I wonder if the London Sales have lost their cachet.

Everywhere in England, from the High Street to the great out of town hypermarkets, bright red stickers proclaim up to 90 percent off. In this recession, many retailers are slashing their stock, trying to get enough cash through the tills in the next few days to pay the rent bill.

Go down Oxford Street and you’ll see many of the same stores you can visit anywhere else. There’s nothing so special about that.

But that’s only one side of the story. In fact, London’s big department stores still provide the best shopping you can get – if you’re into designer fashion, this is the place. Stop thinking cheap knickers from Primark, start thinking knockdown Dries van der Noten, and you’re in luck. And with sterling collapsing as financial markets hit meltdown, the London sales might be quite a tempting target for North American shoppers. (Anecdotal evidence suggests the French are over here big time, too, taking advantage of the strong euro.)

Besides, consumers know the retailers are strapped for cash. So there are an awful lot of people heading for the sales – those that have already opened in London, like Selfridges, have seen huge crowds and actually broken sales records. It’s going to be a wonderful experience – the crowds, a sense of urgency, the Christmas lights still up, massive discounts, the chance to get an amazing bargain. Or to get something that looked good at the time and you’ll never wear again. (Hear the voice of experience?)

So where are the best sales?

• Harrods - maybe not the best (I’m a Harvey Nicks person myself) but certainly the one that gets the headlines.
• Harvey Nichols – the sale for the fashionista, I think. If you want to do just the big stores, combine this with Harrods. Or wander down Sloane Street for more fashion brands. 50% off everything is promised.
• Liberty - discounts up to 75% in this marvellous store. Lots of fashion, and a chance to buy the lovely Liberty prints. My personal favourite – pretty sequinned silk slippers for £10. Hope I can find them in the real shop as well as on the website! Liberty will also be selling mystery boxes at various prices – the contents are guaranteed to far exceed in value the price you pay for the box, so it’s a risk worth taking. I like a gamble so this will be my sale for the year!
• Selfridges - the doyen of Oxford Street. Something for everyone here. Take a rest from shopping if the salt beef bar is open – a superb place to grab a bite to eat.
• Hamleys - I’d recommend not taking kids to the sales; the crowds can get scary and it’s difficult to make sure you’re not going to get separated in the scrum. But if you do want to shop with kids, this big toy store is the place.
• Fortnum & Mason is best known for its food hall – and luxurious Christmas hampers – but there will be reductions of up to 50%  on clothing, furniture and cookware too.
• Fenwick in Bond Street is another fashion sale that’s worth visiting. 50% off here with some really nice labels, and it’s a little off the beaten track.

Good luck! Even if you buy very little – or nothing – I hope you’ll have fun looking.

Photo credit – Fin Fahey on flickr

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Okay, maybe not drugs – but certainly socks with a rock and roll attitude!

This time of year my legs start getting cold. Tights are not enough. And trousers are boring. So Tabio is your answer – socks, dayglo tights, and leg warmers to die for.

I particularly liked the angora bed socks and furry leg warmers – something a bit different. Patterned socks aren’t so much my thing, but they have a good selection of those, too, as well as lots of over knee socks, plain, ribbed or even decorated with knitted chevrons and lozenges.

It’s a bright little shop, with the merchandise attractively displayed. I get the impression this is what Sock Shop would be like if it had taste, or Tie Rack if it was better organised and less disparate. It feels bright and modern, yet luxurious.

I did manage to get out with my credit card untouched. But it was a close run thing. And those angora bedsocks might still tempt me back to their website at www.tabio.com.

Where: 94 Kings Road SW3, 66 Neal Street WC2, 161 Kensington High Street W8

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I was near Victoria the other day and had a spare few minutes – so I went into a shop that wild horses usually couldn’t drag me into. The Royal Mews Shop, at the back of Buckingham Palace.

Some of the merchandise confirmed my worst fears. Horrible royal tat. There might not have been any corgi covers – but there were tapestry bell pulls (you need one, obviously, to summon your servants) and a book of royal family photos from the 1920s I can’t imagine anyone except my flag-waving grandma being interested in.

But there were also some rather nice souvenirs. China mugs with the royal arms, and chocolate bars in royal wrappings, and surprisingly tasteful teapots.

