Car boot sale season starts

Being somewhat of a wuss - a fair-weather car boot saler if you will - this weekend marked the start of the season of early morning bargain hunting for me. And I wasn't the only one brought out by the sun - BHASVIC was buzzing with seller chatter, good natured haggling and excited exclamations when gems were unearthed. I was very happy with my haul:

Hornsea pot - 50p
Iron mirror - £2
New Schuh boots - £7
River Island striped dress - £3 (similar to the £95 Whistles dress I've had my eye on)
M&S leopard print tunic - £3.99 (actually picked up at British Heart Foundation charity shop)

Silent Sunday - pink wafer

Pink waffle knit - Topshop via charity shop
Black mini - Monki
Boots - vintage via car boot sale

New year, same me

'New year, new you' - possibly the most over-used message peddled by the media, retailers and any one trying to sell you anything in January. Well, I don't want a new me thanks - I'm pretty good as I am. So when it comes to fashion, in 2012 I am going to continue to:

[This is my serious clothes-swapping face]

Wear black skinny jeans, even though I ‘shouldn’t’. A stylist this year told me that skinny jeans on those with hour-glass figures can make carrots of legs, as we carry most of our weight on our thighs and hips - not the best look perhaps. Yet while I can appreciate that this may be technically true, they're just too versatile to give up. Topshop's Baxter jeans are a real time-saver when it comes to throwing simple outfits together in the morning.

Invest in discount designer pieces. As I've written about previously, I'm all about investing in designer bargains on members-only sites, at pre-loved designer sales and via good old eBay. Much more likely to hold their value and great outfit focal points, my favourite designer bargains of 2011 were a Mawi skull pendant (£40 - Cocosa), Luella silk top (£45 - Rag Trade Sale) and lace detail T-shirt (£15 - eBay) and Alice by Temperley black lace dress (£62 - Cocosa).

Stock up on staples. It seems I can never have enough basic black tops, black cardigans or tights, as well as the aforementioned black jeans with which to pair colour pop pieces. I've experimented with many different looks over the years but am now, in my late 20s, leaning towards the sleek and simple Scandinavian-inspired aesthetic - hence the Monki lust. Although that's not the say the bold print dresses won't be making their usual appearance in the summer.

Rummage through people's left-overs. I don't think my love of charity shops, car boot sales and flea markets will ever wane. The thrill of the find is somewhat addictive, always a good talking point, and, most importantly, you can pick up unique pieces that no one else will be wearing at bargain prices - how would that ever get tired?

Clothes swap. Even better - if you can imagine - than the above is clothes swapping. Free clothes, yes FREE! I resolve to acquire yet more free clothes next year, and the year after that, and... you get it. But it'll be hard to beat the Marc by Marc Jacobs sun dress I snapped up at Brighton's first vintage and retro swish.

What are you going to continue to do in the new year?

Photo by Anj Daskarolis

Charity shop & car boot bargains

Meakin poppy bowl, £2 and red 1970s pan, £2 - both from Spiral charity shop


Sadler Staffordshire jug, £2 - Brighton Marina car boot sale. Metal teapot - wedding present


1980s colour-block dress, £9.99 - Oxfam, Western Road


Embroidered cheese-cloth tunic, £5 - Brighton Marina car boot sale

How to bag a beauty bargain

Now in my late twenties, lotions and potions promising to slow down the signs of ageing and quality every-day cosmetics are becoming increasingly attractive. I'm more likely to be drawn to £30 tubs of creams than a pot if £5 sparkly green eyeshadow, which is unfortunate, seeing as my budget is still very much in the £5 sparkly green eyeshadow bracket. But, a bargain-hunter/cheap-skate till the end, I've discovered a few ways of kitting out my bathroom, and my face, with expensive skincare products without shelling out full-price. And you'll be pleased to know that none of them involve shoplifting.


