Monthly Archives: May 2013

Come and join me at Farnham Maltings on 2nd June

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Drum roll * I am excited to make a little announcement on le blog today about a vintage fair I am going to be at!
 
 
Come and join me on the 2nd June for a day of vintage fashion and frolics at Farnhams maltings. Not only will I be giving a little talk and compering the fashion show, but I will also have a stall selling some delightful goodies. I’m trying to make sure I bring a little bit of something for everyone along, and will be coming armed with vintage fashion and accessories from the 30s to the 80s. All carefully selected. I’ll definitely be bringing two sensational 60s suits, some amazing 70s maxis and a few of my old favourite cotton 50s dresses. So do come and say hi! It looks like being a very fun event.
Not only will there be a varied selection of stalls offering the best in vintage, but there are also a number of other events happening through the day including workshops and makeovers.
My stall will probably be something like this! (This was me at the festival of Vintage in Epsom last year)
 
 
Tickets are just £4!
If you see me at the fair do come and say hi! I will be typically attired in a crazy 50s dress- I promise!
 
Find out more about the fair here

Can you do the can-can?

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Today I am sharing the dress I wore  to the ric rac club over the weekend. I ADORE novelty prints, but this is one of my all time best novelty prints. The dress came from ebay (of course!) and it was a completely exciting purchase as I wasn’t expecting to win it, but was the only bidder (I paid £45 for it). The dress is by London Town, and I have had a number of dresses by this brand. It is yet another of my labels that I need to research, I’ve had quite a number of pieces by London town, all of them have been incredibly fun and joyful items. The dress I wore to the last ric rac club (here) and the dress I wore for my graduation (here) were also by London Town.
So what makes the dress so interesting? Well, firstly the print is out of this world CAN-CAN dancers!!! I adore the fact that this conversational print has not only the dancing ladies but also the words can-can written on it. The bodice has a pretty pleated panel to the front and there are also amazing very full godet panels in the same limey yellow to the sides of the garment.
The dress is an absolute delight to wear, especially because the skirt is so full and I wore it with a simple black patent belt from H&M.
I even accidentally matched my nails to the dress!
Have you come across any dresses by London Town? I’d love to see further examples of garments by the brand!

A Horrockses housecoat from 1951

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A few months back now I purchased an absolutely beautiful Horrockses housecoat from Vintage Vision, the company, based in Abergavenny is a great initiative.

A little background:

“Vintage Vision provides women with an opportunity to share their knowledge, develop confidence and new skills, and access training and work experience, through sourcing, repairing and marketing vintage and retro clothing.”

http://www.vintagevision.co.uk/index.html





So, onto the houescoat itself, this is the stunning piece I purchased, in typical high quality Horrockses cotton. I’m pretty sure it is an Alastair Morton print- it has the “handwriting” of his design style written all over it!  Whilst looking through archive posts on one of my FAVOURITE blogs (http://sheepandchick.blogspot.co.uk/ ) I found an advertisement for my housecoat!!!




Housewife magazine 1951. 

The advertisement even has the original price for the housecoat  £5 17s, a considerable sum equivalent to just over £135 today! F.Y.I a housecoat was a type of dress for lounging in and accepting visitors, it wasn’t a dressing gown as they are sometimes misconstrued as being!