MY Sugarland

I wasn't expecting to be reviewing any new retail ventures in London for a while seeing as I have friends who are being made redundant and people are quivering their boots over mortgage payments.  So to have the pleasure of visiting My Sugarland, not on the annoying pish-poshy bit of Angel, near Kings Cross/Old Street on St John Street and finding something a fantastically wide-ranging, eclectic, intelligent boutique that doesn't heap disdain on customers nor does it patronise them with gimmicks and has an identity of its own.... gosh that sentance was long wasn't it... well, it positively made my week. 

Zoe Lem is a stylist who has had a 10 year wide-ranging career spanning high fashion editorials, catalogues and also The Clothes Show (!!!).  As soon as she uttered the words "You can take something out of context and put it into your own" I was already sold.  She always knew she would open up My Sugarland, wanting a shop that reflected her tastes which sounds like a selfish venture but because Lem is so eclectic in her tastes that she has ultimately edited a shop with a potent mix that is not often seen in London. 

I was first struck by the shop itself...I wandered around the vast space (rare in London to have SO much space to play with...) and couldn't help but notice the variety, different composites that I picked up that I identify in myself (my 1001 strands of style continues to grow...).  Different nooks and crannies have been created as if on a whim.  Whilst it has the look and feel of an upmarket vintage store with the piled up old suitcases and knick knacks, you look in another direction and there's contradiction.  For a start Lem chose up and coming Mumbai-based accessories designer Little Shilpa to do a mini-exhibition.  I'm have hopes for great things from her structural headgear...

The selection continues to intrigue, perhaps confuse and delight...Markus Lupfer's Armand Basi gets some lovin' here and it's AW08-9 showpieces which My Sugarland have gotten hold of...

On the rails you will find a mix of Spanish mid-range label Hoss Intropia, Jenny Dyer, PPQ, young graduates, Qasimi, Steve J & Yoni P, C.R.A.F.T. denim, Belle Sauvage and Jacob Kimmie.  It's so wide-ranging for an independent boutique that you almost look feel like you're glimpsing into someone's wardrobe as Lem doesn't buy a large range of sizes or in large quantities.  Except that the person in question has questionably eclectic taste... now who does that remind you of...?  Then there's the addition of Lem's carefully sourced vintage where every piece is special...a quality in vintage stores that I've picked up on quite a few times in the past except that I don't expect to see a Victorian black velvet cape sitting next to a Steve J & Yoni P powder blue cape. 

The graduate buying is also a bonus seeing as I rarely I've seen FRESH graduates on a rail and they aren't extortionately priced.  Lindsay Connerton from Edinburgh and Rebecca Reeves from Northbrook feature.  Add pleasing things like Bebaroque tights, jewellery from a few more grads and predictable Mawi, Terry de Havilland shoes and I just can't think who would not be catered.  Even when Lem is buying from popular/mainstream labels like Mawi, it's the eyecatching pieces that she picks...she isn't pressurised by the normal buying appointment cries of "That piece has been selling really well!".

The most important thing is like Shop172, my truly regular London haunt, My Sugarland will keep on evolving and even though Lem could have gone in a completely safe direction in this climate, she has injected a bit of cheer into the London retailscape...