Let’s face it, some  people queue for hours to buy a tiny bar of chocolate or a bag of tea at Harrods just so they can get the fancy green-and-gold packaging. I think having the Royal Arms on your chocolate truffle selection is just that little bit more classy. Definitely something to impress Grandma, or the folks back home.

So if you’re near Victoria, and want a London souvenir with a difference, head for the Royal Mews shop rather than any of the tourist shops on the main street.

Where:The Royal Mews, Buckingham Palace Road, SW1

When: 0930 – 1700 daily

The photo of course shows something you’re not going to see in the Royal Mews Shop any time soon… but I relished the irony.

Photo credit – SecretLondon123 on flickr

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But the pasta may not be the most authentic. And you might not be able to get panettone, or the rich and calorie-laden panforte di Siena,  or squid ink black pasta, or mixed seafood salad.

When you want authentic Italian, visit Clerkenwell – home to London’s oldest Italian community. And specifically, visit Gazzano’s, at 167-9 Farringdon Road.

Even the tomatoes are the real thing – not Dutch grown watery cotton wool things but rich  dark tasty toms. Huge hams perfume the shop, and there’s a caff recently added on to the shop where you can get a panini (sandwich).

Not only are all the products authentic, but the shop still has the incredible atmosphere of a real old style deli – even if it has been a bit updated over the years.

Where: 167-8 Farringdon Road

Picture creidt: Leigh Wolf on flickr

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First of all there’s the credit crunch which is making many people tighten their belts. My friends all know I’m the kind of person who loves finding a nice bit of Betty Barclay or Paul Costelloe in a charity shop – but up till now they’ve regarded it as rather infra dig. Now, they’re all up to it too!

And secondly, of course, there’s global warming, and a lot of people are now thinking about living more sustainable lifestyles.

So a lot more people are interested in sewing or customising their own clothes.

Junky Styling is  just the right kind of business for these times. It got started when its two founders started making their own clothes to go clubbing in. Then they got into ‘deconstructing’ charity shop clothes.

The results are fun. Shirt sleeves become shorts, ties are stiched into halternecks; it’s very funky fashion. Probably not what I’d wear for a job interview though!

Where: 12 Dray Walk,The Old Truman Brewery,91 Brick Lane E1

Photo of the Junky Styling Fashion Week party by Fabio Venni, on flickr

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Everybody knows Harrods. The post Christmas sale is world famous, and still attracts massive queues. The famed Egyptian food hall, the celebs who come to shop here (and are occasionally thrown out for wearing clothes considered too casual for the store), ridiculous luxuries… if there’s one department store you have to visit as a tourist, it’s this one. Go to gawp – you don’t have to buy anything.

But if it’s designer clothes you’re interested in, you’ll have a much better time at the other store on Knightsbridge, Harvey Nichols. ‘Harvey Nicks’ to its friends, it’s a serious fashionista store.  Not nearly so exuberant as Harrods – but a much better place to take the pulse of the latest fashions. And yes, Harvey Nicks has a sale too.

I think sometimes there are Harvey Nicks people and then there are Harrods people. It’s like ‘Madonna or Britney?’ or ‘Oxford or Cambridge?’, you can’t say ‘both’. So in a lighthearted way, here’s a rundown of the difference;

Harrods people

… eat roast beef for Sunday lunch

… have dogs

… drink Cristal

… wear Yves Saint Laurent

Harvey Nicks people

… eat sashimi for Sunday lunch

… have Abyssynian cats

… drink a special little champagne you can only get from the producer

… wear Yohji Yamamoto

Which are you? Perhaps not either – but you can go and have a look at them for free.

Where: Harrods – 87 Brompton Road; Harvey Nicks, 109-25 Knightsbridge, London SW1. (Knightsbridge tube)

When: Harrods 10-7 Mon-Sat, Sunday 12-6. Harvey Nicks 10-7 Mon-Sat with late opening (till Weds and Friday, 112-6 Sunday.

Photo credit – Oliver Mallich on Flickr

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David Drummond’s bookshop specialises in theatre and opera – including ephemera such as playbills and posters, as well as books on the performing arts.  For music, try Travis & Emery – full of music scores as well as books on music, mostly old but some new. There’s a specialist Italian bookshop – this is where I bought my guidebook for hiking the Apennines (in English) – and Red Snapper books which sells ‘Beat Generation’ literature, photography and prints.

