Liberty of London

I don't think there's a more beautiful and tastefully decorated shop than Liberty of London. The building itself is spectacular. Today they explained to me that it was built at the beginning of the last century in the Tudor style, using the beams and timbers of two ships, which is why we find a golden ship at the highest point of its roofs.

The interior is decorated like an English country house, one of those with a fireplace, lots of rugs, steaming tea, and domestic staff ready to help you, but without being overbearing or looking down on you (unlike at Le Bon Marché, where the sales assistants are all a nightmare and ruin the shopping experience).

This store (a way of life, a sacred place, or whatever we want to call it) gives its name to the Liberty prints that fashion magazines bombard us with every spring. The second-to-last floor is dedicated to textiles, and there you can find miles of their famous small floral print fabrics. I love how in the same store you can try on the latest from Philip Lim, discover the most exotic perfumes ever smelled, and buy a thimble, a measuring tape, and a meter and a half of grosgrain. All with packaging that only luxury department stores know how to do, so much so that two and a half years later you find yourself with the perfumed tissue paper they gave you stored in a drawer. Magpie complex.

Here is its founder, Arthur Lasenby Liberty, a man of great taste, a good businessman, and a friendly face. I would love to have a marble bust made of me. Any day now I'm going to a sculptor I know in Mérida who makes them for a reasonable price. I don't know if for my bust I would wear a jacket or a toga and a laurel wreath. I think a toga, definitely.


Hugs,

The Countess, who by the way, is in London