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You all know my love for Lands End. It's right near my house, I pop in there almost daily and I come out invariably a little poorer because I've been seduced by their amazing sales and beautiful stock. The last time I wandered in there I bought an Assad Mounser necklace and a Selftitled jumper - but more on that later. Remember way back when I posted about my love for Lands End? I thought I would make it a regular post, talking about stores I love and what not but I never really did it. Well, I bloody feel like doing another one now. So here you have it - the much belated second instalment of Boutique Browsing with Belinda Paddington.
Belinda Paddington is my favourite of all the Belinda stores. For those of you not from Australia, Belinda is the chain of boutique started by Belinda Seper, arguably Australia's most celebrated buyer. She was the first woman to really bring Luxury to our shores, and her stores stock the big ticket labels like Givenchy, Lanvin, Nina Ricci, Dries Van Noten, CHristopher Kane and Marni. She also opened the stand alone Marni and Vanessa Bruno stores in Australia - although Vanessa Bruno is now her Paddington store. She is enormously respected and cultish-ly followed. I imagine that her first store (the Double Bay one) was a huge favourite of budding fashionistas like Lands End is now. She made designers like Stella McCartney into brand names in Australia. Whatever she buys turns into gold. She was one of the first retailers to get behind Camilla Skovgaard and look where she is now! She also has the smaller, younger stores, The Corner Shop in Paddington and The Strand Arcade in Sydney, which stock labels like Josh Goot, Isabel Marant Etoile and Marc by Marc Jacobs.
Belinda Paddington is possibly the youngest of all the Belinda stores. It is another beautifully edited boutique filled with clothes that are polished and sleek in that very European way, but still young. Unlike the high-flying suits of the MLC and the "ladies who lunch" circle skirts of Double Bay, the Paddington store stocks labels like Alexander Wang, Vanessa Bruno, L'Agence, Vince and Velvet as well as accessories from Camilla Skovgaard, Marc by Marc Jacobs, Kirt Holmes and Jamin Puech. I liken it to Colette in France (whilst the MLC boutique is like Barneys and the Double Bay one like Harvey Nichols). It's a store for a woman who's willing to try drop crotch track pants, cropped leather jackets and the Alexander Wang Mirte sandal-boots. In short, the Taylor Tomasi's of Australia. Her murky grey, charcoal and chocolate palette punctuated by shots of bright colour reigns supreme at Belinda Paddington. They stock a range of price points, not just the big ticket items. Belinda Paddington is like Lands End in that way - you can drop thousands of dollars on things like Woolly coat from Vanessa Bruno or a Jamin Puech beaded clutch bag, but you can also get away with (slightly) cheaper purchases of beautiful separates or a little necklace. I like when a store has a mix like that. It recognises that a variety of customers like the store, not just the women who can afford a multi-zero price tag.
Located in Paddington's chic William St shopping district, sandwiched between the trendy Oxford St and the homely Glenmore Road and 5 ways (where Lands End is), the shop is close enough to a main road to catch passing traffic, but tucked enough away to be almost like a destination store. You have to know it's there, or at least have the desire to see what is down this little terraced street in Paddington. And when you get there, the exposed, paint-peeling brick walls and white-washed floor boards create an atmosphere that is just as cool as the clothes. A boutique is much, much more than the sum of its parts. The best ones don't just have clothes, they have ideas, and inspiration. Whenever I go to Belinda Paddington (which is quite often, considering it is very close to my house - just my luck to live next to some of the best stores in Sydney!) - I feel refreshed. It is a store that is refreshing - the clothes are simple, deceptively so really. The VM girls put them together in ways that make you go, oh! Yes, I need a slouchy grey shirt with subtly "stains" and "burn marks" to tuck into a pleated maxi skirt under a leather vest.
Belinda Paddington is, essentially, very Paddington. I say young, but what I mean by that is the high flying 30 somethings working in fashion and communications who can wear Alexander Wang and Chloe sandals to work. It's not super young - there is the Corner Store for that - and perhaps even a little too old for me, but then, who makes the rules about that. I've always been of the mind that you should wear what you want. Life's too short. And Belinda Paddington makes me want to wear what I want. And what I want is everything from their store.
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