Happy Fix

Joy yes literally,nope I've not obtained my one way ticket to San Francisco, nor have I finally learned how to do the perfect handstand (hmm time I just let go of that little gymnastic ambition of mine. Handstands are way too difficult and require more balance than I'm really capable of. Though I can skate so that doesn't add up?).
Joy one of my beloved stores, I first fell in love with her (joy is a she right? It is now!) when I was about seventeen went to visit my sister in London and when walking through Clapham Junction station there she was beaming at me. Joy.
A glittering and retro array of fashion goodies all on display at the window, decorated with quirky super woman fairy lights.
My memory of discovering Joy for the first time remains etched on my brain,'I heart Joy' is how that memory reads.


You can't beat the adrenalin kick that walking into a Joy store provides, its so flamboyant with a dizzy combination of colours and patterns.Bursting with off the wall fashion labels and kitsch accessories, amusing novelty bits and bobs. Joy is the dream bedroom you so much desired to have as a naive child with a appetite for rainbows and sequins (is it so alarming this remains to be a few of my favorite things?)The whole store is one chirpy, positive, funky, exciting alternative retail experience. A brilliant refresher from them all to familiar mainstream retail giants all flogging the same stock just in a slightly different shade of mundane. Once you've scanned the rails at say Dorothy Perkins (other fashion retail outlets are available)your finished and ready to exit. The difference at Joy is once you've fallen head over hills in love with a ladybird print bow skirt and all their other fun vibrant pieces. Your far from finished for that was simply the warm up ( star jumps are dead).
Its time to get that fashion- pulse- a- going- and a- head rush-a- flowing, by giving your full undivided attention to the magical, adorable accessories from Russian dolls to Alice in wonderland i.e Joy is not to be mistaken for or confused with the daily lunch time fashion retail fix. Nooooo Joy is a full blown happy day out!

Sadly it isn't always so easy to jump into the other worldly joy vortex. As their few and far between hence I suppose why Joy has such a magical almost rare quality to it.My nearest Joy (to my knowledge) is London, a bit of a costly trek. Thank the powers that be at Joy for their website complete with online store, which almost captures the essence of the real Joy store. I've got my eye on the tier deer print skirt and ladybird bow skirt: yes, yes I can make a decision without changing my mind a hundred times. Erm...the deer skirt? What about the skull floral bow vest?Wait no, that wasn't even included in my original options. Why do I sense this is one of those to no avail moments?
















Go get some joy in your life: WWW.JOYTHESTORE.COM

PS...My link thing remains down and out, so copy & paste I'm afraid folks.