Shopping in London?
 

Hello, I will be in London next week. Could you give me ideas where to shop for affordable clothing, for both adult and children? I heard about TKMaxx and Primark. Are there any other chain stores that are special to UK?

Thanks a lot...

A lot of kids love the Top Shop. My neice spent a lot of money there when she was living in London.

Monsoon is interesting. They have fun, young clothes. They also have a home store in Kings Road and I found a really pretty journal in there.

I'd follow crefloors advice and head to King's Rd. Lots of shops along there that might interest youngans. Do you mean TJMaxx, I thought that was an American chain?Never saw one in London

Teenage girls love Top Shop.

And they will also like Acessorize which is a sort of subdivision of Monsoon that sells very affordeable jewellery, purses and whatnot. It's a chain that you will come across everywhere.

For adult clothes - depends upon your age and taste, I suppose. Chains I quite like are French Connection and Reiss.

And honestly, about 90% of what you see you will see anywhere. The world is getting very small.

OP, where are you coming from? That might help with suggestions you don't have "at home"

Thanks a lot for all the replies.
I live in the Netherlands. There is Mango, Zara and H&M around where I live.
TJMaxx is american, but TKmaxx is its UK version.

The easiest way to see what's interesting is just to walk along Oxford Street (Kings Rd has slightly more expensive, and rather less original, stores) where you'll see that only those with no eyes for clothes delude themselves that "90% of what you see you will see anywhere".

Then, just south of Oxford St and east of Oxford Circus, the side streets immediately around Carnaby St. Among people unaware of current trends, it's fashionable to knock the Carnaby St labyrinth: in fact there's a surprising number of seriously innovative new independent shops constantly springing up and going out of business, and any advice about individual shops more than a week old is ancient history.

A less congested alternative is to walk round the Westfield shopping mall, a mile or two west of Oxford St, but with strunning public transport connections. Same retailers, but much, much easier to walk round

Apart from Top Shop, the main cutting-edge chain aimed at younger people is New Look. Second-division youth-oriented massmarket chains include Oasis, River Island, Warehouse, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis and Miss Selfridge, as well as Monsoon and French Connection (finally showing some sign of getting its brains back). Rather pricier: Reiss, Jaeger, Hobbs, Coast, Whistles.

For adults, Marks & Spencer, though forever attacked by snobs who know little about what people want, continues to account for a larger share of Britons' clothing spending than the share any other clothing retailer in the world has of their domestic market. Next is its closest competitor. Jaeger is getting sharper.

These all sell only clothes specifically designed for nthe retailer concerned. Interesting midmarket younger brands around the Debenhams dept store. Brown's in South Molton St, Selfridge's in Oxford St and Harvey Nichols in Knightsbridge have good ranges of branded clothing, mainly from small designers you'll struggle to find elsewhere.

Non-UK retailers you won't find in Holland include, apart from Gap (which also had a branch of Banana Republic here, reminding us all just how boring the brand is these days) America's Abercrombie & Fitch and its Hollister fascia, Urban Outfitters and its Anthropologie fascia, Brooks Brothers, and Armani Exchange, and Japan's Uniqlo.


On the TJ Maxx/TK Maxx thing:
There's a long-established discount - about half of it clothing - chain in northern England officially called TJ Hughes, but universally known as TJs. Launching a brand called TJ Maxx in Britain would probably have breached TJs' legal rights and would most definitely have confused the bejaysus out of potential customers.

So TJ Maxx launched in Britain as TK Maxx, and now uses the name in its German and Dutch (where oddly, sort of local brand Mexx hasn't complained, but they're not as similar to TJ Maxx as TJs) chains.

That aside, there's a TK Maxx branch in Kensington High St, but that's the only one in central London.

I'd second flanner's suggestion to also check the department stores. Every so and so often the stores have their own discounts and labels become less expensive than in the brand stores.

Another idea would be to focus on UK brands or designers, either in sports or regular apparel, which are usually much less expensive than on the Continent.
One of those discount sports apparel stores is Lilywhite's at Picadilly Circus.
The regular brands could include brands like French Connection UK (the 4-letter version looks cool on t-shirts), Fred Perry, Paul Smith.. the latter two are definetely no budget brands, but you can save a lot compared with prices in Euro on the Continent.

Another budget chain would be Bershka, but I think you may have that in Holland, too.

Some people may think you are crazy if you don't use the opportunity to shop at A&F, the only store we have in Europe. But even if you don't plan to pay 30 GBP for a simple t-shirt or 80-100 GBP for a hoodie, it's worth a look and within the shopping area of Oxford/Regent St anyway.

My usual *problem* in London is not having a hard time finding something I like or finding something at a good price, but finding way too much given the extreme choice and diversity of stores London boasts.