Got a blister on my left foot wandering Oxford Street yesterday — wrong shoes. I started at Oxford Circus with the obligatory stop at Niketown London. (If you’ve raised boys, you’ll understand.) I then detoured for a few minutes to Liberty (a beautiful store with beautiful things that has gotten too upscale for me) and what was left of Carnaby Street. (Doesn’t that name take you back to the Sixties? Yardley Slickers lipstick! Mini-skirts! Mary Quant! Twiggy! Going with my friends to “A Hard Day’s Night” at the movies and screaming at the screen!)
As I walked down Oxford Street, I stopped in most of the major stores — John Lewis, Selfridges, Marks and Sparks, Debenhams — and was really disappointed in what I found. I am (she said, sighing heavily) too old for most of the clothes, which I thought were quite skimpy and came in a lot of garish colors (for summer, I suppose). I know I’d probably feel the same way wandering through Macy’s or Forever 21 or the Limited in the US. And most of the sizes in the UK stores stop at a US size 18 or so — and I’ve seen PLENTY of women who are much larger than that. Where do they shop? I could fit into those sizes, but I didn’t see anything I even wanted to try on. If you’re twenty-something and a single-digit size, you’d be delighted with what I found, but if you’re a women of a certain age — and size — you may be discouraged.
By the time I reached Primark at the end of the road by Marble Arch, my foot was killing me, and I decided I’ll save it for another day. The place was jammed, and the prices seemed more than reasonable, so I’m looking forward to returning and checking it out. I also found a list of plus-size stores on the UK-based Too Fat for Fashion that I’ll consider. I’ve found a lot of lovely scarves for me and for my gift-list, but I still need to find a dress.