Week 4 - Vintage Treasure Troves in Bath

If you love vintage or retro fashion finds, look no further for some tips on the best places to stock up on a day out shopping in Bath. 

If you can time your visit between 25^th March and 1^st April, you can grab some great discounts and get tickets for some great fashion events too as it is Bath Fashion week.  Visit bathinfashion.co.uk to book. Some designer greats are hosting shows, talks and workshops, including Bath dweller, Manolo Blahnik, Amanda Wakeley and top stylist to models such as Kate Moss - Rebekah Roy.

Tweeds for the country couple

So back to Baths' vintage retail offerings.  Working forwards in time, the most longstanding vintage resident in Bath has to be Vintage to Vogue which has a stunning collection of women’s and men’s garments, antiques and shoes dating way back from late 1800’s/early 1900’s through to flapper dresses, 50’s prom dresses and Sherlock style tweeds.  The staff are friendly, helpful and know their vintage.

Scarlet Vintage www.scarletvintage.co.uk  tucked away on Queen Street is a real find.  With flapper dresses from the 20’s, more recent joys from Biba or Pucci and spotted today, a luxurious floor-length black velvet cloak from the 1930’s – very Scottish widow!  The owner is an ex-air hostess who did the London to LA haul where she found some of her fabulous designer pieces.  Staff are really helpful and called me months after I’d asked them to locate me a vintage Hermes scarf with the perfect one -  in the very periwinkle blues I’d requested. My last birthday present to myself!

 

Similarly, Heaven’s Bazaar, again off the main drag on St Margaret’s Buildings, is a feast for the eye with lots of fantastic vintage paste and dress jewellery. Gorgeous lizard bags and beautiful Dior scarves nestle alongside some vintage dresses and many more current second hand designer bits – Prada shoes, Miu Miu and Gucci, to name a few I’ve coveted.

Bringing us slightly more up to the present day, Mint, beautifully laid out and the clothes in immaculate condition, sells high end designer second hand clothing.  Buyer and blogger, the flower girl, www.theflowergirlblog.com has an excellent eye and I have had my beady eye on dresses by Valentino, Herve Leger and a vintage Coach bag, as well as some pre-loved Burberry trenches.

Check out those 50's lampshades!

Black and White lends more of a nod to the retro with some great pieces of 50’s furniture and prints rubbing alongside contemporary and old second hand fashion .  High street brands sit together with some great designer pieces, as long as the clothing is in good condition and marketable.

The Yellow Shop on Walcot Street is also a Bath old timer.  Full of second and retro denim, 80’s plastic hoops and some great Nordic knits, the Yellow shop has great second hand cowboy boots as well as pretty floral dresses sold as new.

Finally, bling it all up with some fabulous beads and paste from Bath's Guildhall Market. This hidden vintage jewellery concession is a riot of colour for the senses and at reasonable prices too.

Tip of the Week:  From 24^th March until 8^th May, the Holbourne Museum is hosting an exquisite display of hats curated by and sourced from Stephen Jones’ own collection.  Don’t miss out.

Next Week:  Fit in Bath – in honour of last Sunday’s Bath Half Marathon!

Spoilt for choice?!

After last week’s marathon shop when I left you no room to pause for breath let alone caffeine, I thought I’d remedy it this week with great places for coffee breaks and light lunches to break up the retail therapy.  With the onslaught from hemispheres Southern and Eastern of coffee culture, Bath as a tourist haven has wasted no time joining the ‘non-fat, vanilla, no whip latte, to go’ bandwagon.  

The great thing is you don’t have to go to the chain stalwarts (Starbucks, Caffé Nero, Costa etc…) unless you have your staple fix, there are plenty of great deli-style cafes all serving fantastic quality coffee and food.

Loft's egg inspired Easter window

So lets start at the top of town again.  The Loft www.theloft-bath.com is a homewares and designer clothing shop situated in a spacious department store sized space on tucked away Bartlett Street.  Whilst the clothing and interiors are high end and lovely it is also host to the cosy Café Lucca with quiet and intimate surroundings for a really good catch up – preferably child free.  It’s the place I took my Mum for a light bite if you catch my drift?! (excellent salads, quiches and delicious and unusual cakes).

Moving down onto George Street, the Adventure Café has been a Bath staple for a long time. Food tends to be plentiful, sandwiches and dishes with a tex mex twist – and a really good range of smoothies and chocolate milkshake that are hard to resist.  It's family friendly during the day and has a great garden space at the rear for summer chilling.  Next door’s Jika Jika is newer to Bath and owned by ex Bath rugby player Matt Stevens, so encourages a rugby supported crowd. It’s much more about the coffee and unusual and delicious range of suko teas. Barista’s in here are well trained and keen and don’t like to heat the milk too high! (destroys the quality of the coffee apparently!!)

