On Sunday I journeyed with Sarah and Emily down to Oxford Street to replace my sorely missed Swatch. I remembered passing the Swatch store on the Number 10 bus to Royal Albert Hall. (Incidentally, Royal Albert Hall was where my watch went missing.) With part of the Central Line closed for maintenance, we decided to take the same bus again. It dropped us off right outside the Swatch store and I quickly found a new watch I really liked. I was planning to post a picture of me wearing it with this blog, but one of the links broke today when I took it off to go through the metal detector at the Hindu Temple and I currently cannot wear it. The city of London apparently does not want me to ever know what time it is. Fortunately, Swatches come with a two year warranty, and I will get it fixed as soon as I get the chance.
We decided to explore some more of the shops on Oxford Street that afternoon. There were some stores that I had not heard of in the U.S. and some that I had. First, we went into Top Shop, a new store for me. They do operate in the U.S., although it is a British chain, I had just never seen one. The clothes were similar to what we would see at H&M or Forever 21, but significantly pricier. Next, we went into H&M, a store I am familiar with in the U.S., although they are based in Sweden. Although I am familiar with the store, the selection of clothing here was very different from what I am used to seeing in the U.S. The most striking difference was the lack of color. Where in the U.S. you can buy sweaters in a range of colors from bright red to royal purple, everything here seemed to come in the practical, muted colors of white, black, grey, beige, occasionally salmon or olive. It seems that this must be reflecting the English preference for modesty, privacy, and stoicism mentioned by Fox. Perhaps the English feel that wearing bright colors would draw attention to themselves in public, compromising their method of denying that they or the people surrounding them exist outside the privacy of their homes. Wearing bright colors may also indicate earnestness, trying too hard, or taking oneself too seriously. The Importance of Not Being Earnest is a cardinal rule, according to Fox. I reviewed Fox’s chapter on dress codes, but I did not find it very helpful for understanding this; she mostly talks about street sub-cultures and determining class from dress. She does say that the English have little style sense plus a lot of anxiety about dressing appropriately. Perhaps they just sell muted colors to make it easier on themselves.
Another store we ventured into was Primark. This store was not mentioned in Fox, but it seemed to us like it was the English equivalent of a Wal-Mart, with tables of plain t-shirts and sweaters for 3 or 5 pounds apiece and five pairs of fake pearl earrings for a pound. The scene in there though, did not allow us much space or time to think about class. People were dragging around huge mesh Primark bags and just piling clothes and towels into them, taking handfuls of jewelry and socks. It was unlike any scene I have ever seen in Wal-Marts in the U.S. It was insane. There were 10-12 cash registers in each department, with the queues winding their way through the whole departments. Let’s just say that if I ever go back to Oxford Street, it will not be on a Sunday, but a weekday at, say, 10 am. Reflecting though, it seems that Primark might be the type of store that English lower classes shop out of necessity, upper classes shop in so they can show off their “great deals” and that the middle classes wouldn’t be caught dead in.
We felt just a little bit guilty at first going shopping on Oxford Street instead of visiting a museum or a park, but it turned out to be quite a London learning experience, and definitely something to blog about.
