This Second's Obsession

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Julianne

this Dr Martens obsession

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Back when I was a vaguely alternative sixteen year old, too shy to actually buy items of clothing involving black lace and wear them, several of my vaguely alternative (although at least one actually identified as punk) sixth-form friends had Dr Martens, and I was jealous.

I had a pair of boots. They were very plain, square-toed, but still quite sleek, and from Nine West. They were about £60 in a sale, and after a lot of pleading I got my parents to buy them for my (fifteenth?) birthday. I loved them. I still have them somewhere but the sole is now so thin my feet get sore really quickly. I’m not convinced resoling will solve the issue, I think they’ve worn out both sides, and I don’t think I can get an insole in as they’re size eights that I wore as my feet grew so they stretched – just enough to fit me. I can’t bear to throw them out though – they were my Buffy boots; in them I felt like I could slay vampires and save the world. I wore them to music lessons, to school in Year 12, and even just around the house if I felt like it. And they gave me my first taste of Life in Boots.

Back to the Docs.I was desperate to get a pair for my seventeenth birthday. So off we trooped to Camden market on a Sunday afternoon. I looked around several stalls, but it was in the British Boot Company store that I found the loves of my boot-wearing life. 14-holes, zips, and most importantly, purple.

Whew! They were expensive though. £120. Worth every penny. Worth twice that. At least. I have worn them so many times I’m now scared that I’ll wear them out. And by scared, I mean terrified. I love these boots – I still have the box inside my wardrobe, seriously – and they don’t sell them any more.

Which is where the black 10-holes come in. They were originally my sister’s, but she stopped wearing them, and a couple of years back I persuaded her to let me wear them as my everyday boots. They’re nowhere near as comfortable as the purple beauties, because they’re made out of the thicker normal leather (the 14-holes are thinner leather because of the zips, hence the fear), and I’m sure they’re factory seconds because the tongue doesn’t seem to have been sewn on right. They came from a stall in Camden. They do have one advantage over the other pairs though – they look good with skirts, they’re just the right length.

When I saw the flock dot Pascals online I started flapping my hands Mini-Skins style and hyperventilating. I love polka dots. I love purple. I love that there is no yellow stitching, it’s dark lilac on the leather, and black on the soles. Even the tag has the same purple on it! Adorable! I had wanted another pair of Docs for a long while, plus I had some money from doing surveys online to spend. I bought these from the official Dr Martens website. There are a couple of places offering them for slightly cheaper, but only the official website had size nine available.

I was really impressed with the delivery company, DPD, because they let me choose the delivery date from a list, and then sent me a text message to give me an hour window within which they would arrive. Wonderful. When they arrived I was totally thrilled to find that they fit fine, and the leather is so soft they require no breaking in. The only problem is the combination of leather and flocked dots, I’m not sure how to polish them, but I guess I’ll work it out. Now for the scandal: I’ve had them a few months now, but I haven’t worn them yet! First I didn’t have any waterproofing spray, then it was summer. But autumn is coming, perfect boot weather. Yay!

I used to see Docs as a sort of compromise; what I really wanted was some big ol’ New Rocks. But I don’t see myself graduating from the Dr Martens phase any time soon. I’ve yet to see a pair of New Rocks in a bricks-and-mortar shop, available to try on, that are, um, calm enough for my tastes. I don’t want buckle overload, and I’ve always felt quite strongly about this. The only thing that’s changed since my vaguely-alt teen days is that I’ve stopped looking. Dr Martens have run away with my heart.

Although it’s technically the second of September, this post was written for the lovely VictorianKitty’s monthly theme. I voted for this theme over black and purple – that’s how obsessed with these boots I am.

Make sure you check out her post to see some of those buckly New Rocks I shy away from, but she looks great in. Is there nothing this woman can’t pull off? She even looks good with her hair in double buns. WTF.

The Obscurialist also loves Docs. GothBarbie has the Darcies, which I have yet to make my mind up about, as I haven’t seen any in real life. Le Professeur Gothique has some floral print docs, I’ve been tempted by the floral print ranges a few times (also by the pink and black lace pair, happily for my bank balance, they never have my size). Ghoulina Bones has a fantastic electric blue pair.

