shopping – and so she thinks

Shopping – Initiative

admin — Mon, 09 Dec 2019 14:53:21 +0000

Angular pop tunes with a plasticky feel are what Shopping have made their own, and new single Initiative is no different. A jubilant feel underpinned by eighties synths and pulsing beats, it has a belligerent feel that ripples along with a vibrant trajectory.

The band are now four albums in (All Or Nothing is out on February 7th on FatCat Records), and all live in different countries. Despite that, they are as committed and focused as ever. ‘We found ourselves singing about being true to yourself, in an often binary and belligerent digital age, and reclaiming agency when it feels like our personal freedom and privacy is constantly eroding.’

YOUR fitting room

admin — Thu, 29 Jun 2017 20:15:26 +0000

Not everyone loves shopping. Not everyone who loves clothes loves shopping. For a start, it requires the not insignificant financial privilege of having enough disposable income to spend on non- essential items. But even for those who can afford to shop just as a pastime or hobby, the experience is not always easy.

Think of all the necessities that a trip to the shopping centre requires.

You have to be able to get there, physically able to navigate the transport systems and move around the stores without too much difficulty. Whilst there’s always options, for those who are less physically able this becomes much more difficult. It can be hard enough to squeeze into a fitting room anyway, without a wheelchair for example. Campaign group Trailblazers reported earlier this year that three quarters of individuals with a disability shop online as direct result of their store experiences. Buses often only have room for a single wheelchair or pushchair, so if you’re not the chosen one on that occasion, you might have to miss out on retail therapy today.

Individuals who are conscious about their bodies may not mind being in the stores, but changing rooms are a whole different battleground of inner critics and shaming voices. Who hasn’t felt embarrassed and judged, convinced that the eyes of the whole world are upon us as we wriggle out of a pair of jeans that looked perfect on the plastic model? Marianne Clark, a doctoral student in the Faculty of Physical Education and Recreation at the University of Alberta, undertook a study on the experiences of women in gym and shop changing rooms, and found the psychological impact to be not insignificant.

Time is a key factor. For people with children, care roles, demanding jobs or something else that requires them to be at home or another location, an afternoon at the shops just isn’t an option. Even when you think you know what you want, inevitably something else will catch your eye, the size won’t be in stock, the traffic will be a nightmare, your card won’t work, or something else will happen that means that the brief trip is far from it.

Some people who suffer with anxiety find shopping trips particularly triggering. Busy, intense, stuffy and pressurising spaces and experiences; far from the fun day out that some revel in. But that doesn’t mean they don’t want beautiful clothes in which they look great.

New website Your Fitting Room helps with some of these stresses. Showcasing clothes from independent designers including Luck Be A Lady, Bodyfrock, Moka London and more (so let’s be honest about both the economic and body size privileges this entails) they allow you to pick items you’d like to try on from the curated store, before delivering them to you to try on at home and pick up anything you don’t want afterwards.

It’s a great way to see what things really look like in normal light, with your own shoes or other items of clothing, and without the sweat and stresses of the shopping centre. I had quite a good time parading around the bedroom in different dresses and tops I would not have ordinarily picked out, and ended up with a new dress for summer. I could try things on and think about what I liked or disliked, with no regard for other women in the changing room.

Technology may be one way to address some of the issues with shopping and trying clothes on, and a number of virtual reality apps and offerings are being developed. Gap launched DressingRoom app in January 2017, and Ralph Lauren piloted smartmirrors in 2015.

A lot of the products are very high end and so it’s a bit inaccessible for everyday shopping. And practically, given the fact that they need to pay drivers and travel, I can’t see the economic model working for high street stores. If you can afford to splash out and stretch the budget for a special occasion, it’s worth considering, especially if some of the barriers above make shopping more of a pain than pleasure for you.

Bibliotherapy with the Bard

admin — Thu, 04 Aug 2016 12:47:34 +0000

I’m utterly convinced of the power of words. As one of the speakers at 5×15’s Shakespearean Bibliotherapy at Selfridges said at the event, not only do I often feel that literature ‘speaks to me’ but it ‘speaks to me,’ on an intensely personal and profound level. The event followed a different format than 5×15’s usual, and Tazeen Ahmad lead a panel of actor and bibliotherapist Simon Callow, Booker-prize winning author Ben Okri, and writer Jay Griffiths discuss the healing power of the Bard and his relevance today.