Head further off the beaten track to Walcot Street – home to some great retro, specialist interior and vintage shops and you will happen across some great foody finds.  The Fine Cheese Company at the bottom of the street has the best selection of deli goods, breads and, of course, cheeses in Bath and its adjoining café has great lunchtime food and a mouthwatering selection of cakes and great coffee.  

Further up the road, relative newcomer to Bath, Sam’s Kitchen, has a tapas feel and is great for healthy but wholesome lunches and has a small but rustic and relaxed interior.

For a more kid friendly venue, head to the cafe at the Egg, Bath’s children’s theatre venue, which  has a spacious interior and plenty of toys and hidey houses for children to enjoy.  It has basic but fine coffee, sandwiches and organic snacks for parents and children alike.

Play den in the Egg

Finally, the Chapel Arts cafe is a great venue hosting a really eclectic range of music gigs from all over the globe.  By day it has the best cafe with great food and displays by local artists and craftspeople. www.chapelarts.org


Tip of the Week: If you fancy watching the thousands that rush into Bath this Sunday for the Bath Half Marathon 2012, head to Widcombe School where you can send your kids into the park whilst you watch the runners and enjoy great cakes at the pop up cafe...


Next Week: Vintage and Retro clothing in Bath as the Vintage Fashion celebrations hit town...

Week 2 - The Bold and the Beautiful - Spring into fashion in Bath

Like any other fashion obsessive, I lust through the Spring issues of Vogue as the colourful Spring/Summer collections arrive.  This year’s dreamy haze of chiffon pastels, Great Gatsby 20’s flapper dresses, Stella’s pajamas and the delicious sea themed collection by Chanel are all to die for items but sadly a little out of my budget.

So I set off on my annual challenge to create the look by hitting the high street.  Whilst I like nothing more than a trawl through Selfridges or a mosey down the King’s Road, I live in Bath and luckily it happens to be a bit of fashion Mecca. 

Bath has some really fantastic boutiques where you can find the odd delicious designer piece that you can then accessorize by visiting the many mainstream high street fashion retailers here.  In the last two years Bath has opened a new shopping centre called Southgate with brands like: Hollister; All Saints; Top Shop; River Island; Urban Outfitters; Tommy Hillfiger and KG all within a stone’s throw.

To make it easy for anyone visiting Bath for a weekend shopathon – I have designed a simple tour starting at the top of town where the more expensive brands and boutiques reside and ending in Southgate.  As a bonus it’s all literally downhill!

Starting with the fabulous quality fabrics and Chi Mihara shoes in Toast on Bartlett Street – Spring was shouting CORAL in a big way.  


Further down the road, Mee, host to some fabulous brands such as Heidi Klein, Milly, Designer’s Remix to name but a few, had its Spring collection of Hudson jeans  in a great range of colours – I liked the violet.  Lux, next door, host to Anya Hindmarch, Lulu Guiness and Mulberry bags as well as a gorgeous selection of shoes for all budgets – had the latest Ash collection of summer wedges and is waiting for its bespoke range of Havaianas. I lived in them last Summer on the beach as well as the school run!  


Crossing the road to Prey, home to more great designer brands, including Paul Smith - they also have a vintage rail with some really great high end finds at knock down prices.  I am still green with envy at my friend’s Missoni velvet shirt from there.


Onto the main drag – Milsom Street is home to Reiss,  the lovely Comptoir des Cotonniers, currently sporting some great fresh lemon hues and my current love - beautiful suede wedge boots in a delicious mushroom or caramel and they insist on leaving them in the window!

Whistles now has an outlet in department store Jolly’s with some lovely bright leather Spring bags and belts, the Kooples has just arrived further down and then Square, next to Russell and Bromley is full of designer labels including: Isabel Marant Etoile; McQ; Marc Jacobs; and my downfall of the week – the Vivienne Westwood black leather biker jacket with peplum waist that happened to slip into my bag at its final end of sale knockdown price – it’s a forever thing! I blame fabulous blogger Becky May aka flower girl and her marvellous shop Mint that is helping me sell some pre-loved pieces to fund it!  She has the best taste and is a fellow Marant lover too! www.theflowergirlblog.com

Check out those boots!

Thank you Vivienne!

