The Clothes Whisperer: the fashion blog with wit that sparkles: Whiteleys MALL PARTY!!!!

This may be an American thing, I'm not sure, but do you remember back in the day, say 6th, 7th grade when the mall was THE place to be? Limited Too, Express, CLAIRE's? That was all a prepubescent transitioning girl could want. Mall parties were the pinnacle of it all--late night shopping events, DJs, and other cool things--events not to be missed or else suffer the consequence at school Monday morning.

So imagine my surprise when I turned up at an event at Whiteley's last week (my local mall here in Bayswater/Notting Hill, as it were) claiming to be the launch party of a brand new shopping concept where an entire floor of the mall was turned into a selection of pop-up stores, to find the whole thing converted into a Mall Party of the ultimate mall cheese. Red carpet rolled out to the main entrance, drawing the curiosity of the other shoppers. It was for the few celebs in attendance, Kelly Osborne, Sadie Frost and Alice Dellal (who performed with her new band,a phenomenon I did not alas stick around long enough to witness), and the six or seven photogs pacing alongside the massive red monstrosity didn't have to work too hard to earn their evening's keep. Mini burgers were in circulation, as was Pop champagne in bottles with straws and tequila shooters.

4 stores opening in total, Junk Food Clothing, The POP Store, The Bower of Bliss and FrostFrench
(which, on account of the presence of both Ms. Frost and Ms. French was at about four times the capacity of any of the other shops). The shops were a good addition to our local high street fraught mall, though personally I find Frost/French dull and overpriced. Nevertheless, the hoopala created around the launch of something other than a new Accessorize I'm sure will, at some point, take hold of my neighborly wallet and lure us back upstairs in Whiteleys for just one more peek. Hoorah for the return of the mall party! If only I needed another hole in my ears, then the nostalgia would be complete. Only plus one red carpet.