I’ve been walking past this shop for the last 15 years and it cheers me up every day. Crazy Clothes Connection is one of the few remnants of the Old Notting Hill which hasn’t been pushed out by the ever-increasing rents. So, what’s the secret? Even just walking past the shop and looking in the window on my way to work in the morning is fun — this must be the largest collection of utterly unwearable shoes in London. It gets even more fun when the awnings are down and the space below filled with rows and rows of weird and wonderful stuff. At long last, I had a reason to enter the secret den. I was in no doubt that this is where we would find our outfits for a fancy dress party. And so we did. But we also found a lot more. It is a real experience to meet Dereck who generously shares his view of the world and his experiences — at 82 he has quite a few stories to tell. It is he who is responsible for the old time jazz filling the street on a sunny afternoon, his record player positioned between the clothes rails on the pavement. His daughter Esther knows her stuff and soon found us just what we needed. Crazy Clothes aren’t cheap-cheap, but all their stuff is of great quality and doesn’t have the musty smell you encounter in many second hand stores. But it’s the people who make this a real experience — don’t go if you’re in a hurry as you’ll be missing out.
