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/

Tara Starlet

For fabulous and feisty vintage inspired fashion with a heavy 1950s vibe, you need look no further than Tara Starlet. Tara Starlet is a boutique fashion line offering classic, timeless attire, with a special focus on glamorous, chic skirts and dresses. Inspiration is taken from 1950s’ silver screen idols such as Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and Elizabeth Taylor, resulting in clothes that are sexy, vibrant and vivacious, whilst retaining a significant edge of class and subtly. Think rockabilly fashion meets Betty Boop meets 1950s’ pip-up paintings, and you are along the right lines. 

These clothes have a decisively fun edge to them. They are certainly beautiful, but they are also robust and well-made enough for everyday life. There are playsuits for picnicking in the park, dresses for rolling in cornfields, blouses for frolicking on the beach, and lingerie for seducing. These sartorial choices are not simply for looking pretty – they are for enhancing and enabling natural feminine allure and vigour.

Tara Starlet is now predominantly run by Tara Scott, although her mother, who is still involved in the company, initially set up the business. The timeless ethos of the company’s clothes has been with them since inspection, and goes far deeper than brand marketing. Tara Starlet’s clothes intend to make strides against throw-away fashion, instead taking further literal influence from a era when clothes were valued and cherished - where buttons were sew back on if they fell off, where “make do and mend” had real meaning. As well as making clothes to a very high standard to ensure each item will last, Tara Starlet recycle where possible, use end of roll fabrics, and re-use original buttons and trimmings for that extra snippet of authenticity. Clothing is often made from original patterns, and are produced on short-runs, making items borderline original. Put it this way, it is highly unlikely anyone will be wearing the same item as you on the bus or train! Finally, all clothes are designed and made in London, so each item has a low carbon footprint.

Tara Starlet have an online shop, and are stocked at various boutiques across the UK and Europe. A small selection of their line is also available in the concessions department of Topshop’s flagship store in Oxford Circus. Items can be a little pricey, but as always, you can pick up some excellent bargains in the sales. It is also important to remember that these items are so well made and classic that you could still be wearing them in 10 - 15 years time, and are therefore worth a bit of extra investment.

http://www.tarastarlet.com/index.html

Labour and Wait

Labour and Wait is a little store filled with traditional, functional home items featuring a contemporary edge. Founded by duo Rachel Wythe-Moran and Simon Watkins in 2000, Labour and Wait used to be located on Cheshire Street, just of Brick Lane. For those of you familiar with the store it’s not gone, it has just moved to Redchurch Street, still in the heart of the East End in a beautiful corner building clad with dark green tiles (this building used to be The Dolphin pub). 

  

Stocking timeless pieces and functional products for everyday life, Labour and Wait is sort of like a small, high quality IKEA, selling simple yet ingenious kitchen, household and garden items. Wythe-Moran and Watkins personally search for specialist items from around the world, and have hand-selected over 450 original products for their store. They offer both new and reclaimed vintage items.

The shop stocks lots of cookware, such as lemon juicer-jugs and earthenware ceramics. They also offer general home wares such as candles, bellows and even firelighters made from reindeer poo, as well as simple, classic tailoring including shirts and jackets. Items are fairly unisex and ideal for men and women, although there is certainly a 1950s housewife vibe to the whole affair.

Labour and Wait stock items ranging in price from 20p to £220. They have a mail-order service online via their website, though if you can get yourself to Shoreditch then do – the store is just lovely.

http://labourandwait.co.uk/home-page.htm