Oxford Vintage Fair this weekend

Now, understandably luminous socks and urban chic are not everyone's bag [or at least not any more] and we at Judy's refuse to be a one-trick pony; In addition to those bits and bobs which scream and shout their individuality, we at Judy's pride ourselves on those pieces which are quietly confident - the incredible faux furs, designerware, bags, trunks, antiques and accessories which have stood the test of time and still resonate their beauty. Before i get lost waxing lyrical about clacissim, take a look at this gorgeous sampler from our Sheffield fair...

Although we're aware that the Fair is neatly penciled into all of your datebooks, we here at Judy HQ can't sleep easy without giving you one further reason to come on down to the Town Hall this Saturday [9th] Fresh from a walk in the park come the following images from Tanya Lois at Spankt Vintage [www.spanktvintage.com] trading at Oxford this weekend. As a picture speaks a thousand words, we will hush up and let them do the talking...

Breathtaking n'est pas? This season's it colours of red and green alongside Chanel-inspired furs and fringing create a set of images worthy of Harper's 'romantic traveller' collection and is hauntingly current [in fact, the middle teaming of this season's furs with exuberant colours which could be fresh of the Milan S/S catwalks are a bit beyond current...what is this sorcery Spankt Vintage??!] Oh, and did we mention that there is 10% of all of Spankt's goods on Saturday? See you at the front of the queue!

Saturday 9th October 2010

Oxford Town Hall, St Aldgate's, Oxford, OX1 1BX

Opening hours: 10:30 - 16:00

Entry £2.00

Sheffield Vintage Fair September 2010

Our new resident photographer Rebecca Garland has done us proud with these blinding images. We're going to give Rebecca photo projects at specific fairs to capture elements of our events that really show you how we roll.

First up Rebecca visited our Sheffield fair on 25th September at The Workstation down near the train station in Sheffield city centre. She snook in before the shoppers arrived to capture some great stock images before turning on the public to do some of our 'spotted / papped' shots.

Here's the story so far...

'Spotted at the fair'

Some cool young things caught on camera..

The lovely Sarah B 'your names not down you're not coming in'

Sarah does the door at most of our events and has worked at Judy HQ for 2 long but happy vintage years, Sarah is also our guest blogger..

50's Sarah or Sarah Mellor or simply smellor!

Sarah has worked at Judy HQ for over 2 years and regularly hangs out at our Sheffield and Lincoln fairs. You can find 50s Sarah guest blogging right here about car boots, knitting and anything thrifty or from 1950..

Vic 'vintage vulture' rule

Lottie Loves

Laura 'Purple Haze' Cowlbeck

A tasty selection of the clothing on offer as 1000 shoppers rushed in to snap up a bargain..

Spotlight on jewellery and accessories...

That's all for now folks. If you like what you see and live in the Sheffield area then why not visit our Sheffield webpage http://www.vintagefair.co.uk/#/sheffield/4529058503 and pop your email address on the mailing list so you don't miss our upcoming November 28th fair back at The Workstation.

Leeds, Leeds, Leeds and The Vintage Vulture flees the nest ["oohh" - this is a pun, you will see if you read on]

Greetings loved ones [I'm keeping that as my official greeting. Well, technically, that's Snoop Dogg's official greeting. Hmm, I don't want this to turn into a turf war... Ok, i'm going to work on the assumption that this is Snoop Dogg's official greeting ONLY when talking to Katy Perry, which, i imagine, isn't that often.]

Taking a wee vacation away from my regular roost on the Judy website, I was asked by the wunderbar folks at ooh.com to drop a few pearls and write a guest blog on something vintage [naturally, this turned into a bizaare bird-watching parody with a vintage twist and is exactly what you would expect when asking a MENTAL-piece like myself to blog elsewhere outside of my padded account] Still, it's semi-entertaining [if you find Bill Oddie references and deteriorating mental health humorous] so take a look: - http://bit.ly/bfZiDb Whilst you're there you should stick around and have a browse at the ooh.com website - if, like myself [many moons ago] you find yourself with too much time on your hands or at a loose end, it's the place to go to find yourself something to do, be it cooking up a storm or dancing like a madman. [http://www.ooh.com/]

