Tag Archives: horrockses

A vintage day out: Leeds town hall vintage fair

Posted in 50s, 70's, Celia Birtwell, Horrockses, Leeds, Vintage by
Today I decided that I needed a day out. Unfortunately I’ve been stressed out to the max with uni work and unless I am going to university or the post office I have altogether stopped leaving the house. (O.k. I did go to Bristol last weekend, but we’ll discount that) On the plus side this means that all I have been wearing on an almost daily basis is pajamas (no ironing, excellent), but on a negative note I will probably start suffering with some of vitamin D deficiency because I rarely see natural light (I’m only in uni two days a week meaning I really do barely leave the house). This is heightened by the fact that my bedroom is what would have once been the front room of the house, hence I don’t open my curtains. Anyway, that’s enough about the depressiveness of my life! The real point of this is that today I went to a vintage fair, not only that a really rather good one!
So, the location of the vintage fair was Leeds town hall. Which as a venue is somewhere that I totally love. Very Victorian and just very Leeds as well. Whenever the antiques roadshow comes to Leeds this is where they always go.
I cannot recommend this fair HIGHLY enough. Fantastic was not the half of it. The sellers there were all lovely, happy to chat and up for a bit of bartering. Unfortunately due to the precarious state of my bank balance at the moment I had to be a bit restrictive on my spending. I could have bought so much more because prices were (on the part of most sellers) very reasonable. I saw a lot of high quality 50s cotton dresses of the sort I normally by at around the 25-40 price point which I think is pretty good.
For anyone interested in antique clothing and textiles this fair is a must. I actually lost count of the number of genuine Victorian dresses I saw. There was a particularly spectacular purple Victorian silk dress that I was amazed to see there. The condition was fantastic and unusually the silk had not shattered. It was difficult to tell hanging up exactly the age of the dress although the vivid purple of it immediately made me think 1860s, AND it was only £95. If I had had my dealer head on rather than my student head I would definitely have bought it!
First up this little knitted dress which I picked up for the bargain price of £10. The seller whom I bought this from was selling things at pretty amazing prices.  It was marked up as being 70s, but I’m not so sure. Something is saying to me its earlier (unfinished seams inside and a very old looking metal zip). I love chevron designs and this dress is going to be a great little winter piece I think. It’s an excellent fit too!
http://www.goodlifevintage.co.uk
or Goodlife vintage on facebook
 Then I bought these shoes, again this lady was selling her items at really great prices (£10!)  I vey much regretted not snapping up a pair of crazy 50s cats eye marbled sunglasses for £15. She also had THE most sensational 30s wedding dress which was an almost exact copy of the dress worn by Wallis Simpson in 1937. It was in excellent condition too, whoever snapped that up got an absolute bargain I think.  Nearly all of the images here are from this lady’s stall. Lovely stuff!

 Beads and Bows

And finally my absolute gem of the day. A wonderful 70s Radley dress with a (probably) Celia Birtwell print. When I get a spare five minutes I am going to do a little bit of research into this and try and find out for sure that it is but I’m pretty sure it’s right. The dress is in wonderful condition and fits me like a dream. I’m so happy with it! The seller who I bought this from was wonderful. I can’t enthuse enough about how great her stock was. For someone who rarely does 70s it was a dream. She had lovely Radley pieces as well as some Bus Stop and Ossie Clark. I could have spent a few hundred on her stall alone!

Lady Jane’s vintage bandwagon

This is my outfit for the day, all this not leaving the house means that when I do go out I tend to make an effort! The dress is a Horrockses (what a surprise) and I’m wearing one of my fave pairs of vintage earrings from Brilliant in Kingston (Surrey). The cardi is a non vintage one. It’s from American eagle. I think I’ve had it since I was 12 or 13!