Beginning with a Callow’s impassioned reading of Sonnet 87, the room was silenced. The experience of love is an individual one, yet all could relate to it. In fact Callow believes that Shakespeare’s quintessential point is our shared humanity and that we’re all in it together.

Griffiths discussed how Shakespeare helped her out of manic depression, although seemed a little quick to see the illness evident in every one of Shakespeare’s characters, including Hamlet, Lear, Antonio, Prospero and more.

There’s much do be learned from Shakespeare, on practical, psychological and emotional levels. ‘Shakespeare’s plays are always on three levels: the soul, mind, body. He speaks to each level, but primarily to the soul.’ And he does it across the canon and in solo lies. Reading from Hamlet 2.2.2 Okri remarks that in only a few sentences Shakespeare speaks of the highest and basest levels of humanity, the sea, sky and solar system, heavens and hell…and then back again to the specific moment.

The debates about what Shakespeare would have made of Brexit and the language of Twitter (probably run with it and changed it, just like he did with most of the English language) were less powerful than the exploration of Shakespeare’s role at capturing the universal.

Bibliotherapy is predicated on the idea that reading and literature has a powerful effect. It’s not only that it makes us feel better though. Research from Professor Philip Davis from the University of Liverpool’s School of English says that Shakespeare’s language actually ‘shift mental pathways and open possibilities’ for what the brain can do. Stories and words are immensely powerful, for all people and all times. In our scientific and tech heavy age we can be too quick to dismiss their value. As Okri said, Shakespeare ‘speaks to our souls through fairytales. They are simple, but also complex and deadly.’ But also life affirming, which is why Shakespeare still matters.

