29th April 2021

Face Forward Fashion Future…?

philippanestie Culture, Fashion, Mannequins, Places

There’s not a lot of excitement in the High Street reflecting on my recent visit…shops…many are still shuttered…but hope! A new shop has opened called ‘Beryl’ lord knows why it’s called that but anyway…so I had to go in and take a look unfortunately there was absolutely nothing in my style…at least it’s something new…and wow we need that at the moment albeit even if it is ‘scraping the barrel’ at bit. So where is it all going? Not all online I hope I think there is still a hunger, a real appetite to browse and buy in bricks and mortar shops, certainly I do and I know I’m not the only one, as demonstrated by the surge in High Street shopping from the 12th April. How long it will last I don’t know but I do think it is dropping off already…I still need to get down to Debenhams before it finally closes its doors forever though I’ve probably missed out on all the sale items…it is not a brand I would look up online and certainly not since Boohoo took it over which I think is rather pointless, Debenhams is a department store after all and to me it was about that experience. I’m not a Boohoo fan maybe it’s because I’m ‘too old?’ or ‘style challenged’ (but hey that’s my ‘forte’) unfortunately I can’t be polite about Boohoo except trashy comes to mind very strongly (sorry BH fans but not everyone is a fan!).

Another shop down the road called ‘Marci’ had an interesting display which proved impossible to photograph due to the reflections in the window except that it was very ‘Laura Ashley’ with flowing white ‘prairie style’ dresses the Laura Ashley shops may have gone (see here https://philippanestie.com/laura-ashley-lost-in-covid-chaos/) but the influence will live on such was the style that I don’t believe that it can/or will die…the amount of time it has been emulated proves the point. I don’t think it will ever leave the fashion repertoire. I did try and take a few shots (see below) but I wasn’t very successful at all…and the owner didn’t look too happy because when I went inside he followed me around the shop, I did manage to take another pic doing my best ‘undercover’ ‘I’m not really taking a photo stance’. I’m not entirely sure if it did work but at least I got a pic not over exciting but still managed to do it….you’d think he’d be grateful of the attention! But no obviously not, well I don’t care to be honest if you don’t want someone either looking in your window or taking a photo from outside then maybe don’t have either a window display or a shop for that matter…next update will be my recent visits to Charity Shops or markets….hope that’ll be more fun…!