to primp and preen myself in preperation for tonight’s partying. Make a wish at midnight . Have fun and be safe whatever you do. See you next year!

Sabina x

If you don’t want to end up boxing a fellow customer over the last pair of black suede boots in the ridiculously crammed stores, read my top 10 tips on how to shop in the sales…

1. Before you even leave the house, take a look in your wardrobe and make a note of any missing items: do you need a top to wear with that skirt that’s been sitting at the back for months unworn or a pair of coloured tights to complete that outfit. Boys -  need a pair of cuff- links for that new shirt you got for Christmas?

2. Dress in something that is easy to take off and on; girls a smock dress over leggings. Boys – avoid wearing a shirt – think of all those buttons to undo every time you want to try a top on, instead go for something loose. Wear a pair of trousers that don’t need a belt and time-saving slip-on shoes. Ladies – avoid heels; comfort is key.

3. Set out early to avoid the crush and find the shops in a still shoppable, organised state.

4. Sounds obvious but many people are scared to speak up.  Don’t be afraid to ask staff for advice and help, it’s what they’re there for and they may show you something you would never have considered and will be able to tell you the price if it’s not clear. It will save you valuable browsing time.

5. It’s best to go for items you wouldn’t normally be able to afford that suddenly seem within reach with 70% off. So if you normally shop in high- end high street; treat yourself to designer, mid-price high street go for top end: Hobbs, LK Bennett etc and if you normally shop in Peacocks and Primark, have a look in Warehouse and Oasis for the quality bargains.

6. Go for quality items that are quite expensive like leather gloves and boots and more expensive fabrics like silk.

7. Go on your own; you’ll be able to stay focused and friends often give bad advice, sometimes jealousy kicks in and they don’t want you to look THAT fantastic. It may sound harsh but it does go on, I’ve seen it.

8. Try everything on before you buy, if you set out early enough there shouldn’t be too much of a queue at the fitting room and what looks fab on the hanger doesn’t always work on the body. Don’t be afraid to ask the assistant for another size if you need it, save you getting dressed again. Be ruthless;  if it doesn’t look as good as you’d hoped, put it back even if it is only £20.

9. Buy what fits you NOW. Don’t buy things thinking ‘I will start that diet tomorrow’. I guarantee you, 6 months down the line it will still be sitting at the back of your wardrobe unworn. If I had a £1 for every time a woman told me she has done this, I would be very rich by now!

10.. Avoid faddy items and go for more classic styles that will last again and again. Call it an investment piece! If you would’ve been tempted at the original price then it’s a good bet, if not it may be an impulse buy, think again. Check with the store on the refund policy, many places won’t refund sale items and only offer an exchange.

Good luck, have fun and come back and tell  me about all your favourite sartorial bargains!

Words – Sabina Lucia

Photo - Salvatore Vuono

It turns out that being early for Nico Didonna’s fashion show at the Millenium Hotel in Knightsbridge was a very good thing indeed as it meant I had a chance to chat to the lovely people at the Cucumba room that was open before the presentation and was lucky enough to be treated to Glen’s first expert massage of the evening which was 10 minutes of heaven and left me feeling refreshed and well…slightly less crunchy. If you’re not already familiar with them, Cucumba offer light relief for those Arghhh! moments we all have from time to time, with a welcome urban pit stop of pampering pick-me-ups like nail make-overs (including their brand new ‘Sexy Minx’, metalic option), massage, facials and especially for men: beard trims and luxury wet shave options. Presented by Emmanuel Ray and covered by on World Fashion Channel, the guests were also treated to complimentary drinks courtesy of Mu Restaurant & Bar and Dannoff Vodka, with delicious canapes prepared by the hotel’s head chef Paul Knight. The goody bags were comprised of treats by Visionary Soap Company, RMK make-up and Cucumba grooming salon.

Managing to grab a few minutes with Nico himself as he preened and prepped the models back stage, he told me that his spring/ summer collections were created with youth in mind. The womens clothes are in diaphanous chiffon and figure-hugging jersey with really sexy, slinky silhouettes and soft, Japanese-style draping in cream, blues and stone to flatter the young female figure.

While the men’s wear collection was inspired by the much-loved, adventurous cartoon character Tintin, from a fictional ‘Tin Tin went to Brick Lane’ strip. As you’d expect the male models’ hair was in slicked back ’50s mode with the odd quiff (although there were no gingers in sight) and the the collection I felt was his strongest of the two, being  spoilt for choice with bursts of canary and lilac shirts, trousers to flatter every shape and jackets in the softest leather.

