The White Pepper

Fabulous fashion retailer The White Pepper offer an expanding variety of vintage and short run fashion pieces which are taking the blogosphere by storm.

 

The brand started life in 2011 as a Tumblr site inspired by East London street style. Founders Jade and Katy’s focus on styling, editorial and lookbook shots quickly transformed into a boutique on ASOS Marketplace, offering a solid selection of choice vintage wear and quality pieces from independent manufactures. From the popularity of this marketplace site, The White Pepper online store was born.

Today, the vintage wing of The White Pepper (which was of particularly high quality) has become slightly eclipsed as the brand continues to develop its own-brand capsule collection, which is designed in-house at their studios in Hackney. This line is particularly noteworthy, however, and takes inspiration from their street style roots, with quirky, individualistic styling that is urban and cosmopolitan. There is also a classic, coordinated slant to The White Pepper’s style, however. Quality fabrics meet tailored lines and timeless shapes to create popular, attire that will not fade or date. Expect a muted colour palette of cool pastels and monochrome, combined with oversized, casual pieces with a hint of androgyny. Think chunky knits, brothel creepers and smock dresses.

The White Pepper collection is available to buy online, or you can find them at Topshop’s flagship store. You can also buy directly from their East London studio on one of their “open door Saturdays”. Prices are not always cheap, and they rarely have sales, but the quality is very high, and each piece is a true investment.

http://www.thewhitepepper.com/

Lily Vanilli

Lily Vanilli is one of London’s premier artisan bakers, offering quality cakes with innovative flavours and sumptuously creative designs. She opened her first bakery on Columbia Road in East London in 2011, and a star-studded client list, two books and a cake and cocktail private members club swiftly followed.

All this success sprang from humble beginnings. Lily (real name Lily Jones) initially started baking as a way to make ends meet after a change in career, selling her delectable wares at a local market. Today, however, her recipes feature in broadsheet newspapers, and her cakes can be found at events held by the likes of the V&A Museum, Lulu Guinness, Hello Kitty and Elton John. 

Part of the draw of Lily Vanilli’s creations can clearly be attributed to their beauty and visual intrigue. Towers of sponge are enveloped in perfect icing, and decorated with a wave of fruit, flowers and glitter. Slabs of chocolate are piled high and sprayed with gold (or painted with leopard prints!) to create some intimidatingly perfect cocoa castle. Equally vital in the notability of these cakes, however, is the unusual, curious and innovative mix of flavours, and the perfection of her recipes. Alongside perfectly crumbly pasty and feather-light sponge is the fusion of alcohol (see her chocolate hot toddy tarts), shards of sugar glass and crystallised flowers, all utterly faultless and incredibly well-honed. All this success is particularly impressive when one considers that Lily has had no formal culinary training.

  

As well as all this, Lily has also published two books, both of which offer real insight into how to be more creative and accurate with baking. Sweet Tooth, her most recent book, really goes into the science of baking – why you should have a clean dry bowl when making meringues, the difference using bicarbonate of soda and baking powder has on baking, and how long exactly you should leave a cake in the tin while it is cooling, for example. The book also looks deeply into the history and culture of baking, as well as offering a wide range of interesting technique and flavour combinations to experiment with at home. Lily’s first book, A Zombie Ate My Cupcake, is conversely more fun and quirky, offering B-movie themed baking, with severed finger and bullet wound cupcakes the order of the day.

Lily Vanilli offers a refreshingly creative, accurate and ballsy spin on baking in a world where chintz, simplicity and the British Bake Off reign supreme. Book her bespoke cake design service or cake canapés for occasions and events, or try out her recipes for yourself by purchasing one of her books. For the quintessential Lily Vanilli experience, however, get yourself down to her teeny bakery, with its rustic charm, small courtyard and exquisite sugary delights.

http://www.lilyvanilli.com/

Ray Stitch

Founded by Rachel Hart in 2008, Ray Stitch started life as an online store, offering a “one-stop shop
for fabrics and haberdashery”. A narrow but immaculately presented store in Islington quickly followed in 2011, with fabric upon fabric folded two meters high, like the well-organised wardrobe of a sultan.

