Apple Tree

My secret spot for finding one-off pieces super cheap. Apple Tree may not stock the highest quality clothes but it’s a small compromise for handmade clothes at a snip. It has a collection of local designers who have stalls along Ladbroke Grove but at least here you don’t have to try on clothes in front of an audience (as the stalls on Portobello generally lack changing rooms). You may have to root through various floral-printed everything but once you find something you like they will inevitably have it in every different colour and pattern with slightly different cuts, as if the designer couldn’t quite decide so made them all. Another thing is that you can usually pick up a ‘classic’ in a fake version like a leather jacket actually made of a convincing plastic but that won’t cost more than £30 and which is good since otherwise, although I never really know how long I will like something, I am inclined to tell myself “it’s a classic and I’ll still be wearing this in 10 years” so that I justify the £150 price tag despite knowing deep down that it will be cast aside as soon as a better studded version comes out.