I have visited several trade shows lately and it’s good to see such a high standard of craftsmanship, ingenuity and innovation being maintained in British life. Indeed, even going to a local craft fair in Hove a few weeks ago I came across Acacia Designs – beautiful woodwork – and a local company producing a high quality range of toiletries (name to be added as soon as I’ve found it!)
Most recently I was at Select Bath. Unfortunately it was very quiet there (although where would you choose to attend a trade show, if you had the option of the Assembly Rooms or Olympia?), but two things must be mentioned. Firstly, it was good to see designers such as Michelle Butler of Isolyn, Jess Trevett (I particularly like the “Heavenly Bodies” concept) and a range of toiletries from Cocoonu, recently launched to complement some of their earlier products.
Secondly, having left Bath around 3 years ago for Brighton, I was very pleased to see several boutique shops still extant and new ones opening. Shops like Mee, Found, MiMiYuYu and Uber, to name a few.
Every Briton I talk to appears to recognise the UK high street is becoming ever more bland and formulaic, yet paradoxically the majority of people continue to shop in the national or international chains and buy basically the same clothes, more often than not from miserable, surly assistants; when they could just as easily walk into Uber and get a friendly, informative shop owner and some unique outfits. Admittedly, you’d be paying over £50 and not £15, but how much longer would that item of clothing last? Towns like Bath, Brighton and Bristol show it is possible to have a vibrant, albeit small, group of independent traders, which is great, but what a battle they have to keep going.
By the by, what was most disappointing on my visit to Bath was the desperately uninventive and utterly soulless new shopping development, Southgate. Having knocked down the previous shopping centre, developers have created something akin to a giant toy town, with as much life. I felt as if I was in that dreadful re-make of The Prisoner, wondering what the point was of constructing non-descript, faux-Georgian blocks when, away from the abbey and other historical buildings, something far more original could have been designed. No doubt pioneering proposals were put forward but vetoed by the clueless and faceless burghers that allowed the Bath Spa project to limp from one disaster to the next. (Did they get re-elected? Mind you, at least that turned out something worth visiting.)
Thank goodness we still have, in the shape of British designers and small businesses, some talent and novel ideas out there!