The Journey to Boudicca

What was I doing in a rundown part of Hackney bordering on Stratford in East London in the King’s Yard on a Saturday afternoon?  Only a special sample sale could have enticed me to take the scary overland train (yes, being dictated by buses and the tube is frightening). 

Boudicca had their two day special sample sale and with a tag line of ’10 years of strange things to clear out’ (they are moving studios because of all the Olympics 2012 development), I just couldn’t resist. 

Scary train and foreboding exterior aside, the journey up the echoing warehouse stairs to the Boudicca studio was a beautiful one.  A journey of images tacked onto the walls as you ascended four or five flights of stairs.  If you are familiar with Boudicca’s website, you would know that context and inspiration is everything.  Their site boasts a gallery, library, cinema and a list of places where they want to take you.  They want you to infiltrate their world which is what it felt like going up those stairs, staring at those images until you reached the top and a giant black bunny was up there to surprise you.

Giant black bunny.  I can’t quite fathom what it’s supposed to represent but it was defintiely a stair turning jerker.  Once inside, it was truly a sale for the resourceful.  Buttons, trimmings, fabrics, garment-making oddities all scattered across a worktop at cheap prices ready for anyone with a bit of imagination to utilise in one way or another.  Then there were some random things like ballet shoes, one-off custom wedges, gorilla masks (?), wigs – all the leftovers of past show spectaculars.

For the less imaginative but appreciative, there was a selection of clothing as well.  I went for a pair of cropped trousers adorned with a signature Boudicca white pleating and also went a bit mad for their white fabric buttons, studs and white leather belts.  I’m not quite sure what all of that will result in but I definitely want there to be a context to it.