Sao Paulo - city of colour

If you love colourful places, you’re bound to be attracted to the bright lights of Brazil. I was totally wowed by the wonderful colours of Sao Paulo, when I stayed at the Hotel Unique earlier this year.









The hotel has been described as “an urban work of art”, “an architectural landmark” and a “reference in global hotel design”. The Unique was designed by Brazilian architect, Ruy Ohtake – and the unusual apartment style rooms were decorated by Joao Armentano.


Key features are the round porthole style windows (left), Brazilian wood floors in the rooms - and an incredible rooftop terrace, where you’ll find the most amazing crimson coloured swimming pool (right). The hotel is also very eco-friendly, with self-sufficient energy and a private supply of pure water.





The restaurant and bar are colourful by day, but at night, they come into their own as a showcase for the city’s beautifully illuminated skyline.




I asked Brazilian jewellery designer Marcelle Lawson-Smith to recommend some fashionable places to visit and soon discovered that colour abounds in other parts of Sao Paulo too. The popular Jardins area houses some stunning shops and restaurants, including Galeria Melissa – famed for its quirky plastic shoes, here displayed in futuristic plastic bubbles set against an African inspired backdrop – complete with life size models and photograhs of big game animals.

Brazilian style green foliage even extends indoors, with many restaurants housing a plethora of plant life. These include the romantic Figueira Rubaiyat, with its ancient, gigantic central fig tree and the modern Arthur Casas designed restaurant, Kaa, where tropical vegetation even grows on the walls.




If you’re big on design art then Sao Paulo’s also the city for floor to ceiling cocktail bars and amazing oversized handmade wooden furniture.





The old part of town is just as colour-infused – like the bustling municipal food market, with its exotic fruits and magnificent, huge stained glass windows.







Emerging areas, like the Italian suburb of Vila Madalena, (a bit like London's Notting Hill before it became world famous), have amazing character and curiously cool graffiti that would put even Banksy to shame.






This is the place to find great home furnishings, retro accessories and colourful clothing - like Farm’s Brazilian beach and casual wear (unfortunately no photos allowed). The outside of this hippy-chic boutique is also swathed in greenery, and there's a rather magical butterfly tree in the courtyard.






Food in Sao Paulo is as vibrantly vivid as the rest of the surroundings. The sushi at the Hotel Unique is highly recommended, as is the seafood at the Figueira restaurant. By the way, did you know that Sao Paulo has the largest Japanese population outside of Japan?





Finally, an enormous, brightly painted statue of St George and the Dragon takes pride of place at the Unique hotel entrance. I discovered that it’s probably not just beacause Saint George is the patron saint of Portugal – he also happens to be the patron saint of the Corinthians of Sao Paulo football team (in fact their ground is called St George’s Park).















So, if you’re into delicious food, stylish fashion, design art, football and fun, ShopCurious highly recommends a visit to this city of many colours.

Will you?

Vintage Valentine kimonos

If you're looking for something authentic and different to buy as a unique and unusual Valentine gift, a vintage Japanese kimono might be just the thing.

To us Westerners, kimonos are exotic and alluring enough for all manner of occasions and can serve as anything from original evening dress through to seductive nightwear - they are ideal as a romantic gift and have timeless appeal.



The funniest thing is that in Japan - a country of great tradition, where apparently the majority of marriages are still arranged - many Japanese brides are choosing to wear a modern Western-style wedding dress rather than the conventional kimono. Is this just a fashion fad? Surely the traditional silk kimono is far more steeped in history and romance than your average Berketex bridal number ... and is likely to be handcrafted from natural fibres too?







Take a look at the selection of stylish vintage silk kimonos at ShopCurious - if you're feeling really soppy, there's even one that's fittingly called 'bloom of love'.






And we've some delightfully quirky obi-style belts as well: truly unique accessories and curiously useful for kimono and non-kimono wearers alike.

According to my nose, there's been more than a hint of the Orient in international style trends so far this decade, but I wonder if the strongest whiff of the East is yet to come...

Do you?

Slow forward

Damn, I missed Obama’s inaugural speech – but have heard plenty of snippets played over and over and over and over and over on the radio and TV and will they ever stop?

Still, Barack Obama certainly seems like he has ‘style with brains’ – let’s just hope that he does. There’s no doubt he’s an awesome orator and a very charismatic guy – oh, and as Mica Paris so delicately(!) pointed out on Tuesday night’s LBC News, when asked why she thought Obama had won: “He’s a cool guy” who “appeals to the young” and “walks in a really cool kind of way” … Thanks Mica, you’ve got a great voice and a very big heart and you’re a lovely lady (and you forgot to mention President Obama's very fine set of teeth).





A few months ago, all we were hearing is that it was ‘time for change’ and now we're getting the already strong message that ‘change has come’. I must say that I’m totally fed up with change. In my relatively short lifetime it seems like things have speeded up to a frantic pace, especially in the past few years. Everyone wants everything, everywhere, now. Obama seems like a genuinely nice and well intentioned guy, but even with huge global resources at his fingertips, he can’t change the world for the better overnight.




