Shoes glorious Shoes...

I admit it. The story of the old lady that lived in a shoe kind of makes me jealous. Not that I am in anyway obsessive or the owner of more pairs than I can easily store. If anyone can teach me to grow an extra foot it could come in-handy. Anyway I digress...

I was lucky enough to score an invite to the Melissa launch of their new pop up store in Covent Garden last week. So Covent Garden is pretty much filled with cool shoes hops and quirky buildings so this would be pretty much same ol' same ol' right? 

Actually definitely not. The event started n a pretty good way - for once even I would have found it hard to get lost as the shop was decorated by balloons inside and out. 

As the first pop up store in Covent Garden Melissa has shunned the ordinary in favour of weird wonderful and more than a bit quirky. It felt a bit like walking into a paint explosion featuring installations by artist  Julie Verhoeven and Kleber Matheus has been called upon to provide a unique contemporary backdrop. The wooden floor is the perfect offset tot the look and feel of the store and it is well worth a visit just to admire. If the idea was to create an experience more like art that of shopping then they definitely succeed. 

These pictures from my phone don’t really do it justice but hopefully give an idea. This isn’t just shopping - this is an experience.

The decor fit perfectly the tone of the stunning shoes on shoe with bright eye catching colours which fit in perfectly with the vibrant and playful tone of the store. Narrowing down these shoes would be like asking me to make Sophie’s choice so here are a few favourites

 Heart shoes by Vivienne Westwood

The people

The event had DJ Richard Mortimer, Princess Julia and Julie Verhoeven herself in attendance. Pandemonia also made an impressive entrance. I also spoke to the lovely team at Schon Magazine who were friendly and charming all evening and entertained me with a sneak preview of their amazing Naomi Campbell shoot.

Food and Drinks

On arrival we were given cocktails which tasted a lot like margarita and after three had me feeling somewhat lightheaded. Note to self know your limits! The food served up included radishes and feta cheese parcels. It was great but the cocktails were seriously strong to the point that I think I might have been slurring. That for me is generally time to make a fast exit. 

Blonde moment
Not so much blonde but slightly embarrassing was rushing over straight from the office and carrying a huge rucksack - yeah looking like the bag lady amongst the uber cool was so not what I was going for … sigh. Also being stuck holding the end of a radish hors d'oeuvres and having no idea where to find a bin was a little embarrassing. Ah I see a nice little space behinds a shoe...

How to find

MELISSA POP-UP STORE

15 King Street, 

London WC2E 8HN