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"There might be a recession on, but there's no call for bad underwear," said the woman with the armful of bras in Selfridges. The markdown to £10 for top-of-the range Lejaby and Freya undergarments [£5 for knickers] had turned the London department store's underwear department into a lingerie jumble sale yesterday.
While other stores sensed a slowing in the numbers scrabbling about in the sales, Selfridges was still bursting at the seams with sharp-elbowed shoppers. Chantal Warner, 38, and her friend Naomi Morgan, 30, had caught the 8.06am train from Tunbridge Wells to get to the store for opening time. Between them they were holding six bright yellow carrier bags and had just celebrated their purchases with a glass of champagne. "I got the most gorgeous set of Lejaby underwear that I would have paid £70 for, and it was £15," said Warner. "A nice top for this evening and a pair of Whistles trousers that I had bought in black at full price, then in brown at half price just before Christmas, and grey today at 70% off."
"Everything we bought had a purpose," said Morgan. "I got a Dolce & Gabbana handbag, which was £995, for £374. I had £270 in Selfridges vouchers for my 30th birthday, so that's what I bought."
Warner confessed: "I bought the same handbag in a different colour because it was such a bargain. It's an expensive handbag, but the way I look at it, it will last for years."
At the bus stop further down Oxford Street, outside John Lewis, Julie Tung, 44, stood clutching a food processor that she had just bought for £53, less than half price. "I haven't been buying throwaway things like clothes and shoes," she said.
"It's about looking after yourself - and feeling good is important because it is winter, it is dull, it is cold and there's a recession ... I spent a couple of hundred pounds on creams from Neal's Yard because they are so good and have 70% off, and that will last me a year.
"And I am heading back to Whittards to buy loads of herbal teas, because they do some very good ones and they are now very cheap."
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