London's best hidden vintage shop

I love London. I love charity shopping. Unfortunately, put the two together and you're at a dead end. The problem with London is that because it's the capital city, not only are rents high but (to be fair, probably a result of this) so are the prices. In one sense it's understandable - if rents are twice the price as outside of London it's only reasonable for the prices to be as well, it's just a shame my bank balance doesn't take this into account.
 Vintage shops in London are the worst for doing this, price wise. Don't get me wrong, some of the best vintage clothes can be sourced in London because as previously mentioned, it's the capital. If you're willing to pay higher prices, the basement level of Oxford Street's Topshop is home to some of the best vintage clothing designers imaginable (check out The Ragged Priest, for example). If though, like me, you're lacking funds yet still want vintage clothes, further out of London is the best, especially the east end!
The East End Thrift Store (EETS) was a stroke of luck I found out about a few years ago. Since then, it's grown in stock size and unfortunately price, but only slightly! The shop itself is split into two parts - the bigger of the two is 'fill a bag' style; you buy either a £10 or £20 bag (depending on the desired size) and literally throw whatever you want in the bag until it's full. Then you pay your money and walk out with as many vintage clothes as can fit in the bag (the answer? quite a lot). A few years ago the £10 bags were the only option but at the size of a small bin bag they were definitely worth the money. Nowadays, EETS seems to have got a lot more popular so the £10 bag has shrunk to a much fairer shopping bag size.
I've been there pretty much every time I go to London (aka quite frequently) and I always walk out with some great stuff. The brands there vary from Levi and Wrangler to old, vintagey American brands. There are thousands (no exaggeration) of plaid shirts, leather jackets, tea dresses, shorts, jeans, t shirts. You name it, they've got it. The amount of stuff I've picked up from there over the years and been complimented on is far higher than my Topshop clothes have received (which could say a lot about my high street taste to be fair). I've posted a few photos of some of the great things I've picked up in the last few months!

Vintage Disney dungarees I bought back in summer - they look better with a belt, unlike the photo.

How cute is Tigger though? I've never found dungarees the same, anywhere.

Fresh from "Pooh Women" direct.

I worked out in total this cost me a grand £2

My most worn jumper - ever. St Michael's vintage and £3

It's such a fab colour and it's so thick and warm!

More Disney themed items (I spy a pattern here) £2.50 cute t shirt

This is so cute and kitsch

In difference here we have "Disney Kids" not "Pooh Women"

The colour of this is so bright - perfect for teaming with jeans on a cold day

I still can't figure out what this says but it was £2.50 so who cares?

I love the design shown on it, it's so original.

And here we have yet more Disney merch! £2.50 well spent.

I think for once I bought a generic Disney jumper, woah. 

Slightly faded yet all the more retro looking

It's still fluffy on the inside, aw

My favourite purchase! Topshop Mom jeans' identical sister - I can't get over these

THEY ONLY COST ME £2.50 SOMEONE HOLD ME

They are pretty much exactly the same (is that an oxymoron?) as the Topshop ones.

(Except for the fact they're Lee's not Topshop)

(PHOTO TAKEN FROM GOOGLE IMAGES)

(PHOTO TAKEN FROM GOOGLE IMAGES)

(PHOTO TAKEN FROM GOOGLE IMAGES)

(PHOTO TAKEN FROM GOOGLE IMAGES)

EETS itself is tucked away down a little courier road named 'Assembly Passage' in Stepney Green. If you're going from St Pancras Station get on the Hammersmith line and sit on it until you're in Stepney Green. The road it's on is ridiculously easy to miss as the sign is on the other side of the road (ie on the same direction you're walking from) so keep and eye out because it's worth waiting for! Check out their website and Facebook page for events and updates!

Mini Primark haul!

So yesterday I trekked it down to Portsmouth for their university open day, which was great! I had to prebook my trains (about 12 hours before, incidentally) so I could guarantee a seat and a place on the train, which was definitely a good decision! The only downside of this was that I booked my return train(s) for about 4PM because the journey was shorter; it seems I forgot that waiting around an extra hour slightly ruins the point of a faster train. Anyway! I decided to have a look around Portsmouth as a place. I would have gone down to the sea/harbor except for the fact it required getting another train and with my sense of direction that's never a good idea - although I managed to get myself a good 102 miles to Portsmouth! (Thanks Google Maps).
The town itself was really easy to find, as in walk out of the University and you're already there! A quick look around told me it was a good town centre (or would that be city centre? hmm..) - there was a Primark, Topshop, H&M, River Island, along with the necessary Costa, Subway and Maccy's! Seeing as I had to do the return 102 miles I decided to somewhat limit my spending, as everything I bought in total yesterday came to a grand £18!
I was looking to finally buy the black Topshop Joni jeans I've been after for ages, but I don't know if it's just my pot luck but they seem to have stopped selling them? I found every other colour under the sun except the black jeans! In one sense it was good, because that would have set me back another £36 and although I only spent £18 in Primark my taxis when I went out last night cost £25 too, meaning that yesterday was actually quite an expensive day!
The Primark in Portsmouth is fab. It's huge, for one - I didn't even venture upstairs and got lost downstairs a few times! There's also that sneaky multiple exit thing going on, meaning you can walk out one way, keep shopping and see something through a different window and walk straight back in! It was a great store too because unlike my local branch - Luton (but less on that) - all the new stuff was in, which hopefully means the stuff I bought (despite it being pretty generic stuff) shouldn't be spread among the masses of Luton for a few days weeks now.

