Welcome

The amount of time it took me to think up the title of this blog is genuinely embarrassing. People who hate clothes and shopping but not me might want to look at my other blog, which I update occasionally with excerpts of weekly correspondence.

This is a blog I've been meaning to do for a very long time indeed. Perhaps it was partly embarrassment about revealing the whole, awful, superficial reality of my personality, perhaps it was my inability to think of a title that successfully punned on "maus". Whatever, I got here at last, although I'm still a bit shaky about the title. I am (and it feels like such a confession) one of those women whose palms get sweaty at the mere thought of a pair of elegant candy-striped wedge sandals; whose heart speeds up at the whisper of a Fiorucci sale; who can identify the rustle of Jigsaw pleats from 3 miles away and positively ID this season's Baby Gap colours on someone's child in the next town. In a pram.

For one reason or another I have been "going round the shops" a lot over the past few weeks. I've unconsciously retained quite a lot of what I've seen, and it seems high time I showed off some of this worthless information. I must stress that I'm not presenting any opinions as objective or correct, they're just mine. I don't have any special credentials for this either, just a special interest - an interest that might partially explain how I keep getting drawn back into "costume" scenarios of varying degrees of glamour. It might explain how, for example, I ended up training as a beauty counter girl in Selfridges, how I found myself modelling clothes in two fashion shoots for a magazine and one for a talent agency, how I winced under layers of eyelash glue, being made up in the costume van on the set of a 60s film, how I own a number of "recreational" wigs and at least 20 bottles of nail polish...

Or it might not. A few observations to kick off with, anyway.


The (Cambridge) High Street

H&M: comes into its own this time of year. Everyone's so relieved it's finally summer they stop noticing it's a complete jumble sale and the officewear is a bit nasty. All summer, they do proper pretty summer dresses which are much better value than the proper cute old-lady style coats we've been buying from them (and when I say "we" I don't mean me, obviously) every winter. Their short sleeved blouses and little towelling hotpant things are amazing, but the best thing about H&M is the accessories section. The rings and that are rubbish of course, but have you seen the cute, funky hair bands slides and clips?? The ones that cost almost NO PENCE! Truly, the biggest secret on the high street?

Kookai: The colours; the fabrics; the most beautiful trousers in town. Most of it's too expensive, but I'm jealousing all over this shop. Oh Kookai, where have you been all my life?

French Connection: Get over yourself.

Karen Millen: The silk top "made of ties" I bought from here for Five Earth Pounds in last summer's sale was such a hit I'm loath to say anything against the place. By high-street standards their prices are telephone numbers, but their sales are something else. Tailored, smart, stripey stuff. "Where did you get your lovely coloured coat from?" was what the KM shop assistant asked me, recently. "A charity shop", I replied.

Frank: Feels too hip for me somehow, although I do like a lot of the stuff. The staff were dancing around to Prince and constantly offering to "help" me. Frank is currently selling vest/girl Y-front combos as underwear/nightwear for £10. They are the happiest things in the world, soft with brown trim and little cartoon people hula dancing all over the place.

River Island: I like the accessories here, too. I suppose the clothes are alright if you're after something generic and in an "earth tone". It's mostly lost its edge this season, I think- in the winter RI sparkles with partywear. Good for jeans and nice shoes all year round.

Top Shop: You're not terrible, but you never quite keep your promise. Cropped trousers I can almost believe in, short dungarees might happen if you can snare some foreign tourists, but please, please, who on god's earth is wearing culottes?

Bay Trading Company: Less instantly identifiable than Top Shop and slightly less likely to fall apart at the seams in the middle of an important meal/dance/meeting/court case. I like your overpriced practical-yet-girlie crochet cardis and your mega-cheap shoe sales. Please lose this floaty "gypsy" nonsense, but oh, oh, I love your little skirts.

Accessorize: Never enough, never enough. The jewellery is in Monsoon, too, of course and never seems to change: I've been going back and back looking for the perfect thing and although I never found it I have managed to learn their stock off-by-heart and can value someone's accessories at a glance, not a complete waste of time then. The best thing this shop has done recently was their little white Easter Bunny toy with the embroidered flowers in its ears. Obviously I own one of these. Who actually wears dangly earrings nowadays? Not to mention strange garish jewel-encrusted mirror-stick things. The kids' stuff is pretty, I must admit, particularly the surprising water frisbees and things. For bangles and hair slides, though, this place is ten times the price and no times the better than BHS and Boots (respectively).

Oasis: Quite brave this season. The military shift dress has returned after 4 years almost missing, (like so many of this season's trends) and, perhaps following an experimental, yet illuminating phase with psychoactives during these wilderness years, has returned all drippy and hippyfied. I preferred it when it knew the meaning of discipline. Oasis is consistently best at shoes and purses and gorgeous little things, and this season is no exception. I think they're even doing little shimmering scarf things for the summer! Seriously! They encourage experimentation, and I have to admire that.