Weekly Shop Report

If you mention the recession in Paris, a French woman will likely take a drag of her cigarette, slowly exhale as you silently admire her Dior faille jacket and roll her eyes. If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times: I heart French people. There is absolutely nothing that reading a vintage copy of French Vogue in an imported lace corset while sipping champagne cannot cure.  While Americans have chosen to keep stores like Wal Mart, Kohl’s, Gap and JC Penny (thanks to Charlotte Ronson) in the green, the French refuse to compromise style. Paris Fashion Week has American’s dreaming of Eurotrash lovers, and this week French Vogue celebrates their 90th Anniversary. Adjust your berets, fashion your garders and pass the ash tray as we review the fabulous French and more this week…in shopping.

As if that weren’t sexy enough, famed French designer Sonia Rykiel is set to launch a holiday lingerie collection for H&M. Puma signed a deal with a French communications company to launch a super-fast phone. And Lilly Allen performed in Paris at Chanel Spring 2009 RTW. We’re living in the wrong city this week. (Sigh.)

In the rest of Europe, Marks & Spencer’s announced their internet delivery expansion to 73 countries. Garrard, the British grandaddy of jewelry, strategically moved uptown to a Saks boutique. For years the 274 year old company had an elite Soho store (which couldn’t have been that elite if I’ve been there before), but in an effort to increase North American traffic thought a less private uptown boutique would help. And they painted it pink! Poor FCUK just can’t keep their head above the water and despite changing CEO’s in the spring and blah, blah, blah, they are set to shutter 21 stores in Japan.

Our very own fashion retailer, Anthropologie, aims to open their environmentally friendly British Flagship store on Regent Street in London at the end of the month. Rumor has it the store will feature a hydroponic plant wall. You know, because green is still the new black.  Sadly, the plant wall won’t be enough to offset the disrupted marine life set to occur when AngloGold and DeBeers team up to scrape the bottom of the ocean for gold. The Wall Street Journal failed to report on said partnership’s environmental risks since, as of yesterday, gold was over $1,000 an ounce. Investors were stoked, Isaac Newton ignored and somewhere near Papua New Guinea, a sea creature started to cry. Wall Street may not care about sad squid, but here at TVC we’ll take a wall of plants over sea turtle blood gold any day.

Emma Dinzebach

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Posted by Emma Dinzebach at 11:00 PM
bargain news , STYLE/BEAUTY |