Austique Boutique || Chelsea, London

I originally came across this gorgeous little boutique via instagram. I Think I was trawling through pics under #boutique as that's a hashtag I seem to be hammering at the moment! When this shop popped up I decided I had to visit it whilst I was in London attending the Stylesight trend seminar.

There is actually 3 of these Austique stores dotted around London. I think it makes a refreshing change seeing stores like this amongst the massive high street fashion giants. Don't get me wrong, we all love a good bit of Topshop in our wardrobes! But these sweet little intimate stores remind me of one's I visited in the past like Pompidou in Australia or Rac in Toronto. I'm glad to say that England seems to be catching on to the fact that we need independent boutiques on the high street. They re-connect us with real, one off, fab shopping experiences.

The style and layout of the Chelsea branch of Austique was stunning. The cabinet that the jewellery was displayed in was a master piece in itself. I loved the table layout you meet when you first walk into the store, butterflies in frames sit amongst cheeky knickers by Cheek Frills.

 They carried brands such as Camilla and Marc, Zimmerman and Alice and Olivia along with their own label which has some great printed pieces, see their own brand at their website here. They also do a great selection of beauty products like Paul and Jo make up and Essie nails. 

If your in London, this store is well worth a visit:

Chelsea – 330 Kings Road, London, SW3 5UR

See their website:

www.austique.co.uk

twitter:

@AustiqueLondon 

 All pics taken by moi! 

please credit if used :-)

Pompidou Boutique at Byron Bay

Im home from Australia and feeling refreshed from the fantastic experience (and also extremely jet lagged from the awful 30 hour trip home!) Whilst we were there we visited Byron Bay on the Gold Coast. We did all the typical tourist activities like going to the beach, surfing and my sister went hang gliding. And of course I went on a boutique hunt. Byron Bay has quite a quirky mix of surfer style shops like Billabong, Quicksilver and Roxy mixed in with great little one off boutiques like Pompidou.

It stocked a great range of brands and I was loving that it carried those Aussie brands that are harder to find in the U.K like Maurie and Eve, Bec and Bridge and Aje. But then there was a great mix of well know brands like Sass and Bide, Camilla and Marc, Ksubi and Cheap Monday.

The boutique itself had a really chilled out atmosphere and reminded me of a beach hut with all the intentionally aged looking white interior. I liked the way that lifestyle objects like books and candles were carefully merchendised in with perfectly folded clothing.

If your in the Byron Bay area its well worth a visit. 

Address: Shop 7, 15-19 Fletcher St Byron Bay NSW 2481 Australia

Website: www.pompidou.com.au

All pics taken by Rianna Phillips, please credit if used

Rac Boutique

Whilst I was in Toronto last week I came across the most fantastic independant boutique called 'Rac'. It had the most spot on immaculate styling and merchandising. And to make the experience even better, the curaters of the store didn't mind me taking a million pictures to share with you on my blog (I literally photographed EVERYTHING!)
I think what I loved about this one off little gem of a shop was the mix of brands, they had a lot of my favourites like Sass and Bide (That fluro and metallic bag you can see below), Mara Hoffman and Marcus Lupfer mixed in with a few new names that I hadn't heard of. I fell in love with a hand knitted tank by Correll Correll, you can see it below and find it on their website here. The jewellery selection was off the scale, I was completely taken in with the Assad Mounser pieces they carried. The one pictured below with the hints of blue was stunning, see it better here.


So here is a selection from the pics I took. 

You can find this beautiful boutique at 124 Cumberland Street, Toronto, Canada, they also have a fab website where you can find pretty much everything i've snapped which is www.racboutique.com.

Thanks very much to the lovely Faith and Glenna for the wonderful shopping experience, will visit again next time im in Toronto!

xxxx