High Street vs High End

admin — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 10:06:13 +0000

Most Londoners have known it for a while. In fact, some may even say that it is old news and the coolest of the cool are now to be found in other postcodes. But the top end fashion pack, those with the pounds to spend and the labels to flash as well as style credentials, are finally putting down roots in East London. Fuelled by investment and gentrification projects, the East End has long been shaking off its barrow boy image. Amongst the graffiti clad walls, galleries such as the White Cube showcase works by Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. Interspersed with market stalls are the likes of All Saints and Cath Kidston. Dotted between curry houses and bagel joints, pie and mash shops and proper boozers you’ll find swanky restaurants and swish champagne bars. Luxury fashion houses Christian Louboutin is set to move to Redchurch Street, Prada is on the house hunt, and Vivenne Westwood is planning on setting up shop in Shoreditch. Eschewing the traditional central London location for something which whilst certainly on the up will still be seen as a little, well downmarket, by much of the fashion world swanning around Paris and Milan. Shoreditch may be cool, but Fifth Av it’s not. So has high end fashion lost its way? So much so that it now wants to hang out on the high street?
Louboutin et al will be in crowded company. Developer Hammerson is a planning £485 million project south of Shoreditch High Street to have 630,000 square feet of offices and shops. It is being touted by industry insiders as an opportunity for retailers to attract a new affluent crowd, one with an edgy hipster appeal. This seems to be the key mind shift, a change suggesting high street and high end may be on the same wave: seeing top designer names not only as artists with a vision, but retailers, shops with clothes to sell, rents to pay, and crucially of all profits to make. As businesses, high street and high end both have the same goal.
Would they have come to these postcodes in the less salubrious days? Of course not. As much as fashionistas work best when they are at the front of the pack, they need a certain framework to work within, to legitimate it. Bishops Square, the smooth and arguably soulless development between Brick Lane and Liverpool Street has seen rents double in the six years since its development, from £65 per square foot to £135. Compare this to the cost of retail space on Bond Street or Oxford Street though, where a square foot will set you back closer to a grand, and you can start to see the pound signs racking up. Redevelopment of the area has resulted an emerging affluence, and transport links mean that it is only a few minutes away from the traditional fashion houses. Of course it’s not only the pricey fashion houses that have made real estate decisions. Met with raised eyebrows when it first joined the high and mighty on Oxford Street in 20 Primark has the highest turnover per square foot of any retailer. When you account for the fact that the average item costs £4, that’s a lot of footfall.
If your customers are cutting back, it makes sense that as a retailer you might have to do the same. Whereas a few years ago flashing the cash was what it was all about, now austerity is a new badge of cool. Leader of fashion’s front foot, Kate Moss, happily mixes high end and high street, Fearne Cotton has been known to go to the shops in Urban Outfitter jeans and Beyonce once wore Topshop. Heck, even the future queen rocks the High Street, although the Reiss dress she wore to meet the Obamas back in May 2011 is slightly more pricey than your average Primark dress, at £175. Fashion thrives on people talking, and crucially people buying, and when the Reiss website crashes the day the pictures appear in the newspapers, you can see why mass appeal starts to light up the brains of high end designers.
It’s not just that high end designers want to meet the masses that have made the high street more successful, but that the high street retailers have made the designer style, if not actual substance, seem something they can achieve.
There’s something about supporting your local high street, helping out retailers, and splashing the cash (in a measured manner) locally that has in itself become fashionable. People want to support their communities, and high end designer fashion as always thrived on its inaccessibility, its desire making capabilities. Now people are walking away from the inaccessible, as the High Street has made it far more accessible.
Lamented at length has been the fact that we live in a disposable society, but this is good news for the lower priced retailers. Shoppers are doing the maths and realising that if they are going to only wear an item for a couple of months, once or twice, and then throw it away, why spend on it. Fashion comes in phases, swings and sways more than a hormonal teenager, and as such is arguably not worth the commitment.
Labour costs and speedy supply chains means that it is not only those in the know with the cash that can have the latest fashion trends, but everyone in proximity of a shop. Being able to produce the same designs but at a fraction of the price is what makes business sense in today’s climate. There’s also a far broader range of styles, cuts, colours on the high street, with more body shapes than the stick being catered for. The catwalks have always been a source of inspiration for high street retailers, but the similarities have become more and more similar, and people are finding it difficult to identify the difference. Remember the fuss when Topshop copied the lemon Chloe dungaree dress and was subsequently forced to destroy all remaining stock, back in 2007? Primark is in regular battles over its copy cat clothes, having paid thousands to the likes of H&M, Monsoon, and the Beckhams.
It’s not new, high end designers teaming up with high street retailers to create collections that will get further exposure. Debenhams first welcomed designers into their stores in Autumn 1993 with a small collection of hats by Philip Treacy and evening wear by Ben De Lisi, and back in 1996 Jasper Conran teamed up with Debenhams to create a luxurious fast fashion brand, or a diluted version of the real deal, depending on who you ask. Not everyone has been as forward thinking. In 2008 Donatella Versace was asked in an interview her view on potentially collaborating with H&M, dismissing the idea as one that would only ‘confuse the brand’. Three years on and a deal has been signed, with Donatella thrilled that the collaboration will give Versace the opportunity to ‘reach a larger audience.’ Co-inciding with a heavy restructure and 350 job cuts, it seems that the economic angle rather than creative inspiration and direction is what is really pushing this. H&M’s first link up was back in 2004 with Karl Lagerfeld. The buzz campaign around it, and the fact that after only a few hours shelves were bear, something that Lagerfield credits with making him a household name. Arguably all artists have a bit of a complex, and if there are too few people buying your product to even credit you as niche and fashionable, then the next thing to do for an ego boost seems to be appeal to the masses.
Of course, fashion is never simple and amongst all this talk that rather than a merger, one (the cheaper) is perhaps replacing the other, sales at the top end aren’t doing too badly. At the beginning of Novemeber Selfridges reported a surge in profits which analysts are stating is due to a surge in the luxury fashion market. But if you look closer it might be that this middle ground is holding sway. Managing director Anne Pitcher however has a more realistic view, and has said the company has because it mixes high-end and low-cost. Primark launched its menswear concessions in Birmingham and Manchester Selfridges stores last month, and Cheap Mondays are now a regular fixture on the Oxford Street store calendar. Where Selfridges goes beyond the bog standard bargain bin is its customer experience levels. Innovotaive window displays, exciting theatre, the upmarket stores tap into that fundamental factor that keeps people purchasing, the belief that by buying this product they will be one step closer to being the person they want living the life that they desire. Add to this the fact that sales on promotion or at a discount now almost equal those at full price in some retailers, and you can see why people are returning to some of the more upmarket stores. Standing in a queue of forty with hangers clattering around you and clothing strewn across your arms waiting for a cashier who won’t even look you in the eye doesn’t strike the same feelings of indulgence, excitement and delight that comes from buying new clothes.
Rather than the high street replacing the high end, a merger of bargain basement and choice couture, top designers losing their edge, or fashion being generally lost, maybe it’s that fashion is finally finding its way to the customer and consumer. Whether that’s through moving to a new side of town, collaborating with designers or offering good value, it all comes down to nice clothes, at a good price, with a bit of customer service. Simple really.
See the original in Issue 54 of Who’s Jack