Shopping

5 of the best - Tattoo parlours

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

Terry’s Tattoos, Old Town Tattoos, Tribe, Forever More Tattoos, Studio XIII

Hair today, gone tomorrow

15 Sep 2008

A good hair cut usually gets put to the bottom of the to-do list when you're a student. It's hardly surprising when a cut and colour can cost more than your monthly food bill. Bad dye jobs and drunken fringe trims are regular occurrences when home…

Preview 2009 - Fashion

8 Jan 2009

For years now, predicting the upcoming season’s trends has been a matter of guessing which decade of the 20th century we’ll be nicking our looks from. Mini dresses and go-go boots? Flares? Flares again? Flares on men? All this rifling through the…

The best shops in Edinburgh for cashmere, tweed, knits and tartan

Some of the world’s finest textiles come from Scotland

16 Feb 2011

See-You-Jimmy hats and kilt towels are all good fun, but if you want the real deal sartorial souvenir from Scotland, it’s got to be cashmere, tweed, knits and tartan. So give the trashy tourist haunts on the High Street a swerve and head instead for the…

Spring/ summer 2012 trend preview

30 Dec 2011

Citrus shades Marigold and canary yellow were among the zingy citrus hues championed for the new year at New York and London fashion weeks. During the UK’s biggest fashion event, designers such as Osman, Mark Fast, Jaeger and Aquascutum used the…

The quest for the best cup of coffee in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Delivering the verdict on quality coffee dispensers in Scotland

8 Oct 2010

Coffee drinking has become a serious business, with roasters, baristas and drinkers all equally concerned at the quality of the product. Shiny espresso makers with their levers and dials and steamy bits are a familiar sight, but they remain intriguingly…

Neighbourhood Watch: Broughton Street, Edinburgh

A guide to Edinburgh's hip gay hub

9 Jan 2012

What’s it like? A street full of bars, restaurants and delightful eateries nestled underneath old tenement flats. Ideal for stuffing your face full of food and hitting a pub with friends just a stone’s throw from the centre of the city. Where’s it…

The best independent shops and designer boutiques in Edinburgh

From Harvey Nichols and Iain Mellis to Analogue Books and Demijohn

16 Feb 2011

Multrees Walk is the place to go if you want to splash the cash – Edinburgh’s high-end designer shops all rub their expensive shoulders together in one street. Harvey Nichols is here – it has five floors of designer goodies including womenswear…

Secondhand record shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh

1 Nov 2007

Shopping and I have always had a love-hate relationship. But we put aside our differences for record shopping: that ritualistic, solitary activity that’s at once sombre yet exhilarating. Secondhand records possess the same mystique as old books; they…

The rough guide to Portobello, Edinburgh's seaside

Neighbourhood Watch: The best bits by the beach

24 Mar 2011

What’s it like? An utterly charming, slightly wonky area of Edinburgh, characterised by the city’s only beach and a very distinct, anti-corporate local community ethos. Formerly the holiday destination of most Central Belters, a lack of investment in…

The Scottish clothes designers making a name for themselves

Jonathan Saunders, Christopher Kane, Deryck Walker and Holly Fulton

16 Feb 2011

Scotland has always been at the head of cutting-edge design – and today’s selection is just as good

Vintage clothes in Glasgow and Edinburgh

20 Sep 2007

Throwing out old clothes can be an emotional task and parting with that ripped pair of jeans you wore every day when you were 19 can be hard, but with a little imagination and some creative stitching, rips, tears and pinching waistlines need no longer…

The historical events that shaped Edinburgh

An overview of Edinburgh's history provides further insight into Scotland's capital

16 Feb 2011

In prehistoric times, our ancient ancestors hunted and farmed on the plain between the Forth and the Pentland Hills, and settled on the heights of Castle Rock and Arthur’s Seat, strengthening these rocky outcrops with primitive ramparts. Later, in the…

Milliner William Chambers to provide hat making workshop

20 May 2010

We can’t sing William Chambers’ praises highly enough at List Towers, and we’re not the only ones: the young milliner regularly crops up on Scottish Fashion Awards shortlists, his gorgeously warped, intricate and fantastical creations have become…

Style Guide 2012 - My Style

Six Scottish fashion and design creatives talk us through their wardrobes and shopping habits

2 Mar 2012

Name: Dougal Marwick. Job: Vintage buyer and seller at HB Electronics/ copywriter. What three words best describe your style? Chip-toothed smile. Where do you find inspiration? There are so many identikit ‘cool-guy’ blogs these days it’s a bit hard…

Five of the best: Vintage clothes shops in Scotland

Vintage Guru, Starry Starry Night, Barnardos Vintage, Herman Brown

24 Mar 2011

Vintage Guru 195 Byres Road, Glasgow, 0141 339 4750, www.vintageguru.co.uk Existing as a web distributor for 15 years, Vintage Guru is now 3D, catering for the ladies and oft-neglected retro-hungry gents. Past List favourite finds include a white and…