I really loved his clever use of pattern cutting, especially on the trousers with unusual panels of contrasting colours and fabric at a right angle to the leg. Draping into the ankle was also a key look and there was the odd nod to Vivienne Westwood’s bondage influence.  Continually developing modern takes on tailoring and with unique use of luxurious fabrics, this spring summer collection proves once again that Nico Didonna will always provide quality and innovation in his design.

Catwalk photos by Audrey Chew

Natasha Franklin is a Surrey-based personal stylist, offering her service to those in London and Surrey. With over 10 years experience in the fashion industry, including styling fashion shows and sucessfully dressing hundreds of women and men, she can definitely help you look good. I believe everyone can benefit from a little, friendly advice when it comes to what to wear, even us stylists ask others’ opinions. If you find you’ve got a wardrobe full of clothes you don’t want to wear or that don’t fit you, why not invest in getting an expert’s help on what to buy and what to avoid. It could save you lots of time and money in the long run.

I caught up with Natasha to find out more about what inspired her to start in fashion and ask for some shopping tips for you all too.

Sabina Lucia:  So Natasha, where did your interest in fashion come from? Was your mum very fashionable when you were a child?

Natasha Franklin:  I have been interested in fashion since I was a little girl.  I was born in the early ’80s and can remember dressing up in my mum’s stiletto heels and huge glasses or ‘Diedre Barlow’ glasses as I like to call them. My mum always looked stylish in her leather pencil skirts and oversized jumpers with shoulder pads, I still love the Dynasty-style glamour and glitz of the ’80s!

S L:  How long has your business been going and what are some highlights so far?

N F:   Setting up as a freelance stylist was a natural progression for me having spent 10 years in the fashion industry in various roles I wanted the freedom to do what I do in my own way. My business is still less than a year old and going well, the highlight so far would have to be an event Im doing next week, it’s a 2 day event scouting for ‘Surreys Next Top Model’, I will be styling and presenting it and am also part of the judging panel alongside Chris Fountain from Hollyoaks so am very excited about that.
S L:  What, for you, is the definition of style?

N F:  Style, I believe, is not about following fashion trends, it’s much deeper. It’s about knowing your body shape and dressing to suit it, and knowing which colours look best on you. I love fashion trends and know them well as I have to for my job, but I know that not everything on trend will suit me, I tend to mix fashion with vintage pieces and take inspiration from things I love,  like film and music and preformance artists.
S L: Which celebrities’ dress sense do you admire?

N F:  I am most inspired by people who are unique in their dress style like Alice Delall, or Kate Moss but my favourite is Margherita Missoni, she wears the best dresses.
S L:  What do you enjoy about styling people?

N F:   I enjoy the whole styling process from shopping with the client to seeing the finished outfits on. I love how the right clothes can lift our mood, give us confidence and obviously make us look great.
S L:  The sales are still on at the moment, is there any advice you can give the readers about the most successful way to shop in the sales?

N F:   Yes, ask yourself these questions and you won’t go wrong when shopping in the sales:

1. What will it go with?

Do you have any items you can wear it with immedietly, chances are if you don’t you probably never will and no matter how cheap it is it’s money wasted.
2. When or where will I wear it?

Again if you don’t have an occasion now you probably won’t next year either. Put your money away and save it for something you really need.
3. Does it fit me?

Sale time can be crazy with all the hustle and bustle, but try it on!! Some shops won’t offer refunds and if you make the mistake of not trying it on first you may get caught out.

S L: Brilliant advice! Thanks Natasha and good luck with the Surrey model judging, I’m sure it will be lots of fun!

If you want to book a styling session with Natasha or would like more information,  call her on 07769 588637 or 01932 847029 or visit her website here.

© Sabina Lucia 2010
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Husband and wife, Stuckist artists: Edgeworth Johnstone and Shelley Li, are showing a large range of their paintings at Nolias Gallery in Great Suffolk Street, five minutes from Tate Modern (where some of Johnstone’s paintings were recently displayed in the Turbine Hall) and well worth a look if you’re in the area and even if you’re not. Both figurative artists ( key to being a  Stuckist), their work is distinctly different from each other’s.

Edgeworth’s paintings are deep and emotional with an incredibly adept use of colour; often bold and confident, reminiscent of Matisse’s later paintings.

In Nightrider, a man merges with a dog or is it a fox or some other creature of the night? ‘In the flesh’, the colours I found to be slightly more subtle, evoking a spooky atmosphere and a sense of an illicit journey through the dark.

