I think this was perhaps one of my more embarrassing shop visits, to be perfectly honest, and so it…read morewasn't exactly a positive experience. Certainly nothing untoward happened but I don't think I came off in the best light particularly. I was having a bit of a mooch around town and I ended up along Vicar Lane, which isn't my usual area of browsing I must say. Having always walked past Flannels, and not really thought much of it, I saw a divine dress in their window and so decided to nip in. For a start I nearly accosted a guy walking into him as I tried to enter their doors, which was enough of a scene to attract the attention of the two store guys, so head hung in shame I apologised and briskly walked over to my beacon of fashion - the dress. I noticed then that although it was on display in the window it was pretty much the only women's item on show down here and so became really aware that it appeared that I was shopping in the men's section! Irk. Not the case. I quickly glanced at the price tag, feeling the laser beam eyes in my back still watching me from my prior clumsiness, and saw the fee for my beautiful garment. £900 odd pounds. Yeah. I left pretty instantly after that. And they totally knew why. I can almost hear their thoughts now, in my head. "She's too poor to shop here." Gah, how embarrassing! Beautiful clothes, I am sure. But not, in my humble pauper's opinion, worth a third of an MA degree, not worth a third of a good car, not worth a MacBook Pro. God no. Not for a mere dress!

I had never been into Flannels until recently. I don't think the name really reflects the shop - it…read moresounds odd and clumsy and well, makes you think of flannels. It is a vast minimalist space and very sleek and classy in appearance. Men's formal wear is downstairs. They have a bespoke tailoring service, which makes me shudder to think of the price as most of the ready to wear clothing here is way out of most people's price range. I saw a coat for over £700. Seven hundred pounds. There is womenswear in the adjacent room, full of high end designer pieces. There are some very pretty pieces, though in the sale a top was still over £100. Upstairs there's loads more womenswear including shoes and accessories. Again the design of the shop is vary spacious and minimalist with hangers set at fixed points on the rails to make everything have a streamlined, ordered appearance. It's a pleasure to browse, though if you're skint like me the enjoyment is somewhat stifled by the inability to bring yourself to even try anything on! Men's casual wear is also upstairs with a general feel of understated classic chic. This is a shop for people with cash to splash - I imagine wealthy businessmen nipping in on their lunch break to pick up a 'little something' to impress their love interest, for whom only the best will do. And if she likes high end designer fashion and classy, understated glamour he'll definitely be in her good books.

Love love love Dorothy Perkins! They sell gorgeous clothes, and I particularly like their dresses…read more They sell a wide range of styles, colours and sizes. Some of their stuff is slightly expensive but it is nice quality so can't really complain. Also I once bought a dress there in the sale that was £45 reduced to £3!! So they do have decent sales! Definitely one of my favourite high street shops and a first point of call for a new outfit.

Victoria Shopping Centre is a small shopping centre, serving the town centre of Harrogate…read more It is a fairly small shopping centre but does still have a fair number of stores including Next, Sports Direct, WHSmith, HMV, New Look and Poundland, as well as hosting the town's only branch of Starbucks. The layout of the mall is easy to follow, many of the stores are in the exterior part of the mall, with TK Maxx taking up the whole of the top floor. They do close at 6 pm Monday to Saturday, and at 4:30 pm on Sundays, so do plan ahead if planning to visit in the afternoon. The building the mall is housed in is actually reasonably grand and impressive from the exterior, but in terms of the interior, it's nothing too impressive or easy on the eye in the main retail area. 3* - They have some good brands here, but the selection is small in general, it's a shame the stores that are located in the outside area of the mall don't have better protection from the elements and do close at the same time as the indoor part with no good reason.

As the previous reviewer mentioned, the Victoria Shopping Centre is a lovely old building, that…read morecontains a fairly smallish, but nice selection of high street shops, with a huge TK Maxx on the top floor that should not be missed! Other shops in the centre include, La Senza, Julian Graves, New Look, WH Smith, H&M, Athena and the wonderful Cornish Pasty Shop. The centre is well laid out, with both escalators and lifts to move between the 4 floors (the top floor is purely TK Maxx, and the bottom floor New Look (and an external entrance to JJB). All in all, worth a visit if you're in the Harrogate area, the centre is centrally situated, and is near both the railway and bus stations.

Accent Ladies is a rather large shop selling a wide range of clothing brands. It's quite a mixed…read morebag of styles with some more casual wear, some a bit more glam, and upstairs some evening or occasion wear with more elaborate dresses and a few unusual quirky pieces. Because of the variety in styles the shop doesn't really hold together well as a concept and a browse can feel very hit and miss. There is so much choice that I imagine most people would find at least something to their taste but you need to be prepared to pay more than average high street prices as most items have a designer label attached.

Accent holds a wide range of unique labels like Firetrap, which I love! It looks like a very…read moreexpensive shop and is located in the shopping area Queen's Arcade that also has a few expensive, independent jewelry shops. Firetrap is a more affordable label as they do good quality and unique styles but they do stock other more outrageous labels in terms of style and price. You might find the odd footballers wife trying on a leather jacket in this shop. Last time I went in I was slightly put off by a women browsing whilst talking rather loudly on the phone about her friends villa - its nice despite its size, apparently. As I looked through their wall of jeans I tried to block her out and focus on the job in hand - jean shopping. There are so many styles and brands to choose from here you could spend all day at it!

