Friday 30 September 2016

Film Review - The Painted Veil - Disease, Deceit and Dresses...

Aside from clothes I also like to pick up films and books in charity shops or at carboot sales.

I rarely go to the cinema and I don't have a TV or a Netflix account so my viewing is really limited to what I pick up, and that suits me just fine!

I tend to only watch things with a vintage angle these days and will always look for DVD copies of classic films, era appropriate box sets or modern films set in more vintage times.

This week I picked up "The Painted Veil" set in China in the 1920's, featuring Naomi Watts and Edward Norton. Full information available at:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0446755/

The film is based on a novel by W Someret Maugham which I now would like to track down and read.

The central characters are Walter (Norton) and Kitty (Watts) and the movie begins with the pair looking deeply unhappy in a very soggy field in China. The reason for their unhappiness soon unfolds as the story cuts back to how they met and why they married in the first place.

I think it's fair to say that there is no use marrying for the reasons Kitty did!

Kitty and Edward move to China where his work as a bacteriologist keeps him somewhat busy, enough for pretty Kitty to have her head turned by the cad known as Charlie.

Charlie, being everything that Walter isn't, (passionate, exciting, a big fat liar) Kitty is drawn to him but their affair is soon discovered.

Walter reacts in the most frustrating, passive aggressive way and decides that he is volunteering in an area where a cholera outbreak is killing the local people, and that Kitty is coming too or he is divorcing and disgracing her.

Charlie of course proves useless in rescuing Kitty and reminds women everywhere of the age old truth that married men really don't just up and leave their wives.

This movie is the story of both Kitty's personal journey into becoming a "grown up" and of how a marriage gone wrong can work towards a happy ending.... but will it make it? You'll have to watch it to find out! 

Kitty's Wardrobe 



Of course being set in the twenties and Kitty being a sexy and spirited young woman she has some killer outfits...

In the opening scenes Walter is smitten with Kitty and in this gorgeous beaded flapper dress it is easy to see why! 


Below: I just love the embroidered detail on Kitty's dress in this scene, and those to die for drop earrings! 



 As Kitty and Walter's relationship falls into what is seemingly a desperate state Kitty's wardrobe becomes a little more plain and almost downtrodden. One night Kitty decides enough is enough and pulls on this beautiful purple dress with intricate detailing to remind Walter of the girl he met in London. Funnily enough it does the trick 


Later in the film whilst Kitty is learning her life lesson of not being such a terrible cheater of a wife her wardrobe, whilst still stylish, becomes ever more maternal in style. Walter starts seeing another side to his wife. I love embroidery and lace detailing and this dress is just so classic. 

By the end of the movie Kitty's priorities have changed and her transformation is complete, I am a sucker for a floral print and I adore this outfit and it's beautiful bright colours. 


Until Next Time 
Love 
Lucy
X


(All images copyright of Warner Independent Pictures) 





Sunday 25 September 2016

The Carboot Sale Series - Battersea car Boot Sale, Battersea Park

I am continuing my mission in finding the best carboot sales for vintage bargains in London.

Last month I traveled all the way to Kilburn on a Sunday only to realise that I'd read the website wrong and the Kilburn sale is on Saturdays!

Undeterred I decided to go to Battersea Car Boot which I'd heard was good for vintage buyers.

Battersea Car Boot Sale


I arrived in time for the early bird entry at 12.00, which is £3.00. From watching various Youtube videos I knew a queue would form after half one when the entrance fee is 50p so it seemed worth it to spend the extra.

Similarly to the Stoke Newington sale the stall holders pitch fees are also staggered so those sellers willing to pay top notch pitch fees will be there early and others wanting to pay less arrive afterward.

Again this gave me the opportunity to do a couple of laps and scope out the hardcore vintage dealers (the early sellers) from vintage enthusiasts or people just selling off their own old goods.

Some examples of the types of items for sale:






I didn't get the chance to take many photos unfortunately, I was a little distracted in digging around all the boxes of treasure!


In terms of facilities this carboot is also based in a school and has a burger van although it wasn't quite as quaint as the one at Princess May Carboot it was reasonably priced if you want a cheeseburger.

Smoking was seemingly permitted as many people were walking around with cigarettes, this surprised me as it is a school. They have the hand stamp system so you could come and go if you wanted.

My Haul


I am on an extreme budget at present but I did manage to find a couple of bargains. I'm trying not to look at clothes at the moment because I'm losing weight from walking to work everyday.

