High Street Snacking

newbie1.jpg

Despite San Fran being the foodie city that it is, I’ve been fairly good, as I’ve had a bit of an iffy stomach and not wanting to snack as much as I usually do in London.  Instead though, my snacking vice has been transferred elsewhere…

The bloody high street.  Fellow colleagues were eager to go to the Apple store in Union Square so nearby, I just couldn’t stop myself and the high street fat girl inside of me was wanting to crawl out and grab plastic bags from the entire Oxford Street strip and dangle them on my arms in feverish excitement.  I went into…  H&M.  Why god why?!?  I don’t even go to H&M when I’m in London because I can never find anything and because I never get the chance on weekends or weekdays.  So yeah, I’m here for the full-on American experience and I head for frickin’ H&M…. genuine American fare, y’all know!

As if that wasn’t bad enough, afterwards, I headed for…Urban Outfitters.  With exactly the same window layouts as the London stores and minus the designer garb that our Urb has, it is the exact same stock.  When I saw French Connection across the street, I knew I had hit a high street snacking high that was equal to munching on three dirty bags of McCoys (chargrilled steak flavour….hmmmm) and guzzling two cans of Coke Zero.  If I had ventured into FCUK, I might as well stick a label on my head saying "This fatty likes Cornish Pasties fried in lard…".   

In my defense, and yes there is a defense strategy…the current currency, despite a bit of a dip still makes things cheaper to buy here AND…might I add… the H&M here seems to highlight the goodies better than the ones in London (but I might be talking total rubbish seeing as I last went into H&M in London a year ago). 

So out came a lace-top from H&M and a dress that is supposed to be under/bodywear by Smack at UO.  I’m looking down at the gut of high street snacking… I’m snapping out of it today, I promise, heading to Hayes Valley, Haight Street, Polk Street vintage shopping.  No cornish pasty fattie here, I swear!  (unless the Cornish Pasty Co. happen to have those lovely raspberry puffs that I just lurrve….)

Newbie1

Newbie2

67 comments

  3. haha, got sucked into the union square shopping fare, eh?? 😛
    get thee to some other part o’ town, stat. the mission is so, so close! as is just about everything else in this town, being that it’s only 7 x 7…

  6. This is one of my favorite outfit you’ve ever put together 🙂
    (This is my 1st comment, even tho im a quite regular checking your blog. Curious ahah)

  7. Ahh, it sounds fun though… Plus, that smack dress/nightie has been sold out in that colour for quite a while in London hasn’t it, they only have it in a scary fluorescent raspberry pink…
    and yet, its become a regular on the rave scene -sigh-

  20. shopping downtown is a nightmare…head to the mission district. there are great shops on Mission st & Valencia from 15th to 24th street. i live in the Haight and i’d suggest going to Wasteland, Neda’s and Held Over Vintage…oh and there is an amazing place, i think it’s called Decades on Haight between Cole and Shradder, their back room has amazing vintage finds. yeasterday i found a scarf from a 1907 ali baba costume.

  22. That dress is incredibly flattering and you can do so many things with that lace top..
    I look forward to seeing your vintage finds!

  28. i was just looking at that dress online! i thought my sister would look nice in it. and it looks totally amazing on you. <3

  29. It’s so funny, because I never find anything nice at either H&M or Urban (well, ok, occasionally), but the outfit you put together from there looks chic enough to be high-end designer. Very strange times, these.

  30. oh that’s great- saw that slip for sale on their website and was thinking that it would make a really lovely dress. so glad that someone else was thinking the same thing!

  31. LOL, the truth comes out, Susie loves “junk food” just like the rest of us!
    Nice scores, Susie! I love that dress.

  32. oooooh i’m really liking that lace top there!and wow that dress is figure hugging in all the right places! haha love it!

  40. Assuming your usual tongue-in-cheek manner is in full effect, i am trying to understand this post. It would have been nice to read about your choice cuts of the american highstreet but it seems like you only grudgingly admit to these two purchases without any info. Susie don’t you shop in topshop all the time? If fcuk is ginsters then topshop must be the McDonalds of the high street. Yeah highstreet clothes may not have the durability or cerebral quality of your gorgeous designer one offs but seriously…this post reeks of elitism! Love your blog usually. p.s: if you never go into a shop in the first place then you certainly will never find anything in there! And you found something this time so… why the hatin’? Bah! x

  41. ^Ruby I think she is just pointing out that she’s traveled half way around the world only to head straight for shops she could have visited in her home city and that somehow they seem more attractive in a different setting.
    If Im being selfish I do kind of miss the days when you [Susie] wore more high street than high end because as someone that is destined to shop on the high street for the foreseeable future I always found the way you transformed your “generic” high street clothes into something unique inspiring and it helped me to see “outside the box”. However as a long time reader of the blog [and having seen you around the fashion spot before that] I do feel a wincey bit proud because youre one of US done good 😉 and if we are all honest we would trade places with you in an instant.

