The Wanderer Returns

Hey all.

It's been a while since my last post, this is due to both the amount of work and travelling I've had to do lately, and on the account that I've been a bit of a lazy blogger of late I do admit.

Following my last post on my disturbed response to the Choos, I can now inform that they have now in fact been sold! I am told they were gone from the shop last week, officially over a month since they first went on sale. I am amazed that they did sell, and can only wonder who their now proud owner is!

I am sorry to say that I have been a bit slack on the vintage side of my wardrobe and indeed research lately, as I have only managed to buy things that were (justifiably on sale?) high street fashion items! I need to break this habit and branch out. It's not my fault...it's Topshop's. Honest.

However in my defence I have now got some beautiful additions to my wardrobe...a lovely dress from spitalfield market for only twenty pounds, (sadly not the vintage market but the regular one) a few bits and pieces from Topshop and some incredible shoes; one pair from River Island and a pair from Faith at forty pounds each. I also did quite well in one of my purchases, as it was from a charity shop; a beautiful black clutch bag with a gold entwined snake emblem on the front for just twelve pounds!......it just happened to be brand new, unused and from Miss Selfridge....

I shall soon indulge you with some pictures of these beautiful buys so you will see just why I couldn't resist these bargain items!

Updates soon to follow.

Shoe What!?

On my excessively long trip back from Newcastle today (4 hours) I was surprised (and slightly shocked) when I recieved a text from my mum informing me that the Oxfam in our town at home has, proudly displayed in a case in the window, a pair of Jimmy Choos. Yes, actual real Choos, not even fakes, but the real thing.

I was even more shocked however, when she hastned to add that these beauties wore a price tag of no less than TWO HUNDRED POUNDS.

For a moment, I was firmly convinced she must have read the tag wrong. Either that or added an extra zero by mistake. I replied questioning the source just to be sure, but apparently no, in fact, she was right.

Now I love designer shoes as much as the next person, and admittedly there's not a lot a girl wouldn't do for a pair of Jimmy Choos..... but TWO HUNDRED POUNDS in Oxfam?! Am I wrong to be this disturbed? If you're going to spend two hundred on the shoes in Oxfam, surely you would pay the rest and buy them brand new?

Looks like vintage is being taken to a whole new level....and charity shops are sharpening up on their pricing. Gone are the days of bargain designer items for next-to-nothing prices, so it would seem.

It will be interesting to see if the shoes are still there when I next go home, and if they are, how long they will remain there!

I'll keep you posted.

McQueen-Everything And The Kitchen Sink

Alexander McQue<3n....

Just had a look at the footage from The Telegraph of Alexander McQueen's show at Paris Fashion Week.

A-ma-zing.

Check it out.

E1 5ashion....

Hey all. I spent Thursday afternoon browsing round Old Spitalfield Market with Rosie; assuming I wouldn't find much was a massive understatement. Oh If only I were rich. The first stall we looked at was the fur stand right at the very back of the market, which had a huge selection of real vintage furs for a special offer of fifty pounds each, bearing in mind most of these would usually cost hundreds of pounds per coat.
Personally I don't wear fur myself, but for those that do I strongly suggest to get down to Spitalfield Market on a Thursday, as the selection is fantastic and the lady running the stall was very friendly, and only too happy to let me take pictures for this post.

The next stall we looked at was a clothes stall, which mainly offered a selection of jumpers, one of which Rosie bought, a red and blue striped knit for a fiver (although she insisted on giving the man eight pounds for it) and a selection of cowboy boots in brown and black. The guy running the stall was also really friendly and quite happy to let me take photos.

While I left Rosie to browse in her element at the vintage music and poster stalls, I headed straight for my own calling; the jewellery stalls. I was quite literally amazed at the fantasic and beautiful pieces that were on offer, and whilst admittedly, some were incredibly overpriced, most were very reasonable, and I was surprised to see that most of the pieces looked very much like a lot of those that my Mum still has at home.

My personal favourite was a stall run by a lovely lady who chatted to me quite happily for a long time about various topics, one being her new (slightly bizzare) red and white dangly 60's earrings she had bought that day, and "didn't ever want to take out" she enthused. The stall had a lovely collection of rings, earrings and other pretty items, but I was fascinated by the collection of beautiful silver charms which ranged from two to ten pounds each. In amongst the choices were: a rocking chair, a soldier, a cherub, a turtle and my favourite, a tiny van with "Harrods" on the side in tiny writing.
I had to hold myself back from buying the whole lot, as charm bracelets are a love of mine. However, I did promise the lady behind the stall that I would be back again in a couple of weeks, as she assured me that she has different items to choose from every Thursday.

After a successful hour or so browsing the beautiful stalls we agreed to head down to some of the vintage shops down Brick Lane. This however, wasn't quite as successful as hoped, as we got as far as Blondie and Absolute Vintage (who are outlets of the same company) to find that they have a strict "no pictures" policy, which was dissapointing.

