Thursday 22 January 2015

Off The Hight Street: Leeds

Hello everyone! I hope you've all had a wonderful week. I've just returned to Newcastle for my second semester of 2nd year after a wonderful refreshing Christmas break at home.

Today I thought I'd share with you some of my new favourite places in Leeds. Although I live in Bradford, I don't spend much time there and I'm always in Leeds whenever I go out or need to go shopping. I've felt a little uninspired by the high street recently and Leeds is brilliant for its independent boutiques so last Friday while I was still at home I decided I'd drag my best bud Meg round the vintage shops with me.

Its been a while since I've had a wander off the high street and the supportive embrace of Briggate (the main high street in Leeds) but it was definitely worth it. I think I may have found a few new favourite shops on mine and Meg's little adventure, let me tell you all about it!

First stop was obviously, The Corn Exchange.



Leeds has many beautiful buildings, but this is definitely one of my favourites. Its humongous and stunning, if you ever find yourself in Leeds take a stroll down Boar Lane and you'll come across this magnificent building. Its home to some gorgeous and unique boutiques along with some lovely little cafes. Here are a few of my favourites...


If you're from Leeds you'll undoubtedly know the shop Culture Vulture. It used to be on Boar Lane just opposite Nandos however they've now moved to a wonderful little space in the Corn Exchange. This shop is simply brilliant. It sells all sorts of weird and wonderful items like American candy, nerdy jewellery, incense sticks, fancy dress costumes, whimsical gifts and much more. If you're ever after an amusing little trinket to give to your friend for their birthday, an affordable deathly hallows necklace or an funny greeting card, this is your shop. Its often just worth a peek inside even when you don't want anything because their products promise to put a smile on your face.




Next is Yellow Sunrise, this one is also inside the Corn Exchange on the bottom floor. Its just behind the stairs on the left hand side so be sure you don't miss it. This is the only stop you will need for your exotic interiors. Inside they sell lanterns, trinket boxes, hanging painted ornaments, floor lights, rugs and so much more all from different cultures around the world. Everything in Yellow Sunrise is high quality and inspired by cultural traditions from Asia, Africa and India, they are also very environmentally aware making them a wonderful little store. If you're after something that will add character to your room or home definitely take a detour via Yellow Sunrise, you won't be disappointed.





Lastly in the Corn Exchange is Village Books, this is located on the top floor right at the back of the hall opposite the main entrance. This charming, striped-back store is perfect for all your magazine cravings. Its home to unique and unheard of publications which feature wonderful writings and some stunning photography. There's also graduate work in here and publications of photography and art all by really talented creators. Its a little pricier than going to WHSmiths for your magazines as the issues in here are by smaller publishing houses and they're printed on really nice stock paper but they are so worth it. Megan literally had to pull me out of this shop as I was making a number of "ooo"s and "aaah"s looking at the magazines and I easily could have spent all day in there so its probably best she did!




Also, the name of this cafe made me chuckle.


Next on mine and Megan's tour of Leeds was Blue Rinse Vintage on Call Lane, just down from the Corn Exchange.


A few of you may know the name Blue Rinse, they've become one of the best online destinations for vintage clothing but they also have a store back home in Leeds. Inside there's both men's and women's clothing and a plentiful supply of both!


First things first, their ceiling looks amazing. As you can see they have Converses hanging from the ceiling all on the lower floor in the men's section and its just brilliant. And they don't just have Converses but trainers too, all for sale.



Besides the ceiling, their clothing is brilliant. Unlike some vintage stores, they have just as much men's apparel as they do women's and some of the stuff in there is brilliant. You pay a fair price for what you get in here and there's loads to choose from. Men's wear is on the ground floor and women's upstairs plus the staff are really nice. Definitely worth a nosey.



Last but not least is BEST Leeds, a brilliant and unique vintage store on New Market Street opposite the Corn Exchange. BEST isn't just your average vintage shop selling old knitted jumpers and hawaiian shirts, here they don't just sell some wonderfully picked vintage pieces, but they rework and adapt them to make them more fashionable for a contemporary consumer. I can't say much of the men's section as we didn't spend long on that floor but upstairs in the women's there are some simply stunning pieces. There's a large number of one of a kind shirts post-reworking with altered sleeves, dip-bleeches and cut out shoulders not to mention dresses, shorts and cropped polo-shirts. I absolutely fell in love with a black denim shirt which had been dip-bleeched with a very 90s-looking cut out shoulder but as is the life of a student, I couldn't afford it. Go upstairs again and there's a clearance section with some absolute bargains in there for both men and women. If you like vintage clothing but you want something a little more modern this is definitely the place for you.


So there you are ladies and gents! Should you ever find yourself in Leeds and looking for something new, here are my recommendations. I hope you liked this post and if any of you should go to any of these stores let me know what you think and if you bought anything, I'd love to see them!

I'm back at uni now and have just been given my briefs for this term and it looks like I'm going to have a fair bit of work to do so I'll try post as often as I can but I can't promise how often that will be. I've got another post planned for you all soon though so hopefully you'll see that within the next few days. 

As always I hope you all have a great weekend and I'll see you soon.

Holly 

1 comment:

  1. A great posts. Sometimes I forget how many great places there are in leed's. Been a while since I've visited totally shouk head up there again!

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