Cath Kidston

Ah, Cath Kidston, the Chintz Emporium.
They really do sell a marvellous range of flowery, nature themed, exceptionally pretty items. Of course there’s all manner of bags, purses, card cases, spectacles cases, all that sort of stuff, and then there’s more modern items such as earphone pouches, iPad covers, and even lanyards for your work security pass, providing a delightful juxtaposition between the old and the new.
There’s a children’s range — featuring items such as teeny and very cute rucksacks, hair clips and so on, and various homeware items too — towels, bed linen etc. You can buy material too, if you want to make your own Cath Kidston items, but at £20 per meter, it is pricey.
Their china is beautiful too, and makes great gifts. I bought a colleague a Cath Kidston cup and saucer in a tin once, and she was beyond delighted with it. Little sets of hand creams make good fail safe presents too. It’s nice to have a little chintz in your life. I wouldn’t wear the clothes — I would feel like a walking cliché — but I’m sure there are plenty of people out there who could carry it off nicely.
Today I was surprised to notice a few items that seem to be deviating from the standard Cath Kidston formula. There’s a new range of china that seems to have the theme of ‘how English can we possibly be’. There’s a salt and pepper set — one of the shakers is a Queen’s Guard Sentry, and the other is an English Bobby policeman. There’s a cup and saucer that has London buses, Big Ben and other London landmarks painted on it. OK, fair enough, tourists are going to lap that right up. Now this is where it starts to get slightly odd. There’s a tea/​coffee pot shaped as a dog, with the dog in a ‘begging’ position sitting on its hind legs, so that the tea pours out of its front legs. Bit strange. But the piece de resistance is a creamer in the same style of dog, with the tail being the handle, and the mouth being the pourer — so the dog kinda vomits the cream through its mouth. It’s a surprise to me that some people might like to see a vomiting dog on their tea table, but clearly I am out of touch with the latest in tea drinking fashions.
So, aside from the lovely lovely things, it’s definitely worth coming in here now and then to have a wee chuckle at the more ‘eccentric’ items available.

I’ll admit it in the pre-​puff excitement I bought a spendy change bag from Cath Kidston to stuff full of nappies, drool covered toys and mushed up foodstuffs. I’m not proud of myself but I do love it and I stand by my justification that if I’m going to be surgically attached to a change bag then I want it to be one I love.
Well I did love it until the handle started to unravel. This visit was to grumble, whine and see if they would replace it. I was quite looking forward to a grumble and a whine — Hey don’t judge I’m normally sunshine personified so every now and then breaking out the grumble weed isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Unfortunately, the staff here are magnificent and I wasn’t able to do even a little bit of grumbling or whining. Before I had said anymore than ‘the handle is frayed and unravelling’ they were organising a replacement. So now I have a brand new change bag and a one year old child. This means that puff is going to stop needing the change bag before it is completely knackered. Which in turns means that Cath Kidston’s excellent customer service is really the universe telling me to start nagging g about no 3.

Oh.My.God. How I love with Cath Kidston. As an American on holiday, I was looking for stuff I can’t find in the States and Cath Kidston was a dream come true. This store carries the *cutest* stuff, from coin purses to clothing; sewing kits to picnic sets; they even sell fabric for people who love to sew. It’s all feminine, vintage-​y stuff, like polka dots and florals. Just so cute. They were having a huge sale, so I pretty much bought half the store. I was bummed I couldn’t buy the other half!

I popped into this newly opened branch this lunchtime, out of the rain, and felt as though I had entered an old fashioned garden: floral prints on every possible surface, mugs, bags, and a clothes collection for very young children, to name but a few of the offerings. A refreshingly different new store for this section of Gordon Street, the famous Cath Kidston brand adds a welcome splash of colour.