Bond...

..No, Not James Bond.... The OTHER Famous Bond in London.

Bond Street

OK I’m afraid this is going to be another of those picture overload posts, but I have to post this for all my Victoria’s Secret addicts, and Fashion Merchandising friends I have out there!!!

I went down and did a little window shopping on New Bond St. which is where they have most of the upper end flagship stores, including the newest addition one of the first overseas Victoria’s Secret stores.

I took the tube to Oxford Circus, which is on Oxford St, which is another big shopping street.

At first I was so confused why they called the stations or intersections circus. I did a little research and it turns out they use circus to basically mean circle, not like a three ring circus with elephants and clowns. I’ll admit to a total ditz moment and I actually thought to myself (thankfully not out loud or to anyone until now) “I wonder if they call it a circus because its so busy..?” Makes sense in my mind! Especially since Oxford Circus and Piccadilly Circus are two of the busiest intersections I’ve ever seen! Then I noticed both intersections are a huge circle… The blonde hair dye has obviously gone to my brain!

The most interesting thing I found about Oxford Circus was the diagonal crossing. Normally to go from one corner to the opposite corner of an intersection you’ll have to cross the street twice right? Well in London they realized how much that was holding up pedestrian traffic so they made a diagonal cross in Oxford Circus to test out the concept. The road traffic all takes its turn and then there’s a pedestrian light where you can cross diagonally across the intersection. A big time saver! Of course you can still cross the road the traditional way with the road signals too!

Oxford Street is very similar in look and feel to the Magnificent Mile in Chicago. It mostly has high street fashion shops like a 5-floor Top Shop (aka HEAVEN!), River Island, Dorothy Perkins (who just picked up “The Kardashion Kollection” that Sears has in the US), and my personal favorite New Look. There’s also some US shops, Hollister, A&F and a Forever 21.

“High Street Fashion” is similar to what we would see in our malls, however in London actual shopping malls are very rare. Most shopping is in an outdoor setting along the main street in towns, which is called High Street.

I headed over to New Bond St and made my way to Victoria’s Secret after getting totally turned around and walking past it….twice… Finally pulled out the trusty iPhone for the compass map and made my way back to my starting point on New Bond and there it was!

The windows were full of Runway outfits that the Angels had worn in previous fashion shows.

I walked in, and really it felt quite similar to other flagship Victoria’s Secret stores I had been in before, like the Chicago store on Michigan Ave, or the New York 5^th Ave shop. There was a room for each of the collections, just one room for beauty though, then you could go downstairs for the PINK store or up one floor to more lingerie, then up one more and there was a personal shopping service you could make an appointment for (I think mostly for serious VIPs)

The only real unique thing the store really had was the gorgeous glass spiral staircase at the back of the store.

I left Victoria’s Secret and headed down along New Bond St doing some window shopping, and just checking out the windows.

(Old) Bond St has a lot of more Victorian style shop fronts with the signs that post out. I especially liked this one for Hublot, a watch shop. The clock on the watch face actually works. Bond St also has a lot of little galleries that you can pop in and take a look at. There was one who had an artist on showcase who used some type of glue on top of metal to give a wet look on some of his prints, which were all of London. I found this shot which I snapped a picture of and had as the background on my phone for a bit as well. I loved the overlap of photos and the spots of color in it!

Well this didn’t turn out to be as much of a photo overload as I anticipated! I should really write these entries without access to photos or the ability to upload immediately more often! I wrote the last few blog entries while on the plane as Nick and I head to Florida for a little vaca to celebrate, and share with my best friend Dana when she gets married down in Destin.

Congratulations Dana! I can’t wait to share the day with you! And get some sweet pictures on the beach with my new camera!

However reliving my times in London has me ready to go back and explore some more so I can share more adventures with you guys! I head back on the 27^th so I’ll have more to share in November!