Shopping Report- Birmingham and A TOO

[Swych]

I don't know where this thread should go... some maybe some mod can move it. If you can't be assed to read everything, read the last paragraph for report of a dope store- A Too

Went to Birmingham about 5 days ago to accompany my girlfriend who has some academic shit to do up there. Living in the USA now, i have no expectations of Birmingham at all. So I left London 3 years ago, and had no idea that Birmingham was a good place to shop. As you exit the train station, there's a big mall called Bullring to which a Selfridges is attached.

The Topman in there has a smaller selection of clothing than the Oxford St London store, but the stock that they do have, they have a wider selection of sizes for. Shirts actually ran XXS for men (which was a pleasant surprise). The rest of the mall was just samey samey UK high street stuff. Reiss and Zara were my faves. The Selfridges there was no where near as well stocked as London, lacking the more subtle casual brands like Surface 2 Air, Spruce/ w+h, though they did have Dior and the usual big name superstars (minus Balenciaga). If you live in London, theres really nothing that the London store doesn't have.

But the highlight of the day was definitely A Too, in Ethel Street.

The brands they had in there were fairly decent, ranging from acne and w+h to Sugarcane. The owner, Ming, was awesome- a patient guy that knew his inventory well and found me sizes for all the pieces I was interested in. As any savvy shop assistant would do, he'd offer alternatives to many pieces I was trying on, except he wasn't pushy at all, and was generally pretty chilled about just going through what was on offer. The most impressive thing about the store was that everything had a wide range of sizes available, which is rare for the brands I was looking at. I doubt that any superfuturian going there would return with empty hands- the stock is just too well chosen. Definitely, if the opportunity arises, go and check out their niiiice selection. Hell i'd even make the 2 hour trip from London again just to go there. If only they had an online shop...

www.atoo.co.uk. this was on the card Ming gave me.

[janneh]

Yeah atoo definately have some nice pieces and Ming as well as the other staff in there are all helpful and friendly. Did you also go to the end of the street and then left, they have a few more shops down there, the stock isn't as limited but you can pick up some good things down there. Also the street just before Ethel street has Flannels and Size, who have some nice trainers.

[mike lowrey]

its no big deal, but please read the different sections' descriptions if you're unsure.

[viv1984viv]

cheers for the heads up, bhams doing ok at the mo, will check a too out.

[Swych]

mike lowrey- sorry, i didnt think that superjetset was a good idea. i guess it is.

the other point i tried to jump off with this thread is, maybe because Ming was so awesome, perhaps he could set up a mail order thing for w+h because its in such high demand around here. Its not just the tiger fleece and hoods they stocked, and if A Too are willing mail their goods, it could be good for the Euoropeans among us.