I am now lusting over all the boots in Electrobat’s post, especially the Fluevogs. Oh, Fluevogs. So beautiful. So unattainable. See also the purple boots worn by Trystan L. Bass. Yes, I’ll admit, part of me is finding this theme almost painful, and is wondering why on earth I voted for it!

Westfield London, A Review

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A couple of months back I made the trip to one of London’s newer shopping complexes, Westfield, for the first time, and I thought that I’d write a review for the benefit of anyone who hasn’t been but is thinking of paying a visit.

Apologies for crap photo. The problem with having two bottles with black writing on them and one bottle and one box with white writing on is that you can’t get it all to show up together on camera.

It’s been open since 2008 but I hadn’t visited before because it would take me over an hour and a half to get there on public transport. The route includes the Central Line, which is probably my least favourite tube line. Also, west London is by no means a familiar area for me, although maybe I was exaggerating slightly when I said to the friend I travelled with: ‘We’re south-east Londoners, coming here is like going to the other side of the world’. There are plenty of shopping centres much closer to where I live – The Glades in Bromley, the Whitgift Centre and Centrale in Croydon, and the Lewisham Shopping Centre…in Lewisham, obviously, as well as a multitude of high streets. I also usually go to Bluewater with my family for a day out at least once a year, as it’s quite easy to get to by car. My visit to Westfield was focused around seeing my friends, trying out a couple of restaurants and cafés, and of course visiting Inglot, whose only store in the UK is at Westfield. I was also interested in visiting Beauty Base to see if they still stocked Milani, and the Make Up Store, as I’d never been to one of their shops before.
Westfield has the worst layout of any shopping centre that I have ever been to. In my opinion, Bluewater is pretty much perfection in layout terms, being round. You go in, pick a direction, and go around in a circle until you’re back when you started. Then you go upstairs, or downstairs, to the other floor, and repeat the process. Then you leave (I’m not the biggest fan of shopping, so I appreciate efficiency). But Westfield? WTF? I mean look at this map. Just look at it. You’d hope that with a layout this random, they’d have plenty of maps around the centre. No. There were a few interactive information points dotted around, on which you could search for the store you were looking for, but not nearly enough. I had to queue to look at one!

With a few mostly-make-up related exceptions, most of the shops at Westfield are the same as those you’d find on most high streets and in most malls, and I wasn’t very impressed with the branches of the chains that I did visit. I think The Glades has a bigger H&M and possibly a bigger New Look (it’s recently moved lot and I haven’t been there since). There is a section specifically for designer stores, The Village (oh hello ironic name) but we didn’t bother going down that way.

I had pad thai jay at Busaba Eathai for lunch, which was delicious and quite reasonably priced considering, and then later on had half a lemon tart and half a mixed berry tart (my friend and I ordered two and then had half each so we could try both), at Le Pain Quotidien.

So what did I buy? Well, there is no longer any Milani stand at Beauty Base (sad, I want this lipstick), but there is a giant section of the aisle devoted to L. A. Colors nail varnishes, for 99p each. I managed to restrict myself to only buying three. I couldn’t remember whether I’d read any good reviews of the brand so I decided not to risk any more than £2.97. The purple is ‘Tropical Breeze’ (bit of an odd name for that shade, I think), the wine red is called ‘Plum Wine’, and the pink with blue duochrome effect is called ‘Shocker’. My bottle of ‘Plum Wine’ was a slightly different shade to every other bottle on the rack, which was odd. I haven’t tried it or ‘Tropical Breeze’ yet, but I have worn ‘Shocker’ twice now and I love it. It’s so lurid.

I did almost actually drool over the eye dusts at Make Up Store, I found the green one that Zoffe used for this look and I promise you that it is even more amazing in real life and I want it. However I showed yet more remarkable restraint, sticking to my eye product buying ban. Go me! Then I broke this ban rather spectacularly last month, when I bought three Sleek palettes. Oh well…

After Grey gave the gel eyeliners a good review I decided that I would pick one up in Inglot, and after much deliberation, I decided that red was a bit too impractical for someone like me who doesn’t have a lot of red clothing to match it with, but I still wanted something bright, so I went for the almost violet, but definitely blue number 83 as the purples were either dark or lilac.

I will write reviews as soon as I’ve properly tried and tested everything!