East Shopping Centre: Europe's 1st Asian Shopping Mall

London, Leicester, Birmingham, Manchester, Bradford, Glasgow...all the major cities in the UK have got their Asian shopping hot spots but last weekend saw the official opening of the first ever Asian Shopping mall, not just in the UK, but the first of its kind in Europe. An Asian shopping mall I hear you cry, what's that? Well, literally it's an in-door shopping area that specialises in shops and facilities that cater to the South Asian audience - primarily this means Asian fashion stores but within the modest mall there's also a food court, souk style market, beauty parlour and wedding decor company. 

The centre officially opened to the public (after an initial soft opening), at 12pm on Saturday 14th March with a ribbon cutting ceremony by the local MP Lyn Brown followed by a stampede of eager shoppers.

East Shopping Centre is based in Green Street, east London which is already a major shopping hub for South Asian food and fashion. The centre is an addition to the existing area which at the moment consists of one long street. I've always been a fan of Green Street and wondered how the often characterless nature of a shopping mall could retain the vibrant, cultured flavour of the area, but thankfully a couple of hours spent smooching around to sample the shops and services and I can confidently say the centre has its appeal. Here's a peek at what's inside...

Fashion

Green Street is a hub of asian clothes and fabric shops but the ones who have chosen to be part of the centre are in the more 'upmarket' end of the scale category. Stores are very boutiquey with some seriously shimmering outfits from well-known names such as Raishma (images above), Memsaab, Zarkan of London and Asian Bridal who have all gone to town with delightful shop front decor and mannequins kitted out in finery. 

There's also a souk area made up of market style shops though it's very much on the intimate side!

Food

In the food court there's a coffee shop, mocktail and dessert bar and several eateries where you can pick up hot global cuisine. I had a chance to taste dishes from all the restaurants and for fast food I was very impressed with the choice and flavours and the fact the brands here are different to those found in mainstream shopping centres.

There are seats and tables but the space is small, a couple of extended families could easily fill it up. The Food Court will no doubt be successful but perhaps too much so I hope there's room for expansion!

Is it worth a trip to East Shopping Centre? I think it will attract new shoppers to Green Street, the rustic nature of the place doesn't appeal to everyone but an indoor centre is likely to make the area more accessible. For any non-Asians looking to buy Asian fashion I think they will feel more comfortable shopping here than having to try and navigate the high street, though hopefully once they've been inside they'll feel more inclined to explore further afield.

East Shopping Centre is light and airy, has ample toilet and refreshment facilities, good accessibility (walking distance from Upton Park tube station), has late opening and even has environment credentials including a flow restrictors to save water and solar panels. 

I'll definately be back, especially for another beautician appointment. It's incredibly hard to find decent beauticians and my usual has recently disappeared. I was on the look out for a new one and Karma London ticks the boxes - a wax followed by a bubble tea to curb the pain...I could get used to that!

Find out more about East Shopping Centre: www.eastshoppingcentre.com. 

Summer crafting highlights

Over the summer months I've been busy spreading the crafty gospel by running an assortment of crafts classes across London for children, young people and adults.


My favourite was the 'boho chic jewellery' course I ran back in July as part of the Greenwich Summer Uni programme which gives young people under 25 the chance to learn new skills for free through a variety of courses.


What I liked about the course is how my students were really inspired by my own work and used my love for bright colours and bling to create their own unique jewellery collections.


The student above became fascinated with acrylic stones and used them to make some amazingly sparkly items! 

Another one of my students who was just 15 created had a natural talent for design and composition and made this beautiful necklace, which I think is so much nicer than a lot of the hand made pieces you get in gallery gift shops.

On closer inspection you can see how she embroidered into each bead to add detail.

This student kept it more simple by adding anything and everything on to ring and earring findings.

On the 'Bollywood Crafts' course my students had the chance to make some of the projects that feature in my book including these gorgeous decorative bowls, handbags, books and photo frames.

One of the fun parts of running the courses was souring the materials. I picked up these rolls of sequin trims for just £1.50 each from Creative Beadcraft - superb value - you get 100m on a roll and if you buy 1m from a haberdashery they normally cost 40p per metre. 

I also ran a textile project over six weeks with mothers from a local school in East London in conjunction with The Women's Library. The project entitled 'My City' was an exploration of each woman's relationship with her local area. 

The best thing about teaching crafts is seeing students produce work they are really proud and getting inspired by their ideas myself! It's been a fantastic summer of crafting but I'm now going to wind down on the teaching front until next year.....come the Autumn, I have some other exciting projects to plan - crafts for my wedding!  

What to do with fabric trims!

My swag!

My sister and fellow blogger Tea with Digestives  recently showed off some fabulous trims that she claimed to have bought from £1 a metre in Walthamstow. Intrigued, I went down to the East End market yesterday and discovered a complete treasure trove of sequins, sparkles, rainbow colours, and shelf upon shelf of Indian trims. 

Where to start?

Disguised as a mobile phone repair shop called 'Wool Shop' (although it only sells basic Double Knit yarns), the store on the market is a long corridor of bling! There is soooooooooooooooooooooo much to choose from, you could be there for quite a while!

There are also rows of sequins, crystals, zips, threads and crystallised motifs. 

But what makes this shop so, so amazing, concept aside, is  the price! This sign is totally true! The trims range from 30p per metre to £4.50 for the most spectacular ones, a FRACTION of the price of places like Barnett Lawson Trimming (who as much as I love them, annoying  don't put the price on a lot of their trims and you get a shock at the till) and the overly extortionate VV Rouleaux who for moral reasons (they hike the price up soooooooo much) I will never buy anything from them ever!

As well as sequin encrusted, there are also some gorgeous mirror and machine embroidered choices.

I also bought a selection of jewelled motifs that were £1.50 each.




So now I have all the trims, what to do with them?


Here's my top 10 ways to use fabric trim:


1. Update clothes by sewing trim along the bottom of skirts and trousers, collars and cuffs. 
2. Wrap and glue trims around a wide plastic or wooden bangle to create a fabric covered piece of  jewellery.
3. Decorate the four raised sides of a notice board by gluing trim around it. 
4. Cover a blank canvas in strips of trim to make a piece of modern art. Either use different trims for each strip or create a pattern.
5. Cut off the thin sleeves on a vest top and replace with trim, make them the same length as the original sleeve and sew in place on each side so you can wear your top as before. 
6. Replace a ribbon with a trim on a straw hat. 
7. Tie up presents. 
8. Join strips of trim together with a simple straight stitch on a sewing machine to create a larger square or rectangular piece of fabric and use as one side of a cushion. 
9. Chop up lots of short strips of trim and sew on to the edge of a bag to give it a fringe, especially brings dull cotton shopper to life!
10. Buy a copy of my book 'Bollywood Crafts' it's contains instructions for 20 simple craft projects, most  which all use Indian trims!