A grand day out

Living in Brighton, on the south coast of the UK, our first thought for a day out is more often than not another seaside town. A real favourite is Bexhill, east of Brighton on the way to Hastings.

It's a small town with great charity shops, old fashioned cafés and the splendid modernist De La Warr Pavilion on the seafront.

I found a great vintage shop today, Maud's, at 22 St Leonards Road. I asked if they had a card and they said "we aren't on the phone". No website, Facebook page or Twitter feeds then I'd guess!

A teenage boy asked me, "what country are you from?" when he overheard me saying "your dad's just over the road" in my geordie accent. Ah, so near and yet so far away...

On the mend

Still not quite well but on the mend now.

Vintage 1960s dress from Frock Me! and faux snake shoes from Hebden Bridge, that bohemian enclave of South Yorkshire; home-made button bracelet, specs from eBay and a stern look.

Under the weather

I'm feeling really unwell today and – perhaps connected, who knows? – not one piece of clothing I'm wearing is vintage (my Irregular Choice shoes came from eBay, but they were new so even they don't count).

Still, at least I'm not on the couch in Slanket, and don't even consider the thought that there may be a pair of sweatants lurking in my house!

Hopefully, normal service will be resumed tomorrow.

Fictional Fashion Friday

I had already left the charity shop (empty-handed) when I spied "Smart Girl" in the window, turned right around and went back in for it.

It's nicely designed with lots of illustrations and tons of early 1960s fashion (my favourite) but it is so conservative – advising 15 and 16 year old girls on smart suits, girdles and even floristry!

It really brought it home to me that Mod fashion and the "youthquake" had yet to hit suburban Britain, bringing with it the idea that there were fashions, ideas and music just for the teenagers and not adults. No wonder young people rebelled against being made into carbon copies of not only their parents but their grandparents.

The stuff of thrifting legend!

My excitement is barely containable: I found a Quorum dress amongst an unruly pile of house-clearance garments at a car boot sale on Saturday. This is what the Vintage Fashion Guild says about Quorum:

"Quorum was one of the great London boutiques of the 1960s. It was founded by Alice Pollock in 1964. She was joined by husband and wife Ossie Clark and Celia Birtwell in late 1965. The clothes at Quorum were designed by Pollock and Clark, and they were often made from fabrics designed by Birtwell.

Quorum was known for their huge production fashion shows, which attracted the brightest stars of London – the Beatles, and friend David Hockney among them. The clothes were sensual and the feel was Bohemian.

Because of an ever increasing debt, controlling interest in Quorum was sold to Radley in 1969, but Pollock, Clark and Birtwell remained as designers into the 1970s."

http://vintagefashionguild.org/label-resource/quorum/

If the thing actually fit me I might actually have expired through over-excitement. As it is, the waist is only just wider than my neck, so I have offered it up to the world on eBay.

Seems a shame to hide them away…

Just a small selection of some of the labels hidden away inside garments and hats, mainly from the 1960s.

Tigris and other mid-century ceramics

Given my very large collections of vintage clothing and tin robots, I do try not to get into collecting things only for the sake of it – I just don't have space to store much more stuff and I do like to use everything I own.

However, I have had a passing interest in mid-century ceramics for some time, but I do resist buying them… usually.

I particularly like the 1960s designs for Swedish manufacturer Rorstrand by Marianne Westman, especially the "My Garden" pattern (featuring fish, not gardens for some strange reason), which is rarely seen.

Recently I came across this 1950s ceramic cat vase, in perfect condition, and bought it intending to sell it on. After a very short time it had charmed its way into my affections and I decided to keep it.

Stamped on the base only with an unhelpful "Foreign", some research led me on a wild goose chase through Italian and Swedish ceramics and eventually to its unmistakeable origins: Schmider, a West German ceramics manufacturer, in the Tigris pattern designed by Anneliese Beckh.

I enjoyed this little research trip and I discovered some lovely things along the way. I can see how this could so very easily become a new collecting fad, but I am going to try hard to resist it. At least vintage clothes don't need dusting!