Orla Kiely A/W 2010

Hi all, been browsing the web and I came across these beaut images from style cartel. Noone does retro like Orla Keily. Her Autumn Winter 2010 collection is a beautiful mixture of 1970's colours and vintagesque pieces. The collection is a distinctly 2010 take on the retro, the socks and wooden platforms bring it up to date, less vintage reproduction more fabulously feminine Autumn Winter collection. I just can't get enough of the clogs socks combo at the moment, don't know if my feet are so happy about my new love tho… ouch!

Orla has created such a cool setting to exhibit her collection, so refreshing compared to the usual catwalk show, those wallpaper patterns are to die for. I've been so excited to see more and more homewares creeping into The Affordable Vintage Fair. After seeing how Orla has created a 70's inspired interior to show off her collection, I will be looking for some accessories for my home at the next vintage fairs. I love the pallet, I can see orange, brown and teak furniture making an appearance in my house soon!

Introducing Judy's Affordable Vintage Fair

What do you think of our new logo?

Our vintage fair has been running for the past 5 years and now holds over 50 events per year in 17 cities. But there are pesky copycats out there who are trying to ride our coat tails, as they produce very average fairs and people sometimes get confused and think it's us but it isn't.

So, we decided to make a stand and of course since I own the fair I decided to put my name to it (something others can't copy). We also enlisted the help of Vintage fan, good friend and graphic designer Sarah at Jammy Designs to produce us a really slinky and sassy Judy. Our Judy image will be popping up on all our flyers, website and anywhere else we can stick her. So look out for the Judy next time you are planning on heading to one of our fairs so you don't get confused and end up in vintage hell..

The London Kilo Sale

You descended on us in your hundreds (though we managed the queue perfectly and kept your wait to a minimum). The first ever London Kilo Sale was a huge success with happy shoppers snapping up vintage bargains throughout the weekend at The Rag Factory in East London.

With all vintage at £15 per kilo plus our Wholesale jewellery courtesy of Victoria Vintage and a spectacular display of cupcakes from Lady Luck's Pop up Tea Shoppe how could any of you refuse.

So, for those of you who enjoyed our event and would like to have another shot of filling your wardrobe for as little as £15 you'll be pleased to know we will be back at The Rag Factory in the Autumn.

Sign up to the mailing list at www.thevintagekilo.co.uk for alerts.

Blitz Party and Prohibition

We first heard about Prohibition at our London Christmas Vintage Fair, their New Years Eve Party sounded immense but unfortunately we couldn't just ditch all our NYE plans and join the party! So you can imagine our excitement when the guys behind The Blitz Party got in touch with us about their next event on Saturday the 8th May which just happens to be the night before our Bethnal Green Fair! Perfect! 

The Blitz Party Website

Taking place in Village Underground, Shoreditch, May's event promises to be another fantastic night of the finest 1940s cocktails, music and dancing. The Blitz Party favourites, Ta Mère & Twin Tonic will play big band tunes for fun-loving party girls who long to share a cocktail with a handsome man in uniform. The Spitfire Bar will serve good old Kentish Ale and hearty food to hungry soldiers and another room will project original newsreels and wartime films, accompanied by live music.The Blitz Party is London’s hottest night, where cocktails, dancing and neighbourly spirit are the order of the evening. Can you resist because we can't! 

The Prohibition Website

And Prohibition is back at another secret location on Saturday 22nd May. Hidden away from the prying eyes of police, this beautiful west end ballroom will be filled with flappers and dandies surreptitiously quaffing bootlegging booze, dancing the Charleston and trying their hand at Roulette. Having become one of the most sensational parties in London, April’s event promises to be another exciting foray into the glamarous 1920s when contraband and the Charleston were the order of the evening. Harking back to the hedonistic antics of the 1920s, guests are invited to sip classic cocktails from teacups and to enjoy Prohibition’s flamboyant floor shows and live music. Throughout the night, entertainment will include live bands, DJs on gramophones, silent cinema, flapper dancing girls and roulette gambling tables.Previous events have seen a wide variety of extravagant 20s costumes, including sequined flapper dresses, headbands pierced three piece suits, tuxedos, top hats and spats. The speakeasy atmosphere and decadent outfits mean guests at Prohibition step back in time to fully indulge in this unique and clandestine revival of a bygone age. Tickets are £15 and sold in advance via Ticketweb by visiting the Prohibition website or calling 020 7724 1617.