In-store events
Last week in Brighton's L'Occitane branch, I indulged in cupcakes, sipped from a champagne glass, enjoyed a mini facial and walked away with a goodie bag bursting with £45 worth of products, and all for just £10. Thus is the joy of in-store promotional events. I'd read about this one in Stylist magazine, and booked my place immediately. The goodie bag was full of luxury shower gels, face creams and moisturisers that will keep me going for a good couple of months. Check magazines and skincare retailer's websites for events near you.

Magazine freebies
With the women's magazine market so saturated, free gifts are a great way to tempt you to buy a particular title, and they seem to be getting better. Steer clear of the cheap t-shirts and canvas bags and focus on the cosmetic giveaways. Glamour has offered free Benefit, Nails Inc and Clinique gifts in the past year - all pricey products. Get a subscription to a magazine and the savings can work out to be even greater. You may even get an extra freebie for signing up.


Vouchers and offers
Boots is the Don when it comes to skincare savings. It's forever giving out £5-off vouchers that can be used to bag yourself some bargain beauty treats. And the brands in-store also give away excellent gifts - No7 and Clinique especially. Sometimes a sample serum tube can last for months. Also look out for Boot's two-for-one offers and make the most of the Boots advantage card - I used a double points voucher when I bought all of my wedding makeup and quickly amassed a tidy sum with which to treat myself in the future. Supermarkets can also be good places to look for offers on branded skincare.

Charity shops & car boot sales
Charity shops and car boot sale pitches are full of unwanted gifts, and these often include skincare sets, barely-used perfumes, hair products and plenty of other lotions and potions. Go rummaging just after Christmas to bag the best finds. Or hold your own gift and clothes swap after the holidays - you may be after just the thing your friend received with a fake smile and quickly hid in a drawer.

Oh, and one more top tip - check out ASOS.com for branded beauty products and perfumes in the sale, particularly post-Christmas.

Do you have any other money-saving secrets? Do share...

Second image by Flickr user SunShineCity.

Marina boot sale win

My first time at the Marina car boot sale yielded this amazing paisley print travel bag - £10, haggled down from £20 - and this original 1950s coffee table - £15 down from £20. Win and win.


I can't believe I haven't been to this sale before. It's more of a second-hand or vintage fair than a 'crap-I'm-clearing-out' affair, and I could have bought so much more if I had the space. Maybe it's time to move to a bigger place...

Car boot sale booty

Midi-length, cranberry and pleats - three of this season's key styles in one light-weight skirt, a Cath Kidston-esque pin-board for displaying inspirations and reminders and a pair of designer Melissa for Herchcovitch rubber brogues. Today I bought all of these covetable items, and some, for less than 20 of your English pounds.

Oh BHASVIC, how I've missed the Sunday car boot sale - it's been a long and lonesome winter without you. Let's make this year's spring and summer fling the most fruitful yet!



Travel case - 50p
Pleated midi-skirt - 50p
Cow cream jug - £3
Sixties' coffee jar - £1
Melissa for Herchcovitch rubber brogues - £10
Checked fabric pin board - £4
Total - £19

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

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.

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...

My favourite decade for style: The Noughties

Lana Clements explains how Noughties style looked backwards to cherry-pick the best of decades past.

After a rather tomboyish moment in the nineties, the Noughties did a complete 180 and made way for a welcome return to lady-like chic. The decade-long celebration of femininity has been earmarked by twenties Flappers, Forties demure and Jackie O Fifties – even Eighties glamour had its place – all to provide a fashion feast that is a girly-girl's delight.

The Noughties saw personal style really come into its own and this was really all thanks to one over-riding fashion movement: vintage.

Vintage allowed the freedom to engineer a style that was truly unique. Rather than relying on the high-street to churn-out reinventions of eras gone by, stead-fast stylistas began raiding Oxfam, Sue Ryder, flea-markets, car-boot sales and anywhere else they could find a piece of authenticity. Never before had raiding your grandma’s wardrobe been so rewarding!

