I’ve recently developed a surprising penchant for tartan. It’s not only Agyness Deyn in those blue tartan antlers for House of Holland and last month’s “Take the High Road” fashion story in Vogue that has fuelled my new fashion crush. It’s the local street style scenesters who have been teasing me with new ways of wearing this well trodden trend. We’re very lucky to have a bijou studio and shop in the heart of Brick Lane where we're surrounded by fantastic vintage stores where scores of girls create new trends as they skip away wearing mix ‘n’ match outfits made up of super second hand finds. The pattern of choice over the past few weeks has been tartan for sure from boyish high waisted wool shorts worn with bright tights and £5 pumps; all manner of tartan scarves worn as belts and princess Margaret headscarves; huge ‘man’ shirts belted in and worn as dresses and long pleated ‘nan’ skirts hitched up, belted in and worn as tiny dresses with lashings of black eyeliner.

So here’s our take on a fresh way to wear the tartan trend – the tartan rosette name necklace (or brooch). We spent far too long trawling through tartan patterns and learning about Scottish heritage and it does seem rather apt to team tartan with a name (necklace) after all it’s what Scottish clans have been doing for centuries! So if you can’t quite bring yourself to wear a whole piece of clothing dedicated to the bonnie check then dip your toe in with our new wooden rosettes which you can customise with your own wording. Or if you're embracing the true modern way of wearing this trend and mixing your tartans then how about teaming your rosette with a new Tartan Army Reko frock. We had a fun day with our model Suki this week creating three different looks - country, girlie and tartan rocker! So whatever look takes your fancy you can transform your dress and rosette to match it from Sunday pub lunch country look to Friday night all out rock look!

For those of you who fancy finding a piece of vintage tartan clothing in an East London store, here is a run down of my fave haunts -

King of the hill is the humungous “Beyond Retro” on Cheshire Street with a warehouse stuffed full of little gems from all eras; a few doors away is the Eighties trash heaven “I Dream of Wires” owned by ID fashion stylist Lou Winwood which has an ace selection of 80s sportswear and collectible toys; cross the road and you’ll find “The Shop” which was the very first vintage store to open in Brick Lane and like a Marche aux Puces is still a haven of cotton and silk 1940s/50s dresses, coats, fabrics and buttons (I once overheard a meeting with a Marc Jacob’s assistant was about to take place); turn onto Brick Lane itself and you’ll find two “Rokit” stores one which has stayed true to its Camden parent with everyday tees, leather jackets and denim the other a more sought after selection of glitzy frocks with handbags and shoes to match; then turn down our little street and you’ll now find the very newly opened “Brick Lane Thrift Store” with the tag line ‘the last fair deal in town’ and the official opening party is TONIGHT with drinks and discounts from 7pm…we’re sure to be in attendance sniffing around clothing with checks of the tartan variety! See you there!

Click here to view the Quirky Shopping Guide for all the addresses and a much bigger list of local stores.

Posted by: Biba on March 5, 2009 7:01 PM

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