As well as people (including a painting afterh the Mona Lisa), animals feature heavily: a bird with eyelashes, cows, rams, cats, dogs and not forgetting (pun intended), elephants, as above. Never before have I seen such realistic texturisation of an animal skin in a painting; the grey of the large elephant is crackily and coarse just as it should be – a serendipitous outcome of using house-hold paint – rising above a background of contrasting colours.

Shelley Li’s paintings are fun in style, depicting sexy and and slightlydark  scenes. In Black And White (above) we see the duality of one woman’s personality; black expressing her wickedly sexy desires and white, her every-day picture of innocence and lady-like qualities. Shelley’s paintings are beautifully decorative, with a attention to the details: lace work, furniture, floral carpets and hair accessories. The latter of which she also makes and can also be found for sale at the gallery.

Deep in her den of iniquity,a sexily clad woman (‘Woman With Whip’),  resplendent in her stockings and suspenders, checks herself out in a mirror as she prepares herself for her willing ‘victim’. The cat’s ears costume and bows bring lightness and humour to this sexy scene painted in oils on canvas.

This two person show started on the 28th of May and runs for another week or so depending on bookings. Check with the gallery or on the artists’ sites for details. There are hundreds of paintings, many of which you can flick through like records and with small paintings starting at £10 there’s even something for the most budget-conscious recessionistas.

Paintings © Edgeworth Johnstone and Shelley Li 2010.

Text © Sabina Lucia 2010

PJ Crittenden has been a DJ for over 15 years, starting at More Than Vegas in Soho and the legendary Frat Shack club nights. Since 1996 he has been running the Dirty Water club and record label, putting on gigs and releasing records by ’70s punk and ’60s garage bands. I interviewed at his home in North London about punk music and its origins for your delectation…

Sabina Lucia: PJ  I mentioned on my blog last week that Andy Warhol and his Factory scene influenced the punk movement, would you say that’s true?

PJ Crittenden: To an extent, yes; there’s a well-worn phrase that The Velvet Underground (managed by Warhol) themselves didn’t sell many records, but everyone that did buy their album went out and formed a band. That’s probably a slight exageration but there’s a lot of truth in that. People were forming bands with no prior musical experience and that’s quite punk rock. And when the whole Velvet Underground scene started there were already a million bands rehearsing in their garages and playing what, now, if you listen to it, could be termed punk rock. It was a development. Everyone thinks of the punk rock explosion but it wasn’t, it was a development. It then reached a critical point where it went over ground. So it was part of it but not the whole of it, yeah.

SL: When was the term ‘punk’ first used to describe music?

PJ: Most people seem to agree that it was in Creem magazine, an American music publication, most well known for writers like Lester Bangs. He was quite punk himself back in a way, back in the early ’70s and into the ’80s. Whilst he made a few records himself, he was a writer and quite punk rock in his writing. But I think it was Dave Marsh that actually coined the phrase but I think he was writing not about about punk bands because they hadn’t come along at that point, this was the ’60s and he was talking about garage bands like The Count Five and The Groupies ; teen bands of the mid ’60s and they were playing basic rock and roll, that’s what punk was originally.

SL: Interesting. I think you mentioned to me before that the origins of punk go back even further than that…

PJ: If we’re talking musically, I can pick out records from the 1950s that were in essence punk rock, they were punk in attitude and had an aggessive sound. As I said, music develops and these things had an influence on how things were later on. For example The Linn Twins – Rockin’ Out The Blues from 1958. And then in the ’60s there were people like Dean Carter and The Legendary Stardust Cowboy and The Sonics. They didn’t have big hit records because they were just too way out for their time but if you listen to them now, you think, “where did they come from?”. If you listen to The Groupies, they’ve got a slight snarl and snottiness in the way they sing and the attitude, because with punk a lot of it comes down to the attitude.

SL: That’s right, it was all about the attitude wasn’t it. I love that name, The Legendary Stardust Cowboy, brilliant.

PJ: Yeah, he was a one-man band who couldn’t get gigs, so he used to go the drive-in movies and play, standing onthe  roof of his car during the intermission, until he got chucked out.

SL: Ha ha, excellent.

SL:So PJ, what in your opinion – including all genres of punk – is the definitive punk album?

