Joy

Cute flirty dresses, fun accessories, novel little gifts, cardigans, scarves, bright colors, skirts, tops and a few skinny jeans thrown in for good measure. It’s an explosion of colors! Joy!
Joy isn’t high fashion but it is cute, cheap and good for a colorful piece here and there to punch things up. Also, on Brick Lane its one of the only shops thats 1. new clothing (not «vintage») and 2. not crazy ridiculously expensive/​all black. There’s something to be said for this. I like the one in Angel and I like this one, too.
The prices are very reasonable and if you are young enough (or short enough) to pull off their general hem lengths, you’ll be in heaven with the dress selection (almost 90 percent of the store). Unfortunately I can’t really pull off the mid-​thigh dress anymore (the nuns at my high school would be happy to see I’ve finally adhered to the knee-​length or longer modesty challenge) without leggings so I took a pass at some really cute ones yesterday, but walked away with a beautiful silk scarf that will brighten my soon-​to-​be-​spring wardrobe dramatically.
*Guys section downstairs (also fitting rooms).
*Sign-​up for email list and you’ll get 10 percent discount.
*Great for an odd gift, there’s a good funky homewares selection, joke gifts and books, etc.
*A lot of selection by the brand Louche.

I was recently in London for about 5 days, and spent about 2 of them wandering about looking for fun clothes. My partner in crime had the best of luck straight away; he’d bought a great three-​piece suit and blazer within minutes of us starting the shopping excursion, but I had a harder time. At the cute little boutiques and vintage shops around Brick Lane, I didn’t tend to be entirely satisfied, mostly because the quality of the fabric used on the dresses wasn’t up to par. Joy was recommended to me, and I was pleasantly surprised. Yes, some of the items had the same sheen and polyester material as I had seem elsewhere, but some of them were of great quality and cut, and at very, very reasonable prices. As it was January, they had some great sales on, and I made the best of it. The nice thing about Joy is that it’s reminiscent of Urban Outfitters, but reduced in quantity and upped in quality. It’s a better selection of actually wearable clothing, with some extra fun pieces tossed in, but without the loads and loads of clothes that no one actually wants to wear. And it’s not nearly so messy or destroyed, either. The range of dresses was great, and I got a coat that has made waves on both sides of the ocean.