I’m not the biggest fan of shopping unless it’s online and there are no crowds to drive me nuts. Christmas shopping for me, involves a strategic combination of online shopping and Westfield. I’ve avoided Oxford Street like the plague in recent years and although I love reliving my childhood in Hamleys, I just haven’t managed to force myself down Regent Street in a while, apart from the odd foray into Lush.
However, Regenttweet has converted me. Who knew shopping could be such fun?? Run in collaboration with London Girl Geek Dinners, it involved a day of shopping, meeting other women who have fun shopping and talking about tech, receiving freebies from some lovely generous shops and a couple of interesting talks from Olivia Solon from wired.co.uk and Apple.
My day started at Base Camp – the gorgeous Swarovski Crystallized lounge, where we registered and received our vouchers for the day and were given a lovely Swarovski necklace! I met some lovely ladies, then headed out onto Regent Street. Curious about the Bose demo, I went to investigate and was slightly disappointed to be subjected to a surround sound system demo… until it was revealed that it wasn’t a surround sound system demo at all! It was a demo for VideoWave – the flat screen TV with integrated surround sound that projects the sound arround you with astonishing clarity. I loved it – I want one! I was utterly in lust… and don’t even get me started on the remote control. I know it’s a silly thing to get excited about but it’s as lickable and user friendly as an Apple product. As if that wasn’t enough, Bose were lovely enough to give us a free sat nav for attending their demo. Talk about cherry on the top…
A quick hop over to TM Lewin for a voucher and some knots and then into Hawes & Curtis for some breakfast champagne and free cufflinks. The staff were all lovely and then over to the Apple store for a talk by Olivia Solon about how science and technology is influencing fashion. It was really interesting but there were a lot of things I would never wear! This was followed by a talk by Apple on Augmented Reality apps. Wikitude was interesting and Street Museum got a mention.
Then back out onto Regent Street for more shopping fun… I headed straight into the Ferrari store to play with the Hasselblad cameras. An entry level one costs £9000 and the Ferrari limited edition one is even more expensive but there are only 499 produced. As someone who’s recently become interested in photography, I loved playing with the cameras and was fascinated to learn about Hasselblad’s use in space!
Well, after that bout of creativity, it was on to Oliver Sweeney to design my own shoes on their iPad app. They only do men’s shoes at present but are expecting a women’s line in the autumn. I can’t say I have a lot of interest in men’s shoes but the app was so much fun to use and had such an intuitive interface that I had a lot of fun with it and even proudly sent the design to my boyfriend.
Feeling ever so please with myself, it was on to The Organic Pharmacy to try their new blue nail varnish, which is a lovely pale blue shade. Then over to the REN counter in Liberty for some skincare goodies. No rest for the wicked meant a visit to Godiva for a chocolate-dipped strawberry and bar of strawberry chocolate. Uniqlo was closed for refurbishment but kindly included their gift of a t-shirt in our welcome packs and by that time, it was time for lunch at Tibits. The food was so delicious that it didn’t even register straight away that it’s a vegetarian restaurant. The location is perfect – just behind Regent Street – it feels like it’s a million miles away and gives you a chance to really relax away from the hubbub of the shopping and tourists. The traditional cheesecake must be tried!
For me, it was back to Base Camp to relax but many of the girls had a lot more stamina than me! It was a fabulously fun event and Sister PR did a fantastic job organising it! I hope to be lucky enough to attend again next year! Thanks for a great event, lots of generous gifts and the opportunity to meet lots of friendly, like-minded women…
Leetsy's Mess 