5 of the Best - Hairdressers

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

Boosh, Sublime, Jar Hair, Anton Steele, Emma Hall

Valentine’s Day entrepreneurs

5 Feb 2009

Michelle Aaron, cupcake baker from Glasgow Everybody loves to see a cupcake. If I’m selling them at a craft fair, people always stop and smile. I guess they evoke childhood memories and look fun. All that sticky frosting and sweet indulgence – there’s…

Shops: £20 outfit

1 Dec 2008

Edinburgh is a hot bed of little boutiques selling one-off items. They are also often referred to as charity shops and on the £20 outfit challenge they become my best friend, as we bond over woollen knits and dainty brooches. ‘We’ve just had a delivery…

Shopping Hitlist

1 Oct 2008

Situated in the east end of the city, the Barras market is a Glasgow institution.Where else on earth could you find vintage gowns jostling alongside happy hardcore CDs? The odd street hawker doing some wheeling-and-dealing only adds to the ambience…

Dundee fashion label Nkili aims to reinstate the blouse as a key fashion item

24 Apr 2012

Has anyone worn a blouse to greater effect than Maggie Gyllenhaal in Secretary? She looked filthier in her high-necked, pussy-bowed polka-dot number than in her Agent Provocateur shoot. On the right person, the mother of pearl button, the leg of mutton…

Whole Foods Market opens in Glasgow

A trolley-tour round Glasgow's popular new ethical food outlet

13 Jan 2012

You have to hand it to the Americans – they certainly know how to create an impressive supermarket. The opening of Whole Foods Market in Giffnock has had foodies, healthy eaters and ethical shoppers from Glasgow (not to mention resentful Edinburghers…

Reasons why Glasgow is brilliant (and Edinburgh is baws)

17 Mar 2010

So, Glasgow's better than Edinburgh, right? Better clubbing, better music, better shopping, cheaper travel, why would you ever want to get on the train to Waverley? We want to hear your reasons why Glasgow is miles ahead of its neighbour. Remember…

Why the return of corsets marks the return of the significant figure

4 Mar 2010

Anyone who saw Christina Hendricks sizzle off the page, bosom heaving, on the cover of New Yorker magazine recently, should not be surprised to hear that corsets are back in vogue. Once firmly ensconced in the realms of burlesque fashion, they are…

Cult Fiction Movies shop opens in Edinburgh

6 Aug 2009

To a certain type of movie fan, Newington’s newly-opened Cult Fiction Movies is a magical store where a litany of grindhouse double features, BFI Classics and films from America’s Criterion Collection which remain currently unavailable on this side of…

Retro Rebels

19 Mar 2009

This week’s shopping pages were inspired by Margaret Thatcher. Bear with us, here. This is not a dubious excuse to tie the current vogue for padded shoulders back into some monstrous 1980s power-dressing aesthetic, as fashion editors always do whenever…

Watermelon

14 Aug 2008

Scuttling through Glasgow’s West End to meet Gavin O’Brien, owner of the recently refurbished vintage institution Watermelon, I wonder, what on earth am I looking for? Past experience of fusty second-hand hovels hadn’t prepared me for Watermelon’s new…

Shop - Tam Shepherd’s Trick Shop

18 Oct 2007

I’ve picked the worst possible time of the year to interview Julia Walton. It’s 12.30 on a Sunday afternoon, just before Hallowe’en, and the door of Tam Shepherd’s Trick Shop is constantly jingling. ‘Yes, it’s definitely our busiest time,’ she says…

Peroni Nastro Azzurro hosts a series of intimate dining experiences across the UK

Gianluca Longo hosts dinner at Glasgow's Old Fruitmarket

5 Apr 2012

Over the past few months, Peroni Nastro Azzurro has been hosting a series of unique Italian dining experiences in cities across the UK. Amici di Peroni celebrates Italian style, good food and great company. The dinners are a revival of the Italian…

Neighbourhood Watch: Great Western Road, Glasgow

Including The Captain's Rest, The Belle and Lupe Pintos

19 Dec 2011

What’s it like? One big road full of pubs, cafés and little shops. Flats are mostly old tenements above the bars, restaurants and stores which go up most of the road. Where’s it, like? In the West End, a stone’s throw from Woodlands and Byres Road.

Oxfam DIY shop to open in Glasgow

17 Feb 2010

In Glasgow, the Oxfam clothes store at 231 Byres Road (just opposite Hillhead Underground Station) is undergoing something of a major makeover. In order to complement the Byres Road Oxfam book and record stores, as well as compete with the increasingly…

More for less: Car boot sales

20 Jan 2010

At the sound of the klaxon, hundreds of boots pop open. We’ve been in position for a good hour already, sipping coffee from a thermos and recovering from the shock of leaving bed at a very ungodly 6.30am on a Sunday. ‘Booters’, like Sunday joggers – and…

Beauty treatments in Glasgow and Edinburgh

10 Sep 2009

Out East, Zen Lifestyle is the enviable holder of the UK Salon of the Year Award, and also lays claim to Harper’s Bazaar magazine’s Best Brazilian in Scotland title. But if you’re in the mood for something slightly more relaxing than a bikini wax, try a…

