March 08, 2007

Liberty of London

Yesterday I took a trip into London to visit my favorite shop, Liberty. It can be incredibly expensive, but also a beautiful place to look around. The company has been in business for something like 130 years and is apparently famous here in England. I'd never heard of it until I came to England to stay, but it's a great place to check out if you're ever in London. I'm not going to go into a lengthy review of the store, I'm just not that good. Let me just say that it's about 5 or 6 stories high, and in a very impressive and old timber framed building. Just what you'd expect as an American in England, it's gorgeous, inside and out. They have everything too, clothing, handbags & scarves, lots of very fine stationery items, rugs, furniture and the best part...yarn and fabric! Hooray!


This brings me to the reason I went to "Liberty's" yesterday. I have one of those frequent shopper cards for the store, like I ever buy anything, ha, and they were having a sale on everything. 15% off EVERYTHING. I get these postcards all the time about sales, and this is the first time I've been in town for one. So I hopped on the train in Colchester & headed to London to check it out.

Whenever I go to Liberty, I tend to want nearly everything in the fabric department, but am never willing to pay the minimum £19.95 per metre to get anything (that's $38.60 to us poor Americans - ouch). Hey, a metre is like 3 extra inches though. But since I am spending £'s and not $'s, and everything's on sale - it was ever so slightly easier to convince myself to get something this time. And I mean, ever so slightly, it's only 15% off. I feel really guilty buying things too, but I forced myself to get something as I will only be here another month or so.

"Cut to the chase Kippi", you say. Right, so here's what I got...
I only got a half metre of each, and I'll have to charge a fortune for anything I make from these, but aren't they special? You should feel this fabric. It's cotton that feels like silk, amazing. They sell shirts made from this fabrics, but they're £75.00 That's a bit steep for an incredibly frumpy looking button-down. I'll just sit here & be happy I came home with a tiny purple bag from my favorite store.

3 comments:

Melissa said...

OoO, I love them. Especially the one on the lower left. It's so nice when cotton feels nice and not coarse, that in itself is worth extra!

suchprettycolors said...

beautiful! they are a treat!

Serpent Mandalas said...

gorgeous gorgeous fabrics!!