Bangles
I am obsessed with bangles at the moment, maybe it's because you can find them so cheaply! These bangles were only a couple of pounds and I love them. These are all modern, aside from the elephant one which I think is bone, but will go so well with a vintage outfit. £5.00 for all.



Left to right: Latte swirl plastic bangle, beige plastic with gold glitter,white carved elephant bangle, lime plastic swirl irregular bangle, black carved bangle.

Brooches
One of the vintage sellers had, on my second walk around, pulled out a large tray of vintage brooches, earring and necklaces and I spotted these two embroidered brooches. My lovely friend and fellow blogger Catherine, Vintage Frills, collects these and had recently gifted me some earrings so I decided to pick them up for us. She choose the pink one and I'll keep the purple one for myself. Embroidered brooches £1.00 each


Stratton Compact
Lots of people covert the Stratton compact and collect them. Personally I can't say I was too bothered about having one or not. However I spotted this one alongside the brooches above and when the seller said it was £1.00 I decided I would snap it up, despite it's condition.


It's not in great shape but the size of it is lovely as you can see your eyes and lips together without having to move the mirror around. As there is nothing in the bottom of it I have a plan to add a photo of myself and my nan taken at a vintage event which will make me smile whenever I use it and make it personal to me.

Dress
I wasn't going to buy any clothes but one of the sellers had a £5.00 rail and I spotted this blue silky dress. This dress has sadly been taken up at some point to shorten it (I wish people wouldn't do that) but the measurements were good for me so I decided to go for it.

The dress has a side zip and a button up back but despite this, what I failed to take into account is that the waist is so small that it is impossible for me to get past my boobs! I think if I corset then I may be able to get it on whilst I am still losing weight. For now it is going to be used as decor in my bedroom!


One place I haven't yet looked for London treasure hunting is a local paper, I must remember to buy one next week and see if there are any house clearance sales or jumbles going on, to continue my vintage mission. But for now....over and out.

Until next time
Lucy
x


Friday 23 September 2016

Hidden Charity Shop Gems - London

As many people now know I moved to North London a few months ago and I have been dedicating some time to familiarising myself with the most important of local landmarks - charity shops.

In the past few weeks I have found a couple of shops that will go on my "To revisit" list.

Fara Charity Shop - Angel





I have found some of the best charity shops by just happening upon them so when I saw this shop in Angel close to the tube I decided to quickly check it out - nothing ventured nothing gained!

This shop turned out have a huge vintage section! It is a bit of a charity shop mecca, it is not over priced and it is very well organised which is always welcome for the charity shopper. It had a modern section too but the vintage was all arranged at one end making it very easy.




The shop it'self is rammed with lots of interesting clothes, accessories and homewares etc. I'll be paying a visit again soon!




I did get one thing with my megre budget which was an 80's dress for £5.95. I'm saving it for another blog post but I'll show it off soon!

North London Hospice - Wood Green



I had to go to Wood Green to seek out this shop, my housemate had recommended it but couldn't remember the name. There are quite a few charity shops in Wood Green which are worth a look but as soon as I saw the shop I knew it was the one!

The shop is one of the rummaging kinds, everything was organised and well labelled but there was just so much of it, I had a good dig around the baskets which were organised into hats, belts, slips and even braces!


It also had a massive amount of retro style and vintage sunglasses mixed with the modern and the window displays (whilst hard to photograph) had some lovely vintage items in them, with signs welcoming you to ask the staff to get an item for you.


This gorgeous dress was one thing I spied in the shop but there was lots of treasure to be found! One to visit for sure.


At some point I'll have to round all of this info together and write a top 10 (maybe 20) charity shops in North London, by the time I am finished I might be able to write a memoir about it, The Girl With The Second Hand Everything....

Until next time
Lucy
xx

Friday 16 September 2016

Twinwood - a first timers perspective.

Phew! Things got a bit manic there for a while but I am now back to blogging my vintage escapades with the usual gusto.

The highlight of my summer was attending Twinwood for the first time and this blog post will be all about Twinwood from the first timers perspective and what I will do differently next year.




I attended Twinwood with the gorgeous and wonderful Catherine of Vintage Frills and the brilliant Emma, who is the mind behind the 1940s/1950's Most Marvellous Meet Ups Group that I belong to, as well as other members of our group.  

Camping: I arrived at Twinwood on the Saturday morning and headed to Outfields Farm where we were camping. It was a good campsite with all the facilities you could need, and some we didn't use like a BBQ (but nice to have the option)  It's a decent camping venue for those not wanting to stay on the actual Twinwood site. 

