Naomi loves little black vintage dresses

When did your obsession with LBDs begin?

As a child I developed a fascination with Morticia Addams... and then of course, I watched Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

How many LBDs do you own?

I generally have around fifty vintage LBDs at my pleasure!

Which is your favourite LBD?

I fall in love with many of the LBDs that pass through my shop (littleblackvintagedress.com). One of my favourites was a 1950s layered lace shift dress. The cut was perfect and it fitted like a dream. I was sad to let that one go.

Whose LBD-style do you admire?

Victoria Beckham wears the LBD perfectly every time.


Why will the LBD never die?

Although clichéd, it really is the one fashion item that makes every woman look and feel amazing – if it’s right, it will never let the wearer down.

When did you set up littleblackvintagedress.com and why?

I set up Little Black Vintage Dress in 2008. I had been selling vintage for the previous five years and wanted to find a niche within the market. I was getting bored sifting through mountains of super bright 70s polyester dresses and wanted to concentrate on the dresses that I loved the most.

Where do you source your LBVDs?

That would be telling...

How often do you update your shop?

I try to update my shop on a weekly basis, however at the moment it’s looking emptier than it ever has! Must get out dress hunting...

What's your favourite decade for style?

This is a tricky one! I would say there are elements of every decade that I appreciate. But in terms of culture and style I would go with the late 50s/early 60s.


Do you ever wear other colours?

Actually, as much as I’d love you all to believe I spend each day looking effortlessly chic in one of my many LBDs, I lead a far less glamorous life which involves wearing jeans and t-shirts – a little bit more practical when running around after two kids.

How do you feel about the LWD trend? Will you be setting up another shop?

Hmmm, white is a bit too innocent for me! I’ll stick to the black.

Raid Naomi's vintage little black dress collection at www.littleblackvintagedress.com

Chocks away - the A/W aviator jacket trend

The fashion world is in the grips of military mania. Lace-up combat boots are toughening up floaty dresses this spring/summer, seeing Doc Martens enjoy a resurgenece in popularity, and designers have taken inspiration from navy uniforms to inform one of the season's most written-about trends - nautical.

But while heavy greatcoats and cargo pants continue to feature in autumn/winter collections, designers are looking to the sky for the next target in their military operation - aviator styles.

Flying jackets were spotted on the catwalks of Burberry Prorsum, Topshop Unique and Pringle of Scotland during February's Autumn/Winter 2010/11 fashion weeks, prompting the fashion press to hail the style as 'the next big thing' in outerwear.


So, what makes a jacket one that Amelia Earhart and Tom Cruise would be proud to wear? A leather outer, a rich shearling lining and buckle details are the three things to be looking out for.

For a directional look, wear with tapered cargo trousers - check out the US celebrity craze for skinny Houlihan pants - and lace-up boots and soften with a feminine lace or sheer top in khaki or earth tones.

Cost-wise, you're looking at about £80 to £250 on the high-street, although you may pick one up second-hand for around £50 if you're willing to root around the flea markets.


Never one to miss out on a key-item trend, ASOS are already in there with a leather and sheepskin-effect aviator jacket at £110. Next also have some lovely soft leather flying jackets coming in as part of their A/W military/aviator collection.

IMAGES: Burberry and ASOS and Next.

Shark sleeping bag

Just how cool is this plush shark sleeping bag? I think that would be 'very'. The prototype for the Chum Buddy was hand-sewn in Texas by 19-year-old Kendra Phillips, who has been looking into ways of producing the design on a larger scale to meet international demand.


The sleeping buddy will set you back around $200, but I wouldn't like to think how much postage and packaging to the UK would bump up that price.

H & M's paisley print sleeping bag - part of the Fashion Against Aids collection - may be more practical for the festivals, but this would make hangover days so much more fun.


Read an interview with Kendra on Rex Features.

Car boot sale booty

So, we did it. We woke at 6.00am on a Sunday morning and dragged ourselves and a few suitcases full of loot up to our local car boot sale - this is the only time I wish we could drive/had a car. We didn't do badly, coming away with around £25 profit and a nice batch of sunburn from our £6 pitch.

Annoyingly, we didn't manage to shift many books or magazines, the heaviest items to haul back to the flat, and the heat paired with the indecisiveness of our potential customers brought out the Bernard Black in Irish - at one point I thought he was going to tell the young boy thumbing through his copies of SFX and Empire to "get a job" or perhaps inform him that our stall wasn't a library, mate...

Fortunately the reminder that his own mother used to leave him to amuse himself in bookshops, in which he never bought a thing, prevented confrontation with disgruntled parents, though there were a few angry old man/bulldog growls from him when punters disturbed our DVD display.

Of course, as our early morning motivation had granted us entry to the magical world of car booty, I had to make the most of it, meaning I had to spend my profit on trinkets and old things. But really cool trinkets and old things...


My most exciting find was a working Roberts RM20 radio, apparently produced between 1976-1983. I've been looking for a classic one for an age since I resigned myself to the fact that I couldn't justify treating myself to a new retro-look Roberts. However, I imagined I'd have to spend a bit more than £6 when I found one.

