J.H. Lynch and Lou Shabner - the takeover

Our flat is turning into a timewarp. Technological clues, such as the iPod speakers, PS3 and laptop are the only things that could tell you that Irish and I live in 2010, not the early Seventies.

Our bar - a Schreiber drinks cabinet/bureau - takes pride of place in the living room, and is now home to a vintage Roberts radio, ice bucket, a collection of pretty glasses and many kitsch deer figures. As well as spirit bottles and a retro cocktail shaker, of course.


But the finishing touch came this weekend when I came across a framed print of a beautiful red-haired woman by Lou Shabner in Oxfam. Shabner's style is very similar to that of J.H. Lynch, whose iconic mass-produced prints of exotic women graced the homes of thousands in the 1960s and 1970s, and even featured in A Clockwork Orange. Needless to say, I bought it, and at £24.99, was pleased with my bargain find. 'Sara', as the internet leads me to believe she is called, adds the focal point the bar needed.

My growing obsession with Lynch and those of his ilk was triggered when I spotted a print of the 'Woodland Goddess' at the amazing Waterlooplein flea market in Amsterdam. One of his most well-recognised paintings, it seemed vaguely familiar, and I loved the Bond Girl glamour of it. I haggled it down to seven Euros and the Goddess has lived in our bedroom ever since.


Next came Tina, or 'The Nymph'. Like Goddess, Tina is exotic-looking, dark-skinned with dark hair and red cloth covering her modesty. She's gorgeous.

After a month of so of searching for the right Tina for our flat, I 'won' a signed and chunky white-framed print on Ebay for £40, a price I could justify before the wedding. She now sits above our reading chair, and is the first thing you see when you enter the flat.


Of course I am not alone in my love of these iconic prints. A simple Google search will uncover other bloggers who have written about their obsession, collectors looking for specific women and vintage enthusiasts trying to find out more about these somewhat mysterious artists.

Anyone with a love of Seventies style is bound to be drawn to the prints, so typical are they of the era. But what I really love about them is that they depict women with real, sexy curves - hips and stomachs - are painted by British artists, proving that the US doesn't have the monopoly on iconic imagery, and stand very close to the line that separates taste and tacky.

I look forward to meeting more Lynch and Shabner beauties on my travels.

Vintage @ Goodwood

The Vintage @ Goodwood festival brought together all the best of Britain’s cultural past, as conflicting as these parts may be: Land Girls spun at the Roller Disco, Betty Draper-types sipped on pints of lager and Rockabillys got down to Northern Soul.

This was a festival for people who don’t like festivals. People like myself. It stripped away the scummy toilet, bar queue and mind-altering excess aspects of a big event, leaving us with music, dance, fun, food and a whole lot of culture.

The journey back in time began from the moment we arrived at Chichester train station. An old Stafford Blue bus took us, slowly but surely, down the narrow country roads and through the immense Goodwood Estate, before stopping at an opening in the woods where fairy lights lit the way to the first festival of its kind.

The only backlog we experienced all day was seen at the opening arch, where vintage-lovers dressed in clothes inspired by the 1920s right up to the 1980s were hit by aesthetic overload.

The festival High-Street - essentially a huge theatre set - made a real impact, but before that classic cars were offered as the first of several hundred design exhibits to be marvelled upon during the event.

Shopping



For me, and I’m sure I can speak for many of vintage-lovers on this, shopping for vintage clothes and homewares is an experience to be cherished in itself. Rather than a means to an end, it is an exploration of the past, a kind of hands-on museum visit. And the shopping at V@G kept me entertained for hours.

Yes, there were the big-name high-street presences – John Lewis, Cath Kidston, Doc Martens - the organisers no doubt needed those cash injections to make the event as wonderful as it was. But the real star attraction was the hundreds of independent vintage traders who had brought along the cream of their crop, ensuring that you could find good quality design classics as reasonable prices.

Packed into long stretched of undercover marquees, providing shelter in the rain storms, the stall holders had gone to a lot of effort to make their patch pretty, resulting in the feeling of picking through an upmarket bazaar. Vivienne Westwood, Ozzie Clark and Moschino were among the original designer items to be snapped up, with classic pieces from Horrocks, Laura Ashley and Liberty also on the rails.

I picked up a 1960s cream box bag (£5), a lady-bird print skirt (£15), a cute embroidered cream cardigan (£10), and a pair of magenta Russell & Bromley boots (£35), proving that the traders hadn’t hitched up their prices extortionately in order to cover their pitch costs.

Music



Rather than the main attraction, music at the event provided the soundtrack to the day’s activities. Wandering around the site, the sounds of Northern Soul, rock and roll and war-time crooners brought the day to life, prompting a spring in people’s step.

For the dancers, various music tents hosted jive, funky soul and waltz, offering the perfect opportunity to show off the steps practised as part of a passion for the past.

While Martha & the Vandellas and the Noisettes drew crowds to the main stage, pop-up performances around the site throughout the day also provided welcome interludes. Even the stall holders seemed to have chosen their tapes – yes tapes – CDs and vinyls carefully, all to add to the overall experience.

And among the classic films, the high-street Cinema and mobile cinema showed more obscure music films for the culture buffs.

Crafts and kids



DIY crafts go hand-in-hand with vintage. Many second-hand purchases will need alternations to fit today’s figures and styles, and for those wanting to wear something a little different,, or decorate their home with original pieces, making your own is very appealing.