  42. sexy sexy! loving the shoes hun bun,glad your having a fab time out there sweetie.
    take care of you and all that talk of food got me hungry for a snack!off to raid the fridge!
    xx
    Marian

  44. Welcome to SF! Did you have a chance to check out Anica on Polk Street while you were there? My favorite SF store. MAC is great as well, in Hayes Valley.

  45. ah, this post makes me miss home/the sf area so bad…although the union square stores are always crazy busy so i rarely have the patience to stay for too long. luckily you found lovely things, though! definitely go to held over and wasteland when you go to haight 🙂

  48. I couldn’t help but wander into UO when I was in NY…the prices are just crazy because all they do is swap the dollar and pound signs? Great outfit though and would never have guessed it was all from high street stores! Hope you’re having a great time out there! xx

  54. Heya Ruby…Lou is right… the point I was making was that I went into the shops that I could have gone to in England…it’s like going to eat in MacDonalds in Shanghai, ignoring all the wonderful dumpling places to eat (more food analogies I know!)…it’s quite naughty really…. if I had gone to Hollister/Old Navy, that would sort of make more sense (in a warped way…because we don’t have them in London….
    Regarding high street buys…the truth is, I just don’t have the time to go there… I used to be able to shop during the weekdays but now that I’ve switched jobs, the shops close up by the time I get out of work and I’m not close to them…it’s absolutely not an elitist thing!
    Then on the weekends, if I am going shopping, I’d rather go to vintage stores, markets, more out of the way shops etc as it’s more satisfying and less painful for my boyfriend…
    The truth is…I just shop less now… and I’m more selective, be it high street, vintage or designer… I won’t deny that I have more opportunities for designer stuff now but it’s not intentional….I always have fantasies about going to Primark and doing customisations…but there’s also the no-sewing-machine-or-time factor that comes to play…
    I really don’t mean to rag on about the no time thing (which I know I do a lot and is extremely irritating to you guys…) but it has wrecked havoc with what I do with my wardrobe. I personally haven’t changed my outlook on high street… being selective with pieces, and seeing possibilities with things etc etc but it’s really just down to time that has caused this shift…
    For that I apologise because I’m personally mad at myself…
    In no way do I ever want to seem elitist because I love all kinds of fashion and love seeing the possibilities with all types of clothing… it’s just a lifestyle change that has caused this… you will notice that in general, I have less new buys than before… so it’s just really down to not shopping as much as I did…and thus having money to save up on more expensive stuff…. does any of this make sense???

  56. definitely can’t avoid the high street forever, it’s there, it’s cheap, you just can’t! plus the international high street offers seem alot better than here is you can find that awesome dress, it looks perfection on you! i’ve just read those major long comments and i don’t think the author got the jist of your post, though in an ideal world it would actually be quite nice to be elitist and dress totally in original, none mass sweat-shop produced/trendy things but it’s much more fun to mix and match and unearth the high street gems!
    p.s. apologies for endless comments, catching up with my google reader! hope you’re still having fun in SF!

  59. fatty? That dress makes you super slim girl. Fatty my ass.
    All those High street stores are supposed to be the same but actually they are not so I understand you. God.. I’m jealous now. wish I was there to help you with that McCoys. Yum.

  60. although i hate myself for it i ALWAYS go into UO in the US – marginally forgivable i think as it’s so much cheaper. I also went to pretty much every topshop in europe when i was interrailing years ago. i tend to find better things too. perhaps a product of being more carefree with money when on holiday…

  61. Ooooh I was eyeing up the dress/undie thing on the UO website, I think my tummy bulge would be too much for it though. Love the lace top too. Must say this post did make me chuckle lots.

  63. I think you do colour well, but it’s always your muted outfits that make me sigh. And this one is making me SIGH.

  64. You actually made me go and look at those marni shoes on eBay. They are amazing. But I’m bias. I love the entire outfit.

  65. I feel like I always do this when I travel–as far as shopping. It’s so easy to dive towards what’s familiar. With food, though, it’s the complete opposite.

Comments are closed.