The farm had a bus that drove to the festival, however when we discovered it was no more than a ten minute walk we took advantage of the periods of good weather and had a stroll. The buses were at different intervals on each day so this made it a little difficult to negotiate for anyone unable to walk the distance. On the first day we had missed the bus and some fellow campers drove us to Twinwood, which was very community spirited of them!
No grungy festival vibe at Twinwood! 

First Impressions: Arriving at Twinwood was a little overwhelming. There were so many stalls and the programme was jam packed with all of the acts performing. Once in the festival itself we met with some other members of our 1940's/1950's facebook group for a quick catch up and walked around to get our bearings, the site is perfectly sized, not so huge that you have no idea where you are but not so small that you cannot move freely from place to place.

To do differently: Now I have experienced Twinwood I will definitely try to be less stressed next year, I tend to worry to much about attending these things and get myself into a bit of a flap, packing everything I own in case I don't look right or worrying about silly things. It's a bit of a curse but now I have seen it once I know I'll enjoy next year all the more!

Hmmmmmmmmmmmm... that is all! 

Food and Facilities: We headed down to the main arena and got some food as we were starving by this time. Obviously you expect to pay a premium at places like Twinwood but I paid £10.00 for a very small burger and chips at one stall, there were other vendors I discovered later with gorgeous noodles and fish and chips in proper dinner sized portions so my initial disappointing and expensive burger was the exception rather than the rule.

The most important thing at these types of events is the toilet facilities! There were plenty of  loo's and I certainly appreciated not having to queue, also there was always paper in them so I was never caught short.

Lastly on the subject of food I can recommend the carvery which was £9.50 and exactly what was needed after a hard weekend. I had my doubts about a carvery at an event but it was lush!

Things to do:

Shopping: What can I say about the shopping at Twinwood? It is insane. Some of my friends had saved loads to go crazy at the stalls but I had resigned myself to not buying anything new since I am (slowly) losing weight and don't need to buy anything at the moment,
Clothes, accessories, furniture and homeware, there is not much a vintage lover cannot find at Twinwood 

A lot of the shopping at Twinwood is high end. If you are a fan of reproduction you can get some really good deals as the shops have promotions and bargain rails of older stock. In terms of vintage you are going to spend money at Twinwood for 1940's and 1950's but it is some of the better quality vintage I have seen and such wide variety. It really depends on the seller but I found the prices were higher priced than the internet as you would expect but about right in comparison to London's vintage shops.

We did visit the fiver vintage stall and I allowed myself one purchase which was a little out of my usual era's but I fell in love with a 70's dress and am looking forward to including it in my Autumn look book blog.

To do differently: As I have recently quit smoking I have made a pact to save as much as possible and will save up to treat myself to some high end vintage next year, also I will be ebaying all my clothing which is now too big, save save save!
We got our vintage decor inspiration from the exhibitions at Twinwood. 

Museums: It may not be everyone's cup of tea but there are several museums at Twinwood including the Glenn Miller Museum and the Aviation Museum. Catherine and I dedicated the last day to seeing all of the exhibitions and getting our geek on. My personal favourite was the section of the aviation museum which was designed to look like 1940's shops as you can see above.

To do differently: Nothing, I would happily go and see them all again as there was so much to see!

Entertainment: There are several different venues within Twinwood and this year I didn't make it to all of them, this goes back to what I said about planning. For example there was a tiki bar which we wanted to visit but when we wanted to go it was raining heavily. The main arena is an obvious place to sit and let the entertainment come to you, The music did range in era's so there is something for everyone.

To do differently: I think it was good for a first time to just go and soak everything in but next year I will have a bit more of a plan, I usually listen to the bands I don't know on youtube to see if they tickle my fancy but I didn't have time this year. A bit more planning next year will mean experiencing more of the acts!

Dancing: I cannot dance to save my life but Catherine and I had both wanted to go to a dance class for beginners to get a taste for it. We attended the beginners Lind Hop lesson and although I was nervous, with a friend there it made it really fun and less daunting. I am thinking about going to lessons locally if I can work up the nerve as I would love to be able to dance with the best of them next year.
Catherine and I at our first dance lesson!


To do differently: Nothing! Always try new things and if it is available at Twinwood you'll be surrounded by people you can learn from! Go for it!

I hope this is useful for anyone considering attending a vintage event, especially for the first time!

