A Bicester Day

I had a very lovely time at Bicester Village yesterday. I'd heard so many good things about the place and finally got round to going! The main temptation for going was to coo over the past season Luella. I may be odd, but I actually don't see something being 'last season' as a bad thing, in fact I see it as a positive. I also see outlet shopping as more environmentally friendly than normal shopping as however much you buy, the items aren't going to be replenished with more of the same so no new products are made.


Unsurprisingly I headed straight for Luella. The stock is currently pretty much made up of the aw08 collection. Which is fantastic for a Luella lover like me who has actually either not been overly aware of a brand that long or just couldn't shop there for some practical reason. The first time I went to Luella Brook St ss09 was already in stock.
Next stop: Mulberry. So many gorgeous handbags and bargainous prices! If you know you want an investment handbag but don't want to spend more money than necessary, this is the place to go! There were some clothes and scarves too, but what caught my eye were the shoes, the ones from ss09 which I've been coveting in magazines for months, so I made a mental note of them and continued.
From here I went to Cath Kidston. This shop is a haven for gift shopping, such lovely kitsch items were for sale, from bags to tea cups, and also very lovely clothes, and an extremely lovely changing room! (see left) There were several items I really loved, but I went for a lovely floral skirt. I'm soon in Calvin Klein underwear, and come out with a very fun pair of bright knickers! Bicester is a very good place to shop for good underwear with labels such as Agent Provocateur and Myla.

Up the street I go and find myself in Vivienne Westwood. So many nice handbags here and also some fabulous jewellery. A really fun brightly coloured (there's a trend emerging here) bag catches my eye. But I remind myself that I would hate to spend an awful lot of my budget in the first few minutes and regret when I see something later! So I head to Dior, where I am relieved to not see any pieces I already own at a much cheaper price. Phew. Lots of beautiful jewellery, at a very good price. The clothes here are beautiful. If you need something for a special occasion and can't normally afford the price tag this is a very good place to get a beautiful outfit. There was the most divine full length floral gown, priced a little over a thousand from over seven thousand.
Not an everyday purchase, but if you know you want something like that, get it here!

I find myself back in Vivienne Westwood and heading for the till with a certain bag.

Time for some ice cream I think! It's from Amarino, and I had a medium tub, (cones also available), I could have had up to four flavours, but being the allergic person I am stuck to vanilla. It was divine indeed! My dad had the same and seemed to enjoy it equally, maybe this is why he doesn't mind coming shopping with me..
There is both a D&G store at Bicester and a Dolce & Gabbana one, they happen to be an opposite ends of the village. Two of my favourite stores of the day. I love D&G dresses and the pink, floaty floral one pictured below was so incredibly pretty!

Another shop for special occasion wear is the one below, stocking Amanda Wakely, Matthew Williamson and Temperly. There were the most gorgeous evening wear dresses, and also lots of fabulous dresses. Some of the clothes were just mind-boggling beautiful, this may be an outlet shop but the clothes and top quality.

The Monsoon and Accessorize store provided some absolute bargain evening wear! It's like at the end of the sale and everything's 70% off- but with loads more stock! There were even £5 racks! I got some very long lace gloves, very ladylike and only £3.60 from something like £18.

A good part of the afternoon was surprising spent looking in menswear shops! My dad is not normally one for spending money on himself (bless), but he actually got rather enthusiastic about going into lots of menswear shops! We started at Paul Smith and ended up at Racing Green where he got not one but two jackets for £114. It made a lovely change and I was very proud of him. We also went in Brooks Brothers where I got a tennis whites style skirt. The clothes reminded me of Charlotte York (of S&TC, I love Charlotte!) in her Trey days at the Hamptons house.

At the Cosmetics Company store I was very surprised to see Hello Kitty for Mac items, as they sold out super quick at the MAC counters I went too. There were items from other collaborative ranges too. I came out with a very nice eyeshadow from MAC.

And so back I went to Mulberry. Those shoes *drool*. As you can probably tell from the photo below, I bought them. =D

Heading back to Luella, I didn't buy clothing but stickers!! And I still got a carrier bag. The staff were lovely.
For one last purchase I went to Dolce & Gabbana where I had seen some gorgeous scarves earlier, I was choosing between the ones I had already seen when I noticed one with the prettiest, most delicate floral on it. A short queue later I was out of the store with yet another carrier bag.
As you can probably tell, I really enjoyed my day! I'm really hoping to go back when Luella ss09 is in stock! *makes happy noises* There'll also be some new shops such as Armani and Gucci open by then. It was a really nice environment to shop in, and I love what I bought. The ice cream was yummy too. =] I know this is a terribly long post so more photos of purchases coming tomorrow, I just couldn't resist putting the shoes up today!