Cycle fashion

11 Jun 2009

Speaking plainly here: cycling is really not very cool at all in this country. It usually seems to involve strapping a multitide of bulky Velcro accessories to yourself and donning unflattering skin-tight Lycra costumes, and not even in the privacy of…

Shop - Clothes Swap

MULTICOLOURED SWAP SHOP

28 Feb 2007

Photography: Kate V Robertson Additional research: Diana Kiernander I hate this dress. I bought it in a sweaty panic in the tenth shop I’d run into, after discovering that a boyfriend’s sister’s birthday party was going to be more formal than…

Valentine's Day - How to buy lingerie

Don’t get your knickers in a knot - Scottish underwear experts provide expert advice

3 Feb 2012

‘When someone enters the store, and motions to one of the agents, “She’s about your size,” that’s the biggest no-no of all!’ says Jemma Hill, manager at Agent Provocateur in Glasgow. ‘If you’re too shy to ask your partner about sizes, look at the labels…

Spotlight: Starter for 6 - Salute

Starter for 6 is an enterprise training programme run by Cultural Enterprise Office

4 Jan 2012

What's your name? Danity Blame Name of business? SALUTE Tell us more SALUTE is a unique multi-platform lifestyle brand created by those in the know! Our core focus areas consist of Creative PR, Marketing, Events, our ‘SALUTE’ Digital Magazine…

Independent shopping guide: Homewares

Some of the best physical and online retailers of sleek home furnishings

24 Mar 2011

There comes a time in everyone’s life when a beer-stained two-seater, originally peach, now covered with a previously-cheerful ethnic throw, ceases to be a bold anti-materialistic statement and becomes an embarrassment. Ditto those beige tiles with the…

Five of the best: Independent record shops in Glasgow and Edinburgh

Monorail, Avalanche, Elvis Shakespeare, Rubadub, LOVEMusic

24 Mar 2011

Monorail 12 Kings Court, Glasgow, 0141 552 9458, www.monorailmusic.com Pick through lovingly stocked, carefully edited alterna-indie vinyl in this musical cubby hole (many would say Scotland’s finest record shop) started by Stephen Pastel (of The…

Multi-platform In the Company of Wolves event set for Glasgow Sub Club

Very different fashion show showcases new group of designers

3 Nov 2010

Multi-platform events company In the Company of Wolves don’t do subtle. In spring of this year entertainment and events students Ally Turnbull and Claire Stuart leapt onto the scene, launching a showcase of independent design in a multi-faceted event…

Gok Wan glams up Glasgow at Glam in the City

9 Jun 2010

Spandy dandy Gok Wan joins forces with Lorraine Kelly (yeah, we’re scared too...) for three days of fashion shows, workshops, makeovers and exclusive evening events, all based out of a great big tent on George Square. Tickets from www.glaminthecity.co.uk.

Polaroid relaunched 300 Instant model

14 May 2010

n After a long hiatus, the instant-gratification camera is back. Polaroid has launched its 300 Instant model, which takes credit-card-sized photos. Personally, we still can’t get past the misty beauty of the originals, which can still be picked up cheap…

Glasgow and Edinburgh stereotypes

8 Apr 2010

Glasgow boy The Glasgow boy is a multi-tasking DJ, graphic artist, blogger, social networking engineer and one-man brand solutions agency. He’s also a shop assistant at American Apparel. The scarf is purely cosmetic as he’s built up a seal-like…

Last-minute local love

17 Dec 2009

We round up ways to support local businesses while you do your Christmas shop. Alright, the search is over. You’re looking for somewhere you can go to get away from the city centre crowds, still, miraculously, get all your Christmas shopping done…

Down under - Glasgow's South Side

10 Sep 2009

The West End might shout louder and jangle its designer bracelets more ostentatiously, but for its many residents, the gigantic, sprawling mass of the South Side is the true heart of Glasgow. As many local historians and geographers have observed…

Hairdressers in Edinburgh and Glasgow

10 Sep 2009

It's sometimes a bit hit and miss going for a bargain haircut - cheap doesn't always mean cheerful. So if you're going to do budget, head for the big-name salons to ensure a professional cut. In Glasgow, Rainbow Rooms International has a training…

Cupcakes

30 Apr 2009

As anyone with embarrassing Millenium-era photographs of themselves wearing an ugly corsage the size of their head will testify, Sex and the City launched a lot of strange trends. None, however, is as persistent as the cupcake. The scene in which Carrie…

Glasgow - The West End

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

Glasgow - The West End Leafy, artistically inclined, fashionable, but not in a corporate way, dear me no, the West End is one of the most beautiful – and thoroughly self–contained – areas of Glasgow. It is fed into by the students of the nearby…

Glasgow - Merchant City

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

From the polished windows and grand granite buildings on Ingram Street to the lo-fi galleries that line Parnie Street, the Merchant City is a tale of two shoppers: as one strolls in and out of top boutiques, paper bags flapping in the wind and metal…

5 of the best - Online accessories

Independent Shopping Guide

16 Apr 2009

The internet has proved a boon for young, talented Scottish designers who can't afford to rent premises. Here are some of our favourites.