Some of the prices are high – these are not any old second hand bookshops, they’re specialist shops which diligently search out the most interesting and rarest items. But if you enjoy bookshops, simply browsing or even window-shopping Cecil Court will give you real joy.

Photo credit: Jaynie Bell on Flickr

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Everyone knows the Knightsbridge Two – Harrods and Harvey Nichols. But for my money, particularly if you’re food shopping,  Fortnums is much more fun.

The shop’s reputation rests on its food hall. And the food really is tremendous. Of course nowadays you can get chorizo in every supermarket and canned olives from the corner shop. But peruse any of Elizabeth David’s cookery books and you’ll get a feel for how difficult it used to be to get such things in England – in one of them she actually gives the addresses of the two (only two!) shops in Soho where you can get some of the ingredients. So Fortnums must have stood out from the crowd.

And it still does, thank goodness. This isn’t ever going to be my source of regular supplies, but for a touch of luxury, it’s unparalleled.

Potted stilton. Fine teas. Picnic hampers for Glyndebourne or Henley. Fortnums own relish. A fine bakery. Even an ice cream parlour, with a rather art deco feel (and by the way, here’s a nice bit of trvivia: Fortnum’s was the first store in London to serve knickerbocker glories).

Don’t forget though that this is a department store – the food is just part of it. But the food is, I’ve always felt, the most accessible part of the shopping experience, unless you have serious amounts of money to spend.

However, those who remember the old Fortnums with its neo-Georgian opulence, its red carpets and chandeliers, may be disappointed. Thouh some of the carpets and chandeliers have been kept, the store’s recent makeover has taken away some of its distinctiveness and replaced it with modern upmarket mall style – as Jonathan Glancey complains in the Guardian.

Even if you don’t want to go shopping, the store has an amusement for you – the huge clock over the shop entrance. Every hour, on the hour, carillon music tinkles and the eponymous Mr Fortnum and Mr Mason, who founded the store 300 years ago, come out and bow formally to each other.

Where: 181 Piccadilly (Green Park or Picadilly tube)

When: 10-8 Mon-Sat, 12-4 Sundays.

Photo credit: Kathleen Conklin  on Flickr

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Lots of space, lots of light, no clutter, make you think ‘minimalism’ at first. But the lushness of the floral patterns on the bags, the flower-printed screen, and the curvy lines of the chaise longue give the environment a sense of drama. (And if you like the furniture, you can buy it – Susannah’s launched her own furniture line.)

I don’t like flower prints. I don’t like tea dresses. I don’t like that kind of ‘English rose’ femininity which is all about restraint, and repression, and chintz.

And thank goodness Susannah Hunter’s floral designs aren’t like that at all!

Her handbags feature lovely strong flowers, picked out in appliqued coloured leather. As a craftsperson I’m amazed by how much work goes into these lovely bags. And the colourways are really strong – there’s a lovely bag with white flowers and several different greens on a bluey-gray background, and there’s a fantastic tangerine bag with pink roses. Vivid colours and imaginative designs.

Alas, these bags come in far above my budget – though I probably could just manage to afford one of the £190 clutch bags. But I can go and look.
Where: 7 Rugby Street.

When: Mon-Fri 10-6, Sat 12-4.

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Now of course that’s the kind of thing you used to have to put down to good luck, or sometimes you’d hear about from a friend who’d shopped there. But now there’s a website that aims to put these excellent independent shops on the map – the London Unchained guide.

I checked it out today. It’s quite new, so I wasn’t expecting it to have everything, but I was pleasantly surprised to find some of my favourites already there. Gosh Comics, the amazing John Sandoe bookshop in Chelsea, Paxton & Whitfield cheese shop, and Scooter Emporium in Shoreditch.

A couple of new ones I must try out though. Coco de Mer, an erotic emporium, sounds a cut above Anne Summers, and then there’s Duke of Uke in Hanbury Street, Bethnal Green – the heart of Jack the Ripper territory – selling ukeleles and banjos.

The site is well designed, with a search engine that lets you search by shop name, type of goods, or character (buzzy, classic, trendy, quaint…) And it doesn’t just cover central London – Hackney, Notting Hill, Hampstead are all in there too. Altogether a lovely site if you want to escape the world domination attempt of the chain stores, or just feel like discovering a couple of quirky shops to spend some time in.

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