Myra – Food, Fashion and Fitness

Gunwharf Quays is my local shopping outlet, and whilst it doesn’t have as many luxury brands as Bicester, it’s still an amazing place to shop.

If you’re after some Kate Middleton style, it’s also a great place to pick up replikates!

Many of Kate’s favourite shops and brands are here, including L.K. Bennett, Barbour, Hobbs, Jaeger, Ted Baker, Links and Ralph Lauren

I popped in to Gunwharf for a quick pit stop this weekend, and here are some of my finds!

This awesome Ted Baker jacket in silver was a special sample priced at £80. Unfortunately it was a bit creased and didn’t photograph well, but it had a beautiful shape to the back.

Ted Baker is an excellent place to get really gorgeous party dresses or frocks for the races.

Another great outlet is L.K. Bennett. I’ve purchased many a great item in here, including a teal Jude jacket (£60) and a pair of black suede Harper pumps (£115). Highlights today included a black Davina dress (Kate has worn one in teal under her Jetta jacket – like the Jude) for £150, and Sledges in beige, gold and black glitter for £115.

I spent most of my time in Hobbs though – I love the brand and the physical stores, but let’s just say their online service leaves a lot to be desired… But let’s stick with the positive for this post!

There were a few items in here from the current mid season sale, including plenty of items in the same Dalmatian print that Kate wore in Southampton (hers was a collarless coat). The Niamh top was there in blue and white for £28.

There were also trousers, a scarf, and a cardigan (£50).

As the Dalmatian mac that Kate wore is long since sold out, these are great replikating options which use the same print! There are even shoes – the Lexi open toe court for £49 and the Bea ballerina, £35.

My favourite replikate from Hobbs is the Myra wedge, in navy suede (£49).

They also had the mushroom version, which was incredibly tempting!

Hobbs Outlet stores can be found at Bicester, Braintree, Canterbury, Cardiff, Cheshire Oaks, Kildare, Portsmouth, Swindon, Walton-On-Thames and York. Track them down at http://www.hobbs.co.uk.

You might have noticed my slight obsession with the Duchess of Cambridge – she’s one of my favourite style icons, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the royal family. So I’m very happy to scoop up any Kate purchases I come across when they’re brought to my attention by the lovely community over at What Kate Wore’s Facebook site!

One of my favourite ever shoes that Kate’s worn are the Corkswoon wedges – designed by the American label Stuart Weitzman, they were sold in Russell & Bromley stores here in the UK for a short period. Unable to get my hands on a pair, I plumped for the copykate Myra wedges from Hobbs, which retailed at £125. Thanks to a variety of reasons, I was only ever able to wear these out once, when I went to a Greek restaurant last year.

Needless to say, I loved them, but being a perfectionist, I couldn’t help but jump to it when I saw that Russell & Bromley had made the wedges available again to buy! At the price of £255, though, they’re over twice the price of the Hobbs Myra wedge, so in the interests of retail science, I decided to do a side by side comparison! But first, here is the epic story of how I got my wedges…

The Corkswoon wedges – as they are called in the US – have been renamed to ‘SW COCO’, and I found out from R&B’s Twitter account that they were available again for the new season. (Also available in a pretty silver shimmer colour too!) Unfortunately, by the time I got myself organised (three hours…) my size (7/40) had sold out. I decided to take a chance and ordered the 6.5 but they were too small. So, I signed myself up to receive updates when my size is made available again. Every morning at 9am I’d get an email to say my shoes were in stock, but after checking, they were sold out again, leading me to believe that there was massive demand that R&B was keeping up with by getting in new shipments everyday. It turns out I was hilariously wrong, as I eventually emailed them to ask them if they could put a pair aside for me as an exchange. What had been happening was that the email system was telling everyone who was on the list when a new size came in, even if that wasn’t the size they were after. In fact, there were no new shipments and they weren’t expecting any more through(!) BUT, they checked their inventory and found a pair in Mayfair for me. I rang the store right away, and they were able to post the shoes out to me. And so, they arrived today. And thus ends the tale!

Now for the comparisons! Hobbs Myra is on the left, and Corkswoon/Coco is on the right:

As far as I can tell, these are the main differences: the colour of the navy on the Coco is deeper and more even. The nap seems to be shorter, which gives it a tidier appearance. The cork differs slightly – the Myra has a more spotted finish, while the Coco has a series of lines… (I tried to look up to see if these have a special name but I couldn’t see anywhere that they do!) When it comes to fit, the Coco actually fits me much better than the Myra wedge. The back seems to be higher, although the Myra wedge has a nifty piece of cord at the back which helps to maintain grip. Finally, the most obvious difference is the cute gold SW button at the back of the Coco wedge!

If you’d like to see all the pictures in high res, you can visit my Flickr set here. You can also see another comparison between the Myra wedge and the Next wedges that they did last season which were a good match for the Coco wedges here.

As I don’t need both pairs, I’m going to be selling my Myra wedges – they’re size 7/40 and if you’re interested just email me using the contact tab above! As they fit me better than the Myra wedges, I decided to keep the Coco, but I honestly think that the Myra wedge is a fantastic replikate, especially considering the enormous price of the originals. The Cocos are nicer, but twice as nice…? I’m not certain!