Ray Stitch offers a good selection of fabrics, from felt to flannel, organza to organic wool. They have a wide selection of designer and sustainable fabrics, offering both the “virtuous and the beautiful”. They also have classic vintage-style haberdashery staples such as tape measures and pinking shears from Merchant and Mills Notions, guidance books and magazines, embroidery patterns focusing on themes including Chihuahuas, cow girls and voodoo skulls, and an almost inexhaustible selection of thread and ribbons.

Perhaps the biggest draw of Ray Stitch, however, is the vast selection of patterned fabric they offer in a variety of interesting, attractive, usual, and most importantly of all modern designs. Anyone who has studied textiles or attempted forays into the world of dress-making will tell you it is hard work sourcing quality materials in modern patterns. All too often a visit to a fabric shop yield little more than dreadfully old fashioned, garish prints fit only for caravan curtains in the 1970s. Patterns from Ray Stitch however are attractive, cute, and most importantly wearable - the Japanese prints in particular are utterly divine, featuring themes as broad as rodeo scenes, birch trees and anthropomorphic mice. There are also large print patterns ideal for upholstery, some of which literally take up meters of space.

 

In addition to the sale of their wears, Ray Stitch hold a range of sewing classes for anyone from children through to advanced adult. Classes focus on a variety of innovative and useful concepts, from a beginners guide to the sewing machine, to creating roman blinds and curtains, teenager after school dressmaking and how to recreate your favourite garment. Classes are held regularly in store with sewing machines, drinks and snacks. One to one classes are also available. 

Ray Stitch is open Tuesday to Sunday, and has very reasonable delivery charges for online customers. They have a constantly revolving stock line, with new items in most weeks (a new favourite of mine being the elegant French patterns from Deer and Doe). And like all good places, they even have an in-store café, which sells coffee and homemade cakes throughout the day – fabulous.

http://www.raystitch.co.uk/

Technology Will Save Us

Fully ensconced in the hippest part of the East London scene is Technology Will Save Us – a bright new company that works to encourage people to be more creative with technology through interactive products and workshops.

Technology Will Save Us are essentially a hard-wear kit company, but with a fun twist that aims to inspire and encourage better relations with technology. Founded 18 months ago by wife and husband team Bethany Koby and Daniel Hirshman, the idea behind Technology Will Save Us is to offer a “haberdashery for technology” providing all the tools you need to make devises from scratch.

 

Koby and Hirshman developed the company ethos after being shocked to find a fully charged, useable laptop in a skip. The pair cleaned it up and donated it to charity, but were incensed by the throwaway culture many of us now have towards what is still marvellously impressive technology. They determined that in our modern, post-recession society we often cherish our own creations, while consuming and disposing of purchases rapidly. Giving people the tools and knowledge to create and fix technology (much like many already do with sewing or baking) would make people much more likely to reuse rather than repurchase.

 

Technology Will Save Us offer kits that will allow you to create a variety of clever technological feats, included DIY speakers, plant thirst detectors and synthesisers, as well as vital “make to and mend” basics such as soldering kits. These kits provide the equipment to create cool, clever devices that you will want to own, use, or even better create yourself.  

As well as offering the tools to create hardware from scratch, Technology Will Save Us are dedicated to helping people with the on-going process of learning how to create this technology for themselves. They hold regular workshops and events at venues throughout London, from House of Wolf to the Google Campus, to their own HQ in South Hackney. Workshops offer a fully integrated classes, providing attendees with a kit alongside the perfect combination of guidance and independent learning. Sessions usually last an hour or two, and mixed abilities are welcome. And you even get a cocktail to enjoy throughout the session.

