CARNABY

I took a wonderful trip to Carnaby Street, London. It's a magical oasis of colourful little shops just off of Oxford Street. I like that it advertises itself as its own community; everywhere has this unspoken sense of soul and life and elated, artistic spirit.

The main thing I noticed were the collectively cool staircases in some of the shops I went into. This one was in a book/art/trinket shop called 'We Built This City'- their storefront is arguably the most enticing throughout the whole of Carnaby, too.

I think I picked a good time to go. The shops mainly open from 11am on a Sunday till about 6pm- most of London was still asleep, it only started to get a little busier at 12/1pm but not unbearably so.

My favourite shop on Carnaby had to be MONKI because of its AMAZING staircase...

It's full of mirrors and coloured shapes on sticks and is really cool if you take the time to stop and appreciate it.

I also like MONKI because they make my type of cute/quirky fashion affordable. They're not too loud in their cheekiness, but just enough that I enjoy wearing their clothes. I think the majority of my popular wardrobe is MONKI... especially my PJ's.

I love the coloured buildings. I know that in Carnaby the colour and aesthetic of the place is geared towards making it a tourist attraction in order to draw people into the shops to spend their precious pennies... but I like to think that it can be embraced and appreciated in its own right as a pleasant place to spend time. I would add a couple of coffee shops so that people can sit and enjoy the atmosphere. I'll have to go back in December to see if they've put any Christmas Lights up.

The Ragged Priest:

I discovered The Ragged Priest about a year ago when I was in a store in Reading that just happened to stock a couple of their items. I was drawn to them because they were tops with aliens over where the nipples would be. I ran into problems though, because TRP's items only seemed(at the time) to exist in the likes of small and xsmall sizes. I did search for TRP on Asos and their own site, but everything was a little too expensive, small and I didn't know how it would look on me.

However, when I walked into the Carnaby Store, everything changed. They stocked mediums and larges, and they had things in rainbow! They even offered student discount!

This staircase was in the Lazy Oaf Store. Lazy Oaf was a very strange experience because of the way everything was laid out; they only had one of each item on display- it was a very anti-clutter shopping experience but it was strange because although very exclusive, their range does not fall into the same category of typical 'designer luxury' because all their clothing is so playful. Playful might be the wrong word because they play on sarcasm and apathy...