London the fey
Sep. 8th, 2021 10:09 amI went shoe shopping and had dinner yesterday with
trystbat. A better guide to London, and those activities in particular, would be hard to imagine.
First, the shoes. Our destination, which I suggested but which I'd heard of through the Goth grapevine, was Irregular Choice. They specialize in sparkles, bright colors, and Hello Kitty. Tweeer footwear would be hard to imagine. So of course I had to check it out.
But that shop belongs on the street it's on, namely Carnaby Street. When I first saw the sparkly rainbow decorations, I figured it for a current or former gayborhood, of which London has had many across the centuries.
trystbat, however, knew the correct historical context: it was the fashion center of Swinging '60s London, complete with bright colors and gender fuckery. Irregular Choice is one of the few non-chain, not-quite-mainstream stores on Carnaby Street that are still consistent with the spirit of that era.
I got the Pollywood. Pro tip: they use EU shoe sizes, and they're generous. I wear a 42 in their shoes, and a 43 from continental makers is usually closer to my size, i.e. US women's 11. They're shipping up some more sparkliness from their Brighton store later this week.
One complaint: the music in IC was loud enough that it made processing the natives' accents hard for my 53-year-old ears.
trystbat suggested a bar and restaurant called Sketch, a name you'd never find on a restaurant in an American big city. Their theme is visual art, and boy howdy do they deliver. Let's start with drinks: the bar, one of two that we could have chosen, had decoupage in place of wallpaper and slowly rotating, 2'-diameter mirrors at the edge of the ceiling to reflect lasers. The cocktails were right on if spendy*. Wait staff are not pushy about selling us more of them almost to a fault, which I'm assured is One Of Those Cultural Things; the key seems to be eye contact.
I had a psychedelic experience in the (unisex) restroom. When you go through the double doors, you're confronted with blinding pale pinkness. To ascend to the toilets, each contained in an individual person-sized, egg-shaped structure, you need to climb the split, curving stair case. (There was a dark bar between the feet of the two halves of the staircase.) There were apparently noise detectors in the eggs that would trigger the sounds of street noise. The sinks were kind of normal, thank goodness.
The main dining area is very... pink, with domed skylights which made me suspect that it had once been a place of worship. Witty, cartoonish art on the walls. Fantastic food. I had a very dry English (!) white wine with my turbot that had an excellent sauce. Thanks to the favorable exchange rate, I paid about what I'd expect to pay in a big American city for something like that. But of course, there is nothing like that anywhere in North America. London, you are so extra.
And I have
trystbat to thank for cluing me into Sketch. I probably wouldn't even have gone looking for something like that on my own initiative, and it's way more fun when you're not alone.
*Not that I'd expect anything different. Somebody's probably still paying off that interior, in addition to making rent on a very large space in Soho, and paying their staff real wages.
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First, the shoes. Our destination, which I suggested but which I'd heard of through the Goth grapevine, was Irregular Choice. They specialize in sparkles, bright colors, and Hello Kitty. Tweeer footwear would be hard to imagine. So of course I had to check it out.
But that shop belongs on the street it's on, namely Carnaby Street. When I first saw the sparkly rainbow decorations, I figured it for a current or former gayborhood, of which London has had many across the centuries.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I got the Pollywood. Pro tip: they use EU shoe sizes, and they're generous. I wear a 42 in their shoes, and a 43 from continental makers is usually closer to my size, i.e. US women's 11. They're shipping up some more sparkliness from their Brighton store later this week.
One complaint: the music in IC was loud enough that it made processing the natives' accents hard for my 53-year-old ears.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
I had a psychedelic experience in the (unisex) restroom. When you go through the double doors, you're confronted with blinding pale pinkness. To ascend to the toilets, each contained in an individual person-sized, egg-shaped structure, you need to climb the split, curving stair case. (There was a dark bar between the feet of the two halves of the staircase.) There were apparently noise detectors in the eggs that would trigger the sounds of street noise. The sinks were kind of normal, thank goodness.
The main dining area is very... pink, with domed skylights which made me suspect that it had once been a place of worship. Witty, cartoonish art on the walls. Fantastic food. I had a very dry English (!) white wine with my turbot that had an excellent sauce. Thanks to the favorable exchange rate, I paid about what I'd expect to pay in a big American city for something like that. But of course, there is nothing like that anywhere in North America. London, you are so extra.
And I have
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
*Not that I'd expect anything different. Somebody's probably still paying off that interior, in addition to making rent on a very large space in Soho, and paying their staff real wages.