 

Technology Will Save Us kits start from a very reasonable £12.50. Each kit is fun to make, presumes no prior knowledge, and are available to buy online or through various outlets in East London such as Rough Trade East and TWSU HQ. Remote help creating your technology is readily available through FAQs and downloadable user guides.

http://technologywillsaveus.org/

Biscuiteers

  Biscuiteers are a fantastically popular independent mail-order bakery creating beautiful hand-iced biscuits. Perfect for practically any occasion, Biscuiteers are attempting to create the idea of biscuits as a touching and personal gift, indeed, “why send flowers when you can send biscuits?”

Set up by husband and wife team Steve Congdon and Harriet Hastings in 2007, Biscuiteers was practically an overnight success. The company went from setting up their first bakery in September 2007 to stocking Selfridges by January 2008, and they are now also stocked by Fortnum and Mason, Harrods and Liberty. They have even created bespoke biscuits for the likes of Mulberry and Charlotte Olympia.

Just one glimpse at the Biscuiteers range explains their unquenchable popularity, however. These artisan icers use old-fashioned techniques to great effect, and the detail in each biscuit is exquisite. The sheer range of biscuits readily available to buy is also staggering. Pre-made tins are themed around new babies, thank yous, good luck and get well soon wishes, and of course wedding gifts. There are also clever and quirky themed tins, focusing on subjects such as tools, London, cupcakes, best in show, lingerie and creepie crawlies, along with short run seasonal themes, (most recently focusing on David Bowie and Easter respectively). Each collection comes in a gorgeous themed tin of either nine or 16 biscuits, and smaller biscuit selections are offered in dainty illustrated cardboard boxes.

Recently, the company opened their first boutique and icing café, based on Kensington Park Road in Notting Hill. Here, you can drop in a pick up a biscuit or ten, or you can even decorate your own biscuit card to take home with you. The café also hosts icing parties, which are ideal for a hen weekend or birthday celebration. They even do children’s icing sessions at half-term, where the kids get an icing lesson, an apron, a certificate, and a selection of biscuits to take home.

 The Biscuiteers’ boutique is open seven days a week, or you can order their whole range online for next day delivery. As well as biscuits, you can also pick up hand made chocolates and hand iced cakes, and they even do a special decorated cupcake for one, which comes in the post in its own illustrated box. They also sell a variety of tools for budding bakers, and you can buy their very own book, Biscuiteers Book of Iced Biscuits, which is full of inspirational ideas for your own icing experiments. And for any four-legged fanciers out there, they even make hand-iced dog biscuits.

http://www.biscuiteers.com/

Present and Correct

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Founded in 2008, Present and Correct are purveyors of classic, practical and utterly stylish stationary. The company started off life as an online enterprise, but they now have a marvellous little shop in Clerkenwell offering considered “office sundries for the modern workplace”.

Swoon-worthy for anyone who uses a pen on a regular basis, this store is sheer love at first sight for stationary addicts. Present and Correct have quickly developed a strong reputation as a one-stop-shop for functional yet beautifully designed stationary and desk work accessories, which are sourced from around the world, and include every type of stationary item imaginable. Mundane products such as desk calendars, jotters, stamp sets, desk tidies, post pack and parcel labels are represented in the collection, but there are also more crafty items such as ribbon, coloured tape, chalks and pencils, alongside curios such as antique type writers, soviet crayon sets and brass scissors.

Complete aesthetes curate the store’s collection, as there store’s Pinterest and Facebook accounts make quite clear. Inspired by innovative ideas and clever artists, the Present and Correct stock embraces simple, clean designs with traditional materials and splashes of vivid colour. Items are influenced by geometric shapes, classic typography and vintage logos and illustrations, fusing marvellously the visual taste of distant memories with the clean brightness of the here and now.

