I was talking to my 17 year old this morning, and I mentioned Boutiques "Whats a boutique?" she asked, I then went onto explaining that back when I was a teenager, we had clothes shops that we called Boutiques. I started reminiscing then about the first ever Boutique I remember and that was AMBER does anyone else remember this shop? It was next to the old Reeces building and used to look like a white cave from the outside, the mannequins where all based on Twiggy (this must have been mid to late 60s) I used to love going there, although I only ever think I bought once from there and that was a feather boa. On the other side of the road on Church Street, was Chelsea Girl, I loved it in there, it was very dimly lit and I loved the leather handbags and accessories. I remember a friend of mine buying a velvet pair of pants from there and when she got them home, discovered that in the seams there where fleas, her parents wrote to Chelsea Girl regarding this, and not that long after the dimly lit shop, was now bright and airy. Before these two shops, we only had the likes of C&A Modes, Blacklers, Littlewoods, Lewis`s and GH Lees. It was like a breath of fresh air to have some decent clothes shops. I also used to love browsing (I say browsing as I couldnt afford to buy) the BIBA catalogue. Loved it, it seemed so chic and glamourous at the time. The latest designs from London(Oh how far away did London seem at the time?) From Long velvet maxi dresses, cullottes, and satin midis. Great stuff.