Our London trip was a fantastic source of inspiration
It’s always useful to see what other people are doing in the world of fashion, beads and jewellery, so earlier this month The Bead Shop hit the road and took a little trip to London. With such an eclectic mix of people, London is always a fantastic source of inspiration.
In true laid back Bead Shop style, we started our day with coffee and cakes in Covent Garden. There was a surprising lack of jewellery stalls in this area so we decided to head towards Marylebone in search of a wonderful little shop called ‘Vive Roulex, which is filled with ribbons, flowers, feathers and millinery accessories. It is a visual treat, full to the brim with fabulous textures, colours and materials.
We left Marylebourne and headed toward Oxford Street. Considering it was a Tuesday afternoon, we were shocked to see how hectic the area was. The High Street shops were packed to the rafters with teenage girls and it was exciting to be amongst the hustle and bustle of it all. It was a great opportunity to see what everyone was buying. Vintage jewellery still seems to be the most popular and the increasingly high price tags seem to be reflecting the popularity of this trend.
The Swarovski Store was our next port of call. This is a truly amazing shop. They specialize in stocking bespoke jewellery from guest designers and stock lots of lovely ‘do-it-yourself kits. We especially liked the DIY phone covers which the Swarovski staff will customise for you in a design of your choice. I’d happily allow them to cover my entire house!
Over the road is Liberty’s Department Store. This is a spectacular building and if you haven’t been, you really should. It is incredibly expensive, but a great opportunity to see what top end designers are up too. We got so many ideas from here. Many designer pieces could be easily replicated and adapted to suit your own individual style, but at a fraction of the price.
We couldn’t leave 
without spending an hour in the sunglasses department. We decided £300 is a little excessive, but there’s no harm in dreaming!
After walking non-stop for 7 hours we had had enough and what better to reward a hard day window shopping than some good old Pie and Mash from ‘Mother Mash’. It was then back to Euston to catch the train home.
We were exhausted but had a really productive day, a lot of walking, much eating and even a bit of celebrity spotting…Pete Burns in a coffee shop! He looked as flamboyant as ever and we really wanted to get a picture for the blog, but were too scared to ask. Never Mind.
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