Bicester Village- October 2016 Visit

I recently visited Bicester village in Oxford. I have normally driven, however on this occasion I decided to take the train from London Marylebone Station. The train journey was surprisingly fast, only taking around 50 minutes. I used the 'train line.com' app to book tickets and they cost under £20 for a return journey. The Bicester Village train station is a short 2 minute walk along a signed path to the shopping village. After arriving, I had a look at many of the inviting stores offering their enticing goods, DVF was even offering a glass of champagne and a cupcake in aid of the recent refurbishment of their new store.

A welcoming arrival at the station

Gucci turned out to be a little disappointing with many of the bags and accessories for sale seeming like they had been produced purely for an outlet market.

Gucci- located along the path to the train station.

Next came Valentino where there were many couture creations, shoes (heels, trainers but none from the rockstud line). There were also a few bags from mainline previous seasons.

Valentino- next to Moncler.

In my opinion Yves Saint Laurent had a great selection for an outlet store. The selection of bags included cabas bags as shown below, bowling bags, 'YSL' metal clutches, suede fringe bags and a couple of exotic combination college bags.

YSL Cabas Bags


I chose to lunch in Villandry, a favourite of mine (they have a fabulous branch in Great Portland Street!). As photographed I chose the deliciously salty Fish and Chips.

Lunch at Villandry


After a spot more shopping at Calvin Klein and Kate Spade the time had come to return to Marylebone. I must mention that Bicester Village train station is fabulous (complete with wifi, charging points, water..the list continues!), there is comfortable and luxurious seating with a traditional railway conductor (complete with top hat!) present to ensure you don't miss your train. If you have the chance to visit, I would highly reccomend it!

Until next time! ALBTM

Chanel Shopping at Heathrow Terminal 5, UPDATED 2016

During the summer in late July I took a holiday to New York, wanting to score my first Chanel purchase at a cheaper price tag, I knew of the notorious price savings (known to be around 12-16%)at this popular airport boutique so I commenced my research in March! After reading the limited blogs that I managed to find on the subject I grasped (albeit with limited understanding of the Chanel models available with the saving at this specific boutique), with only a few bag models being available, however that was about all I managed to grasp from my research with the stated prices on various blogs being a few years out of date and with constant price increases. Therefore, after going through the process successfully and managing to nab a classic Chanel bag (with a saving of a few hundred pounds!!), I decided to create an updated blog post on the matter.

To begin with their policy states that you can reserve two bags 24 hours before your departure. Lusting after a black WOC with caviar leather and silver hardware (preferably being manufactured in France!), I phoned the boutique to learn that I had reserved the last one- phew!

Arriving at the airport, after passing the south terminal of security, the Chanel boutique is located one level below towards the left. I had the opportunity of browsing a few other bags before inspecting the one that I had reserved, I noted that although Classic flap bags were not present there were;

BAGS

-Boy bags (I spotted a lambskin old medium for around £2,800)

-Many seasonal pieces including the canvas Deauville Tote bags (priced at around £1,500)

-A good selection of WOCS

-GST bags

SHOES

The same selection that you would see in a normal boutique including the trademark black ballerina pumps in black lambskin/calfskin, quilted, plain leather and in suede.

Also I spotted some boots and sling backs.

In addition, there were also scarfs, SLG's, a range of their traditional costume jewellery and a multitude of clothes.

PRICE

In terms of price, I flew unfortunately on the day of the Brexit price increase (15th July 2016), however the price I paid was still significantly less that the original boutique price before the increase.

For my Black WOC with Silver hardware:

Price before 15th July increase in normal boutique = £1,380

Price after 15th July increase in normal boutique = £1,470

Price I paid at Heathrow T5 boutique = £1,220

Please let me know if you have any other questions and I will try best to answer them!

Until next time! ALBTM