We'll see you there!

London's Vintage Kilo sale

We're very, very excited. Do you want to know why we are very, very excited? It's because this weekend we are holding what is going to be London's largest vintage kilo sale. Yup, we're heading over to the Rag Factory just off Brick Lane in London's east end and we will be bringing with us over 6 tonnes of vintage clothing all to be sold at £15 per kilo.

So, on Saturday 24th April the event will open to the public at 2pm and close at 5pm. Then on Sunday 25th April the full venue will be open from 12pm - 5pm not only will there be vintage clothing but Victoria Vintage will be joining us to sell her wholesale vintage jewellery and Lady luck will complete the event with her pop up tea shoppe!!

So, thats why we're very, very excited..

Election Fever

With the election looming and everything getting more serious by the day we decided to lighten the mood with our own slant on the election. We think the PWAGS (politicians wives and girlfriends) could do worse than to inject a dash of vintage glamour into the proceedings. So Sarah, Samantha and Miriam take note vintage is the way forward! We at The Affordable Vintage Fair won't rest until you ladies are all clad in some vintage attire. So ditch the Erdem here's some vintage inspiration…

Clementine Churchill (1941) In all her 40's finery. A scarf upon her head and a fur on her back! Then there's Clarissa Eden's 1950's look. Gloves and a classic 50's full skirted dress topped off with a hat for good measure.

Margaret Thatcher, THE woman of politics who influenced the power dressing movement of the 1980's. 

Even though she's from across the pond we couldn't leave out Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. She is the most iconic politicians wife of all time, not only when it comes to vintage style. Carla Bruni has been know to emulate her impeccable taste in clothes. These images of her ooze 60's cool… 

We found too many wonderful examples of Jackie's style, you can see much more as there is a fashionspot page devoted to her here.

So to the PWAGS we say vintage is the way forward, pop along to The Affordable Vintage Fair and choose vintage! Come May 6th we will be rushing to the poll booths in our Thursday best!

Arthur Swallows Antiques Fair

Last week Judy and I had a lovely trip to the Arthur Swallows Antiques fair at Swinderby. It's on for two days and has over 200 acres of stalls to browse. We decided to go for the second day, as it is only £2 entry, compared to the £15 for the first day. Unfortunately, the weather was not brilliant and it was chucking it down. With most of the stalls being outside, this meant a lot of the stall holders were packing up but it also gave us a brilliant opprotunity to haggle!!


Anyway, here are a few of my top picks of the fair, followed by our actual purchasses. The first thing to catch my eye was this amazing 1950s cocktail cabinet, I tried to capture the brilliant design on the mirror but just couldn't! But here it is anyway:Just for Sarah, my friend from my last blog post, some statues, she loves religious kitsch!We stumbled accross an amazing stall with some absolutely stunning 1950s dining tables. I loved the formica tops, but at £288 they were way above my budget!This blue one was definately my favourite:However, after coming home, I did some searching on ebay and came accross this lovely:


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/VINTAGE-RETRO-1950-60S-FORMICA-CHROME-TABLE-AND-CHAIRS_W0QQitemZ250609612311QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUK_Home_Garden_DiningRoomFurniture_SM?hash=item3a597f3617


This set didn't sell at £25! Possibly because it was listed as 1960s rather than 50s, but despite the fact that it isn't the bright blue of my favourite, I think it's still fabulous. I also think this was an absolute bargain rather than the ones at the fair being overpriced. Even if you paid for a courier, you're nowhere near the £288 of the others. It just goes to show, if you look hard enough, you can find it!


