Harrods - a Spiritual Home away from Home

A Day & a Half-ish in London: Hot off the Heathrow express (should have got the tube really - next time when I'm back to try on the dress, see left), we lounged around Harrod's for the afternoon, like two children in a toyshop. It was amazing! Dollhouse cafes, Egyptian Sphynx staircases, Willy Wonka-style yum yums, Sushi if you want it, basically - whatever your heart desires! The furniture, the anitiques, the grandfather clocks, the fashion! This incredible dress, which I think would be perfect for a Marina Carr play (plastic feathers, bird-like) is by a new Dutch designer Harrods are launching called Iris Van Herpen. It only costs £10,000. Another one was £15,000. I was so tempted to try it on, which the sales assistant was inviting me to do "Why don't you try it on?" she offered. But by that stage we had wiled away so much time in the other dimension known as "Harrods", that if we didn't leg it right away we risked missing the show we had come to London to see - Fabulous Beast Dance Theatre's breathtaking Rite of Spring at London's Coliseum. The old man I sat beside in the Upper Balcony (we were just 2 of a 2,700-strong audience) shared that the other 2,698 were a much younger audience than usual, which (according to him), is usually a sea of grey hair.

Here is a link to more info on Iris Van Herpen's "Radiation" philosophy of this dress:

http://www.ftape.com/shows/womenss10/_irisVanHerpen/

Here, I'll quote some:

"RADIATION INVASION: We are all surrounded by invisible radiation waves, a fact that is both frightening and very interesting according to the designer. What if, in the near future, we could see these radiation waves? Van Herpen draws inspiration from this theory and the ability to control (attract and reject) the radiation waves around our bodies. There is an underlying beauty to this whole new external dimension and van Herpen translates her fascination for radiation waves into a future beauty image.

“ I think that in the future people will find ways to be able to see radiation which will develop a new dimension apart from the body. Imagine we could attract and reject radiation waves as a magnet. “Being beautiful” will then get a totally new and more extended form” says Iris van Herpen." www.irisvanherpen.com.

PS: Tacky, but sad, below that's a statue of Dodi & Diana, near Harrod's left-luggage staircase, with the title "Innocent Victims". Sorry so out-of-focus. Can I blame my iphone? I think so!