What's In Store at Shoreditch this Saturday...?

We have a huge vintage packed weekend coming up in not one, not two, not three but FOUR cities across the UK! We are coming to Shoreditch, Oxford,  Brighton and Nottingham this weekend (phew!) with a plethora of vintage clothes, accessories and jewlery, cakes, tea and pretty china, the very best vintage hair and beauty salons as well as some fabulous retro performers! So we are going to do a bit of a teaser post on what's happening in Shoreditch this Saturday 27th April...

First of all, how could we not be excited about having the fabulous Lipstick & Curls with us for our Shoreditch fair? These girls do the hair and make up for many a retro bride as well as Bernie Dexter for What Katie Did! Versatile is the word! Check out these lovely dos that we found on their gallery for some inspiration. If you're wanting to get an appointment with the salon, please e-mail info@lipstickandcurls.net

Highly Desirable Objects are joining us on Saturday with some very handsome looking jewelry. I absolutely love these brooches, especially the ship, it would look smashing on my new mac collar. Tapestry bags are always going to be a winning purchase so get your hands on this delicate purse on Saturday for your night out outfit.

Gin Lane have an Etsy full of pretty frocks, including this amazing Jean Varon white and purple trimmed maxi .

Vintage Fair favourites Wolf & Moon will be returning with their geometric perspex designs. This is just a small selection of what they will be bringing to the jewelry hungry masses on Saturday! There's never been a better time to invest in a statement necklace, pop it on over a done up shirt collar and you've made your outfit.

Miss Kingsley will be there with some bright and beautiful vintage frocks. We love this 50s rainbow skirt, perfect with a petticoat! Or if 50s isn't your era then we love this floral 60s secretary style dress, tan belt to cinch in your waist and you're Mad Men-done.

Now we don't have a video of the exact troupe of swing dancers but just for fun, check out this awesome energetic bunch of crazy cats! Shoreditch, get yourselves to the vintage fair to sit back, have a cup of tea and a cake and watch some Lindyhop!

Talking of tea and cake, we've only got one the best tea parties around, Mabel's Vintage Tea to serve you their delicious victoria spoonge topped with fresh strawberries amongst other sweet treats.

Looks like you'll be more than sorted for pretty vintage jewelry this weekend in Shoreditch with a table full of gems from Vintage Lady. Some Like It Holy have these awesome 40s repro dungarees on offer, fight the 90s grunge kids with the original! Kipper and Bow are bringing this adorable French 1950s cosmetics purse,  so pretty and special.

Vintage Child be bringing some of these incredible 70s/80s frocks on Saturday! This powder blue 80s waterfall maxi is gooooooorgeous.

And that lot is just a smidgen of what will be on offer so roll on the weekend! Lookout tomorrow for what we have to show off in Brighton!

Gina x

English Rose Cosmetics

Our fairs are always top notch (if we do say so ourselves) but sometimes we get a trader who is offering something just a little different and that's exactly what we have at The Shoreditch Vintage Fair this weekend and English Rose Cosmetics are just that. We wanted to know more about Karin, the woman behind the pretty things and her homegrown business, and we figured you might too! Especially if you're off to the Shoreditch fair, you could be getting your mitts on a freebie...

I got the inspiration for English Rose Cosmetics when I saw a cosmetic advert featuring the actress Emma Watson” says Karin McKay, Owner of Reading based English Rose Cosmetics.  “I just felt the time was right for the world to appreciate the beauty of an English Rose, and wanted to put a face to the term”.

That was at the end of 2011.  Over the next few weeks the concept of giving ‘English Rose’ an identity and personality took shape and work started in earnest in February 2012.  Due to a road traffic injury, Karin had been unable to work in the cosmetic industry for the past 2 years.  She then took up blogging about her favorite products under ‘Beauty Knowledge’ and started sharing her 16 years of extensive knowledge on ingredients that really work in cosmetics.  “Blogging about my favorite cosmetics got me thinking about how I would make the perfect products, and the positive response I got worldwide to my blogs inspired me go to the next step – my own beauty range”.