Until next time
Love
Lucy
x




Monday 12 September 2016

Twinwood Wardrobe Round up

As a first timer at Twinwood this year I thought it would be a good opportunity to show my Twinwood outfits and why I wore them but also to think about what remained in the suitcase and why. Is it obvious that this post is all about helping me plan for next year?!

Day one


Daytime -
I rolled my hair the night before and ironed all my clothes to be hung in the car, and I am so glad I did because this dress creases like no other!

I bought this dress at the £1.00 sale at East End Vintage Clothing (usually a fill a bag store). I teamed it with my hotter shoes which were an ebay bargain (only a couple of pounds) my brown kelly bag (£7.50) seamed stockings and this hat, gifted to me by my stepmother. I also wore my Sphinx jewellery set which I have inadvertently started collecting but I love the victorian style of it so much.


Evening-
The evening was much colder and a bit rainy. My hair hadn't held up with the damp and wind so I decided not to wear the true vintage dress I had brought with me and wore one of my Vivien of Holloway dresses with a silver bolero and my hunter wellies. In the end I pinned my hair up in a messy updo just to keep it out of the way. 

Tip: It is not necessary to wear true vintage to Twinwood. Lots of people wore reproduction clothing and given that we were camping I felt much safer running around in a repro dress in the poor weather. 


Day two


Daytime -
I was super excited to be attending my first lindy hop lesson which was all included in the price of the Twinwood ticket. I wanted to wear my repro sneaker style shoes (£5, Ebay) and as I didn't know how sweaty I would get I didn't want to wear anything vintage! I wore my pink Vivien of Holloway skirt (which I got in the sale earlier this year and it was a bargain!) and a plain black top. I topped off the outfit with my "Marvellette" badge as it coordinated so well! 

I decided to put my hair up and cover it with a scarf to keep it out of the way whilst dancing and did a big barrel roll in the front to keep it vintage style. This is my go to hairstyle on days when I need my hair out of the way. 


Evening-
After a full day of fun I changed into a more 40's style outfit. I chose a dress that covered my arms since it wasn't exactly warm outside. I covered my hair in a red snood which saved me time as I didn't have to curl it and I added 2 victory rolls in the front. 

Tip: It's a good idea to plan your hairstyles in advance for Twinwood and make sure you have all the scarves and pins you will need, the majority of the event is outdoors and it can be wet and windy. There are plenty of vintage style updo's which will hold up better if you are doing activities. 

This dress was rescued from my sisters charity shop bag and I love the tie neck detail. I teamed it with my new crochet mustard coloured bag which was a charity shop find (£3) as it brings out the colour in the pattern of the dress. For comfort my black Clarks shoe boots (£25 on sale) really did the job and I accessorised with a stack of bamboo and wooden bangles. 


 Day three

Daytime-
All to quickly it was the last day, at the end of the second night I rolled my hair so I just loosely brushed it out and set it with (a lot of) hairspray.

I wore this vintage dress which I picked up in a charity shop in my hometown in Essex (£3) and wore yellow plastic beads to pick out the yellow in the dress. I added a stack of bangles in green, red and purple to coordinate with the rest of the dress pattern. The Corde bag I used was one of my biggest ever bargains at £8 from a local car boot sale (which I posted about here) Since it was still quite wet I wore my hunter wellies.

Tip: Don't sweat it over footwear. I don't own any vintage shoes as such because I am a size 41/8 and I can never find them but comfort definitely came first for me at Twinwood and I had little interest in ruining any really nice shoes. Shoe boots were perfect and as they are leather a quick baby wipe sorted out any mud. Don't be the person sitting down because your feet hurt, life is too short! 



Things that stayed in the suitcase


1. Corset - firstly it was impossible to put on in a tent, secondly I wanted to be comfortable. 

2. True vintage - I didn't wear my very nice true vintage dress because the weather and the chances of it getting ruined felt too high for me. Also wearing it is dependent on the above! 

3. Shoes - I took half my shoe collection with me and shouldn't have bothered, leave suede and       strappy sandals at home if you know you won't wear them.

4. Cute PJ's - funnily enough my 1950's babydoll didn't get a look in and my onsie was my go to nightwear, it's camping after all, I was having a deluded packing moment! 

That's my outfit round up of Twinwood and I hope people find some of the tips useful if attending a vintage festival. I cannot wait until next year, I've already booked the weekend off work! 

Until next time 
Lucy 
x