Bargains - a/w10

A selection of bargain buys from recent months, along with some old favourites and retro homewares.

Dress: £20 Topshop sale
Boots: £16 Traid
Bar: £30 Spiral charity shop
Cat: £1.50 Spiral charity shop
Couple figure: £2 Spiral charity shop
Ice bucket: £4 North Laine flea market
Roberts radio: £6 BHASVIC car boot sale
Lamp: £4 Shelter charity shopAs above
J letter necklace: £10 Tatty Devine at Clothes Show London
D&G little black velvet dress: £40 Oxfam charity shop, Western Road
Lou Shabner framed print: £25 Oxfam charity shop, Western Road
Long gold bird charm necklace: Handmade
Faux fur coat: £20 Upper Gardner Street Market
Red Formica table: £30 Spiral charity shop
Fur coat: As above
Purple court shoes: £15 H&M
Telephone table: £10 BHASVIC car boot sale
Joker painting: Commission Vicky Roberts
Floral H&M jacket: £5 charity shop in Crouch End
Black Topshop jeans: £6 Traid
Bird print shirt: £15 River Island sale
Small leather satchel: £10 Ebay
Typewriter: £15 Age Concern George Street
Mui Mui glasses: £175 Specs opticians
White coat: £5 BHASVIC car boot sale
Russell & Bromley boots: £30 Vintage @ Goodwood
Chair: £15 Spiral chairty shop

Silhouette necklaces

An image of this Yves Saint Laurent necklace (£1,010!), featured in the November issue of Vogue, reminded me of a few similar, cheaper, silhouette necklaces that have caught my eye of late.

I can't work out if they're childishly charming, or a bit creepy. There was something about Tinkerbell, for example, that always freaked me out. Especially Julia Roberts as Tinkerbell - scary stuff...

Anyway, I spotted wooden silhouette necklaces such as the one below in a few pretty little boutiques in Cornwall in June, and have since become a little bit obsessed with the Stolen Thunder website.

A friend of a friend, Maggie Angus, has also starting selling acrylic jewellery online, and has some fun jive and ballroom dancer necklaces in her collection.

And I couldn't write about silhouette necklaces without bigging up Tatty Devine - the experts in iconic acrylic jewellery. This swing girl necklace is one of the Best Of Tatty Devine, which they describe as "a set of 50 favourites modelled by some of our best friends and favourite folks".

1960s telephone table

Today I went to BHASVIC car boot sale, looking for small things - a old but working watch, some desk storage, perhaps a little something pretty...I bought a 1960s telephone table.

I ummed and ahhed about how I was to get it home, but luckily the man selling it was a friendly chap, and offered to drop it round for just £2 extra, bringing the grand total to £12. Take that Snoopers...


Unfortunately, someone had tried to pimp my telephone table (it was always going to be mine) by reupolstering the seat with some ill-advised material - shiny, crinkly and spotty. The colours were all wrong for the flat too, ours being a red and orange home.


However, Mr Table Man told me that this was covering the original black vinyl - and seemed quite surprised when I said that I would much prefer that - so I set to work with my screwdriver and pink jewellery pliers, taking the table apart and performing some arduois staple surgery.


There were moans, there were accusations of drama queening and there was a tiny, weeny tantrum when I screwed the seat back on to the wrong end of the table top.

But the job only ended up taking an hour and was pretty damn satisfying, especially when the staples came out whole (similar to when you're extracting a splinter) and the simple and sleek black seat was revealed.


My collection of winter boots is now residing in the slide cupboards, the BT box is hidden and Irish will no longer have to sit on the toliet lid when on the phone to his family. A happy day.

Montreal's magnificent skyline

Montreal's skyline boasts some of Canada's most striking modernist buildings. The best place to take full advantage of the view is down at the harbour. Look across the water and you could be forgiven for thinking that you're looking both into the past and the future.

One of the most exclusive and sought-after addresses in the city, the bizarre-looking concrete boxes that make up Habitat 67 were built to celebrate Expo 1967, the World's Fair grandly entitled 'Man and his World'.




