The Big Smoke

I did a post a few months ago on the H&M sister company &OtherStories. I’m not one for dull repition, but there was a moment this week when I was walking down Regent Street with Simon, and my eyes actually bugged out of my head. There is an &OtherStories STORE. I’m not really sure how this detail could have possibly passed me by, but it genuinely had. In a way I’m thankful for the ignorance, because seeing that one of the high streets most loyal imitators of catwalk quality actually exists outside of hyperspace was thrilling. The shop is just as you’d expect: terribly cool and not unlike a 3D, two story Pinterest. I didn’t buy anything – my spontaneous country travelling and card-happy Zara trips have rendered me unable even to pay rent – but I did a lot of mental wishlist creating. I took a couple of pictures myself but there are seriously trillions (seriouslsy) at their Tumblr-esque website here.

Hyde Park’s Winter Wonderland actually astounded me with it’s ostentatious Christmas trees, fairylight-tempered stores and towering fairground rides guarded by polar bears. I met Santa there too. He was nothing like I expected: far more heady looking than you’d imagine for a toy maker – this particular Father Christmas appears to be on some form of hallucinogen.

Having never lost his Laduree virginity, Simon was coerced by me into making a trip to the mint green Covent Garden store and it’s lusty rows of macarons. Just how do they make the raspberry filling seem as though you are eating fruit, and the chocolate akin to indulging in a decadent brownie? We may never know because they are inevitably gone before a real conclusion can be drawn.

Other charecteristics of the day are the breaking in of my J Brand jeans, and the towering Fortnum and Mason hamper Christmas tree at the train station. Decadent and magnificent: that’s London.