And unfortunately we’re stuck in rather a bad place - A place where ‘change’ means a new face in charge, (preferably one that’s relatively symmetrical and pleasing on the eye); a place where curiously unbecoming behaviour and lack of consideration for others is often glossed over by PR; a place where things have to be reduced to a monetary equivalent and where celebrity endorsement counts for much more than educated reason and hard-earned experience; a place where authentic values and simple pleasures seem to mean very little.

I really do hope that things will change for the better because I’ve occasionally thought that I’d like to stop the world and get off. And I hope that in future, the change will happen less quickly - so we don’t get all tangled up in the moral, social and economic dilemmas that we find ourselves challenged with today.


Aside from all this, though possibly related, I’m so pleased to see that Google has been promoting the U-tube Symphony Orchestra on their homepage – seems somehow more worthy than The X-factor.




Which brings me on to the serious subjects of fashion and taste. Style isn’t about appearance and price (or net worth). There's a clever art to finding things that are unique and have real style – and it's all the more rewarding if you have a limited budget. Whatever your spending power, why not save up for a while and get something really special? Do you actually want to purchase a garment (whether it be a cheap and poorly made chain store rip off, or a costly designer gown) that everyone knows the price of? How about something truly original, beautifully made and timeless in its appeal? Feel no compulsion to buy from ShopCurious – why not simply indulge your curiosity and have a good look around...

Will you?

Lounging around

The global recession means that most of us will be slowing down naturally, as well as of our own volition. It’s going to be a time when people will stay indoors more and enjoy themselves with friends and family – there’ll be less emphasis on material things.

I already mentioned a major trend is that we’ll be dressing up more, but there are two sides to this. On the one hand, we’ll be wanting to look our best to impress in the workplace, or to stand out from the crowd if we’re being interviewed for a new job: hence the sudden resurgence of 1980s power dressing.


We’ll also be needing the odd show-stopping outfit for special events when we do get to go out and seriously party. On these occasions, recycled vintage clothing, tasteful and timeless glamour will increasingly become more acceptable than flashy, one-season designer label.

On the other hand, a lot of the time, we’ll be aiming for comfort with style. Lounge pants – loose pyjama style trousers - have been popularized in recent years by college and university students the world over. Now they’re appearing more and more and have become something of an iconic fashion item.



The word ‘pyjama’ originally comes from the Persian word ‘payjama’ meaning ‘leg garment’. However, it was first incorporated into English from the Hindustani language. British men during the seventeenth century wore pyjamas as casual attire while relaxing. It was during the colonial era that the pyjama first became popular in the west as sleepwear. A Pyjama or a Pajama can be worn by either a man or a woman and usually means loose and comfortable drawstring pants, made of light fabrics. The sleeping suit variety of pyjama, as worn in the west, consists of a loose front-buttoned jacket and a trouser. However, these days, pajamas or pjs signify anything, from flamboyant beach trousers and funky catsuits to airy boxers.





At ShopCurious, we’ve some original harem style trousers that are really cool and stylish. They’re perfect for lounging around at home, but you could also wear them on holiday, or even to an informal dinner party - if you want to appear curiously exotic. They might also come in handy if you want to go into hibernation for the winter months, or at least for tomorrow – officially the most depressing day of the year.

Do you?

Saleing into the sunset

Have you been to the sales yet? I’ve viewed scenes of crowded stores on the TV news, but prefer to keep well away from them myself. However, in a mad moment of nostalgia, when walking past a local branch of Woolworths the other day, I decided to pop in and take a look at what was on offer.

There weren’t that many customers about, though there were quite a lot of very glum looking staff, including an extremely unfriendly security guard, who insisted that I stop taking photographs and threatened to throw away my camera. All very odd, I thought, for a shop that was just about to be closed down – and hence the rather hurriedly taken and blurred photos in this blog…



There was still quite a lot on the shelves and most of the stock seemed only to have been marked down by 10% - including such ‘wonders’ as Cliff Richard's autobiography, a toy replica long range rifle, something called Partini – ‘the party game with a delicious twist’ and pale pink and blue raffia umbrellas (perfect for mid-Winter).




The clothing section was a little busier: the floor strewn with the remnants of rummaging shoppers. The fashions on show were decidedly lacking in taste – like this deep-pile-style stripey zip up cardie in a toe curlingly eclectic array of cerise, dark lilac and white..








If you’re not tempted by the Wonder of Woolies or other department store sales, why not take a look for bargains on the internet. You won’t have to go out in the cold, or battle with the crowds and you might even find things with timeless style that aren’t instantly identifiable as last season’s stock.







At ShopCurious, we’ve up to 40% off stylish fashion, jewellery and unique accessories like this unusual vintage bug bangle (left) reduced from £230 to £149.50. We’ve also designer vintage bargains and some highly wearable contemporary clothing that will keep you warm year after year too – like a simple, but stunning black suede waistcoat by Madame a Paris, reduced from £386 to £250.90.






It’s actually very sad that Woolies will be closing down, especially for the employees at this difficult time. When you see the fixtures and fittings being sold off (if anyone wants them), like plastic shopping baskets at a pound a pop, it brings home the finality of the situation.


It’s even sadder that the buyers at Woolworths weren’t curious enough to find things with a little more style.

Are you?