Charity Shop Tripping

While the rest of the Affordable Vintage Fair lot are living it up in Scotland I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for me to focus on some work. However, I had to retrun a library book, which unfortunately threw me into the tracks of the local charity shops! I have been a few times lately and come away empty handed so wasn't expecting much. However, I couldn't have been more wrong.

Firstly the Barnsley Hospice Charity shop was having a half price sale so knew I'd find something in there. I got this lovely button tin with York Minster on it for £2 and this single duvet cover for £1.25 with a brilliant 60s/70s print. It won't go on any beds, but will probably be made into bunting !

Next I found these 5 balls of vintage Mohair in bright red. As an avid knitter I snapped these up! They will make a loverly shrug or wrap to go with a vintage dress. They were 50p a ball, so £2.50 for the lot.Moving on, I found this really nice Miss Selfridge top for £2.99. This is a little more than I usually spend but I just love the little bows and the 1940s styling. It will be perfect for work:

And finally, the lovely ladies in the Cat's Protection league had 2 amazing treats in store! As I said before, I love knitting, but have never done Fair Isle or fancy patterns with multiple colours, so when I came accross these two I fell in love! For a mere £1.5o each I got this amazing cardigan:

It has little puff sleeves and has lots of farm yard motifs all over it, with hearts around the neck and cuffs! I may change the buttons to a bright red but other than that I love it!

And last but not least, my favourite find, this alphabet jumper!

I absolutely adore it, I love the cottage and I am not sure what the little creatures are at the bottom, but I still love them! In fact, I have it on now as I type!

So an hour and £11.74 later I have another fantastic lot of bargains, thank you very much Charity Shops!

Scotland here we come..

So the Affordable vintage Fair started out as a small vintage fair in east London in 2005, we aimed to bring vintage, re-worked and creative fashion to everyone at affordable prices.

What a long way we've come over the past 5 years to finally announce our first ever Scottish vintage fairs. So, to Edinburgh and Glasgow we go..

The Edinburgh Affordable Vintage Fair
Edinburgh University Student Union
Potterrow Venue
5/4 Bristo Square
Edinburgh
EH8 9AL

Entry: £2.00

Opening: 11am - 4pm

The Glasgow Affordable vintage Fair
Queen Margaret Union
22 University Gardens
Glasgow
G12 8QN

Entry: £2.00

Opening: 12pm – 5pm


We're all setting off on Friday lunch to Edinburgh, 40 traders are travelling north of the border to bring Scotland the largest and most affordable vintage fair..

Derby Fun and games!

The Affordable Vintage Fair rolled into Derby on February 28th and I was there casting my eye over the amazing goodies on offer. Having visited quite a few vintage fairs lately I was adamant I was going to be just browsing, however, that never works out! Here's a few of my favourite things that were on offer:

I loved these 1970s knickers and pants:

On the clothes front this rail from Princes vintage immediately caught my eye, a fair few fifties day dresses on offer! I'll come back to this later:
Perfect for accessorising those fantastic vintage outfits are these amazing tights! I have a policy of never showing my knees so you would only ever see a calf full on me though!

The thing I really loved about this particular fair was the amazing aray of homewares on offer! This stall (which also had the wonderful 'gay-time' vintage pants) had a great selection of kitchenalia and all sorts of curiosities:

I was definately taken by this stall though which specialised in vintage tins, I especially loved the Hawaiian ones:

The same stall had some other gorgeous home accessories, I fell in love with the little blue and white plastic sewing box in this picture, and for the bargain price of £4, it would have been rude not to take it home!

Bargain of the day definately had to be this amazing original 1950s gown for, wait for it, £5!!!! Yes £5!!! It has some gorgeous beading details on the straps and some beaded buttons down the front. It is a bit longer than i usually wear and definately more glam! But I plan to take this up and fit the bodice a bit more. When I do I shall blog it of course!

