11.18.08
Stuffed squirrels on an East End Sunday
Would stuffed squirrels in the window display make you more or less likely to enter a vintage clothing shop?
I had occasion to ponder that question when I wandered up Brick Lane on Sunday with my fiancé and house guests, Dylan, Katrina and Misty. We’d gone out for a walk after our hangover-cure breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash brown and sausage. We’d wound up browsing the Sunday Up Market and then wandering up the street, looking at vintage clothing shops, finally winding up at the Columbia Road Flower Market. We walked home via Bethnal Green. It was a drizzly, grey day as it often is in London this time of year (though I must admit that today was sunny) but we wanted to stretch our legs and clear our heads after the party.
Halfway up Brick Lane, not far from the famous bagel bakeries, my eye was caught by the window display to a vintage clothing store modestly called This Shop Rocks. The window display had two mannequins in dresses, one with a stuffed badger on a lead and one with a stuffed fox. There were also six stuffed squirrels wearing clothing dancing in a circle.
Have I missed something here? Is taxidermy back? Even though I’m sure they’re antique and not freshly stuffed, I actually found it a little disturbing, especially since they were rare, native red squirrels rather than the more common, foreign grey squirrels. They were cute but creepy.
It certainly got my attention but when it came down to it, none of us wanted to go in. Maybe the shop does rock but I might never know.
At least the stuffed squirrels weren’t meant to be food.
I have cross-posted a version of this to Roaming Tales. This post has more personal stuff, the other post has more links to cool shops.
