Although online shopping is fantastic, I think you’ll agree, nothing quite matches up with going into the Topshop Oxford Street branch and having a whale of a time browsing the seemingly never-ending floors stocked with the latest trends. I’m probably not the only one who has a tendency to get carried away and stock up on things I totally don’t need. Well, please tell me I’m not the only one…
Anyway, the only issue with not shopping online is the inconvenience of having to carry your getting-carried-away shopping load home with you. Usually I can cope with sticking it in the car and waddling over to my front door. But when it’s a London shopping spree you’re talking about, a girl has to take all those bags on the train home. While simultaneously cursing her shopping habit. If you’ve ever received a million judging looks on the train home (er, what’s wrong with 6 large bags) then you’ll get what I mean.
So with London Fashion Week close on the horizon, I knew a trip to my favourite shopping heaven was overdue. And I also knew that it would be one of those days where I’d be struggling on the train home. Probably during rush hour.
By complete coincidence, my dad’s friend introduced me to On the dot, a brand new company he was working with that offers a simple solution to this problem. Powered by City Sprint (a very well respected courier company), you simply shop, let the company know where you’ve splashed your cash and book a delivery slot – and then leave your items behind the counter to be picked up. They will then deliver your shopping back to your home address within a one hour window. It’s a novel idea, with a rather affordable price tag of £6.95, which is basically the same as next day delivery online. So it’s not anything more than we’re used to.
The service is only available to London addresses at the moment, but they should be nationwide within a month or so.
With this fab little service in mind, I hit Topshop in Oxford Circus (and a number of other shops) for a mega London Fashion Week shopping spree. The lovely Lauren Britton came along with me (to advise and encourage) and shot some amazing pictures to accompany this post along the way. Sneaky blogger tip: if you’re looking to upgrade your blog photography, Lauren is available for shoots. So please do, sit back, relax and enjoy the fact that you’re definitely not the only one who gets carried away in this beauty of a store.
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With SO much choice on offer and a budget of £200 to spend (factoring in the 10% student discount, which gives me a little more to work with), I needed to be rather meticulous in my approach. So, as the organised person I am (I’m kidding about this part), I scoured the web before my trip to narrow down the kind of thing I was looking for.
My inspiration was a mix between Tasha Oakley and Kenza, who have very simple, feminine styles but always manage to look fabulously well put together. I had decided on a pastel combo quite early on, because I tend to stick to monochrome usually, and although this is a-okay with me, I guess it’s pretty boring.
So naturally, I gravitated towards anything pink.
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Eventually, I decided on this gorgeous pastel pink coat (see above), the incredible two-toned suede platforms and a couple of edgier dresses to try on at a couple of the other shows.
You can see my final look over in this post. I have to say, for someone that lives in her pj’s, I was pretty impressed with how I styled it. If that doesn’t sound like I’m completely blowing my own trumpet.
Anyway, so as with most shopping trips. Everything was loaded into bags and I tried to bundle myself into the London crowds. It was a bit of a horrible experience. Especially when you’re trying to navigate from Oxford Circus to St Pancras on the Victoria line at 4.55pm.
And even more so, when the number of bags as seen below actually increased by 4 more. *Insert that hiding face, slightly embarrassed but totally would do it again monkey emoji*
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So there you have it, my mammoth shopping spree. And a couple of glossy photos (which we shot in among Regent Street traffic) to emphasise just how much I struggled with my bags (but tried to look glam about it).
But alas, it doesn’t finish there.
No, I am offering one of you (reading this) the chance to go on your very own shopping spree. Armed with £200 and sponsored by the amazing On the dot, you’ll be hitting Westfield to find some Spring staple wardrobe additions. And best of all, On the dot will also delivery everything home for you (on the day), so that you can finish off your shopping spree with a leisurely lunch – and not have to knock passers by out on the way with your ginormous bags.
Just to pique your interest a little more (in case you weren’t tempted by the offer of a £200 shopping spree alone), I thought I’d include a couple of SS16 staples you might like to buy…
There are a number of different ways to enter, however they’re all embedded in the widget below (to make it much simpler to enter). A winner will be picked at random on the 18th March 2016. We are currently looking for UK entrants only.
And for those of you who want to get to work using the easy-peasy delivery service right away, I’ve kindly been given an exclusive promo code for you to trial the service. Pop DOTSL into the site at the checkout and you’ll get a free first delivery. Happy shopping!
On The Dot | link
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