birmingham rag market: little italy & stockings shop

Today I'm going to write about some places in Birmingham, some "hidden treasures" of some cool clothing and accessories that you can find in Birmingham, UK. Please let me know if you find this kind of thing interesting as I'm hoping to do a series of these of online and offline guides of where to find fantastic things.

First of all, as it's coming up to Halloween (I love spooky things!), a lot of my friends are posting about doing "guro lolita" to celebrate October, the Halloween month, so I thought some of these buys may be interesting! Of course there's lovely stuff for every day. I'm not sure of the name of this stall, but as well as socks, tights and stockings it sells bags and leggings too.

The shop lies in the middle of Birmingham Rag Market.
White tights with blood splatters, tattoo tights, snake skeleton tights.

More tattoo tights and also crossbone tights and batty bat tights!

Tattoo tights again - a delicately drawn little black cat,
this would make a subtle interesting addition to an outfit!

2 spoopy "It's a Mystery" ghostie tights, here you can see prices!
They also had tights with veins and arteries
(not pictured here), the kind sold on RTBU for £10+
Here you can see the prices are £3.99-£4.99 with some even 3 for £10!


More tattoo tights (look at this gorgeous patterns!) and for you
Alice in Wonderland fans, or just you card sharks, over knee thick stockings
with card suits print and a little bow with an ace on the top! Cute.

Secondly, and most excitingly to me, a lovely lady named Norma has opened her dream shop in Birmingham Rag Market, the name of the shop is Little Italy. I unfortunately forgot to take photographs there, but I hope to go back and take more. Damien bought a gorgeous jacket for an aristocratic style from Little Italy, and I think soon he'll post about it on his blog.

Norma is a lovely friendly lady and Little Italy has just opened, so while stock is a little limited (some things had already sold out yesterday, the first day of being open!), I'm sure soon they'll have lots more stock and lots more variety soon. Little Italy's clothes are, obviously, all made in Italy to the highest quality and Norma herself spends time doing quality control checking how well the items are sewn which is amazing dedication, much more attention to detail is spent there than in high street shops!

Some of the places Little Italy's clothes are sourced from are the same companies that produce clothes for All Saints - but without the large price tag attached. The styles Little Italy stocks varies and can be combined in all different ways, it's all about the layering! Excitingly, it's all soft neutrals, blacks to greys to greens and browns and would be absolutely perfect for a gypsy, boho look or for fans of Japanese fashion, this is your place to shop for dolly kei or mori kei fashion as there are so many deconstructed items in soft flowing materials with unusual trims or neck lines - some with gorgeous faux fur edging.Some of the boleros, shrugs and cardigans would be perfect for aristocratic or lolita looks too, it is all very versatile.

I've been asked to be a personal shopper to a close friend and I cannot wait to take her there and dress her up like a little mori-kei forest girl! Definitely going back to take photographs so I can share it with you!