Another of the Fair's lasting legacies is the Montreal Biosphere, a futuristic-looking dome which houses interactive exhibits aimed at increasing understanding of environmental issues. After a fire burnt away the 'bubble' in 1976, the structure was left out of use and in disrepair until bought by Environment Canada in 1990.


Turn around to look back at the sky-scrapers that define the city's skyline and another iconic architectural achievement stands out. The Aldred Building (in the background of the photograph) is similar to the many Art Deco masterpieces that jewel New York's panorama, and indeed was completed in the same year as the Empire State Building.



Click on the images to enlarge and see some of Sussex's best Art Deco buildings over at www.vintagebrighton.com.

Ethical fashion feature in Fat Quarter magazine

My very talented, creative and hard-working journo friend Katie Allen has put together the second print issue of her fab magazine Fat Quarter - an alternative to women's glossies.

This issue features an interview with enterprising musician Laura Kidd, aka She Makes War, a short story by Michele Roberts, author of the Booker-shortlisted Daughters of the House, instructions for a DIY textiles project, a piece on the lives of Japanese women, book reviews, music reviews and loads more! Delicious.

Plus, there is a feature written by my fair hand on ethical fashion. Just how much do we really care?

See the piece by clicking on the PDF link below and buy your copy of Fat Quarter for just £2.50 (plus £1 for P&P in the UK) here. It's well worth it.

Fat Quarter Ethical Fashion

Canadian vintage finds

I'm back, and have a very good reason for being away - the best reason in fact: I got married (more on that to come) and my new husband and I have just returned from a fortnight's honeymoon in Canada.

Having only ever travelled within Europe before, the holiday was a real adventure, and as we spent four nights in the harbour town of Halifax, Nova Scotia before travelling on a luxurious overnight train to the French-speaking city of Montreal, Quebec for another four, we saw and experienced a great amount.

A guide to the many and varied vintage shops in Halifax and Montreal is to come on my new website www.vintagebrighton.com, which is another reason I've been a little quiet of late. The website is a labour of love and boasts a vintage shop directory, events listings and original blog and feature content - a must-see for vintage lovers whether living in Brighton or not.

Until then, I thought I share with you a few of my Canadian vintage finds:


The Seabiscuit Jumper - bought for $30CDN from Dressed in Time, Halifax. Similar to the alpine knits spotted all over the catwalk at A/W 2010 Fashion Weeks, particularly those championed by D&G, and perfect for keeping me cosy on the boat trip we took.


The Sixties Travel-bag - a floral delight picked up for $20CDN from Seconde Chance in Montreal, a fabulously vibrant little shop on Rue Amherst, somewhat of a destination for lovers of 50s-70s-style furniture and objects. The perfect weekend bag.


The Granny Bag - in great condition - bought in a bundle with a amber heart pendant and 1990s Kate Moss Calvin Klien promo postcard for $20CDN from a junk shop just off Rue Amherst and next to a pet shop housing some of the cutest little kittens I've ever seen. We had to buy yet another present for our cat there to justify our endless cooing and talking to the little furry bundles.


The Pop Shoppe bottle - not exactly vintage but I loved the style of this label so much that I had to buy the fizzy pop - although half of it ended up going down the plug-hole. The bottle is now on my dressing table, waiting to hold a flower. The green costume-jewellery ring on top fits only on my little finger - I'm hoping it's for a child and that my fingers aren't in fact massively obese - but is very sweet and the colour is my birth stone. This was $5CDN from Kitsch n Swell, a fabulous little shop sandwiched between a handful of other vintage boutiques on Boulevard Saint-Laurent in Montreal.


The Shearling Boots - not vintage at all, but I never said I was a purist... Everyone who reads the fashion press will know that shearling is huge this season, with trims appearing on aviator jackets, boots and gloves. I figured that buying these from a shop in The Village in Montreal may reduce the chances of bumping into others wearing the exact same pair in Brighton - we will see. The heel height is just right for my low-pain theshold and, as you can see in the below photo, wearing them makes me very happy.

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.