Finally, as you are all aware, many braved the horrrendous elements on Wednesday to come to the Leeds fair ['crazy folks,' anyone who looked at out of the window would think] That said, whilst i was overheating in my double wool hat-cardigan combo at half past nine and spitting blood over a renegade poster that wouldn't stick to a tree, who could have predicted that we would have 200 people BEFORE 11am and 1700 in total [man, that is off the chain! That is so off the chain that we're not even in the same room anymore, we're practically OUTSIDE! If we had a metal detector on us - a real one, not one from Argos, it wouldn't be beeping - that's how far away from the chain it was!] Anyway, woah. It was lovely to meet some of you and i look forward to seeing you/harassing you into photos in the near future. Additionally, don't forget about the Kilo Fair this Friday from 11am at LSU [1 kilo o' vintage clothes for £15 = $$$$$ - there's a reason i only did GCSE maths] Anyway, let's end on a high with a picture of some happy Leeds shoppers. Aw, what a day.

Over and out for now vintage fans! XVX

Watch Out, Judy's About!

Greetings loved ones. Vintage Vulture here. Never one to sit on our hands [questionable idiom here readers but Monday appears to be kryptonite to my word power so, er...just roll with it, m'k?] the Judy team took to the streets of Leeds last week to go meet students old and new. Staking out our space amongst the soviet societies and dominos men, we were there to give freshers a taste of what's to come this Wednesday....vintage heaven! As well as flyering left right and centre, we also got snap-happy, papping all of you new kids for funsies/ to put on our brand spankin' new "Affordable Vintage Gallery" on Facey-B [go to http://www.facebook.com/pages/Judys-Affordable-Vintage-Gallery/162726083738826#!/pages/Judys-Affordable-Vintage-Gallery/162726083738826 to see if you're mugshots up.] In addition to being plain smug and narcissistic, watch this space for prizes for the most facebook 'likes' [that's right kids, this really is a popularity contest] and so if you were harassed, poked and prodded into a picture at Leeds campus by a greek-like man, a be-cardiganed boy with a buoffant and the spitting image of Paloma Faith, check it out.

In other news, this weekend's fairs in Sheffield/Nottingham were BIG hits [despite cable-tie mishaps and 'the man' trying to stop us putting our posters up. 'We will, we will not be moved!' and so on...] so thank you all for coming/trading/thinking about coming. See, I told you it would be good. Job done. Speak to you soon vintage fans [hopefully when I find my mind.] xvx

What a Weekend!

What a Weekend eh? All of you lovely people that joined us in Sheffield and Nottingham will surely agree! I was beginning to think I was getting a bit blase about Vintage Fairs, having been to so many. So much so I planned an entirely different blog this week. However, predictably, the fairs were so good I just could not not blog them!


So we had Sheffield first on Saturday, and being my Vintage Hometown (actual home town Barnsley, but sadly Judy's doesn't visit there!)I always expect a lot - and my goodness I wasn't disapointed. The whole of the ground floor of the Workstation was taken over with not just any ordinary vintage treats, but those of the highest quality. There literally was something for everyone, stalls with woolly winter jumpers (with Reindeer's and cats!! Cheers Princes Vintage!), spectacular 40s and 50s dresses, haberdashery stalls selling fabric and trims, make your own jewellery, costume jewellery, the fantastic talents of Kelly Ewing and my goodness I could go on...... There was also the Marvelous Tea Dance ladies serving beautiful home made soups cakes and crumpets. All price ranges were catered for, below you can see Vintage People treating us to a fill a bag for a tenner stall. Yep you read that correctly, FILL A BAG for £10!!!!!



As well as other stalls which had things on offer for those of you that perhaps had a bit more cash to splash, offering the highest quality rare items at still very affordable prices.