Having gotten a more developed sense of style these days, I can say that Warehouse is amongst the…read morefew brands I regularly peruse. They've a classic look -- feminine but not too girly, clean lines, good day dresses and plenty of stepped-up evening-out options, as well as plenty of wardrobe basics that we all need. I tend to get those in slightly less pricey places, but I'll hit up Warehouse for a good dress should the occasion call. I find, as with all the Trinity incarnations of brands, that this shop is always well kept and the staff are helpful without being overbearing. In particular, I've got the off the shoulder top and baggy trousers on my radar for a cool, nautical, casual style of day wear. Although on this occasion I didn't have time to try, I'll be back -- the fitting room experience is easy here. Also loving the kaftan-style cardigans at the moment. (I know everyone's doing them, but they're really good quality here!)

An-x is a dedicated men's wear shop in Bradford centre. Supporting a healthy range of jeans in…read morevarious brands, the small shop looks like it doesn't hold much, but looks are certainly deceiving. An-X tends to put one size or style out, and holds the rest of the sizes in a separate store room, so if chance happens that you're in An-X and you don't see a size you like in your jacket, jeans or t-shirt of choice, then just holler at one of the sales bods and they'll check if they've got your size in stock. Essentially An-X is a designer clothing store focusing on menswear, whilst also selling footwear for kids, men and women. There's a plethora of brands available, and stock regularly rotates, so there's often new things cropping up all the time. Some of the brands will be familiar to most, such as Nicholas Deakin, Penguin, Firetrap, Carhartt and Converse, but there are also some other brands that I'm not mega familiar with, but when I've had a poke and a scan they're really nice in quality and style. I prefer men's hoodies and have a penchant for men's slogan and character t shirts, so I'm often bobbing in An-X for myself or for boy gifts. I'm quite taken with the Humor range in stock at the moment, and for a while I was lusting after some of the slightly out there Gumball 3000 merchandise they had. Sale season is always the best time to shop at An-X in my opinion, as they slash the prices so low you'd think they were joking. A friend of mine scored a bounty of Junk Food and Chunk t-shirts not so long ago, which on average sell for about £30, and he walked away with his at an average price of a tenner.

Dreadful company. Zero Customer Service…read more They sent me a £150 garden storage box that was so badly damaged it is unusable. I asked for a return - they refused because of their 28 day policy - I told them I don't want a return, I want a refund under the Sale Of Goods Act because the item was faulty. They refused and ended the webchat. There is no phone number to speak to them - the number on Google just rings and rings and no-one answers - rang weekday at 1pm - phone rang solidly for 10 minutes without answer. Do Not Use. They actually deserve minus 5 stars.

House of Fraser is a brand I've visited many times recently, mainly at my local Manchester store…read morelocated on Deansgate, that store basically is everything that this branch in Leeds is not, large and spacious, with the Manchester branch spanning across 6 floors and having more room across those floors for an enjoyable shopping experience, meanwhile this branch just feels rather unwelcoming and cramped. Unlike many branches of House of Fraser (HOF), this store doesn't really have much of an impressive feel to it, which is a shame. The selection of fragrances here seemed good, prices seemed competitive but there didn't seem to be any offers on, I did like how they had all the bottles in one area so you could spray them yourself, without different stands such as one for Armani and one for Hugo Boss, which in a way was okay as it made it easier to view a slightly limited selection of fragrances they had in store, however an issue was the mixing of male and female as there was about two female perfumes in the male fragrance section, luckily I spoke French and was able to read the bottle before disaster struck! The staff here seemed okay, they didn't seem too friendly, they seemed slightly helpful, perhaps average at best, yet slightly impersonal. I really didn't like this store mainly down to it feeling small and cramped compared to other stores, yet still this is a nice brand for a city like Leeds to have, and there is reasoning for this place not to warrant a single one-star rating, so I feel House of Fraser in Leeds deserves a slightly generous two-star rating.

I like to think of myself as quite a snappy dresser. Yep, snappy. Hellooo ladies. But walking into…read moreKiosk 78, I realise that I'm perhaps rather wide of the mark. The Duncan Street store has a funky boutique feel about it - it looks so cool, that I needed a bit of dutch courage even to take a wander in. The clothes in there are the sort you'd find in the menswear department of Harvey Nics and Selfridges. At a similar price. But on a smaller scale. The treatment you get from staff is much different and tailored towards your individual needs, which is always a bonus for this plastic-flashing fashion enthusiast. The range of denim on offer is amazing - when you consider what's on offer in much bigger stores - with exclusive Japanese selvage the pick of the crop.

Kiosk 78 is a clothing shop for the discerning gent with a bit of spare cash. Though specialising…read morein well selected brands...some classic such as Lee and Fred Perry, and some more underground such as Sunspel and Passarella Death Squad, there are very few pieces creating the walking billboard effect, most tastefully refraining from emblazoning their name across the chest of t-shirts. The general look is high quality and carefully designed with attention to detail - simple checked shirts, polo shirts, child-like striped sweatshirts and understaded but thoughtfully cut jeans. For the ethical shoppers they also stock Veja trainers which are fair-trade and use organic cotton and wild Amazonian rubber. The shop has a clean, spacious quality feel to it and the staff are helpful and knowledgeable, seeming passionate about the products. Prices here are not average high street (ranging from about £70 to nearing £200 for a pair of jeans)but this is not an average high street shop and clothing is generally of superior quality and design, and sometimes rare - several products are sold in few other places worldwide.