Corniche

Corniche kind of goes over my head, since I could never afford high fashion. I do appreciate the aesthetic of the designs however, since the majority of clothing that ends up on the catwalk is certainly art over form fitting ergonomic functionality.
I agree with what El says — something doesn’t sit right about Corniche. It’s very high end, and although there are bargains it seems a tad out of place in this moderately vogue area (which, let’s face it, is teetering off the tourist trap of the Royal Mile). But although some may see it as ill fitting with the surrounding shops, it is indeed attention grabbing and complements the expensive style of Moleta Munro.
I know that both shops are selling different items altogether, but I would argue that Moleta Munro has got the décor nailed. Corniche looks firmly rooted in the style of clothes stores 10+ years ago, For selling ultra high end expensive garments, it’s a bit of a jumble and not what you’d expect from a place sporting the label of Westwood.
But I’ll focus on the good — they slash a fair amount of some of the prices, and with more stock there is of course more choice! High end fashion is out of my price range and a bit too outlandish for me (like El, I thin k it largely belongs on the catwalk and in photo shoots) but if you are a budding model with some spare cash money then it’s definitely worth a look.

Corniche wasn’t ever going to be a winner in my eyes because I’m not a particularly huge fan of Vivienne Westwood designs. I appreciate making fashion to stand out and be individual but lets be honest, unless your Kate Moss you can’t really pull it off. Even then, once these items are off the cat walk they’re more museum pieces than accessible fashion — old Viv doesn’t design clothes for plebs like you and I. Especially those ugly jelly style shoes they have in the window here. I can’t think of anyone that they would look good on, even if you are Kate Moss. They’re big, chunky and in my eyes just plain ugly. I prefer elegant, flattering styles and I’m a very practical person so was never going to jump on the Vivienne Westwood bandwagon.
Anyway, in addition to Vivienne Westwood pieces, Corniche also stock Jean Paul Gautier, Maharishi, Cecile Paul and various other top fashion designers that you won’t find elsewhere in Edinburgh.
What I find odd about this store is that for something that sells so many quirky designers, it’s one of the ugliest, worst displayed shops I’ve ever been in and it doesn’t look like any of the displays have been well thought out at all, they’ve just been displayed. The bland white exterior with the boring red Corniche sign isn’t inviting at all and you’d be forgiven for thinking that this was just your run of the mill high street shop. The prices and designers say something different, but I’d like to see more flair in the organisation of the designs.
If you’re really into fashion then this is definitely up your street, I’ll give it a miss.

I’ll second Alice W.‘s observation that our Viv does tend to over-​ride all of the other names in Corniche, but that’s fine by me. I love Westwood’s style and flair for design (that’s Vivienne, not Tim) and if only I could afford a few of her pieces I would be one happy bunny.
This season’s Anglomania collection from Queen V is superb. The focus is on shape and colour, making each piece unique and incredibly eye-​catching. I am especially digging an orange and purple wrap dress with massive flowers, which comes in at around a reasonable £400. Sadly, I can’t afford £400 for a dress, so I just have to go in and drool over it!
Corniche also stocks Jean Paul Gaultier and Cecile Paul to name a couple of top designers, and the sale this season is particularly good.

This is the sort of place that I have to stop in my tracks to look at. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing though… it’s a more of a ‘wtf??’ moment that a ‘oh wow!’ moment. Seriously, some of the clothes in here are just downright wierd.
they source all their stock from all over the world, but always always has an expensive label and thus an expensive price tag on it. Sometimes you can get an absolute diamond outfit in here — my brothers girlfriend got a stunning orange D&G dress here once, but the majority of the time it’s for the older lady trying to look like Kirsten from the OC.

Being a very Vivienne Westwood based affair, and also thanks to the kind of outlandish designer she is, it’s really hard to go into Corniche and be blinkered, and perhaps, just once, look at stuff by other designers. Apparently, Corniche was also the first UK Store to directly import from Japanese designers.
Everyone who doesn’t have much disposable income will agree, it’s no fun going into an expensive shop and having snobby staff looking down their noses, it’s not like that at all — everyone friendly and down to earth and I think there was even someone’s dog in. SHOCK HORROR! ANIMALS NEAR EXPENSIVE FABRICS!