Step Inside ... Wilde Ones

If you ever find yourself shopping on the Kings Road, be sure to visit the treasure-trove emporium that is Wilde Ones. I always get lost for hours in there - it is like stepping back in time to hippy, 70s London ... and I never seem to leave empty handed! The owner, Greg, makes regular visits to Native American tribes in Arizona, where he picks up incredible, hand-crafted and completely authentic pieces of amazing quality.

Have a Hippy Summer.

Native American eagle necklace

Cowboy hat

Bolo tie

Native American earrings

Native American eagle drum

Tie dye

Carnival Crazy Colour

This weekend was a carnival crazy one in London. Firstly, on Friday, I attended the World Cup Carnival in Shepherds Bush for the Brazil v Netherlands quarter final. The atmosphere was beyond electric with the entire match punctuated by a soundtrack of samba music and steel drums and all you could see were the the bright crayola green and yellow shades of the nation's football strip. After the match, even though the team lost, the sulking was minimal (English fans could learn a thing or two from this mentality!) and everyone carried on the party dancing samba to a live band, spinning and and jumping and turning and stamping until dizzy and too hot and exhuasted to carry on. Ole, indeed!

Yesterday I headed up to Regent Street for lunch, completely unaware of the fact that it was the Gay Pride March (I have had no idea what has been going on at all lately, as I have not been in the country for the past 10 days). Again the visual theme for the day was colour, but this time, there was a veritable kaleidoscopic feast for the eyes of every colour under the sun. Despite the fact I had had no idea about the parade I had luckily been clutching my sailor's hat when I set out that day, and it inadvertantly turned out to be an ideal accessory and I saw several other sailors and even a pirate. My favourite costumes however were those which involved so many colours, patterns and textures that even Joseph would have regarded his technicolour dreamcoat as a rather too conservative choice.

Fix Up, L'echarpe

When in Paris, whether you are a boy or a girl, there seems to be a unspoken understanding that no outfit is complete without a scarf of some description draped casually around your neck.

In Milan, if you walk down the street without sunglasses on, thanks for coming but you might as well not have bothered.

London however does not abide by rules and over here, anything goes. To New Yorkers (Manhattanites, not the more 'alternative' folk who live in Brooklyn), we are a scruffy, unkempt bunch with drastically bad teeth and nails. However I think the diversity of London is it's own defining feature and that is what makes it so exciting.

I write this in the wake of Graduate Fashion week. Such an event only goes to show the extent to which the London fashion scene welcomes innovation and fosters creativity. Our own traditional brands are constantly reinventing themselves; there is no tried and tested formula. One of my favourite campaigns this year featured Tilda Swinton for Pringle of Scotland (where I was lucky enough to do an internship as I learned about the history and tradition of this quintessentially British label). Tilda Swinton is no underage, cookie-cutter model but this undoubtedly made the campaign even more visually stunning and brought out the character of the clothes as well as the stylishness.