To cater for the crafters, Clothkits courses were held on the high-street, where you could make cushions and kids clothes among other items, and various other independent stalls offered to help you make your own bunting, selling fat quarters of gorgeous original and reproduction vintage fabrics.

Kids were also very well catered for at the festival. In fact V@G would deserve a reputation as one of the most child-friendly festivals in the country. As well as a Butlins tent and fun fair, complete with helter skelter, ferris wheel, a waltzer and roller disco, various arts and crafts, story telling tents and children’s performances looked very appealing to the big kids too.

Cars and caravans



The variety and sheer number of classic cars and caravans on the V@G site was awe-inspiring. Even those not usually interested in motoring – I count myself among this group – spent what amounted to hours marvelling at the sleek curves, iconic designs and ingenious space-saving features.

The American teardrop trailers were my favourite, with pop-up backs revealing a smart 1950s-style kitchen and snug interiors beautifully decorated with soft furnishings.

Vehicles also became tea rooms, bars and candy shops for the festival, as well as historical exhibits up for auction or used to promote the My Cool Caravan book.

Food and drink



Festival-goers are a notoriously hungry bunch, and were extensively catered for at V@G. As well as the numerous portable tearooms, complete with vintage china and indulgent cake, burgers, fish and chips and pancakes were served out of old-school trailers and vans, while pie and curry was dished up from the high street’s very own pub and curry house.

For the more health-conscious, sushi wraps, salads and vegan fare was on offer, and fresh juice and smoothie bars acted as healthy alternatives to the Pimm’s bus and various tent bars serving up lager, ale, wine and spirits to those up for a boogie or who just wanted to watch from the sidelines.

While having a picnic on the grass was an option at a number of points in the day, the solid floors of the venue bars and cafes were welcome relief when it rained, especially for those in heels and fur.


Vintage @ Goodwood wasn’t sold out, the site wasn’t heaving. But it was all the more enjoyable for this. Any queues moved fast, the atmosphere was friendly and jubilant, without high-spirits turning into trouble, and it has to have been one of the cleanest festival sites in the country. I saw not one bottle or food wrapper on the ground.

After ten hours at the site, we waited just ten minutes for our blue bus to take us back to reality. Please come again next year, Vintage. We’ll be waiting.

Shopping between seasons

Despite having to battle through several hundred missing-piece bikinis and sole flip-flops (a flip flop?), I've actually managed to keep a level head in this year's summer sales. I've achieved 'sensible shopper' status by talking myself out of buying light floral-print dresses. My wardrobe has reached saturation point with this type of garment, and they really didn't do me any favours last winter.

Instead, I've scoured the sales for investment pieces that will start to make up my winter wardrobe. River Island came up trumps with studded pixie boots for £15 and khaki army trousers at £20, and among the sea of floaty kaftans that you'd only ever wear two days a year - tops - in Monsoon, I spotted a cosy long marl chunky knit cardigan - half price at £30.

I've already worn all of these pieces - the cardie had a outing in Yorkshire, where it is apparently autumn already - and I'm currently bidding on a pair of low-heeled wooden clog sandals on Ebay that I'll be able to wear bare foot now and with socks when it gets colder - ignoring soon-to-be husband's unsure looks. I love how Laetitia at Madmoiselle Robot wears these.

So, I seem to have acquired what those in the fashion press call 'transitional pieces', with other items in this category for a/w including:

The maxi dress, which can be layered with chunky knits and skinny belts. This Seneca Rising dress in the ASOS sale would make the perfect new season maxi.

The shirt dress (French Connection have some gorgeous bird-print designs - see exhibit one and the Mui Mui-inspired exhibit two), worn with bare legs now and leggings and an undertop or cardi when it gets colder.

The cropped military jacket - big now until the foreseeable future, although personally I'm all about M&S's khaki greatcoat.

Very lovely autumn IMAGE by Flickr user Nicholas_T.

The vintage shop of Mum

I've written before about the vintage treasure troves our mother's wardrobes can prove to be. But, as I bemoaned last time, my mum's hoarding habit has only really developed over the past twenty years. "I had loads of great stuff from Sixties and Seventies London that I threw out before you were born," she said. "I thought I was being good".

No mum, you were being bad. You were being very bad.

"Well, when you were a teenager you were never interested when I was having clear-outs".

I was an idiot when I was a teenager mum, we all know that.

Sigh. But, BUT, it seems that not all was not lost. While at home the other weekend, my lovely mother gave me free run of her huge fitted wardrobe, with some very exciting results.

The first piece that had me throwing off my clothes in order to get it on my back was a cute Vivienne Westwood denim waistcoat, which has already had an outing layered over my Breton-stripe dress. Mum bought it second-hand, so doesn't know if it's the real thing or not. But who cares? It looks damn good.


The next was a psychedelic floral velvet jacket from Lee Bender's Bus Stop - a boutique very popular on Carnaby Street during the swinging Sixties and Seventies. I wasn't sure if she'd want to see it go, but, as she said, it's better that it gets worn than becomes moth food. It's a definite contender for my Vintage @ Goodwood outfit.


And the final find - a beautiful lace throw. Origin and DOB unknown. This piece is timelessly chic and I imagine will become a wardrobe staple, worn over evening dresses as well as used to soften more masculine looks such as autumn/winter's military trend.


I really would recommend giving your mum's wardrobe a raid. With her permission of course...