The result has been an almost anything-goes approach, juxtaposing one-off designer finds with throwaway high-street fads. The style of the Noughties has been a fascinating amalgamation of clothes and trends from all eras.

There has only been one true Noughties style icon for me - Kate Moss, who returned to the forefront of fashion to prove her style status. So desperate to emulate her look, the masses have lapped up the Kate Moss collection for Topshop – one of the most successful ventures the chain has ever produced. The model has perfected a style which incorporates vintage chic, rock 'n roll glamour and designer all to an effect that is timeless and effortless.

My favourite item of clothing from the Noughties has, of course, been an amazing vintage find. Born in the Seventies, my faux-fur coat was discovered in a small charity shop in the backwaters of Wales and was just £4! I love the glamour it creates - classic yet edgey.

Oxfam Vintage Day & Loved, Worn and Reborn

With two flyers for vintage and second-hand clothes events having taken pride of place on my fridge door for the past couple of weeks, this weekend was one eagerly awaited, and it didn’t disappoint.

Saturday saw Hove’s Oxfam shop transformed into a snoopers’ paradise for vintage-enthusiasts, with the usual stock stored away and only the best retro gems allowed to reside on the racks. The place was packed as word spread and every corner offered up equally enticing items; from clothes, shoes and accessories through to kitsch home-wares.

Sunday provided an equally alluring prospect, playing host to a ‘Loved, Worn and Reborn boot-ique sale’ – a better-class of car-boot or jumble-sale – in a little-known Brighton church hall. With clothes-rails interspersed with tables flaunting home-made gifts, cupcakes and mulled wine, a warm Christmas atmosphere radiated and, once again, there were some fantastic finds to be snapped up.

The best of my haul

All items £5 or under (includes above Brigitte Bardot poster in frame)

My so called second-hand life

Second-hand shopping has claimed more column inches since we fell into recession, but while the impetus for the growth in popularity of charity shops, boot-ique sales, and vintage fairs may have come from necessity, such outlets have flourished thanks to the increasing number of people searching for the unique in a consumer market saturated by fast-fashion and mass-produced style statements.

Not only is second-hand shopping often cheaper than the high-street, the experience can be constructed as a sport. Where it may be easy to find stylish home accessories in Habitat, for example, it takes a more tuned eye to spot the gems in a car boot sale, or down the local Oxfam store.

Our increased inclination to peer fondly backwards rather than strain forwards – this season’s top fashion trends; body-con dresses, statement shoulders and leggings all made their catwalk debut in the 1980s; and Cath Kidston’s 1950’s-housewife-inspired prints have found appeal well beyond the yummy mummy market – has also helped propel second-hand shopping into the mainstream.

Fashion seems to have become self-referential to the point where we have come full-circle – when wondering which defining trends from the noughties will make it onto the moodboards of future designers; you have to ask which trends from the noughties didn’t borrow from eras past. Thus it’s only natural for full-skirted 1950s dresses and kitsch homewares to have become more fashion-forward than fuddy-duddy.

To me, second-hand shopping is a discipline, in which to excel I have to put in the hours, but from which the reward - the buzz of finding that unique item to help create my individual style - becomes slightly addictive. And if said item originates from my favourite decades in style – the 1960s and 70s – all the better.

A few of my favourite vintage finds from around my home:


Bought for £3.50 from a Brighton flea market.


Dressing table, bought for £40 from Gumtree. Vintage bags £3 and £4 from a charity shop.


Coffee cups and saucers, bought from a flea market in Amsterdam - 10 Euros for the set. Flask £1.50 chairty shop. Clock £5 Ebay.


Metal tea pot bought from a charity shop for £2.50. Cup and saucers part of the above set.


JH Lynch print, bought from an street market in Amsterdam for 7 Euros.


Old knitting magazine cover, bought from a Brighton flea market for £1.50 and framed.


Bought from a charity shop for £1.


Bought from a charity shop for £1.