Saturday shopping
Sep. 21st, 2002 12:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
abendgulesGreetings from the home of Thomas and Siobhan, my Society hosts for this week, blessed with a home computer and ADSL service :-) ,
Today we went shopping. Thomas and Siobhan live in North Ealing, a former West End village north of the Thames that was absorbed by the behemoth that is London. The area is fairly comfortable looking, and has a prominent 'Asian' community(here, this means East Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, rather than Oriental) and a visibly Muslim population.
We took a bus to the Shepherd's Bush Market, which proved to be an open-air market down a wide pedestrian mall. Aside from veg, fruit, fish and meat, many household goods are available, that look rather like they 'fell off the wagon', right down to bedlinens, towels, mens' and womens' clothes, electronics.
Two booths stocked only novelty 'fascias' (coloured cases) for cellphones, in every tacky colour and pattern available.
The womens' clothes were remarkable; because of the Muslim customers, there were lots of full length skirts, longsleeved shirts and blouses, 'pashminas' (headscarves) in every fabric and colour and pattern, shawls...all in sizes suitable for real women, the type who don't appear in billboard ads. Siobhan
has found that this is one place she can shop for herself cheaply, being a tall lady of generous Reubenesque shape.
The best was yet to come though: the fabric stores...
I kid you not, this area would put Little India in Toronto to shame. In one block were three or four fabric stores (not counting the sari shops), jammed to the doors with bolts. One shop we went into was a veritable fire hazard - the steps upstairs were about 18" wide, and no path round the bolts and shelves
was more than 8" wide - you could barely squeeze yourself down the 'aisle' to fondle the fabrics.
Bolts of smooth (not slubbed or Dupuioni) silk were shoved in the corner. It's the most slub-free silk I've ever seen that wasn't peau de soie, and carefully stored behind the counter. The silks ranged from £6-7.50/m (remember £1=$2.42CDN).
An entire room was crammed with mens' suit wools. I'd never seen a real pinstripe 'City' suit til this month - I thought they went out with the Depression-era gangsters, but many men still wear them to work, complete with shirts with French cuffs, and shiny black shoes.
Hiding behind the door of the wools room were bolts of white shirtweight cottons, from fine to sturdy... all £2.50/m.
And the linens...a selection of weights, from chunky slubby stuff to delicate white veil weights... £4/m.
The range of colours and textures of wool was just breathtaking. After years of a sparse diet of Fabricland shopping, scrabbling around for natural fibre blends at any price, picking over mounds of ugly synthetics: to find all this wool, from £4-9.00/m no less!
I found a damaged bolt of indigo blue wool to die for, a flat bolt with a sunbleached line on the fold... £1.50/yd.
We retreated to the pub to restore ourselves. I certainly needed to recover!
Now, these prices may not sound like world beaters. But when many many other ordinary everyday goods are 2-3x as expensive as in Canada, it's a delight to find that one of my favourite vices, fabric, can be found at prices comperable to Canadian ones.
We've come back to their tiny apt for dinner, dodging round the sewing and armouring projects, and Siobhan's cardweaving loom. Tomorrow Thomas and I go to a 'vikings' demo outside of town. More to report soon, I expect.
With love,
Elizabeth
Today we went shopping. Thomas and Siobhan live in North Ealing, a former West End village north of the Thames that was absorbed by the behemoth that is London. The area is fairly comfortable looking, and has a prominent 'Asian' community(here, this means East Indian, Indonesian, Malaysian, rather than Oriental) and a visibly Muslim population.
We took a bus to the Shepherd's Bush Market, which proved to be an open-air market down a wide pedestrian mall. Aside from veg, fruit, fish and meat, many household goods are available, that look rather like they 'fell off the wagon', right down to bedlinens, towels, mens' and womens' clothes, electronics.
Two booths stocked only novelty 'fascias' (coloured cases) for cellphones, in every tacky colour and pattern available.
The womens' clothes were remarkable; because of the Muslim customers, there were lots of full length skirts, longsleeved shirts and blouses, 'pashminas' (headscarves) in every fabric and colour and pattern, shawls...all in sizes suitable for real women, the type who don't appear in billboard ads. Siobhan
has found that this is one place she can shop for herself cheaply, being a tall lady of generous Reubenesque shape.
The best was yet to come though: the fabric stores...
I kid you not, this area would put Little India in Toronto to shame. In one block were three or four fabric stores (not counting the sari shops), jammed to the doors with bolts. One shop we went into was a veritable fire hazard - the steps upstairs were about 18" wide, and no path round the bolts and shelves
was more than 8" wide - you could barely squeeze yourself down the 'aisle' to fondle the fabrics.
Bolts of smooth (not slubbed or Dupuioni) silk were shoved in the corner. It's the most slub-free silk I've ever seen that wasn't peau de soie, and carefully stored behind the counter. The silks ranged from £6-7.50/m (remember £1=$2.42CDN).
An entire room was crammed with mens' suit wools. I'd never seen a real pinstripe 'City' suit til this month - I thought they went out with the Depression-era gangsters, but many men still wear them to work, complete with shirts with French cuffs, and shiny black shoes.
Hiding behind the door of the wools room were bolts of white shirtweight cottons, from fine to sturdy... all £2.50/m.
And the linens...a selection of weights, from chunky slubby stuff to delicate white veil weights... £4/m.
The range of colours and textures of wool was just breathtaking. After years of a sparse diet of Fabricland shopping, scrabbling around for natural fibre blends at any price, picking over mounds of ugly synthetics: to find all this wool, from £4-9.00/m no less!
I found a damaged bolt of indigo blue wool to die for, a flat bolt with a sunbleached line on the fold... £1.50/yd.
We retreated to the pub to restore ourselves. I certainly needed to recover!
Now, these prices may not sound like world beaters. But when many many other ordinary everyday goods are 2-3x as expensive as in Canada, it's a delight to find that one of my favourite vices, fabric, can be found at prices comperable to Canadian ones.
We've come back to their tiny apt for dinner, dodging round the sewing and armouring projects, and Siobhan's cardweaving loom. Tomorrow Thomas and I go to a 'vikings' demo outside of town. More to report soon, I expect.
With love,
Elizabeth