Green Street and New Bond Street to your left are host to more great boutiques including Sassy and Boo and Maze (great Nicole Farhi collection) but also more brands such as Jack Wills; Warehouse; Brora; Karen Millen; LK Bennett and a huge Jigsaw.  Continuing down Union Street you will find Office; Monsoon; Banana Republic and M&S en route to the new Southgate Centre, home to the brands listed above.

All Saint’s looks like a scene from Les Mis but has more gorgeous silk dresses this season and a really great shift dress that ticks the floral box but has a black background for the more grungy among us.  Top Shop has its usual bang on trend numbers but it was River Island where I fell for the cheaper version of Loewe’s geometric prints in the shape of their beach range.  This black and white shift with its pop of colour and gold sleeves is a bargain transitional piece to wear with wedges or black leather leggings until it heats up a bit – all for £20!!

Bath also has a great selection of vintage and retro fashion retailers, so more on these little known gems another time.  Shoes and accessories are abundant in Bath and deserve a blog of their own.

Making do?

So sorry Mr Vuitton -  much as I love your candyfloss dresses and Broderie Anglaise, I’m ticking the boxes with my vintage Reiss 20’s style dress (a nod to you Mr Gatsby) and my vintage shop find own Broderie Anglaise cap sleeve white jacket.

Tip of the week:

Whilst the Burberry trench will one day be mine…meanwhile Banana Republic do a mean high street version that’s fully lined, really tailored and a perfect transitional coat that’s warm enough for Spring and can handle the odd drizzle…


Next week: We didn't stop for a shot of caffeine on our tour of the shops so next week is dedicated to coffee and the plethora of great deli lunch options in Bath

Week One - A Fabulous 40th

Royal Crescent at night

Where do you take seven of your dearest friends flying in from glamorous lives all over the globe when it is one of their 40th birthdays'?


In truth it wouldn't matter where we went as precious time in each other's company was all that was required.  So, people arrived over the course of the evening to sup bubbles and soak it up with pizza beside a roaring fire and a huge amount of gossip.


Saturday morning, brunch and relaxing venues to chat some more were the order of the day. Fabulous Bath based massage therapist, Lucy Glendenning lucymassagebath@gmail.com swung by with her massage bed and treated us all to a full body experience that left us all walking on air!


We then floated into the city to Jacob's Coffee House http://www.jacobscoffeehouse.co.uk/ for coffee, panini's and yes more chat. Jacob's is so central you can spy into the Pump Rooms but has cosy space in the upstairs Georgian sitting rooms and has the benefit of being independent - it supports lots of great local producers, such as, the delicious Granny Gothard's ice cream http://www.grannygothards.co.uk/ - a personal favourite.


A visit to sample the healing waters at Thermae Bath spa http://www.thermaebathspa.com/ was curtailed as rain drove many tourists to try the same and the queue was too long. You can group book in advance if your party is more than 8 but we were too chilled out by this stage to mind.  We opted instead for a spot of retail therapy in the new Southgate Centre.  Whilst not full of Bath's unique boutiques, Southgate offers most of the mainstream fashion retailers all within a five minute stroll of each other.  More on this in my retail blog next week.


After tea, cake and more bubbles it was time to repair to our rooms for some serious primping. We chose Sub 13 http://www.sub13.net/ - for its slightly more glamorous and discreet crowd for some pre-dinner drinks.  They also create the best cocktails in Bath with an ever increasing appetite for mixology (check out the menu for yourself on the website).  Bar manager, Alex had put us on the list and kept a lovely space in the old wine vault free for us and our weary, heeled feet!

On for dinner...shunning Bath's more expensive options (Olive Tree, Hudsons), we opted for French style bistro chain Cote http://www.cote-restaurants.co.uk/ which was nearer and in my opinion always a safe option for an eclectic range of tastes and requirements. Cote resides in the venue of Bath's popular gastro pub Moon and Sixpence which sadly lost the battle to the recession. The service at Cote is always excellent and take note, birthday bookings are met with complimentary Kir Royale's all round.


Clubbing was curtailed due to an early leaver but for a more sophisticated late night venue, I had Circo or the Common Rooms in mind - more on bars in Bath another week.


Next week: The snowdrops are out so its time for Spring retail therapy in Bath...watch this space for the best boutiques, brands and fashion finds....


Tip of the week:  Visit fabulous Mee Boutique http://www.meeboutique.com/ and adjacent Lux http://www.luxshoes.co.uk/(shoes and bags) on Bartlett Street who have put out last Summer's beautiful Milly and Heidi Klein to name just a couple of great brands, at absolute knockdown prices.  Perfect to take you in to Spring 2012 at a fraction of the price.