i have a perfected style, and i have my preferred shops, and i rarely stray from either. occasionally though - like when my entire wardrobe is suddenly too big or the wrong colour palette for the impending season, i feel like a change could be as good as a holiday. with that in mind, last weekend i headed off to bromley with the sole purpose of finding something that fit, that was cute and comfortable, and still very 'me' in amongst the current high street trends that just so... aren't. i was willing to part with my typical fit-and-flare style dress, so long as all the other boxes were ticked.
well, seems i needn't have worried so much about that...
my first stop was tk maxx; a shop i generally avoid at all costs, because to me it's pretty much like a jumble sale, but with tidier racks. well, that's on a good day. this day though, there were quite a few people milling about the front of the store, rifling through the 'day dresses' racks; i suppose they too were trying to update on a budget, so i kind of left them to it. there's always one rack i tend to have luck with, so i headed straight for it - mod box.
dress + jacket : tk maxx | boots (old) : primark
mod box is the 'cool and hip' bit of tk maxx, appaz. they'd moved it to the back of the store for some reason, which was fine with me because no one seemed to be bothered by it. it's my favourite rack in the store because the dresses on it usually have quirky prints and bright colours and are pretty affordable. sometimes they're no better than the dresses you find down the market, which sucks, but you have to take your chances digging through those to find a gem. and a gem i did find - and not just in amongst the market stall dresses, on the actual sale rack.
why tk maxx needs a sale rack, i'll never understand. their whole schtick is that their items are like, 60% off r.r.p. or something anyway, so to have a rack purely dedicated to marking stuff down even more is pretty...cray. but there i was, digging through the sale rack when i spotted a red, chiffon sleeve, with a white pineapple print poking out from a hot mess of crocheted dresses and oversized denim shirts. i grabbed at it before anyone else could, and pulled it out to take a better look. red, it was, and red is not a colour i wear. why? no idea. maybe because it's not pink. but, i was willing to overlook because of the adorable print - pineapples are the spring print du jour, aren't they?
i decided then and there that it was love, and hoped for a decent price tag. as i hunted fort the price, i found the brand tag and stopped in my tracks. it was sugarhill boutique. sugarhill. boutique. in tk maxx. on the sale rack. i forced myself to breath, and find the tag. then, i could have died. originally marked at £55, the dress of my dreams was marked down to a measly... ten quid. ten of your great british pounds. i needed no further information, so i grabbed it and the denim jacket i'd seen hanging by itself and headed into the fitting rooms where i prayed for a miracle.
i decided then and there that it was love, and hoped for a decent price tag. as i hunted fort the price, i found the brand tag and stopped in my tracks. it was sugarhill boutique. sugarhill. boutique. in tk maxx. on the sale rack. i forced myself to breath, and find the tag. then, i could have died. originally marked at £55, the dress of my dreams was marked down to a measly... ten quid. ten of your great british pounds. i needed no further information, so i grabbed it and the denim jacket i'd seen hanging by itself and headed into the fitting rooms where i prayed for a miracle.
well, miracles do happen, because i nabbed the perfect spring dress and a new denim jacket for no more than £25, and in less than twenty minutes of shopping.
tk maxx, i think i love you.
