Late night shopping picks - Been to Uniqlo lately?

The Uniqlo flagship store had me jumping for joy

I finally visited the Uniqlo London flagship store yesterday. I readily admit that it didn't actually cross my mind until I saw the window display: red Christmas trees. Revolving, red Christmas trees... They called to me like dancing, red, shopping sirens... I was powerless to resist...

Anyway, I'm glad I went in because Uniqlo is not a shopping destination usually on my list and now I think it should be. It has the best skinny jeans ever and at £30 a pop, even more desirable. Since they've just opened and are all shiny and new and enthusiastic, they've got a 2 for £39 offer on all their jeans and if you spend more than £50 in store you get £10 off. What's not to like about that?

I do need a slight Uniqlo mystery cleared up though: the manniquins are all wearing these cool-as-all-hell, Dries van Norten-alike platform shoes, which they do not sell and noone in the shop seemed to be able to tell me where they're from. I am so full of lust for those shoes. If anyone knows where they're from please tell me. I need those shoes in my life.

Sexaay! American Apparel eelskin leggings

Moving on... American Apparel has opened a store on Oxford Street. The shiny black leggings of note were not available but I did buy a pair of their great looking eel skin leggings that look a bit like cracked black patent leather on. So biker chick, so me. £28 for a pair of leggings is effing expensive but they look so cool I decided to give them honorary membership of the "they could be leather and therefore are cheap for the price" section of my brain that allows me to spend more money on things than I should.

I took a quick look in Primark, just in case I was missing out on some glorious bargain. I was. Shiny black leggings, a la American Apparel for £6! They only had big sizes left so I gave them a miss but I shall be stalking Primark until I can find some in my size.

A peek in H&M yeilded a pair of cool black ankle boots with some sort of fleecy, carpety lining, and moulded heel and sole for £30. They're not leather but they are very cute. I'll be wearing them with the Uniqlo skinnies.

Lipsy. Nice dress, shame about the underarm cleavage

Meanwhile on Topshop, they're still trying to offload their wildly overpriced Kate Moss tat under the guise of Christmas offers... yeah, right. Still, go to the underground concessions bit and check out the Lipsy PVC dress, £50. Looks and feels like soft leather. I went a size down because I wanted a closer fitting bodycon look but I really couldn't deal with the underarm cleavage. When your armpits start to look like arse-crack, it time to say goodbye to the fantasy that a dress is fitted rather than the truth that it really just doesn't fit.