For shame on me for not walking those extra steps when Kingsland Road/High Street ends and Stoke Newington Road begins. Actually, for shame one me for not being more observant of what's going on in London in general. I just worked out that in the past year, I've been away from London for the good part of it (five months) which means that time devoted to meandering and mincing about in London has been drastically cut down. This needs to be rectified for my own sanity as well as to be more informed for the blog.
Thankfully people like Fred Butler are more diligent and have their ears to the ground. After a lovely bit of cake and tea at Mouse & de Lotz, we went to Pelicans & Parrots which yes, has been open since August 2010 making me an incredibly sloooooooow-mo. Blame the slowness on my disadvantaged position of living in an odd bit of London that is neither here nor there and not being in the thick of the Dalston hub.
Couple Chuko and Juliet have scoured the world bringing a mix of vintage, contemporary objects, antiques into this ex-Turkish travel agent shop space. The feeling of a Victorian curiosity shop is then cut through with the selction of vintage which has a distinctively strong focus on prints. If stills won't suffice then take a walk through their virtual tour-y thing-a-ma-jig. The mish-mash of objects gives the store an era-less feeling which actually makes you more inclined to see the objects in a fresh context rather than one that is confined by its time period.
I didn't flick through it but their one rail of men's vintage is actually really well-selected... their blog clues you into some of their dapper finds for guys, that so often feel cheated out of the vintage game just because of sheer availability...
What struck me about the selection was that it was clear the couple have a great eye for prints and textiles which may stem from Juliet's background as a textiles design graduate. It's evident in the little doses of print in head scarfs and hankerchiefs...
...to jubilant amounts in pieces like this vintage bathing suit and geometric print super-short shorts. Actually this trio hanging on the wall just spells out my sort of S.U.M.M.E.R. to me.
Their printed shirt selection is washed and ready to have their collars and cuffs peeking out in oufits... clean vintage isn't a MUST for me but it certainly is a PLUS especially when some sell stained pieces where the stains are impossible to remove.
This Moschino wood print blazer needs to go to a good home... I almost caved but reasoned that dark brown is actually the only colour that I can't wear too much of. If I was feeling ridiculous, I would have bought it just to try and integrate it with my coffee table somehow...
Here's a video made by HUH magazine of store-owner Chuka talking a bit about Pelicans & Parrots... yes he says 'on-trend' but I promise you he means well because it is true that a lot of the pieces fell right in to the boxes that have been floating about for S/S 11...
Case in point, this vintage JC Penneys dress that I bought at Pelicans & Parrots had Marc by Marc Jacobs/Sonia Rykiel with a touch of Jil Sander S/S 11 all blurring into one piece. All the better to continue to dress like Midori from Norwegian Wood. Actually with the lovely weather London's been getting, this whole week, I have actually been getting dressed with the question "What would Midori wear?" in mind. Along with Midori dressing, Metronomy's new album The English Riviera has been a fine accompaniment and works particularly well with the bold stripes of this dress. Come to think of it, if I wasn't violating a ton of laws, I would definitely attempt a MP3 x outfit pic blog...
(Worn with Chloe sandals and Dolce & Gabbana Animalier sunglasses)
