Wednesday 1 August 2012

From London ghetto to the queens fabric shop ...

Ok, so this post is going to be pretty pointless but I think I've earn't it by finding myself in a set of very 'unexpected' circumstances.

It goes like this, my friend Tina and I LOVE to roam London. We have been roaming the hidden streets of London for years now and have visited and stumbled across soooo many hidden gems (one of my fav's being Highgate Cemetery). The last time we went, as usual we meandered from street to street and found ourselves along an out of town, very dodgy road (like scary, gun-type, lot's of shouting out of car windows and across the street, gangster land kinda road), our step quickened looking for the nearest tube station.  There to our surprise, tucked down a side road was the most beautiful sight to behold (it was at this point I wondered if I was hallucinating, may be I'd in-hailed too much second hand drug smoke)?  The most stunning haberdashery, silks and fabric shop all under one roof. We stepped inside and literally stood agog, mesmerised we wandered amongst fabrics and silks feeling the need to stroke and touch each one. A very 'old fashioned' and oh so pompuss gentlemen (like someone from the TV show Are You Being Served) followed us around keeping a very close eye on what we were doing ~ very un-nerving. I then took my camera out of my bag and started to take photos of the prettiest lace and beaded beauts I've ever seen.  It was at this point all of the staff members came to an abrupt holt, then not short of accosted me and basically shooed us out. How damn rude!

When I got home I did some research into the beautiful shop we'd stumbled across amidst the ghetto ... it's none other than London's leading supplier of couture fabric and supplier to the Queen. It employs highly experienced staff who are the top in their field of all things fabric and Queenish (who also make random people who walk in off the street feel very awkward).
They didn't appreciate us wandering in, stroking the beautiful fabric then start taking photos of their one off bespoke trimmings!!! 
Below is the only few pics I managed to take before being shown the door ... enjoy.
Just look at the stunning diamond encrusted trimming on the second row down, far right ~ sparkle on a roll.
Just beautiful, it was sooo worth being thrown out for!
PS, anything that gives a hint of where these photos were taken has been blocked out ~ this lot seam the type to sue me :/