It's London, baby!

Sooo...I've recently made two trips to London and had a chance to spend some time visiting charity shops. Obviously there's a huge number of charity shops in London so it's quite tricky to write about them, there're too many of them! So I will focus on two areas with a high number of charity shops instead.

First of all, I realised that London charity shops are too expensive for me. I go there as I normally go to Selfridges - just to admire prices, fabrics and designers. It doesn't mean you won't get a bargain there - you will, but it will be a different kind of bargain. For me, a bargain means a £20 wool and cashmere winter coat, not a pair of Zara trousers. In London charity shops an average price for a high street item is around £15.00-£19.00. So for me this doesn't feel like a bargain.

However, it's also easier to find designer items in London charity shops. Brands like Gucci, Coach, Dior etc. are quite common. It's in London that I bought an unworn Dior silk skirt for £50 a few years ago. So it's a good place to shop designer items at seriously discounted prices. You still need to prepare to pay quite a bit for them, yet in comparison to retail prices it's a bargain.

Anyway, let's look at the map...The first area where I love to shop when I'm in London is Warwick Way.

It's very close to the Victoria station and has quite a few charity shops. Fara has some more accessible prices, this is where I bought my Dior skirt.

Fara and Oxfam, 12-30 Warwick Way, London

Royal Trinity Hospice (corner of Wilton rd and Warwick Way) is probably my favourite place. They always have amazing designer brands, very beautiful and very expensive items (for my budget), but I love visiting them anyway. They have both modern designer clothes and some vintage items as well as some jewellery and household items.

Royal Trinity Hospice (corner of Wilton rd and Warwick Way, London)

A few blocks away there's a small charity shop called Terrence Higgins Boutique. I took these photos while I was enjoying my coffee and pastry at Gail's coffee shop - I love artisan bread and couldn't resist it!

19 Churton St, Pimlico, London

It's a tiny place with two rooms. It has been listed by Time Out as one of London’s top 20 charity shops, you can find more information here. I found prices are quite accessible and there's a nice mix of vintage, high street and designer brands. Even though I liked the place I struggled to understand why it was so highly regarded by Mary Portas. 

Next area that I love visiting is Thayer Street. It's close to Baker Street and Regent's Park so it's fairly central. 

Here, my favourite shop is Barnados. I love this shop for it's atmosphere and pleasant staff. Again, like in other London charity shops I found prices were a bit too high for me. One thing that I could afford were raffle tickets - two tickets for £1. I bought a few tickets and won a silk necktie. It's a very nice tie yet I'm not entirely sure how I will wear it - I'm not really a tie person. Still, it was very nice to win something. At the same time I really wanted to win a Longhamp bag. So on my second trip I came back and played tombola again hoping to win the bag but no luck. I then sent my husband (I'm not proud of this) to the shop and asked him to play tombola on my behalf. He didn't win the bag either. So the bag is still there! 

Barnados shop, 3-9 George Street, London

Across the road there's a tiny charity shop called Geranium.  It's filled with all sorts of stuff and you could easily spend hours there browsing and digging through piles of stuff. It has lot's of vintage items, crockery, jewellery, bags, shoes, books...all sorts!

Geranium charity shop, 3-9 George Street, London

A bit further away, on Marylebone High street, there will be Cancer Research and Oxfam. Cancer Research has some of the highest prices that I've seen in charity shops. However, it's not surprising given its location and also items that they sell. Here, you can easily buy Coach and Burberry bags and Tod's shoes.

Cancer Research, 24 Marylebone High street, London, W1U 4PQ

I've also visited other charity shops in other areas. They had more affordable prices so I did buy some items in the end. For example, I got a pair of M&S leather boots for £15 in Oxfam on 52 Goodge street. Further away there's YMCA (22 Goodge street) - a small shop with affordable prices. I would recommend these two shops if your budget is fairly modest.

Another affordable shop that I was able to find is Sue Ryder on 46-50 Parkway. It was on my way when I visited Jewish Museum so I couldn't resist.  They had a few designer items there but the prices where not as high as in other places. Also, I liked their idea of having a separate area with vintage clothing. 

 Sue Ryder, 46-50 Parkway, Camden Town, London NW1 7AH

Finally, another shop that I would like to mention is another Royal Trinity Hospice shop near Waterloo station. It too has lot's of designer clothes but more affordable so it's definitely worth a visit. 

Royal Trinity Hospice, Unit 57 11, Elizabeth House York Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 7NJ

I would like to come back to London soon and visit other areas and explore further. 

My star donations

Okay, so it's been a while since my last post. It's been a very busy few weeks for me.
I visited Leicester, spent a day in London and also reviewed my wardrobe to make room for new items. I didn't buy much although I've seen a few fantastic items.

Although I managed to visit a few shops in Leicester, nothing really stood out. London was much more exciting so I'll be writing a post about my trip.

I donated quite a few items recently but want to highlight my 'star' donations - itens that could probably be sold on eBay easily but they were given to a charity shop instead.

I'm obsessed with charity shopping because of such finds and I want to continue giving this feeling of excitement to other people.

