The height of fashion

Current fashion trends are all about contrast. The most slavishly style savvy mix cheap and chic chain store bargains with luxury designer brands to maximum effect. Those who are even more curiously clever somehow manage to locate truly individual or limited edition pieces that are not only original, but have a timeless style ... something that can be worn in ten years time and will still look good.

The trick to finding the best things for that eclectic look is to be ShopCurious, for instance you might:
1) spot something special and in limited supply before anyone else does and keep it in your wardrobe to bring out as and when desired, or
2) become the curator of your own vintage collection - finding top quality stylish vintage clothing and accessories in rather offbeat and unique places, like our website.


Talking of contrasts, the coming season might pose a bit of a dilemma on the shoe front - with both flats and stilettos as the trend du jour, which do we choose to wear and when? Well, you can always go for comfort, but unless you have fabulously long legs (think Carla Bruni or Elle Macpherson), you'd better make sure your choice of footwear is as aesthetically pleasing as possible, since the low heel option rarely stacks up in the glamour stakes.









If you opt for style over comfort, we have some very elegant vintage stilettos, evening shoes and strappy sandals that are beautifully designed, utterly feminine and surprisingly easy to walk in.

Not just real cute, but curiously collectable too, are several pairs of early Tom Ford spike stiletto heeled Gucci shoes from around 1996-7. These much fought over shoes were in very limited supply and subject to a hugely long waiting list - but they're every bit as hot today as they were all those years ago.

Look out for more sexy high heels arriving at ShopCurious very soon.
Will you?

Hats off to the blind eye

I didn't go out looking for fashion faux pas at Royal Ascot the other day, but did you notice any obvious flouting of the new dress code that was to be so strictly enforced?

There were plenty of fashion trends in evidence, like puff ball skirts, as disported by these two fillies (left) - perhaps they were hiding their hats underneath ... I had a good look, but can't spot them anywhere, can you?




Flouncy fabrics were also popular, as seen on the cool young things in the pic above right - love the cute little tiered skirt for the leggy look - obviously the stewards were momentarily distracted...

Elsewhere, curiously quirky accessorizing seemed to be the order of the day (see left).








Joline, a Canadian who has recently taken the British citizenship test, patriotically jazzed up her outfit with a couple of flags - a look which inadvertently attracted the attention of a particularly jolly, though not entirely welcome fellow.





There were some curiously chic ensembles too (from left to right below) a rather natty nature-inspired hat worn by fashion designer, Sangita Khan, love it; a couple of ladies looking cleverly uncoordinated with the help of a gentleman's morning coat and a cigar box bag - and finally, a bit of Italian style boho a go-go from this sultry cell phone and cigar wielding signora with a ffffffffffascinating bandana.


I also saw a few ShopCurious hats on display, dressed up with flowers (below left) and plain and simple (below centre and right).





Now that Royal Ascot's over for another year, I thought it would be nice to offer you these hats at a very special price. They're great for holidays too - you can simply squish them up and stuff them in your suitcase.
Will you?

The fashion of art

Last night I went to the preview of the Royal Academy Summer Exhibition. The dress code was 'glamorous'. Did it live up to expectations? I snapped Grayson Perry looking curiously quirky in a Little Bo Peep number, Virginia Bates looking amazingly svelte, youthful and curiously chic in vintage c.1922 and the utterly charming Erin O'Connor looking curiously cool in tiered and floaty Ashley Isham.













Meantime, five minutes prior to leaving the house I threw together this outfit consisting of vintage Voyage, a cocktail of ruby red feathers and a telephone handbag that is available at ShopCurious (if you are impressed by celebrity endorsements, apparently something that once appeared in an episode of Sex and the City).













Sir Stuart Rose (who hot-footed it from Buckingham Palace) was certainly very impressed by my vintage Dior hold-up stocking shoes - so much so that he felt compelled to run his hand down my lower leg. I'm sure this was only a matter of professional curiosity, though I can't envisage this trend being that easy to sell to the usual M&S clientele.

Then of course there was the art. Counter to the recession and judging by the rapidly burgeoning number of orange dots, the exhibits seemed to be selling very well indeed. I really like the large naked lady canvases - postcard collages Big Blue and Golden Delicious II by David Mach at £25,000 a pop and Julian Schnabel's simply gorgeous oriental lady who was NFS, though a friend mentioned that he would mortgage his house if she were.

There is some intriguing pottery too, like the gigantic tutti fruiti ceramic pot by Kate Malone (below left) - not quite to my taste, but interesting. There are also the usual exhibits guaranteed to elicit a reaction such as the video of a barbed wire hoola hoop (Barbed Hula by Sigalit Landau) and the zebra sex installation by Matt Collishaw (if installation is an appropriate word to use?) curiously entitled 'In the Old Fashioned Way' - the fully functioning mechanics of which were thankfully switched off for the duration of the preview at least.












The food was as arty and alluring as everything else with this messy mushroom melange (left) vying for attention with the scrambled egg in this painting (right).

My verdict: this is a show that is well worth a visit. I will certainly be going back to spend more time exploring the wonderful array of curiosities on offer. Will you?

Accessories and the City

I went to the opening night of Sex and the City - the early showing as the later one was fully booked. Mine was full of teenage girls, which made me feel rather old. But seeing the characters in the film made me feel a lot better - or was that just because I laughed so much? Have you seen it yet, what do you think?

My thoughts are as follows:
This is a modern day fable from our fashionably fickle world raising big questions like: Are you a believer in girl power or are you a slave to fashion?Do you believe that 'love' conquers all or are you a slave to men?

This is also a film about the constraints of real life in the city - which is probably why the girls are seen wearing the most curiously fabulous belts. And then of course there are the other accessories - the bags, the shoes, the dogs AND THE MEN!

Accessories are everything in the city, but thankfully so is laughter. This is a tale about what it is to be human, to have good friends and to discover that laughter is actually the best medicine (so perhaps we should be subscribing to the Readers' Digest instead of logging onto Carrie Bradshaw's Diary?)

Above all, this is a film about not taking anything too seriously, especially not designer brands. It's also a lesson in true taste and discernment and a salutary warning, not to let your clothes - or your accessories (!) - wear you. Choose your accessories carefully, mix and match them with style, take good care of them and they should be around to love and cherish for many years to come...
Do you?