PJ: Well in many ways I think you have to choose two: one from England and one from New York because they were different scenes. New York was more arty and London was more sort of street, so I’d have to go, for the New York album, the first one by The Ramones (self-titled) even though they may be the least arty of the New York bands; and for the Bitish album it would have to be The Sex Pistols – Never Mind The Bollocks – their one and only proper album – because it’s everything that punk rock should be.

SL: So when you said that the New York scene was more arty, can you explain that?

PJ: They were coming from a different direction, a lot of them were into the art school scene. The New York punks of say 1975/’76 scene were reading poetry and were a lot more intellectual whereas, the British punks were just kids hanging out in the streets with nothing better to do and it was a more visceral thing, they were expressing their anger. There was a lot to be angry about back then. We were both too young to remember it all but I do remember the vibe.

SL: Of course around that time there were also still a lot of hippies going around with bell-bottom flares and long hair too.

PJ: Yes, I remember my mum trying to make me wear bell-bottoms and I refused to go out in them until she got the sewing machine out and made them into straight legs!

SL: Were you ever a punk yourself, did you adopt that image?

PJ: Well I never really considered myself as a punk, I was into all different things, because as far as I’m concerned it’s all just rock and roll. I don’t like to pigeon-hole mysef or differentiate between different types of rock and roll because it’s all good. But when I was a teenager I used to wear ripped jeans and boots and my hair was coloured. We used to walk into Boots and they had canned, coloured  hairspray that washes out, so we just used to walk in on a Saturday and choose the colour we wanted, spray it on and all just walk out again. One weekend we’d all have green hair, the next we’d all have pink hair and my hair style was kind of like ’50s rock and roll goes punk; it was shaved at the back and sides but sticking up on top, kind of like punked up rockabilly. This was in Medway and we dressed kind of rockabilly but with punk mixed in and this was in the ’80s when there were bands playing this mix of rockabilly and punk, called psychobilly which is still going now.

SL: How has the punk era influenced bands of today?

PJ: Well I think it’s influenced them in the same way that ’50s rock and roll and ’60s garage bands influenced punk; there’s people out there that try and put on a punk attitude, even if most of us can see straight through it but there’s lots of bands out there, kids playing, that if you put them in a time-machine and sent them back to 19’76, they wouldn’t sound out of place. Check out The Ten O Sevens from Harrow, perfect 1976 punk band but they’re teenagers. They’re picking up the things they like from the past and doing their own thing with it. I had someone say to me “oh, but it’s all nostalgia isn’t it…” and I said, “Well you know it’s not nostalgia if they weren’t even born at the time”

SL: Good point. And what about bands like Green Day, they’ve popularised the genre haven’t they?

PJ: To give them their due, Green Day did start out on the underground punk scene and they added some pop elements to their sound and they’ve done really well for themselves. Not my sort of thing but I’m not going to knock them for it.

SL: The punk movement of the 1970s in the UK was an anti-establishment protest at the state of the country, do you think that’s still  relevant today?

PJ: Oh yeah, definitely, I mean especially now with developments of the last week or so, but the thing is, with ’70s punk, it wasn’t only a reaction in that way, I mean there had been a reaction earlier than that to the bland music that was around and from the late ’60s when the psychadelic music started going prog (progressive rock) with all these bands doing ten minute guitar solos and bringing out primitive (though hugely expensive) forms of synthesisers, making music that kids in their bedrooms couldn’t replicate, putting on huge stage shows. Johnny Rotten didn’t wear a T-shirt saying “I hate Pink Floyd” for no reason. There were bands in the early ’70s that were going against the grain, reacting to all that over blown crap. You had Third World War and then the Hammersmith Gorillas, people like The Hollywood Brats – all in the pre-punk period but sounding as near to punk as you could get. And of course not forgetting that Dr Feelgood was a huge influence on the punk scene of both sides of the Atlantic, with their back-to-basics rock and roll/rhythm ‘n’ blues sound.

SL: Ok, last question: Malcolm McLaren died recently, to what extent do you think did he and Vivienne Westwood shaped the punk movement in the UK?

PJ: I think they shaped it a lot less than they would like to think. I think they shaped it more in terms of image than sound. I mean McLaren had been involved with The New York dolls many years prior to that so he knew what the sound was all about but I think the sound that The Sex Pistols came up with was partly down to him but not entirely. I think the clothing styles were down to McLaren and Westwood but that’s not neccessarily a good thing. If you look at what they were wearing before the fashion came in and they were all dressing the same, all the punks just looked like they did because they had no money; ripped jeans, shirts with holes in and if they didn’t they would rip them so that they looked different, I mean they were going against the mainstream. The ripped T-shirt and mohair jumper that Johnny Rotten wore was just a rip off of Richard Hell, (who had a great record called Blank Generation which was a total rip off of a ’50s record called Beat Generation). All I’m saying is that you wouldn’t have seen a punk with a mohawk during the first wave of punk rock.