Next, I loved this tiki style 1950s vase, but at £50, was too much for me!And this amazing coffee table would have been coming home with me if I had the space:If there's one thing I love it's flying ducks/swallows/seagulls! So when we came accross a stall in the indoor sections, they were packing up but let me take some snaps of their lovely stock! They are way out of my price range, but still, I may find some in a charity shop some day!
I loved this 1950s sausage dog: And this amazing drinks set complete with tray. But this was definately out of my price range at £122!!And now on to our actual purchases, firstly and most importantly, dohnuts!

There was one thing on our list for today, a sunburst clock for Judy! And at the very end of the day we found this beauty hiding under a leather jacket. It was labelled at £40 , but Judy managed to sweet talk them down to £30, bargain!
I found this knitting book which I got way too over excited about. I especially love 1940s patterns and I have found a couple of other books by this author, so when I found this, I had to take it home. It was labelled at £6, but I got it for £5.




Here it is with my others, I love the cover illustrations too. So that was our day! If you fancy a visit I will highly recommend it, here's a link to the website for more details:


http://www.arthurswallowfairs.co.uk/lincolnshire-overview.php

Charity Shop Tripping - April

I never realised just how much I stuff I get from charity shops, until I started blogging it, so these posts may become quite frequent! I'll start with the smaller finds first, I love vintage buttons and my friend and I like to make jewellery from them, so I couldn't resist this cute tin full to the brim for £1.50: Next I found this original 50s knitting basket, I love the print on the fabric and it was a bargain at £2.50:This blog is a bit different, these aren't just my charity shop finds this time, but my friends too. Before we go any further, I will say she is also called Sarah, I am not just talking about myself in third person as some people think! She is real!! We both love furniture, particularly mid twentieth century design and are always scouring the charity shops for the ultimate bargains. So when I got a text message saying we needed to visit our favourite charity shop because she'd seen an amazing bookcase through the window, we were there at opening time! This was the beauty that caught her eye:But what she didn't see from the window was the matching sideboard:The bookcase was £30 and the sideboard was £25, both solid wood and in fabulous condition. After deciding through the measuring system of a crooklock and 2 picture frames that it would fit under her stairs, she went for both.

Obviously I couldn't leave empty handed so when we saw this set of tables, which matches another round version I already have, I couldn't resist. They were £30, which is usually way over my charity shop limit, but my friend had seen just one of the fold down tables at a local antiques centre for £25, I thought they were probably worth it.So I took my tables and we arranged for Sarah's new furniture to be delivered. However on the way home I couldn't stop thinking about a small kitchen dresser I'd seen. So, being the worrier that I am, I phoned the charity shop as soon as I got home and asked her to save it for me and I'd pop back later to pay for it. This was the little beauty:

When I went in to pay for it, I was glad I'd phoned as the lady said there was someone wanting to buy it as soon as she got off the phone. For £30, I am very glad I phoned! I don't actually have anywhere for it yet as my house is currently in, what can only be described as a state! So I added it to Sarah's delivery and she kindly offered to look after it in her garage until my kitchen is ready. Also when I went in to pay for it, I bought this lovely, hand embroidered table cloth for £1. So having waited patiently for our delivery I thought I'd show you some snaps of them in situ. The extreemly accurate measuring system of a crooklock and two picture frames obviously works as the sideboard fits perfectly:

And the bookcase looks well at home next to Sarah's original 1950s table and chairs (incidentally, from the same charity shop!) and full of sylvac face pots:

Unfortunately my kitchen cabinet will have to live in Sarah's garage for a little while, but I will post picture when it has found a home:But the tables are in their tables are happy in their new place:And to follow on from a charity shop blog a while ago, I managed to replace the missing egg cup by finding a matching one on ebay!

So that's it for now, but I don't think you will be waiting long for the next one!