London - the happiest shopping place on earth!

Not even rain could diminish my excitement at the chance of shopping in London early in May.  I even took the train from France just so I could visit my beloved Selfridges for a couple of hours. Well, not totally true, I took the train to London because I haven't been there in too many years nor have I seen my lovely friend Jen in that many years, and France was as close as I was going to get on a business trip.  So it was definitely worth taking the train to see Jen and her gorgeous family, and making a quick detour on the way to shop!

I so wish that department stores in the US were more like London.  Just imagine if Barneys, Dean & Deluca, Design Within Reach, and at least 2 of your favorite restaurants were all in one building. That's my idea of an amusement park. Entertainment for hours and hours.

Even with the limited time, I managed to do enough damage considering the exchange rate.  I bought 2 pairs of shoes (making it challenging to repack my suitcase at the end of the trip), a dress and a cashmere tee.  The shoes were the phenomenal Jil Sander heels I mentioned previously, and a pair of super-high turquoise suede Miu Miu sandals. I have not seen the Miu Miu's in the stores here in the states, nor have I seen the Jil Sanders except for on the Jil Sander online store.  The dress is from Preen and is an abstract black and white print with neon yellow trim, kind of reminds of old-school Body Glove surfwear, very eighties. David Pava initially thought I looked like a clown, then decided he liked it. Not sure what that says.  And the red cashmere tee is from Zadig and Voltaire, which is also challenging to find in the states, though I think they are opening a boutique in NY this year.  Anyway, I bought it because it had these tiny, nonfunctional buttons at the collar that were the shape of skulls!

What I didn't manage to do is any shopping in Paris. I went to one department store, thought about buying some Tsumori Chisato stuff, but was kind of too tired to deal with the language barrier. Plus the French have this thing about not really caring about making money, which kind of annoys me. The stores all close really early, taxi drivers will refuse you to take you places, etc.

Yippee! What a great shopping expedition to tide me over until the Marni sale this summer!  If I can find some pics of the other items I bought I'll be sure to post.

- alison