Now, I am poor as a church mouse at the moment so planned to spend nothing, however I am very easily swayed, especially when it comes to a certain era. I am in love with the 50s so I fell head over heals for the wonderful Tick Tock Frocks (what a name!) stall run by the lovely Liz. She had mountains of original curtains, tablecloths and aprons from the 40s onwards and as well as that, a gorgeous selection of clothes. Still slightly peeved I didn't buy the Fair isle cardigan at a super bargainous £15, bu you snooze you loose! The other Sara (no not the blond one, the other one!) got these amazing original 1950s curtains as bright as the day they were printed, now proudly on display in her kitchen. They cost an outrageous £10 for the pair, which if anyone knows about trying to get hold of a pair of original 1950s curtains in a print like this will know, is unbelievable!










I was also a very happy lady having browsed at Liz's stall early enough I managed to pick up a huge piece fabric in this iconic 50s print by W. Hertzberger for £8. It was designed in 1954 for the British company Turnbull and Stockdale and is most commonly seen in the red and yellow colourway. This yellow and turquoise piece will look amazing stretched over a frame and in my kitchen! I also found these super kitsch curtains for £10 for the pair!
















Needless to say I was happy with those! I don't know what on Earth I had done on Saturday to warrant such good karma but I also managed to find this original, 1950s hand painted Mexican full circle skirt. Complete with original label and everything! I was over the moon, especially seen as it cost me a ridiculous £3! These are rarely seen in the UK (have a search on http://www.ebay.com/) never mind for under £50. I decided to channel Juliette Binoche in Chocolat for the Fair in Nottingham on Sunday and team it with a bright cardigan!

Now having splashed out a cool £18 in Sheffield I was determined to have a will of steal on Sunday at Nottingham. my goodness it was hard! Two floors of beautiful vintage goodies ad I really had to hold my purse tight!



I did find this (above) absolutely gorgeous original 1950s corduroy red with gold sparkles full circle dress from Second Hand Rose! It was a real bargain at £45 as dresses like this really do not appear often, but still too rich for my blood. Luckily I found it a good home in the shape of Tallulah Vintage's Adele! Very jealous, but I know its going to a good home! It was the perfect Christmas dress!

I kept myself busy by just admiring other peoples vintage, this was one of our stylish shoppers Rebecca who looked so amazing! Her styling was perfect right down to the hair and make up! Lovely lady too so nice to meet you Rebecca, hope to see you at the fairs again soon!

As well as this there was the amazing Lindsay from The Vintage Salon. Unfortunately my camera is not at it's best so I don't have images of the lovely Hair do's she did (if you are one of her lucky customers please send us a pic!) but you can have a look at her website here for information:

http://www.lekeuxevents.co.uk/vintagehair.html

So all in all, a bloody good weekend! Now for a rest! Oh hang on, back to work ... and hopefully see you at Lincoln and Leicester next week!

Philosophical Fridays with the Vintage Vulture

Hello vintage fans. Amongst all the frantic typing, flyer-dispensing and flour in hair going down at Judy HQ, I thought that i'd take a moment to digress from bigging-up this weekend's fairs [their going to be excellent, duh!] to tell you a little tale about a squid, a whale and Calvin Klein [Jude and Sam over at Vintage HQ, I assure you that i haven't lost the plot and I am not in need of a speedy sectioning for hallucinating about sea-creatures in designer gear whilst running around my lounge in a scuba mask - my story is relevant. To a degree.]

Having the rather bourgeois privelege of a projector in my house, me and three others settled down on Wednesday to watch Wes Anderson-produced and Baumbach-created 'The Squid and The Whale' ['there's two out of the three,' i hear you murmuring, 'but where on EARTH does Calvin Klein fit in?' Be patient dear reader and follow me further down the rabbit hole for all will be revealed...] A fan of all things maritime, [I own many a stripy vest and once got so over-excited in Barcelona Aquarium that a grazed knee in a kids submarine lead to blood all over the floor and the mother of all carpet burns] I was intrigued as to what 'The Squid and the Whale' would bring; was i to expect the lip-biting scenes and Bowie-acapella of 'The Life Aquatic' or was this to be more all-out war with horrific graphics a la 'Mega Shark vs. Giant Octopus' [a stickler for fact, upon seeing this film i turned to my FiloFax to confirm that no shark, no matter what size, could rocket from the sea and bite a plane into pieces. Not even Jaws on steroids could defy gravity to this degree.] I digress, but as the film unfolded serenaded by Lou Reed and Bert Jansch, I soon learnt that it was none of the above.