Anyway, after long considerations I decided to guve away my Ralph Lauren boots in fabulous condition. I realised that I won't be wearing them simply because they don't fit my lifestyle. Otherwise they are like new. Hopefully they've now found a new home.

Another item is a lovely CC silk scarf. Perhaps not as warm but very pretty. Great for festive season. I wore it probably once, never knew how/when to wear it so gave it away.

I'll be giving away more items soon, almost all of them will be warm jumpers, just in time for winter. You probably noticed charity shops are now selling lots of festive clothing as well as warm items. So if you have jumpers that you dont wear anymore - it's a perfect time to donate them! 

Hull: first impressions and my picks

So I've spent one day in Hull and my first impressions of this town are really positive. I loved the architecture of this town, it reminded me of seaside resorts in Yorkshire, like Scarborough or Saltburn-by-the-Sea. I'm glad I had a chance to visit this town. Anyway, I also managed to visit three charity shops.

Hull has some beautiful buildings

The shops I visited didn't disappoint me either. I actually made purchases in all three shops. I was especially impressed by the British Red Cross shop - it's a very well looked after shop, spacious and well organised. I was pleasantly surprised by a wide range of clothing for sizes 14 and higher. It was also very easy to navigate through the rails as the shop staff separated their clothes by colour. I didn't see many items of upper market however the shop has such a variety of styles and colours that you could renew your whole wardrobe there! I also noticed a few very nice dresses. In the end I purchased a pair green (-ish) Massimo Dutti trousers. I'll be writing about them in my next post.

 26-30 Brook St, Hull HU2 8LA

Apparently the British Red Cross shops have their own loyalty programme so I was given a card and was told that I would collect points for each purchase in any of their stores! What a brilliant idea! I don't see many of their stores in the UK though.  It's the first one I've been to outside London. However, there's one in Sheffield as well.

Next stop - the BHF. It's a nice little shop with lots of quality items. I love their shops for the fact that you can get absolute bargains on quality items. This time I purchased a leather Gap shopper bag for £6.

51 Jameson St, Hull HU1 3JQ

Finally, Barnados. I loved the atmosphere in the shop. The shop floor was spacious and bright. It was neat and easy to navigate. In the end I purchased a pair of Autograph loafers (£5) and a Per Una boiled wool biker jacked (£9).

74 Prospect St, Hull HU2 8PW

These three items (loafers, the bag and the jacket), combined with my other items, will make a great casual Friday look for the office environment.

What a productive day I had! I hope to come back to Hull once again and explore it properly.

My Casual Friday look, all items purchased from various charity shops:
- Autograph loafers
- Per Una boiled wool jacket
- Ted Baker jeans and a leather belt
- Primrose Park cashmere jumper
- Gap leather shopper

Three days in Leeds: silk, leather and all things nice

So I was Leeds for 3 days and couldn't miss the chance to visit my favourite shops! First of all, I found out that the PDSA shop in the city centre has moved! Luckily there's still BHF and Cancer Research nearby.

Anyway, I thought I would pick a few pricey items and luxurious fabrics from Cancer Research. Like this beautiful pure silk shirt size 8, it feels incredible!

They also have a Max Mara dress size 12 and a Michael Kors grey top size 12.

Also, have a look at their leather items as  they have quite a few at the moment.

Colour clashing and colour blocking

Woohoo, it's Sunday! I finally have a bit more than 10 minutes to write a post. It was a busy Sunday for me. Had to wake up at 6 am to get to a local carboot sale early. I know, I know, it's not charity shopping. Well, at least all proceedings from selling pitches are going to the Sheffield Children Hospital!

Anyway. This time I wanted to write a little bit about colour blocking. I'm obsessed with this trend. It looks like a summer or spring trend, however I like adding such bright colours during winter seasons when the sunrise is at 7.30 am and greys rule everywhere. I think the main rule here is to keep the balance and not overdo it. So there should be a neutral item in the look that would balance two complimentary colours.

Also, it looks really good if colours are right opposite each on the colour wheel. So, for example, blue will be enhanced by orange while purple will standout even more when it's combined with green.

I picked a look from the current Carolina Herrera collection and used it as inspiration. I want to get more bright items soon and add to my collection. Armani too like playing around with colours so I decided to include some of their ad campaigns in this blog.

I picked several items from my collection that I found in charity shops. I picked:

- Per Una red polyester jacket
- Anthology orange polyester jacket
- Jaeger blue wool skirt
- Jaeger sleeveless white silk top
- Sonia Rykiel wool top
- Per Una khaki maxi skirt

Black Next trousers aren't from a charity shop. They were my emergency trousers when I ripped my very nice wool trousers at work! Devastating as these were Saba trousers and I really liked them...anyway..moving on..

Sooo, here's the Carolina Herrera's look.

and here're some of the Armani's past campaigns

Here're the combos I created using mentioned items

As you can see if you have such a bright and colourful item like this Sonia Rykiel top, it's better to combine it with a more subdued and plain item. Although, I should try and combine it with that blue Jaeger skirt!

Anyway. I'm on my way to colour block and experiment with more combos and colours! Happy Sunday!