The National Vintage Awards

We had a vintage ball of at The National Vintage Awards in Birmingham last night. Thanks to all of you, we were finalists for the UKs' Best Vintage Fair! And....we won! Hurrah! The event was awash with gorgeous dresses and fabulous hair dos, it really was "where the vintage elite meet"!

Due to a shoe related nightmare, we sadly missed the champagne reception but we still had plenty of time to browse the offerings at Fazeley Studios. As soon as we heard "free cake" we launched ourselves on them as well as lots of handsomely displayed sweets. A few select stalls were at the event, including Vintage Paradise who regularly trade with us. I bought an awesome 70s gold and black maxi that will definitely be making an outing this weekend! We were all treated to a goody bag with discount flyers, keyrings and nail files which made for a nice surprise.

LeKeux's Vintage Hair Salon were on hand to provide their usual high standard of pinup hair styles (and hairspray top ups!) and various talented vintage style performers were entertaining the room throughout the evening. One of my favourite additions to the evening was the superb Vintage Photobooth. Simon, a handsome well dressed chap, was unimpressed with our first attempt (black and white pouty try hard fail - oops) so insisted we had another go with various props and bits of costume. The results were brilliant and I'll definitely be treasuring them especially as it's been a while since I've held a real photo, I can see this being a massive hit at weddings so definitely go check them out!

Now as you can imagine, I was stressing for a while as to what to wear as the dress code was #VintageGlitz. So in the end we just chucked on these old things...! Sadly LouLou couldn't join us as she is celebrating her wedding anniversary at Glastonbury (congrats LouLou!) so I took my good friend Lucy who, despite not being quite as "into" vintage as myself looks beautiful all dolled up in her 50s style evening dress. Proving that anyone can wear vintage.

Bang Bang Vintage 60s mini dress
ASOS art deco style clutch
Beehive courtesy of Rock n Rollers hair.

Bang Bang Vintage sparkly Paisley dress
60s box bag

Lola Lamour was our host for the evening, providing quick wit as well as few 40s and 50s tunes to keep us sweet, dressed up to the nines might I add. The winners from each category are listed below. Do be sure to do some exploring and check out all of them!

Best Vintage Style Performer: Bexi Owen
Best Online Fashion Shop: Lovely's Vintage Emporium
Best Online Homeware Shop: Your Vintage Life
Best Regional Fashion Shops: Miss Dixiebelle, Urban Village, Oh So Vintage!
Best Repro Fashion Brand: HeyDay!
Best Vintage Wedding Fair: Discover Vintage
Best Vintage Life Pinup 2013: Kristelle O Chocolat

Like I said earlier, there were some seriously stunning outfits sashaying around the venue last night, sadly I didn't manage to capture as many of them as I would have liked, but I did put together a very quick video for you on Instagram to give you an idea of what was on offer.

To finish, have a load of photos. You'll have dress and hair envy (and husband envy - scroll to the bottom to see what I mean!)

Diablo Rose from Lekeux Events

Sweeties for my Sweet

Hurrah!

A very special 1920s flapper dress

My Favourite Things trio

Fabulous outfits

Bexi Owen, Best Vintage Performer!

Urban Village providing some much needed 60s and 70s vibes! Best dressed gent of the evening without a doubt.

ONE MORE MASSIVE THANK YOU!

LOULOU AND GINA

XXX

The Birmingham Vintage Fair: Party Season

We had a triple whammy of fairs this weekend. Oh yes! And not only the usual vintage fashion fairs in Birmingham and York but our Something Old Wedding fair debuted in Manchester at Whitworth Hall. But we're not all lucky enough to be getting married in a vintage wedding gown, so there were two fabulous fairs in Birmingham and York for the rest of us!

Have you signed up to our mailing list like this young lady did? Make sure you sign up when you visit us to be in with a chance of winning £50 to spend at the next fair in your city! Not bad for a couple of useful vintage information filled e-mails eh? 

The festive season is creeping up on us like there's no tomorrow and all I could see around me was sequins, pretty dresses and glam accessories. Our fairs prepare you for a very fabulous retro Christmas where you really look the part. I found you some of the gems, so take note and get planning your party get up!

A vibrant stand out beaded cover up from Marney's vintage, easily dressed up or down. But a talking point nonetheless.

This 60s sheer sleeved beauty was in the middle of being purchased as I snapped it! The little black dress will never die! Especially with that embellished low V neck. Larvly.

If black just isn't your thing, but gold is, then this little 70s dress would have ticked your boxes. All the glitz of the party dress but with a unique colour palette to boot.

Horrockses! Horrockses! I spied a beauty! Every now and then a lovely label comes our way and whoever snapped this one up did good. Monochrome late 60s maxi for the elegant party go-er.

Sticking with maxis but fast forwarding a few years to the 70s and the age of sparkly spangly lurex! I adore lurex even though it's a little itchy and (let's be honest) a tad sweaty it looks incredible! This maxi says Abigail's Party all over it. Gorgeous print.

Keeping things bling, this teal dotty shift had me all gooey eyed. An 80s repro of a late 50s style but with added sparkle! Would look classic with black courts and fur. 

But it's not allll about the dress. You need some equally festive bits and bobs to accompany it, such as this eagle necklace or this little red velvet purse. If you're wanting to channel mrs claus then this purple velvet white fur trimmed bolero screamed christmas. Rocking 50s glamour this year? Nothing like a string of pearls to set off your outfit (except maybe some red lippy!).

Bulky coats, parkas and macs just won't do for the vintage lady on her work do, oh no. But this 60s leopard print faux fur cape is ideal! I fell in love. Swoon.

Wanting something a little more day time friendly? These welsh wool capes are everywhere at the moment and a monochrome pattern is hard to come by, especially with a nifty zip fastening. A real find.

So now we've got the dress, the accessories and the glam cover up! The hair and make-up is a whole other blog post coming your way soon!

We had a few stunningly dressed visitors this weekend, but I have to say these two topped my list! Two ladies with tea and cake in Birmingham and magnificent hats! 

If you're free this weekend pop to our Christmas fair in Sheffield where we will have even more traders ready to glam you up for the party season, vintage style. We will be at The Town Hall (next to the peace gardens) 12-5pm and if you pop down at 3:30 you might just hear me sing some of your favourite festive tunes...!

Gina x