Brooklyn based and set in the eighties, the film depicted a view through threaded fingers of one seemingly average family's closet and the skeletons within. Not veering to extremes [rest assured, there were no ACTUAL skeletons in the closet] the feuding foursome depicted all the typical Freudian pitfalls families face - disappointment, boredom, an inability to communicate, the difficulties of divorce and the fall from grace of those we idolise. Although dark in places, the films mantra was sunnier than expected, culminating in being able to see ourselves for who we are in all of our flawed brilliance, of taking the skeleton by the hand and asking it to dance. Bizaarely enough, as the credits rolled on to 'Street Hassle' by Lou Reed, i got to thinking about fashion [just like a shark, i too tend to move in circles and so it wouldn't be long before i alighted at the fash-stop - the film's setting in 1986 New York and Jeff Daniel's mighty beard alone were enough to get the couture-cogs a-turnin']

Like many other vintage fans, I have a certain flair for the eccentric and the occasionally horrific - Disney paraphenalia that doesn't fit properly, double denim [although that was de rigeur for a time] shirts in ridiculous prints. Heck, i even bought a hawaiian shirt over Summer without even a HINT of irony. As a vintage fan, there comes a certain frisson of excitement in knowing that you are going against the grain when wearing certain outfits, on the perpheries of what the glossies and some fashion fans find acceptable. It adds a fire underfoot, a spring in your step [even if it does mean avoiding certain reflective surfaces to see what a state you're in] Dismissing a trend or ignoring the highstreet goes hand in hand with a relief that writer and all-round Academic Jeff Daniels higlights in the film - of not having to "read all the worst books by the best writers." 1 - 0 to the vintage fans.

That said, all-round wise guy and intellectual Jeff Daniels, it turns out, hasn't actually read any of the books he is so opinionated about. Perhaps it was this sentiment that lead me to thinking of fashion; in an industry that is so incredibly fickle yet prides itself so much on having a hierarchy of thumbs up and faux pas, why do we have so much faith? Don't get me wrong, dear readers, i'm not telling you to disband from your various scenes and subcultures. I, too, without my hairbrush and brogues would be wherefore-art-though-romeo-ing from my tower. For many of us, to belong is to be and that's what makes fashion as lucrative as it is today. My point is, read what you want, wear what you want. For example, i have a dark green snoopy jumper [sure to be a guest-star in upcoming posts so keep the eyes peeled] depicting the little critter saying 'I'm having a very bad hair day.' The reason i bought this, dear readers, is not because it was deliciously indie [well, maybe a tad but such is the follie of youth] nor because it was 'ironic' [although neater now, my hair has been compared to a birds nest, a pinecone, and a drawing by a small child with eyes closed.] I bought it because i liked it and thought, why not?

Perhaps this post was prompted by going out into the field and meeting all the freshers [lovely people by the by. I was way more obnoxious!] In these next few weeks as friendships are formed, loans are depleted and scenes are set, just remember, buy what you want. And, in the eventuality that you find yourself decked out in batwings, eyeliner, PVC and an ungodly amount of glitter and you look back on it in a year's time as a serious and seasoned sophomore, remember to crack a smile. Fashion is funny and at least you gave it a go! To bring in my tedious link of the week, creative director for Calvin Klein, Francisco Costa explained his minimal womenswear collection at NY Fashion Week as "a canvas for the women that wear them and not the other way round." Although not the most complex or the most flattering, the pieces succeded in their mission to let their wearer radiate [some sandals even had translucent heels, making the women literally elevate like they were walking on air.]

For all those intrigued by this article, come on down to the Fairs this week in Sheffield, Notts and Leeds as you never know when inspiration may strike. For the rest of you, i've included a link to the Lou Reed ditty from the film as a soundtrack to the weekend....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkG9BKgDvNI

Right, it's Friday. Let's go lose these brain cells. Cultural vintage vulture out. xvx