Alex Loves Angel: My Sugarland
For the second serving of my one-woman-mission to promote the wonderful shops in Angel, I went to visit longtime favourite My Sugarland. If you’ve never been to MSL, you’ve been missing out. It is a complete one-off, unlike any other store around. Despite being just 2 years old, the shop was recently selected by Vogue as one of Britain’s Best Boutiques, a well deserved credit.
Despite being a stone’s throw away from Angel tube station, My Sugarland is often overlooked as it not on the main shopping street. The shop is the amazing dreamworld of stylist extraordinaire Zoe Lem, who created this little cocoon of vintage mixed with edgy young designers. The entire shop is a feast for the eyes. Every corner, every cabinet, every surface is filled with amazing new and vintage finds, often one-off pieces. Despite being a small-ish space, you don’t know where to look or go first.
The way the clothes are merchandised is also rather unique. Rather than hanging clothes by designer, everything is put in the themed sections the particular pieces best belong in. These themes change every season, so I just caught the shop right before the changeover for AW in a few weeks. This makes shopping here a completely new experience. Instead of going from label to label, you’ll find an Olivia Rubin dress in between a PPQ and vintage dress in a similar style or colour.
Also changing for AW will be the labels on each item, which will explain exactly what body shape it best suits for. This is very much a stylist’s shop; MSL strives to find something to suit every unique person, a personal styling service if you will. If you can’t find something you’re looking for, then they’ll try to hunt it down for you – or even just make it. The lovely manager Trine told me how she whipped up a fascinator to match a regular’s dress just last week.
Whilst I was in the shop, I of course fell in love again, this time with a very brightly coloured dress by young designer Jasper Garvida. For a girl who usually only wears black, this is as far away from my usual style as can be. But I bought it, I wore it out that very night and was stopped several times by people telling me how amazing it was and asking me who it was by. Full credit goes to My Sugarland for helping me step out of my comfort zone and try something completely different. I even made a new friend with this dress, which I will tell you all about in my next post!
Last but not least, the store also plays a host to many events. There’s the Sugarmummy Morning, which allows mummies and their offspring to be relaxed and shop, get styling advice from Zoe and have a cup of tea. There’s yoga classes, Vintage Wedding evenings and jewellery workshops. Coming up, I was told, will be a millinery workshop and a blogger’s event – so keep your eye out for these.
Their next event is something I really want to highlight: My Sugarland will be at the Amwell Street Fete this Sunday (July 18th), which I strongly urge you to come to! As well as MSL, there will be over 40 of other local shops who all need your support… and there will be cake. Lots of cake. Local flowershop Flor Unikon will be hosting a 1940′s style wedding parade in conjunction with My Sugarland at 1pm. The bride will wear one of MSL’s many breathtaking vintage dresses, with hair and make up by Cherry Poppins and floral accessories produced and styled by Flor Unikon. One lucky lady from the crowd will also enjoy a 1940s make-over with Zoe Lem. I really hope to see many of you there, make sure to contact me if you are!
MSL has a unique view on fashion and shopping and offers an eclectic mix of vintage and edgy designers and every piece is lovingly handpicked. If you can’t go to the shop yourself, make sure to check out the website, which not only has a lot of their items for sale online, but is packed with style advice, competitions, interviews and trend reports. Must see!
My Sugarland, 402 – 404 St Johns Street, EC1V 4NJ London
www.mysugarland.co.uk
@mysugarland