Also, I just thought this was a nice opportunity to throw in a few of my vintage outfits of late! Please ignore the mess of my room in the background of most of the pics. I’m not the tidiest of people at the best of times!
My all time favourite vintage dress (I think). This was the first Horrockses I ever bought, its getting a bit tight on me now but I still adore it. I was actually dancing manically around my room at the time, hence the picture of me jumping off my bed. It’s a pretty good action shot! In the background you can just about see my vintage wardrobe, yes I do have a specific wardrobe for vintage!!!
Ace novelty print 50s American skirt here. The necklace is from one of my fave vintage shops Mela Mela in Teddington
One of my blanes dresses. You may have seen my blue one in a previous post about the last vintage fair I went to.

Not just a Horrockses but a NOVELTY PRINT Horrockses

Posted in advantage in vintage, Horrockses, novelty by

I’m so wildly in love with my new Horrockses dress it gets a whole post to itself (and i had a better more informative post planned too). Its got the pretty standard Horrockses label that dates it to pre 1958. I’m reckoning with the side zip and the fact is is a size 14 but equating to around an 8 i would say it is probably 1952-55. After Horrockses introduced their size 10 it seems their sizes got considerably bigger. Hence why i believe this is pre their introduction of a size 10. The print on this is completely fabulous it defies all belief. I’m wondering who the print might be by… Something makes me feel it might be a Pat Albeck as i know she designed some pretty fabulous novelty prints whilst at Horrockses. I’m going to do my research on this one! See what else i can dig up.

Vintage at Southbank

Posted in 50s, advantage in vintage, Horrockses, Vintage, vintage at south bank by


(pic courtesy of http://www.homesandantiques.com/feature/we-saw-you-vintage-southbank-centre)

On Friday I went to Vintage at Southbank and had a totally wonderful day. Mostly the day was spent chatting and spending more money than I have (all good in my book!). I went wearing one of my fave Horrockses frocks, and throughout the day numerous people asked me about my dress. I had my picture taken more times than I can count!

I did spend an insane amount of time at the Horrockses bed linen stand chatting to the lovely designer Sarah and also showing Chris Boydell what I had been purchasing since I last met her! More to come on the Horrockses bed linen in another post though…

Anyway, I just wanted to show off my purchases. I somehow managed to be quite restrained!

First off this lovely little 50’s bracelet, right up my street!

Then was this lovely ¾ length sleeved dress, I love the striped print, and I can see this being one of my more winter suitable dresses, worn with nice thick tights and a vest underneath.

Then I bough two pairs of shoes. The black pair are in need of reheeling, but the brown pair still have their original box!

And finally I bought this AMAZING dress.It’s by the brand Blanes who are one of my favourite brands of the 50’s and 60’s, and I actually can’t believe I got this dress. Last year at Goodwood I saw the dress and I was desperate to buy it, but at the time I had no job and no money, and decided that it was just out of my price range. When I saw it again on Friday I couldn’t quite believe my luck. Of all time dresses under the label “ones that got away” this is the second most regret I have ever felt about buying a dress. When I saw it I’m not joking I got a bit choked up. He remembered me from Goodwood last year too! The best thing of all about this dress is the fit. It is possibly one of the best fitting pieces of vintage I own, and I can’t quite get over the fact its mine! I think this might have to be the dress I wear for afternoon tea on my 21st! I am so happy, I can’t quite believe it.



I really did have an amazing day, but I have to say in terms of the atmosphere it wasn’t as good as Goodwood last year. The problem was a lot to do with peoples attitude. I feel that last year people had really made the effort to dress up and make a real day out of it, where as this year it was more or less just an opportunity to shop. I also felt that this year it was too focused on the young. Most people there were in the 18-25 age bracket I would say, and I didn’t feel like it catered so well to an older clientele like I felt last year the festival had. I felt this was a lot to do with the fact that the vintage marketplace was free and therefore not attracting the same kind of people who were actually interested in vintage.

I did also have quite a lot of issues with what was on sale. I picked up some pieces I loved but yet AGAIN it was a fair dominated with poor quality 1980’s rubbish, and slightly tacky vintage repro pieces. Unfortunately it is this type of vintage that is diluting the whole meaning of vintage. The word vintage suggests a certain sense of QUALITY and finesse, yet more and more vintage I see can be seen as nothing more than poor quality second-hand clothing.