I have to admit that I’ve never been a huge fan of vintage stores, what with the smelly old dusty odours and the fact that there is sooo much stuff, it can be a real pain to wade through it all to find that *one* or more (if you’re lucky) special vintage piece. Even luckier if it’s a high designer brand too.

But being in Paris, I figured why not give it a try? Now, amongst my small dips so far into vintage french boutiques, there is one in Toulouse that without a doubt, contains the most beautiful vintage I’ve seen. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to have a proper look, so that’s a must-do for the next time we’re down there. But apart from that one, a few friends were madly raving about a particular one in Bastille so I thought I’d go check it out myself.

Called Come On Eileen, it is located on a random street (so make sure you have a map, as we got ridiculously lost!) and is amazing in terms of stock. You enter the main ground level, but no… don’t go down… because if you do, you should at least warn your boyfriend that it will equate to at least an hour of boredom.. well at least for him! For you it will mean hundreds and thousands of clothes and shoes scattered between and on the staircase leading down to the basement (which has at least 3x more than the ground level) ! Quite a sight to behold… although I guess I wasn’t having a super-lucky day as I didn’t come away with anything apart from one item: a beautiful Italian silk, equestrian-themed Celine neck scarf

The khaki/cream colour mix is a bit hard to match easily with my wardrobe, but if I stick to using a palette of light cream/whites or dark colours to match, it will make a stylish statement piece, what do you guys think?

Come On Eileen
16/18 Rue des Taillandiers 75011
Metro: Bastille

PS. SECOND LAST DAY IN PARIS/FRANCE - it’s allllll coming to an ennndddd :(

Welcome to the magical world of Tabio… ♥

  

  

During of my shopping days out in the Marais district in Paris not too long ago, one of the many ‘to-visit-shops’ on my list was Tabio, a colourful and globally popular Japanese sock brand that has one of its boutiques in Paris. Most of you probably know it well for the brand that stocks those oh-so-cute heart stockings, which is personally my own little history as to how I got to know the brand. But apart from those, they stock many more wonderful socks, stockings and tights.

Wonderfully laid out in-store, it is a haven for sock-lovers and colour-lovers combined! Although a little bit on the pricey end, you definitely pay for the high quality and standard of the products.

I was also surprised by their in-store instant embroidery service that they offer (from 3€). You can choose a pair of socks from their selection and get whatever text you want embroidered on it, with the chance to choose the thread colour too!

Embroidery in process!

Unable to resist its allure, and having craved their stockings for a while, I became a happy owner of their black heart ones! Don’t forgot that they have an online store too, if you don’t have a boutique near you!

Tabio
15, rue Vieille du Temple
75004 Paris, France
01 48 04 05 11

On our last day in Madrid, we took it easy after a previous late night out with several Spanish friends, and decided to have a picnic lunch at my new favourite hangout, the Parque del Retiro (Retiro Park) followed by a visit to two museums: the Reina Sofia and Thyssen-Bornemisza (highly recommended!!).

Oh, and did I mention tulips? Well we passed by some throughout the day, and they’re still my favourite!!

  

L: Reina Sofia    R: Dos Mujeres (Two Women) by Ramón GAYA

  

L: Parque del Retiro    R: Crystal Palace

YES, there is a Crystal Palace within the centre of the Park! It is gorgeous, and you can go in for free to walk around. Situated right next to a large pond full of swans, ducks, tortoises and of course, those ruddy pigeons… so you can imagine how beautiful the whole area is! ♥

Turning to the next important question that may be on your lips… ❝what was I wearing?❞ Instead of taking amateur-photo shoot snapshots of me in my outfits (no photographer-aid, and I swear it’s been done already on the blogsophere, no? ;) hehe), so I figured I’d take a fresh approach to it and whip up a geeky mathematical equation like this:

Like it? Let me know if so (I didn’t rhyme that on purpose guys….)
Enjoy! xx

A girl can never have enough pair of shoes, don’t you agree? But that’s beside the point… I don’t think you need to reason why you need or don’t need them… after all, if they’re pretty and functionable, why not! (Luckiliy, shoes are always functionable!)

Since I saw the new Spring women’s range for Camper, I’ve fallen for these darlings (as illustrated here) - my idea of the perfect summer sandal: practical, colourful and cute!

My new Lust-After!

You can pick a pair of them up for yourself (making me extremely jealous) or for me (I’m looking at you Gareth, although fat chance he will) at any Camper store or online (at 125€ RRP), such as Camper Online or Sarenza ♡

Finally the sun has come back to France. And even if the temperatures remain mild, it makes no end of difference to wake up and see blues of motivation rather than that dreary grey which stayed around for such a long time. With the sun come sunnies. In the recent GQ France I spied something which made me dream of the coming season and struck a creative chord.

A collaboration between Kulte boutique in Paris and the young label Waiting for the Sun these awesome sunnies are a return to sources. Evidently driven by what’s on all our minds these days, if you can get passed the sort-of try-hardness, I think they’re pretty cool. They’re made of natural teawood and entirely hand created…there are even some more masculine styles. Way cooler than those generic and lame Ray-Bans don’t you think??

The 2010 Printemps-Ete ‘Escape’ Collection
is available in all Kulte Boutiques including:

Boutique Kulte le Marais
76 rue vieille du temple Paris - 75003 

And also online at gas-d.com