We are Finery

>> It’s here.  The mid-level, beyond-the-high-street label Finery, thought up by Caren Downie and her crack team of former high street design/buying doyennes is finally online and live and suffice to say, finery is within the reach for everyone.  Well sort of – shipping is open to the UK, USA and Canada at the moment, with a view to opening it up to Europe and further afield later.  When faced with the prospect of purse-friendly quality design that doesn’t patronise or ram your throat with trends, it’s hard not to get excited.  The e-commerce site is fully loaded but not overrun with product, keeping the selection concise and precise.  In addition to the pieces that were being previewed on the invite-only site last year, their main spring summer collection involves a lot of thoughtful florals (love this feature they’ve done with a florist re-interpreting the prints through abstract arrangements), embroidered lace and hero pieces like their slip dresses reiterated in simple black and pale pink and their wafer thin leather coats, shirts and skirts.

To familiarise people with the concept of  Finery, they’ve also opened up a pop-up Fitting Room on 33 Monmouth Street in Covent Garden London, where people can request items from the spring summer collection by their designated number (like a design-ified version of Argos) and try things on downstairs in the lounge slash fitting room area.  I personally think the website with its extra large images and well laid-out product pages more than does the job of communicating what Finery is about but for that extra bit of assurance for Londoners, it’s worth popping in to cop a feel of the fabrics, look at care labels and try things on.  I went in on the opening day on Thursday and already, there was a diverse crowd of women between ages 25 and 60 popping in for a browse, no doubt swayed by the affordable prices.  I’m personally itching for warmer weather to come so that I can start to contemplate Finery’s offering of lightweight slip dresses and sleeveless lacey things.