Basic Crop Top - £3.50

Cute burgundy frilly socks - £1.50

Equally cute green frilly socks - £1.50

Teal beanie - £2

Black American Apparelesque luxe skater skirt - £10

I'm glad I bought a new beanie because despite wearing different ones in my OOTD posts, I usually stick with one of three beanies, even though I have a huge collection! I worked out a while ago I own at least 11 beanies, I really need to find an opportunity to wear the other 8! The socks were a good investment too; at £1.50 a time you really can't go wrong as I'm sure my sister will agree, owning nearly every colour of them. This just means I can actually wear my own rather than use the "but Mum put them in my room!" excuse now. The skirt is very American Apparel but at a shade of the cost which is always a benefit, and I'd be surprised if there's drastic contrast in quality, too. I actually wore the top last night with black high waisted shorts hence why it looks a bit crumpled in the photo, overall good buys I would say!

On the hunt for winter clothing.

I've come to the conclusion that I always wear the same things. I either wear black tights with black or denim Topshop Joni shorts, or I wear my black disco pants. After a year of convincing myself I would dress well at college (we're going back to year 11 resolutions here) something has to change.
Luckily, this revelation came at exactly the right time, and by the right time, I mean payday. My general aim was to find more winteresque outfits, mainly plain things which would match with the majority of my clothes already. Although payday comes every two weeks, a fortnight can seem an extremely long time with no funds. Because of this, I went out with intention to spend about £30 on getting some basics. It's not that I don't like spending money, it's just that when I start, it is so much harder to stop.
I'm in no shortage of t shirts - I have nearly a whole wardrobe rail dedicated to them so the real aim here was to find bottoms rather than tops. My main issue is that (as previously complained about) I don't like jeans. I don't mind black jeans, but what's the point of buying loads of pairs of the same thing? With the exception of comfort, black jeans realistically don't differ too much. I'm still hankering for a pair of black Joni Topshop jeans however my thighs disagree.
One trend I do like lately is patches on jeans. I'm not fond of the whole 'double denim' idea so disregard the top half of the picture but the jeans shown are great. The only problem with them is the style - as much as I would love to have legs the same shape as this model's I will be a realist here and accept that they are not.

It may seem odd to opt for skinny jeans when my legs resemble rhino legs at the best of time but I find that these actually bring some shape rather than just creating an elusion that my legs aren't what they seem. Again, being a realist, this just makes me look like I can't be bothered to find nice jeans to wear so I tend to avoid baggy jeans like the ones to the left.
And back to the shopping trip! The word "SALE" caught my attention so, like a dog to a bone, I walked into H&M. Now, I have differing views on H&M. In my opinion, it's a shop where you either find the contents of next season's wardrobe or nothing whatsoever. This time though I was lucky (I'm pretty certain my bank balance would disagree here). I found the nicest jeans/jeggings (another label I try to avoid) in blue denim with leather patches on the knees. Not only are they ideal, they are also NOT JEANS. Jeggings are somewhat renound for their 2011 fashion craze but they are so undeniably comfortable that I'm prepared to risk abuse. The leather patches are great too - if they were entirely blue I wouldn't have bought them because of the colour - I'm not really a blue jeans person either. Or any other colour except black actually, but the leather patches added a vintagey feel and mean I can pair them with literally anything.
I got some other stuff in H&M which I haven't had a chance to photograph yet - a short sleeve basketball style top with a tiger face on it which I wore with said new jeggings yesterday and a long white shirt/dress with an evil eye type of design on it. Photos to come!
On a spontaneous decision I went into Peacocks. I'm not sure why, since I haven't really been into Peacocks since I was about 11, but Becca wanted to have a look so I followed her in. This just goes to show that I should shop around more, I came across the nicest harem style pants - ever. There were some black mock leather ones I saw in Primark which did nothing for my shape so I didn't buy them - on a whim I bought the Peacocks ones. The picture here does them no justice at all; in person the blue is brighter and lighter, and they are far more baggy in person than online, which is also great for those of us with huge legs, i.e myself.
They're described on the website as 'patterned trousers' however I think the description would be much more accurate if they were called 'harem pants' as that's exactly what they look like in person. I haven't checked the label but I'm pretty confident they're just cotton which is the only downfall - I would like them just that little bit more if they were roomier and just had more stretch I guess. The photo on the right is also taken from the website and shows the same trousers in their other colour - yellow..ish? They're more ochre than yellow itself but I'm not complaining. I nearly bought those ones instead except the blue ones have this amazing way of making my legs look potentially skinny which the ochre ones lacked to do. The actual photo is much more realistic with the size/bagginess aspect compared to the stock photo though. I paired mine differently - I wore them with a black folded sleeve crop top, chunky gold necklace (as always), burgundy beanie and black creepers with blue and white lacy socks. I was paranoid the trousers looked the wrong length - past mid calf but not quite long enough to look like 7/8s trousers, but no worries there. The creepers definitely helped with the illusion of slim legs which is always appreciated.
Photos to come later for another WIWT post!