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. :)