It is clear from the atmoshere and crowd in Spitalfield Market and Brick Lane from Thursday through to Sunday (Sunday Up Market) that even with competetor's such as All Saints and Agnes B just next door, Vintage is still very much "in", and won't be going anywhere for a while yet.

You can take the girl out of the City....

The aftermath of last week's LDN fashion week is freely exposed though the many articles and footage that can be found on Youtube or in various magazines and newspaper articles; the london paper and the metro were pretty good at keeping up to date on the shows and buzz from every event. Sadly I didn't manage to get to see any of the shows for myself but those that I've seen footage of look fantastic, especially Henry Holland's House of Holland which featured Agyness Deyn.

As far as vintage fashion goes for this week my only experiences have been my trip to Preston, Lancashire last weekend, when I went up for a University Interview on Friday.

Whilst trying to navigate my way around Preston (having no map and have never been there before!) I was surprised in such a student-orientated town to see three vintage shops in one street, one of which had admittedly closed down but the other two looked reasonably busy; the first was actually a branch of Oxfam, "Oxfam Vintage" and the second was an independent boutique, of the same branch that the third shop 500 yards down the road had closed.

I didn't actually look in either of the shops as I was in a rush to get to my interview without getting lost, but I was quite impressed, if slightly surprised, that the town actually had its own vintage clothing stores.

I keep meaning to browse through Absolute Vintage just off Brick Lane, (considering I walk past it twice a day on my way to and from my flat) but am holding myself back at the moment as I am so poor I can barely afford food, let alone a new wardrobe. God I need a job.

Having said this, a friend came over today to drop off my flatmate's birthday present, which was a lovely decorative neck scarf from Absolute Vintage which came from a selection that retail at £3 a go, so I think during my day of exploring fashion in the East end tomorrow with Rosie I might have to have a cheeky browse. Window shopping can't hurt my bank balance right?

Hopefully I will be able to report back tomorrow with lots of evidence of the bargains of Brick Lane...... pictures to follow.

High Street Love.

Today was a productive day.....I discovered that some lovely person had paid a bursary into my bank account. So, needless to say, I abused this in the best way possible......by hitting Westfield shopping centre.

Between the end of my first lecture at 12 o' clock and my second lecture at 3 I speedily hit the massive shopping centre like it had never been hit before; and after some organised thinking i concluded my most neccessary purchase would be a new bag, as my favourite Paul's Boutique bag is sadly now on it's way out, after more than a year of devoted use. So, I raided H & M for a large, black bag and was pleasantly surprised with the result; a huge black leather tote for under twenty pounds, and a "buy two, get 50% off the third item" offer enabled me to take advantage and get a black belt and a pair of thick grey tights aswell. Fantastic.

I was sadly dissapointed with Topshop today, as a particular top I was looking for was out of stock, and on top of this I specifically wanted a long gold necklace with some sort of decoration at the bottom, to go with a purple top I've bought, but no such luck.

Next stop was Bershka, another favourite high street store of mine. Again, a successful visit; as I found 3 long plain tops and a long cotton waistcoat (all very All Saints) and a long white shirt - dress for forty-five pounds. I was impressed.

So, although my developing research shows that vintage may be very "cool", I won't yet be swayed from the high street.

The Treasure Trove.

As promised, I spent today researching the vintage bargains of my hometown, Saffron Walden in Essex.

My main findings came from the shop "Belle Couture", which is tiny, yet for it's size packed to bursting with a fantastic collection of one-off's, collector's items and beautiful trinkets. One of the owners, Terri, (pictured above) very kindly let me browse the shop and build up a collection of photo's for research; including giant display model perfume bottles, (Anna Sui - Dolly Girl, Moschino - Cheap and Chic and C'est La Vie - Christan Lacroix) some incredible vintage furs, Christian Dior sunglasses, Escada shoes, a Louis Vuitton charm bracelet, a Gucci necklace and earring set, a collection of silver charms for charm bracelets (of which i bought two to add to my Links bracelet, also purchased from Belle Couture) and some amazing cocktail dresses.

Considering the size of the shop in such a small town they manage to boast an enormous collection of goods, all very reasonably priced, which is reflected in the number of customers that came and went in just the short duration of time that I was there today! Belle Couture is perfectly located just off the market square, so they gain lots of trade particularly on market days, and seem to have quite a network of loyal customers who evidently love having a good browse to check out the latest collections in stock.

For anyone around the Cambridge area into vintage accessories, particularly jewellery, I would reccommend Belle Couture. An Aladdin's Cave of incredible finds - I will definately be making another visit next time I'm home.

My next stop today, being market day, was the vintage/antique stall on the market, which also provides a fantastic range of vintage jewellery. I myself have a beautiful gold ring which came from there, and over the past years both my mum and I have collected many of their lovely items and given them good wear! Judging by the amount of interested customers today it looked like standards were as high as ever.

A good day for the vintage trade in my village today i think, and by the looks of it, that won't be changing for a while. :)