high street
high street

high street

SHOPPING

FOUR new retailers to open in shopping centre

KINGLAND in Poole <i>(Image: Newsquest)</i>

KINGLAND in Poole (Image: Newsquest)

FOUR diverse new businesses are set to open their doors this spring in a Poole shopping centre.

Kingland, the retail high street neighbouring the Dolphin Centre, has announced a variety of new independent businesses joining its offering.

As the scheme heads into its second term since launching in April 2021, four new retailers – Jay & Co, Boiler Room Records, Titanium Flower and Brakeburn – are all due to open in early spring this year.

Jay & Co is opening its first brick-and-mortar store in collaboration with Restored Retro on March 13. The reclaimed, restored and reimagined furniture retailer was founded by television presenter Jay Blades.

Bournemouth Echo: KINGLAND in Poole

Bournemouth Echo: KINGLAND in Poole

KINGLAND in Poole (Image: Newsquest)

It will take over the old Pen Gallery unit with the adjoining wall removed for the two businesses to co-habit a larger space together.

Boiler Room Records opened its first store in Poole High Street in 2020 and is due to open its second shop in Kingland on March 1, selling new vinyl and popular merchandise.

Mark Northey, owner of Boiler Room Records, said: “Our second store in Poole will differ slightly from the Old Town branch by concentrating on new vinyl, merch, and Hi-Fi, both vintage and new. Throughout summer we will also put on live music events and feature instore DJ performances.”

Titanium Flower will offer shoppers a variety of handmade jewellery when it opens in April and the store will also feature a craft space for the public to create their own jewellery designs.

Bournemouth Echo: Brakeburn women and men’s clothing ranges.

Bournemouth Echo: Brakeburn women and men’s clothing ranges.

Brakeburn women and men’s clothing ranges. (Image: Brakeburn)

As reported, Dorset-based online clothing brand, Brakeburn, will also open its first physical store at Kingland in the coming weeks, stocking new season women and

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FASHION

How fashion’s fascination with white trainers came to be

Photo credit: Jeremy Moeller

Photo credit: Jeremy Moeller

It’s been over a decade since white trainers became a womenswear staple. Yes, we’re marking it by the exact moment Phoebe Philo took her bow on the #oldceline runway, in March 2011, wearing a pair of Adidas Stan Smiths.

A year before, at her debut show for the brand, the designer had chosen the same cigarette pant and roll-neck combo, grounded with a pair of leather loafers instead. While this ensemble was undeniably chic in its androgynous insouciance, there was something about those not-so-box-fresh trainers that seemed almost rebellious. Fashion was all about polish, after all.

Before then, women were shackled to platform stilettos – Louboutin reigned in the early-Noughties – or flimsy ballet flats at best. Womenswear was crying out for a shoe that wasn’t defined by its femininity or sexiness. The lack of comfort and practicality in clothes design is proof of the patriarchy’s influence (the gender pocket gap is based on the assumption women always carry handbags). Trainers weren’t for ladies, trainers were for teenagers, or gym classes.

Photo credit: Michel Dufour

Photo credit: Michel Dufour

Which brings us on the next trend that helped create the trainers way of life: athleisure. Alongside an interest in Soul Cycle, green juices, clean eating and healthy hashtags came the rise and rise of sporty clothing. Soon designers were incorporating all of its aesthetic tropes – tricolour webbing, side stripes and technical nylon – into their luxury line-ups. Clare Waight Keller’s spring/summer 2016 collection for Chloé, which featured floor-sweeping floral skirts teamed with track jackets, epitomised this high-low mix.

It was in this exact year that Stan Smith sales hit an all-time peak, with those who hadn’t even heard of Phoebe Philo rushing out buy a pair (Miranda Priestly’s famous trickle down theory from The Devil Wears Prada springs to

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