Category Archives: Uncategorized

Investigating Sportaville

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So, The latest acquisition to my vintage collection is this COMPLETELY crazy novelty print skirt. O.k. so it is a bit immature, but that kind of makes me love it more.

The skirt is by the brand Sportaville, and I actually have a number of pieces by this brand (5 skirts and a pair of shorts if memory serves me correctly). But this is one of those brands that I know almost nothing about, yet I am completely intrigued by. I have trawled the internet on numerous occasions trying to find out more about the brand and have come up with almost nothing, bar details on a seemingly unrelated company that started in the 1980s. The quality of their garments is fantastic though, and each of the pieces I have had has been fantastically made, suggesting to me that these were expensive pieces in there day. Not only that Sportaville garments seem to use some of the wackiest most imaginative prints I have seen. All of the garments in my collection certainly are a bit mad, and any I’ve seen but not managed to acquire have been equally crazy (wine labels, records, galleon ships and townscapes are amongst some of the themes)

 My fist sportaville skirt bought for the princely sum of £5 if memory serves me correctly way back in 2007 or 2008 it has “confetti” by Sportaville printed around the hem too





My Sportaville shorts. These provide a great talking point when drunk as they are covered in shipping signals. I always find it hilarious to read my shorts to people. The best one to say when drunk though has to be “I have sprung a leak and require immediate assistance”. Ho ho ho.

What i find even MORE intriguing is that they seem to have been using some of the same fabrics as Blanes.  This skirt sold by tasty vintage features the IDENTICAL print to a Blanes dress from my collection. The description of the fabric suggests that even this was the same. Now, the question is, where the two companies related, or as i think is more likely did one copy the others prints?

Sportaville skirt from Tasty vintage ( no longer available)
 http://www.tastyvintage.com/product.php?id=159&tastyvintage=0291a6fd7e5c92b073da8d3b14b824f6

My Blanes dress…look familiar?

So, do you know anything more about Sportaville? If so please do get in contact, I am totally fascinated by the brand and would love a bit more information about who was designing these fabulous prints.

A VERY special Horrockses

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Last week I added another Horrockses to my ever expanding collection, and needless to say it was rather an exciting one!





Here is the dress in question. I purchased this from What the Butler wore in Lower Marsh (near Waterloo). It is a really ace shop and on the same road is Radio Days another high quality veritable emporium of vintage (seriously they have EVERYTHING in that shop!). I have to say actually that my trip up to London restored my faith in vintage shops in London. I had become a bit apathetic towards them and the prices charged, but I went to Brixton, Brick lane and Lower marsh and on the whole found that prices were quite reasonable. I’m not sure whether this just means everyhwere else has come into line with London prices or whether London prices aren’t as high as I remember them being two years ago when I did so much vintage shopping in the capital.
Anyway, after my divergence back to the dress itself. I knew when I saw the dress that it was familiar but I couldn’t quite place a reason as to why. So, on saturday evening I got my research head on and managed to do a bit of digging. The dress in question dates to 1950 and actually feastured in one of Horrockses many advertisements amongst the pages of Vogue, worn by Barbara Goalen.

A little bit more on the dress… this is one of the very few early Horrockses I own. An early Horrockses can be dated by the label (almost a papery feel and printed rather than woven) As a general rule this label is found in dresses dating between 1947-52. Thankfully because of the advertisement this can be accurately dated to 1950.

What I find even MORE interesting about this dress is the fact that it features lots of different Horrockses prints rather than just the one (i’ve tried to photograph as many different elements as I can).And I have seen other Horrockses here and there which feature similar element to this dress- For example this amazing housecoat (I’m afraid it isn’t mine- but the image does come from one of my all time favourite blogs!)

My research has suggested to me, although i never like to say these things for definite, that the print design is by Alastair Morton, certain elements of the overall print are so characteristic of his style I don’t think it really could be by anyone else!

As an aside I highly recommend Alastair Morton and Edinburgh Weavers: Visionary Textiles and Modern Art which features some wonderful examples of Morton’s work (I still don’t own a copy myself yet but spent faaaar too long perusing it in the Victoria and Albert museum bookshop. (*ahem* if someone wants to buy me a copy i would be eternally grateful ; ) )

Book review: Fashion sourcebook-The 1920s

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I love a good book. Whether it be fiction or non fiction there is nothing better than an afternoon snuggled on the sofa reading.
One of my recent purchases was Fashion sourcebook: 1920s by Emmanuelle Dirix and Charlotte Fiell.
WOW what a book! I’ve had this book for about three months but finishing my degree has finally given me the opportunity to browse it properly and it really is showstopping. Not only is this book beautiful throughout but it also contains interesting and insightful information in it.
I’ve just highlighted a few of my favourite images here.


(apologies for the rubbish quality of the images, the book was too big to go my scanner and scan properly!)

The great thing about this book is that it doesn’t just use the standard 20s stock images you see from Vogue. Almost all of the images come from the Fiell archive and I doubt in the whole (over 500 page) book there are more than 20 images I have seen before. Every time you turn the page it is a visual feast of Deco glamour with both original illustrations and photographs from the period. Included in the book is daywear, eveningwear, lingerie, shoes, hats and lesiurewear.
This book also has wide ranging appeal. Great for fashion history enthusiasts but also an excellent t resource for those interested in fashion illustration and fashion students too.
So yes, go out and buy this!!!
A 1930s sourcebook will also be available in June.