The radio is the perfect addition to the bar - the iPod speakers weren't really of the right era - and helped provide a suitable soundtrack to my afternoon of gardening. You can't beat 'greatest hits of all time' on Gold and the comforting tones of BBC4 on a Sunday afternoon *TURNING INTO MY PARENTS*.


I've also been on the hunt for eclectic charm bracelets on eBay and Etsy of late, but as I'm only in the market for costume jewellery, wasn't prepared to cough up many pennies. So I was very pleased to find a woman selling off her collection for £1 a pop. We now have teddy bears, hearts, Disney characters and a host of more traditional good luck charms, oh, and a rather special amethyst gold cuff - £1 from another stall.


My other two finds were a WW2 propaganda poster - now taking pride of place in our bathroom - for 50p and five cute checked and polka dot cake plates at 20p each.




I feel that I was quite restrained - I could have bought twice as much - and I'm very happy with my haul. That's me car-boot-saled-out for another few months though...cue sigh of relief from Irish...

Print this

Prints are fun. With a blank canvas, creative types can transfer whatever's in their head - cats on bikes, parachuting squirrels - onto whatever's in front of them. Brill. T-shirts are a good canvas, yes they are, and I cherish my psychedelic rabbit print Luella t-shirt and another that features a happy dog with the words 'Love - Top breeders recommend it'. But, alas, I don't really have the right shape for t-shirts.

Jersey material is unforgiving around the midrift and stretching over my - can I say ample? - bust makes me look like some kind of wannabe cheerleader. What was that girl called in Scream who met her end by garage door? She may have gone out with Marilyn Manson in real life... The look makes me think of her, anyway.

So, in conclusion, the t-shirt = not my favourite. Canvas bags, however, well, no one can look bad wearing one of those. And, of course, they're much prettier and environmentally-friendly than the ol' plastic.

Etsy is a gold mine for quirky printed totes and here are five that make me smile (and also sing "cat on a biiiike, cat on a biiiiike" to the dramatic tune of A Fifth of Beethoven). Happy times.

$10, MisNopalesArt
$8, happyfamily
$10, emandsprout
$10, MisNopalesArt
$10, MisNopalesArt

Car boot sale - sellers' guide

He doesn't know it yet, but I'm thinking of dragging Irish to a car boot sale early Sunday am. Now that the mornings are bright and there's warmth in the sun, it seems like the perfect time to get rid of all those unwanted books, CDs, clothes and all that other random sh@t that has taken over our flat since the last time we had a clear-out.

The trouble is that I'm a bit of hoarder, as is Irish, so we need to purge ever once in a while, and car boot sales can be a fun way of doing this - no really.

After the last time we conjured up our inner market traders and sold our wares, 'two for a paaawnd', I wrote a guide of tips we picked up along the way for a, now defunct, site called More Than Living. These have served as useful reminders for me, and may just help you out too.


Make sure sets are complete - avoid any unhappy customers or no-sales by ensuring that all the parts of a set are kept together. If you're missing a part, make this known to buyers.

Spare change - as many car boot sale items go for under £5, make sure you have plenty of change for those awkward 'how much is this? £1. Sorry, I've only got a fifty' customers.

Take the kitchen sink - unless you love getting up at 6am on a Sunday morning, a car boot sale is a once-every-few-years event, so make sure you're loaded to bursting with unwanted goods. Those items you don't sell can be dropped off at a charity shop on the way home or later in the week.

Get there early - Getting up at the crack of dawn is worth it when greeted by cash-happy car boot vultures on arrival. These people are often professional eBay sellers who want first dibs on your loot and will pay the best money.

Do your research - Visit a car boot sale in the weeks leading up to your sale to get an idea of realistic selling prices.

Be ready to haggle - Haggling is an essential part of the car boot sale experience, so get used to £5 being shorthand for £3 and offer discounts on multiple items. However, it's wise to take a second to think your patter through; otherwise you may deliver such gems as '£5 for the two or £2 each', as a seller on our neighbouring pitch proposed last time.

Be prepared - In order to make standing in a car park for five hours as comfortable as possible, wrap up warm, take a flask of hot tea or coffee and pack a fold-up chair - just make sure it doesn't get sold.

Let it go - You've brought all this stuff to the car boot sale because you don't want or need it anymore, so don't start getting sentimental when it comes to selling it.

Stay till the end - The general aim of a car boot sale is to sell as many items as you can, so when the sale nears the end, reduce your prices or offer everything for one set price to shift some stock.

Don't go home with more than you came with - Car boot sales are a great place for sellers to pick up a bargain too, but make sure you don't just replace old clutter with new.

Image by Flickr user net efekt

Pretty things

A few things I've liked of late
Italian erotica books from the 1970s - street market in Rome, 1 Euro each.
Bird settee - Boden press day, not for sale.
1960s sun dress - Ebay, £7
1970s hostess plates - Spiral charity shop, Brighton, 50p each.
Floral hairdryer - Cupid & Grace, £25.99.
Apple print deckchair - Next, £25.