Present and Correct is ideal for anyone who creates, and allows you to look at the mundane and the practical in a deliciously innovative yet familiar new light. Visit the shop if you can, especially if you are a vintage stationary nut, or are searching for stationary items that cannot be found elsewhere. Otherwise you could check out their online store.

http://www.presentandcorrect.com/

Blitz

Often described as the Harrods of vintage, Blitz is London’s first fully-fledged vintage department store, located just off Brick Lane (where else?), in a disused Victorian warehouse. This huge space covers over 9,000 square feet over two floors, and boasts a magnitude of quality stock for both men and women.

This ambitious project was developed by a miscellany of established vintage dealers in August 2011. Run by people with experience in the trade and with an excellent eye for good vintage finds, Blitz is no pretenders’ start-up jumping on the vintage bandwagon, and it shows. Blitz has slick, hip interiors, similar in vibe to Urban Outfitters shops, and most importantly, the store is well laid out, with proper display areas and products organised by type. This is a refreshing change from the awkward sifting through crammed rails of moth-eaten viscose for that one workable vintage gem, as is typical at many other vintage stores. In addition, clothing at Blitz is even bought in seasonally, so at the moment you’ll find plenty of handsome tweed coats, bright woolly jackets and shearling denim within its walls.

 Blitz wears are extremely reasonably priced, and varied. Items from every decade of the twentieth century are available, from your average vintage fare to exciting designer finds from Ralph Laurent, Vivienne Westwood, Comme des Garcons and Alexander McQueen. As one might expect, there is more of a heavy focus on items from the 80s and 90s, which is easier and cheaper to come by for obvious reasons, but there are still extraordinary finds at Blitz that hark right back to the Victorian era in a few cases, and if you’re lucky you might even find 1920s’ flapper gowns and opera capes to snap up.

Clothing as expected is the main focus at Blitz, but one can also pick up books, records, accessories, luggage, and even bicycles there. In addition, like any good department store, there is a growing furniture and home wares section, curated by Broadway Market’s purveyors of heritage design The Dog and Wardrobe. Finally, there is even an in-store café, which serves coffee from an ancient converted Fiat.

Blitz offers a new, more accessible style of vintage retail, which is professional, intelligent and enjoyable. Visiting the store is a real experience, and ideal for anyone into vintage or bargain hunting. They even have January sales on at the moment, and student discounts throughout the year – awesome.

http://www.blitzlondon.co.uk/

Electric Cinema

 Ideally situated in the eclectic hub that is Notting Hill’s Portobello Road is the Electric Cinema, a marvellous old fashion style cinema with astute modern touches. The venue specialises in cult and indie films, world cinema and classics. The cinema suffered a fire in June 2012, but is due for reopening imminently.

The cinema is decked out in a fabulous art deco style, with cream walls, gold gilding and red leather seats. Its decoration is not encased by tradition however - there are innovative touches such as footrests and tables, plus two seater sofas at the rear of the cinema which are ideal for date nights. The Electric even have a proper bar that serves wine, beer and for the more decadently minded, champagne. They also serve food, including snack plates with olives, pork pies and piccalilli, pork belly, and caramelised onion tart, alongside good old-fashioned ice cream pots.

The major draw of the Electric Cinema however is the events that they throw. In the past they have held horror movie all-nighters, with select spooky films for Halloween, and Electric Scream – a Monday matinee where parents and their babies can go to the cinema together to enjoy a film without concerns over disturbing the audience. Their most notable event however has to be Edible Cinema, a particularly interesting concept curated by the cinema in collaboration with the Curious Confectioners and Bombay Sapphire. Throughout the film, the audience are offered food at key cinematic moments to heighten their sensory experience through taste, smell and texture. Their most recent edible exploit was Beetlejuice for Halloween, and they have also recreated the experience for Spirited Away and Pan’s Labyrinth.

