The beginnings of my vintage life

When I was 14 I used to spend my Saturdays in Attica, a second-hand shop (this is pre-"vintage") in The Haymarket, Newcastle, lingering over the full-skirted 1950s dresses. The rails were bursting with them and they were £15 each. Why I never bought one, I cannot tell you. I spent so much of my time in there it's a wonder the owner never once said to me "Oi, you – buy something or get out!"

I remember a particular beauty with big orange roses all over it. Years and years later, I finally got a similar one, and I've just sold it on eBay. I never wear it, but it's such a difficult thing to finally let go of. Goodbye, lovely frock, I feel genuinely sad.

At the time I did buy: old leather hatboxes to use as bags, men's pyjama trousers which I wore as trousers with the flies sewn up and the hems rolled, men's pinstripe suit jackets with the back cinched in with a row of carefully-aligned kilt pins, defunct watches which I took apart and re-made as brooches (how very steampunk – I was ahead of my time!) and those kids' plimsoles (we always called them "sandshoes") with the elasticated inserts on the front.

Attica moved to the other end of the city and will be closing at the end of August.

The Browless Student

Wow! What a treasure today has brought me. 

I found a fabulous pair of vintage tortoiseshell specs in one of my regular haunts (it pays to look in ALL those cabinets). One the inside of one arms they are labelled "Welby's AL Browless Student."

 Of COURSE I'm going to wear them, how could you even ask?!

Before I send them off to have prescription lenses put in them, I contacted Dead Men's Spex to ask their help in dating the frames and the very helpful Darren replied with the following:

"A nice pair of reading frames.
I would say they date to the mid 1960's - early 1970's.
They are made of cellulose acetate.
It is a supra frame - the top is held in by a nylon cord in a groove in the lens - and this didn't come into manufacture until 1955 at the earliest.
Probably a European manufacturer as supra frames were not popular in the USA.
The joints are pinned not heat inserted and are multi barreled making them not later than the early 1970's.
The "AL" is the colour Autumn Leaf
Seeing the way the name is hand written in white on it I would suggest that it was probably a salesman's sample from a local prescription house, I have seen frames from sales boxes marked this way before (maybe based at Welby just outside Grantham or the proprietors were called Welby - there is no reference that I know of to a manufacturer of frames called Welby)."

Spot the theme!

Following on from last Saturday's post, you know that saying that we all keep on buying things we already have in our wardrobes? Err, well...

One in, one out

One in, one out is a really great idea - every time you consider buying something ask yourself what you would be willing to get rid of (sell/donate/recycle) in its place.

It is a way to ensure that you don't accumulate any more piles of stuff (occupational hazard for collectors) and that you only buy what you REALLY want. However, it is very difficult rule to stick to. Finds come along randomly, unseasonally and often in batches.

Right now I'm trying to sell, not buy - so of course the gods of charity shopping are planting wonderful things everywhere I go right now. I also know that if I resist too staunchly I will regret leaving these things behind! (I just know that I will kick myself for not snapping up those green shoes at the Art Junky today...) "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" and all that.

With that in mind, some great recent finds:

• 1970s Hush Puppies beige suede boots with a zip and tab fastening at the back, Mind shop, St James's Street, Kemp Town
• Orange tweed empire line dress, Brian and Nikki's shop, Lewes
• Purple and gold ruffle-fronted shoes, Phoenix Gallery Arty Junky, Brighton
• Black silk Jaeger dress, Oxfam, Western Road, Brighton
• 1950s feather headdress, Snooper's Paradise, Brighton

Looks like I have a LOT of one-in-one-out sorting to do!

Visit me at Frock Me! this Sunday in Brighton

I will have a stall at Frock Me! this Sunday (24th October) at the Corn Exchange in Brighton. Opening hours 11am-5pm.


I'll be selling vintage clothing, bags, jewellery and a new range of hand-made brooches.

http://www.frockmevintagefashion.com/index.htm

Pretty Big Purchase...

Visited my favourite south-coast vintage shop (of course I'm not going to tell you what it is! I may share all the others with you, but not this one...) today and chatted with the owner about his plan to sell it. A mere £70,000 and all of us having to up-sticks and move? What do you think - smash the piggy bank open?

One day maybe...

Welcome!

Hello and welcome to my blog. My name is Carol and I am an illustrator/designer/printmaker/dressmaker/crafter/collector/seller... blah blah blah.

Anyway, where to start? Well, why not with one of my favourites: fleamarkets. There's only one thing better than rummaging through a load of old tat and that's rummaging through a load of old tat on holiday. The week before last I visited a fleamarket which I'd rank as one of the best ever (I'm hovering over the keys here wondering whether I should keep this gem to myself, oh go on then) - the Saturday morning (6am-11am) flohmarkt on the riverbank at Dresden, Germany. Mid-century homewares, ceramics, clothing, textiles and Ostalgie mostly for five euros and less.

I was very glad to have Shaun with me - his ability to speak very good German kept the prices down, as soon as the traders heard me their prices quadrupled. We only wish we'd be there with a van...

I'm aiming to keep this blog updated reasonably regularly and you can expect more from me on the subjects of illustration and desing, printmaking, vintage clothing, collecting and maybe anything else of interest that crosses my mind.

TTFN! Carol x