My visit to the London Anthropologie

My visit to the London Anthropologie

February 5, 2010, 11:33 am
Filed under: anthropologie, dresses, shopping, wishlist | Tags: travelling

.

Sweet reader Kimberly wrote to me just as I was leaving to Europe that I must go visit the Anthropologie in London on Regent St.  I’m really glad she did, because otherwise I might have listened to the tiny voice of reason in my head that said, “Don’t you visit this store like every other week (minimum) in the US anyway?  Shouldn’t you spend your time exploring actual British things?”  But fortunately I overruled that voice, as well as my boyfriend’s minor eye-rollings, and I trekked out there on our last morning there.

I have to say, the Regent St. Anthropologie is one of the nicest I’ve been (though granted, I’ve probably only been to six or seven stores, and none of the glammy New York ones).  Bright, open, spacious, well-stocked, beautifully decorated —  it’s three floors of Anthro-heaven.

The entire store is set against a backdrop of a lush, green living wall of plants that looks incredibly pretty and cool.  There’s a giant staircase on the first-floor embedded with little glass circles that goes down one story to the basement (home and sale) and up a second story to more clothes.

.

Me posing against the plant wall (In a Milly jacket over the Anthro Florry Dress — my BF asked if I felt self-concious or extra-special wearing clothes of the brand I’m visiting, but this happens too often at Anthro for me to even notice anymore ;) )

.

I didn’t take too many pictures because I’m always afraid of sales people thinking I’m a crazy stalker person (which, okay, when it comes to Anthro I sort of am), but I did manage to capture the above shots sneakily on my phone.  Though all the sales assistants seemed very nice and sweet and non-pushy, so they probably would have been okay with me doing it :)  Overall, I have to say that I was really impressed with the selection of clothes and jewelry (I didn’t see any shoes, but I wasn’t looking for them, and I admit I didn’t pay too much attention to the home section) — there was a lot of everything, there was a huge variety, just as much as my larger stores back home, and in fact more.  Almost everything that I had been curious about on the website was readily there for me to inspect, and they had a bunch of new arrivals and even pre-website-arrivals in stock.  There was also more Leifsdottir than you could shake a stick at (my local stores usually have a pretty paltry stock), and the sale selection — marvelous!  The area dedicated to sale merchandise  – a nice well-lit room and then a whole outer section — was about 1/4 size of my Palo Alto store, and there were multiples of everything in stock.  There were a bunch of things that were on sale at the time that weren’t in the US yet — off the top of my head, I remember noticing the Koi Suwannagate Castle Spire Sweater Dress, the Gathered Lace Blouse (both of which are now on sale in the US, for what it’s worth), the Fold & Flutter V-Neck, and the Precious Stones Dress (it had just arrived in the new arrivals section on the US website about two days before, so I was shocked).

That said, there were a number of pieces that had gone on sale in the US long ago and were still full price in the UK.  And uh, full price in the UK translates to much higher than it does in US dollars!  For instance, I saw a bunch of Diaphanous Tunics in stock, marked at ₤88 pounds ($137).  These were originally $88 back home, and went on sale for $40 at the beginning of December.  I loved this shirt, so I snapped up one in all three colors back then, but even so, I only payed $131 for all of that (if you factor in California’s aggravating almost 10% sales tax), less than a European woman has to pay for the price of one top.  And so the story goes throughout most of the store; Anthro really marks up for import to Europe.

Kimberly had mentioned that the store had some exclusive European designed-pieces, but it was a little hard for me to pick them out since there were a lot of things I had never seen before, but it turns out that most of them ended up launching on the website within the next week or so.  I did notice these two dresses by Minna however, which I am fairly certain are not and probably won’t be offered on the North America site:

.

I am kind of in love with the one on the left, which had a beautiful print of bunches of pea pods and flowers clustered together.

I also really liked this necklace, which I am fairly certain is probably not a European exclusive because it seems like a typical Anthro piece, but I haven’t seen it in the website yet, and it’s not in any of my stores.  It’s just a big carved medallion with  little rhinestones inset in it, but for some reason I heart it.  Has anyone seen spotted it in their local stores yet?  I want!

.

.

The most beautiful piece I saw in the London store however, was this dress, by We Love Vera:

.

I sincerely hope this is not a UK exclusive, because if it is, I will cry.  I want this dress so bad it hurts, and I am kind of kicking myself for not getting it right there and passing because I thought I could get it for a less inflated price in the US.  It is sooo freaking cute.  We Love Vera always does this best prints, but this is extra-beautiful, even for them.  It has just the most lovely scenic Monet-garden-like print on it that is so delicate and pretty, but at the same time really brightly colored and fun.  The moment I saw this dress I started rhapsodizing out loud to my bewildered boyfriend on how I would wear it all spring with a little yellow cardigan and cobalt heels — or a cobalt cardigan and yellow heels, or an orange cardigan and forest green heels, or anything and anything because no combination can destroy this dress’s cuteness.  Sigh.  So anyway, I will be stalking the website daily until this little baby shows up, or otherwise curse my fate and consider buying another ticket to London just so I can snap it up.  (Edit: Several nice readers have kindly informed me that this dress is indeed in US stores already!  I kind of thought it might be since We Love Vera is an American-based brand, but of course I couldn’t help getting anxious about it all the same.  Anyway, freak out over :) )

Anyhow, enough rambling for now.  Bottom line, if you happen to be anywhere in England, stop and visit the store, it’s a treat!  And if you want more British Anthropologie peeks, visit the aptly named British Anthropologi(e)st!

30 Comments

30 Comments so far
Leave a comment

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URI