Richard Hell was from New York and was one of the first people to play at CBGBs. I think it was his band that were looking for a place to play and they came accross this country and bluegrass bar and told the owner that they were a country band, got the gig and then the owner found that his bar was getting much busier with all these punk kids so he kept it going and you then had bands like Blondie and The Stilletoes and The Ramones and so on and so on.

SL: Thanks PJ so much for your time and insights.

Showcasing Warhol’s distinctive style in a vivid and comprehensive collection, Olyvia Fine Art exhibits Andy Warhol: Portraits which runs untill the 6th of June 2010. Featuring unique paintings and prints that many may have never seen before and test screen films from 1964 -’66, including Eddie Sedgwick, Dennis Hopper, Lou Reed and Nico.

Unidentified Woman (Lady Rosenthal’s sister)1980, synthetic polymer paint and silkscreen on canvas 101.6cm x 101.6cm portrays the subject in a doll-like manner with exaggerated features; cherry-red lips and ‘Liza Minelli eyes’ give it – and many others included – a cartoon-like feel which Warhol championed and became an integral part of the pop art movement which Warhol instigated.

Never one to shy away from controversy, Andy Warhol’s work is as popular now as he ever was, with an original print selling recently for 72 million. If you can’t quite stretch to those kind of heady figures, Warhol prints are easily accessible the many greeting cards on sale. Despite dying over 20 years ago, his influence and legend live on. Having held court to many famous fashion designers including Yves Saint Laurent and Diane Von Forstenberg, I’m sure it would’ve pleased Andy to see his prints re-born in sartorial form like this Versace evening gown from 1991, one of his most celebrated,  held at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Anyone that saw Alistair Sooke’s Modern Masters on BBC 1 last week will know that in the mid ’60s, Warhol gave up on painting and began managing The Velvet Underground, introducing them to the German singer, Nico, who featured on their first album which Andy famously designed the peelable, banana cover for. It has been said that through his silver Factory he influenced the punk scene of the 1970s and I will explore the routes of this musical genre in depth next week with PJ Crittenden including sound clips.

A precursor to celebrity magazines such as Hello and OK, Warhol started Interview magazine in the late ’60s, concentrating on movie stars, in a bid to be invited to movie premiers and other hot celebrity-filled events. Starting life as ‘inter/VIEW’ the interviews were unedited and often rambled on for pages and pages and it fufilled his need to immerse himself in celebrity but believing everyone would have their 15 minutes of fame, he said, “I tell everyone they can be on the cover of Interview”. This view was immortalised by David Bowie in his song, Andy Warhol with the line: ” I’d like to be a gallery, put you all inside my show…”

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

My love affair with vintage clothes started early; collecting corsets from the ’50s and ’60s at jumble sales as a teenager and shopping at Planet Hollywood vintage store (sadly no more) in Edinburgh, prompting many enquiries as to the source of my outfits. So I was really excited when I got an invitation to Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair at Chelse Town Hall on King’s Road. Print is key this season and you could do a lot worse than to stock up on some unique pieces from a vintage fashion fair like Frock Me!

There was such an exciting array of print designs from painterly and tribal to  bold, block ’60s graphics. Jean Dubberly, one of the exhibitors, mixes different vintage fabrics and re-works them, turning them into beautiful skirts, dresses and eye-catching chokers. What I love about these fairs is that they’re a cornucopia of trinkets and treasures from past eras and you feel like Mr Ben of ’80s children’s cartoon (anyone old enough to remember him) embarking on an adventure as you chose your outfit. Accessories were fun too with everything from kitsch costume jewelery in bakelite to sparkling antique diamonds and aptly-named fascinators like this Lady Amherst feather one worn by the creator Lilly Lewis.

The pièce de résistance of the whole fair for me though was a fabulous Zandra Rhodes wedding dress with a very flattering knotted waist and pretty netted skirt with flower corsage which you can see it soon at Anita’s Vintage Fashion Fair on Sunday the 18th of April in Battersea. If you’re a bride-to-be and you fancy a vintage dress for your big day there’s also The London Vintage Wedding Fair on Sunday 11th April. Happy vintage shopping everyone!

© Sabina Lucia 2010