Back to the amazing rail of dresseson the Princes stall, excuse the dodgy photos, I ragged my lovely vintage hair out of it's do while hastily trying on these two dresses! Dress number one was a beautiful yellow and orange day dress. Yellow is my favourite colour so I really liked it! However, I fell in love with dress number 2 the moment i put it on! The bodice was a cross pattern and really love how it fits! So for £30 I chose this one to come home with me! So after resolving not to spend a thing, I spent £39! However, I did come home with 2 beautiful dresses and a super cute sewing basket!

International Quality Kitsch

Here's one of our favourite Affordable Vintage Fair stalls..


Visit My eBay Shop: International Quality Kitsch">International Quality Kitsch presents, for your delectation, the rare, amusing and nostalgic contents of 5 old warehouses, sealed up for over 50 years.
Bakelite Pots of Tooth Soap from the 20s, Cards of Glass Buttons from the 30s, Knicker Elastic from the 40s, Tin Toys from the 50s, Frivolous Hair Clips from the 60s, along with Space Toys, Religious Kitsch, Celluloid Dolls, Ricrac, Ribbon and all manner of evocative plastic nonsense.....do come and have a rummage..

Fanfarlo… Stylish individuals

I went to see the mighty Mumford & Sons in Liverpool on Tuesday evening. They were fantastic as ever and I'd heard a little about their support act which came in the form of London based quintet Fanfarlo. They played pleasing indie folk- rock that wasn't half bad. As well as being talented musicians I was struck by how stylish the band members were.  The boys were looking very smart with side parted, slicked back hair. They were all chinos and shirts with braces which gave a distinctly 40's feel. Cathy Lucas, the only lady in the band was rocking a simple boyish chloe inspired shirt and trouser combo, which i loved. They are without a doubt a band to watch in 2010… not just for their fashion choices! I think we will be hearing a lot more from them in the future, hopefully they will be appearing at some of the festivals The Affordable Vintage Fair will be at this summer!

http://www.fanfarlo.com/home

Cambridge & Leicester this weekend

Phew, we're nearing the end of our round the country tour. First stop for the Affordable Vintage Fair is Cambridge. This will be our second fair in the beautiful Guildhall building in the main market square of the city.

Sunday see's our first foray into a Leicester Vintage Fair. We have over 40 stalls booked in with an amazing collection of vintage stalls, hand-made, re-worked and jewellery. we've also got some tasty home made treats in our vintage tea party, plus we'll have alterations courtesy of the amazing stitch witches Kathleen and Lilies.


Saturday 6th March 2010
THE CAMBRIDGE GUILDHALL
Market Square
Cambridge
CB2 3QJ

Entry: £2.00

Opening: 10:30am – 4:30pm

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De Montfort Students' Union
Campus Centre Building
Mill Lane
Leicester
LE2 7DR

Entry: £2.00

Opening: 12pm – 5pm

See you all there...

Alexa Chung for Madewell

Alexa Chung's hotly anticipated collection for Madewell has been released to the press. I have to say it's the best celebrity collaboration I have seen but with Alexa at the helm who could doubt this would be the case? The collection resembles Alexa's own wardrobe and means everyone will be able to steal her iconic style! Demand is sure to be high when it hits Madewell stores in the US, I just wish we had Madewell over here! I anticipate it to sell out very quickly. There are a few items I would love to get my hands on... the grey coat, dungaree dress (which reminds me of the APC one Alexa sports) and those dresses with the peter pan collars are AWESOME! Love it! 

Images from our Derby Vintage Fair

Images from our Oxford Vintage Fair

What a weekend it has been for The Affordable Vintage Fair!

We opened our doors on a rather damp and cold Saturday morning to over 1200 eager Oxford Vintage shopping fans. The stalls were laid out with amazing vintage treasures dating back to the 1900's and the Oxford Union debating hall was the perfect setting with its high ceiling and stained glass windows. We had such fun in Oxford that we are already planning to return with a larger vintage fair that will hopefully spill out into the grounds of the Union.

Here's a selection of the images we took as the crowds descended..