A Freudian Slip

Earlier this year I purchased a couple of gorgeous 40's silk dresses from Freudian Slips who are one of my favourite vintage sellers. I kind of knew in my heart that this unusual pink beauty would be too narrow across the shoulders for me but bought it anyway. Lo, it arrived but didn't quite fit right but still it was so beautiful that I didn't care. Every so often I'd get it out of the wardrobe just to coo over it, until the wardrobe starting filling up with other new stuff. Eventually I decided to sell it on, and it was quickly snapped up by Pearl Lowe, herself renowned for her vintage dress collection. I hope to see her wearing it sometime.









Check out the amazing detail on these "piped" pockets.

Congratulations on Your Escape from an Edith Wharton Novel

I do love the J Peterman catalogue - classic, well made clothes with a vintage edge. I have quite a few of their pieces now mostly bought from an American ebay seller who buys up their previous season's stock.

However, they also do their own cut-price "Last-Chance Dept" online and this gorgeous purple velvet jacket was too good a bargain to miss - down to $48 from $189! I resisted the temptation to buy the matching skirt as I can wear it over my many dresses instead.

Check out the amazing description:

Congratulations on Your Escape from an Edith Wharton Novel.

You'll find the 21st century much less confining.

You can be seen on the street in the company of Mr. Julius Beaufort now without raising eyebrows. You can arrive late (well, a bit late) for dinner at the van der Luydens. You can leave one prominent gentleman and cross the parlor to converse with another, less-prominent gentleman.

A word of advice, though: keep the clothes.

(They're even more fabulous today than they were back then.)

The Silhouette Men Dueled Over. That nipped waist, those pert shirred sleeve caps and eyecatching inverted back pleats…still effective, as well as quite distinctive. Bonus: you no longer need to wear a corset.

Vintage Velvet Jacket (N^o. 1935), in rich rayon-and-silk fabric, satinlined. As described, with dramatic notched lapels, small flapped pockets, 10 domed, self-covered buttons down the front.

New vintage buys

Just because I haven't been posting lately doesn't mean I haven''t been buying.. some new (old) purchases:


A stunning 40's jacket in mint condition. Fell in love with the details here: teeny covered buttons, huge sailor collar and turned up cuffs. This is for myself and not the shop!












A lovely 50's pintucked chiffon LBD. Definitely for the shop this Autumn.




A repair a renovation job to do on this lovely 30's gown which I bought off a fellow VFG member. I need to remove the damaged beaded chiffon collar and cuffs and replace with silk or crepe. If all goes well I'll be wearing this to an event later in the year.

Peplums ahoy!

Forties style frocks seem to be hot news on the fashion front right now, and not only that peplums have made an appearance on the catwalks. Oh how I do love a peplum!

I think my favourite dress this year was the Jean-Paul Gaultier "mermaid" dress that he designed for Oscar winner Marion Cotillard, an ingenius interpretation of a peplum - beautiful gold fish scales on a stunning gown, and of course Marion looked gorgeous.

I recently sold one of my 40's peplum frocks but have one left in my store, an unusual floral print number in pristine condition, with it's original belt also in perfect condition. The one I sold also had it's original belt but that hadn't fared so well over the years, in contrast this dress doesn't seem to have been worn much, if at all. I'm tempted to keep it but the waist is a little narrow and I don't want to pull at the seams, unless I drastically lose weight it remains for sale in my shop!

My Lady Swynford

I really should be working on updating my store but I just started reading Anya Seton's "Katherine" and can't put it down - halfway through and I'm hooked!

The housework will also have to wait.

Thanks WendyB!

"Make do and mend" is the New Black

Since my sales clothes splurge of the other week I haven't bought a thing, which is lucky because apart from resisting temptation on the Net-a-porter sale I haven't even been tempted. Without even trying I am bang on the current "make do and mend" trend!

Even Laura Ashley is joining in the wartime spirit with their Wartime Memoirs collection. I do like this cape dress but at £90 for a dress which is 100% polyester I think I'd rather source a vintage original.

So, this week I've been back at work so I popped into Aveda to pick up my annual birthday gift. Aveda is one of those companies who, if you sign up to their newsetter, will send you a voucher every year on your birthday which can be redeemed for a free gift instore - usually a personal scent, hair care or bath cleansing foam. Since I got the scent last year I decided on the cleansing foam this year. After picking my two favourite essential oils my cleansing foam was made up and gift wrapped for me - and I got two large bottles of it plus hair care trial sizes.

Another reason I like Aveda is they're not mean about giving away samples, Kiehls are another favourite. I love Kiehls skincare range and for everything I buy they always throw in half a dozen samples. In fact, before one holiday they gave me big trial sizes of shampoo and conditioner so I wouldn't need to take the big sizes.

For any thrifty fashionistas who want to buy anything in Links of London its a good idea to log into their website and sign up as they send out a 10% off voucher every year on your birthday. I don't shop there too often but last year my sister wanted to buy me one of their silver and gold "sweetie" bracelets so the 10% discount came in very handy.

I'll be resuming work on uploading new dresses for my online store soon. Been taking a bit of a summer break from vintage buying and selling.

My little efforts to ease the credit crunch

I realised that I was spending a lot of money every month on new books, I probably order 3 or 4 a month from Amazon. I read them once and then they take up valuable space on my bookshelves. Well, no more - I have joined the local library. It doesn't have the greatest selection but I feel good going there knowing I am saving some money (and I can use the library computers for free while I'm there), even though looking through the shelves severely cricks my neck which I guess is why I like Amazon so much.

I rarely buy DVD's (I rent from Lovefilm) or CD's (I buy songs I like from itunes) but I discovered that the library rents out these too, and cheaply.

I have given up Starbucks Coffee - this is a biggie for me and probably only possible because I've had a fortnight off work and have managed to wean myself off my daily morning latte and my late afternoon iced latte. My morning caffeine fix alone was costing me £10.25 a week ie £41 a month and £492 a year! Add to that the late afternoon lattes and my Starbucks fix is costing me at least £700+ a year. Hopefully giving up all that milk will take some pounds off me too.

To replace the lattes I went out and bought some Dandelion tea which is apparently a great tonic for the body and helps stimulate the body to eliminate waste and toxins. Rich in magnesium it will also help bone density and prevent osteoporosis. Yay for dandelions!

I also plan to start taking packed lunches to work and am going to buy a Brita water filter and give up buying bottled water.

Maybe steering clear of Waitrose would be a good idea too....