The best of London shopping: Liberty of London

I truly believe that London is unsurpassed in it’s wealth of deliciously unique and lovely stores, pop-up shops and quirky boutiques. But my absolute favourite would have to be Liberty. It is to me what Tiffany’s is to Holly Golightly – no matter what mood I entered in, I always leave feeling happy, inspired, and clutching a purple bag full of tiny (or not so tiny) treasures.

The building itself – a mock tudor affair with grand paneled wooden walls and staircases – lends half the charm, but it’s the styling and the edit that really make Liberty what it is today. Due to it’s relatively small size for a department store (it’s manageable enough to do the whole place in an hour – whereas it takes that to do the cosmetics floor alone in Selfridges, et al), the buyers edit the best selection from the best brands – avant garde (Comme des Garcons, Alexander McQueen), chic (Stella McCartney, Isabel Marant) and cult (Vivienne Westwood, Opening Ceremony). And the styling is exactly how I want a store to look – there are mannequins with crazy Marie Antoinette wigs reclining on old oak tables in the homewares department, old cinema chairs and squishy couches covered in handmade cushions for a mid-shopping rest, books strung from the ceiling in the reading area, and always the best window displays in London.

I love coming here for the best fashion, accessories, and skincare, gorgeous candles, chocolate, and perfume, and whimsical stationary, tea cups and books on London or design. I also love poking around in the habadashery section for the lovely nostalgia it evokes for me. As a child, my mother would always take me to Liberty on our trips to London and somehow managed to transport rolls upon rolls of Liberty print fabric* and bars of their rosehip and clover soap back to Australia.

Do you love Liberty too? What are you favourite London shops?

Love, Miss B xx

Liberty of London – Great Marlborough Street, W1F (off Regent St, behind Oxford St, or enter through the back door on Carnaby St).

* My childhood was a happy blur of tea parties in my back rose garden, always dressed in a handmade Liberty floral dress or playsuit with a giant matching bow in my hair.