Second Hollister store in Barcelona

Hollister will open a new store in Barcelona. Further more than the store in the "La Maquinista", they will open a new one in an other shopping centre; "Gran Via 2".  They have rented an establishment of 700 m2. Apparently they chose the location for the success of the shopping centre (all though it is honestly not one of my favorite shopping centers in Barcelona).

There has also been a lot of talk that an Abercrombie & Fitch (from the same brand) would open in the centre of Barcelona in Gran Via with Paseig de Gracia. Rumours say that everything way ready for the store to open, but in the last minute it was decided not to open. Apparently the decision has been taken because of the general bad revenues of Hollister and Abercrombie & Fitch.

To be continued....

Hollister in Barcelona - part 2

As I before have announced on the blog; Hollister opened their doors in Barcelona last week. This, along with the newly opened Apple shop, I had to go and check out. So along with many, many other people, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon in the shopping centre, la Maquinista. (To get there, take the red metro line to Sant Andreu).




After arriving my friends and I went directly to the Hollister shop. There, as much expected, two nice looking guys, only wearing red surfer shorts and sunscreen on their noses were standing in the entrance. As we entered, they greeted us with a "Hey, what's up?" with a well studied American accent (not entirely hiding the fact that they were Spanish though).


(unknown girls on the picture)

The shop was darkly lit with a TV screen in the back with a beach and very crowded. I started to search around for the guys who in an American shop just would stand around to say Hi and look good, but to my disappointment all the sales assistants were actually busy selling, and not all of them were that good looking.
I am not really a fan of the clothes, nevertheless, I had a look. The clothes were quite basic, some of it okay, but I would never buy anything in there because of the prices. 40 euros for a normal cardigan and over 20 euros for a basic t-shirt! Yes, sex sells but not to that extent!
Anyways, that was my opinion. A lot of people seemed not to share it as there were long lines by the dressers and by the till. Some of my friends tried to buy some clothes, but after waiting for 20 minutes to try the clothes on and then an additional 15 minutes in the queue without moving one meter, they gave up. So my advice would be, don't visit the shop on weekends!



I also visited the newly opened Apple store. The shop was nice and huge and looked exactly like any Apple shop you would find in the States. The only thing I can say about the shop is that I think it is a shame it is not in the centre of the city.



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From this experience I can only say that I probably won't be taking the trip to La Maquinista before/if Forever 21 opens there.

Hollister in Barcelona

It's finally happening, the first Hollister in Spain will open next week, the 7th of October in "la Maquinista" (shopping centre).
I heard rumours that they are continuing the same recruitment processes as for their shops in the States - meaning there will be gorgeous people working there! To be continued...

NY part 2: Shops to visit in Soho

The place to shop in Soho is on Broadway between Prince and Channel street - there you will find all the big designer brands and high street shops.

For more independent and small clothing shops, have a look in the smaller street around especially Prince and Spring street.

The first shop I visited in Soho was not a clothing shop at all, but a café/food market: Dean and Deluca. You can find the coffee chain in various places in NY and I thought it fun to visit them since its where Felicity and Ben from the TV series "Felicity" worked. The one in Soho nevertheless is a huge and quite posh food market, with quality food and Dean&Deluca merchandise.


Almost opposite Dean & Deluca you will find the Prada shop. You might remember it from the Sex and the city chapter, when Carrie takes her boyfriend Berger to meet Prada...
The shop is spectacular with two floors and a wooden wave (looks almost like a roller skating ramp) which takes you downstairs.
Even though they did have sales in there, I didn't really find anything for my budget.




Further down the street you will find Hollister, a sister shop to Ambercrombie & Fitch. Also with typical American clothing, although this shops sells more specifically Californian clothing, which means more swim wear and that the sales assistants are wearing surfer shorts and bikinis.
The clothing is generally a bit cheaper and you can find dresses and shirts for around 40 dollars.



Another shop that I found had amazing clothes (and window decorations!) was All saints Spitalfields. I especially looooooooved their dresses, which were earth coloured with asymmetrical patterns.
Nevertheless, this shop was not for my budget as the average dress cost around 250 dollars. The shop also exists in England and comparing the two websites I found out that its much cheaper in there! E.g. a dress that cost 240 dollars in the States only cost 165 dollars in the UK (110 pounds). Further more, they had sales on the English web site, so I would definitely recommend a peek there.


A shop I really like and already knew from the UK and Denmark is Urban Outfitters. Here you will find trendy and colourful street wear, some almost vintage style. The clothes are normally around 50-70 dollars, but luckily they also had sales when I visited the shop.
I bought these monoshorts for 30 dollars (before 58 dollars).
My boyfriend also found a cool shirt and some nice jeans, both for under 40 dollars.




I also bought a pair of boyfriend jeans in the Levi's shop, before they were 80 dollars, but they were on sales for 40 dollars.