 

The Electric Cinema is due to reopen on 3^rd December to much anticipation, with a reupholstered interior, a new sound system and digital projector. Tickets are available from £7.50 for afternoon screenings, although prices are understandably more for events. And the cinema even offers 3D screenings, for those still into the gimmick.

http://www.electriccinema.co.uk/

Poppies Fish and Chips

 Just off Commercial Street in the heart of Spitalfields, straddled between the area’s legendary fashion market and our world famous Brick Lane is Poppies Fish and Chips. As you might expect, situated as it is amongst fashion boutiques and hipster bars, this is not your average fish and chip shop – this is excellent quality fish and chips with a vintage, retro twist. Poppies fuses old school East End values and hipster sensibilities to create a cool restaurant that has tasty, great value food.

The first thing that strikes you about Poppies is the retro feel of the place. This restaurant has an informal, friendly setting, but the strongest vibe is the 1950s style – the formica tables, the jukebox, menus written in chalk and service girls wearing aprons and headscarves. This traditional visual style is replicated in the food. Chips are served in newspaper. The menu includes all the old favourites you would expect and a good ol’ fashioned chippy, with classic cod and haddock potions alongside skate, rock, plaice, lemon sole, as well as the dreaded jellied eels. You can even get a generous potion of sticky toffee pudding or apple pie for afters. 

Poppies offers the perfect combination of traditional and fresh, posh and popular. The food is so familiar, yet of innovatively good quality. All fish is sourced fresh and sustainably from Billingsgate Fish Market. Chips are peeled and hand-cut out back. The chicken is all free-range. Even the tartar sauce is home-made. 

One of the most noteworthy elements of Poppies however is the consistent quality they offer. The food is always good. You will never get a soggy chip or sour, tasteless fish. You will always be served quickly, and can usually get a seat in the restaurant, even though they seem to always be busy. Such high levels of quality and customer service, as well as the general appeal of Poppies Fish and Chips is all down to Pop, the owner of the restaurant. Pop and his family have been serving fish and chips in the East End since 1945, and the experience shows. This restaurant is a masterpiece in traditional food, offering probably the best fish and chips in London.

Poppies is active on Twitter, FourSquare et al., and they even have a customer of the week loyalty scheme on Facebook. You can eat in or takeaway; I personally like to stop for a cone of chips and a cup of tea, eaten outside the front of the shop. Such an experience is blissfully English. I’m pretty sure I had change from £2 last time too.

http://poppiesfishandchips.co.uk/

Clara Francis

Jewellery designer Clara Francis creates beautiful, intricate and delicate necklaces, bracelets and earrings from thousands of tiny glass beads. These opulent and luxurious yet subtle creations take distinct inspiration from the British countryside – of 1930s’ studies of flora and fauna, of old watercolours and line drawing studies. There is a certain eclectic vintage charm in each Clara Francis piece – a bit Dr. Parnassus, a bit Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, vague gothic and faintly magical. Think foxgloves, sleeping beauties, hummingbirds, hot air balloons, dark woodlands, ornate gilded frames and wax seals.

After working as an actress for a number of years, Francis picked up jewellery making – initially just designing for friends and family, and then moving on to having her own stall at Spitalfields fashion market. She is entirely self-taught, and initially all her jewellery was crafted by Francis herself. She now heads up a team of five highly skilled assistants, developing all the designs herself. 

From such humble beginnings on a market stall, Clara Francis’ jewellery has now skyrocketed to dizzying heights. Harvey Nichols snapped up her first official collection, and her pieces have also been exhibited at London Fashion Week. Even more excitingly, Francis was recently invited by the Victoria and Albert Museum to design a piece for their exhibition “Cherry on the Cake”, along with many other prestigious designers including the talented and eccentric Grayson Perry. This had led to sterling coverage in the likes of Vogue, Marie Clare, Grazia, Cosmopolitan and Elle, as well as a celebrity fan base including the very hip Alexa Chung.

Clare Francis pieces range from £60 - £250. Each item is handmade in London, and takes anywhere between 3 and 22 hours to make, so you really are investing in a skilled crafts-person’s time. Each item is a piece art and fashion that will never date or age, making for an ideal present for a birthday or anniversary, or as a personal reward for a promotion perhaps.

http://www.clarafrancis.co.uk/openingpage.html