“Developing the product range came easily to me” says Karin, “in fact, I have to hold back and only work on a couple at a time.  What I found more challenging was getting the packaging absolutely right and I’m now happy that I’m there and soon I want to be pitching to the likes of John Lewis, Liberty’s and maybe QVC”.

Unlike other beauty brands, Karin took the unusual step of selling direct to customers and regularly has a pop-up stall at various craft & vintage events around London and the Home Counties, details of which can be found in the Events section on the website.  “It was very important to meet customers face to face, discuss their skincare concerns and get a response to my product, as well as ideas for future products” says Karin, “it has been truly rewarding to get such a positive response and to build up a loyal customer base this way”.

To get your hands on a FREE Rose Kiss Spritz at our fair on Saturday, you've got to be quick! The first customer to purchase any item from English Rose Cosmetics will also get a Rose Spritz absolutely FREE. So, get in there super fast!

To find out more all you've got to do is head over to Karin's Facebook, follow her on twitter @karinmckay1  or drop her an e-mail Karin@english-rose-cosmetics.com. Or of course, come to our Shoreditch fair and have a natter!

Such cute packaging!

Gina

x

The Bright Young Twins

"I think me and Harriet lead lives that people wouldn't expect us to..."

Photo: Katie Holt

The The Bright Young Twins are Harriet and Aimee; two young beautiful women who describe themselves as "vintage creeps with questionable tastes". You can probably understand already, having looked at the image above and read this brief introduction, as to why I wanted to talk to these girls!

How did it all start?

H: It was your idea!

A: I suppose it was my idea, but we've both been reading blogs for some time and I thought 'come on let's do it!' We just decided that, we wear a lot of outfits anyway and since we read so many blogs we figured by writing our own we could 'give something back'. 

H: We took so much inspiration from the people we followed on the internet that we felt we could inspire other people to do what those people did for us.

Are there any blogs in particular that you regularly read?

H: Confessions Of A Female Drag Queen has to be our favourite, (A: Oh yeah we love that girl!) Stella Rose is just amazing. 

A: Oh and Fashion Forestry and Hannah and Landon are two blogs we love. But the blogs we read have dramatically changed over the past two years. We just read so many! Ooh! Fairy Fay has just launched her blog, she's our housemate and has this gorgeous 60s Rolling-Stones-girlfriend thing going on with her long hair, she's really cool.

Did you expect Bright Young Twins to take off like it has? You have 991 blog followers!

A: I know! I don't think either of us expected it to take off no, the first three months were just like, our mums, nans and friends reading it!

H: I nearly gave up, it got to the point where I felt we were giving and giving and getting nothing back. The whole point was to share stuff and we weren't getting the feedback, I'd wear an outfit and then think "what's the point in photographing it if nobody's going to appreciate it?" But then we got featured on the Swedish blog Miriam Kafferep and on Casey's Elegant Musings and it just went from there. 

A: We also started going to parties like Blitz Party and the Chap Ball where we met other established bloggers like Fleur De Guerre which we were really chuffed about as she said she read our blog.

I don't see your blog as a "fashion blog" as you offer so much of yourselves to your readers. Was this a conscious effort?

H: Originally we were very much hoping to make the blog about historical garments and dating particular pieces and in depth posts on vintage styles but nobody read those posts! (But you can still find those in our archive). We looked at the blogs we read and why we like reading them and it's because they are about that person as much as they are about the clothes they wear. 

A: Definitely, like I think Harriet's right when she says there's an element of voyeurism with blogs. I think me and Harriet lead lives that people wouldn't expect us to. 

H: People seem to expect us to live a certain way, not to swear and be good girls! but we are not trying to re-live a certain decade. We just want to show how passionate we are about the fashions from those eras and how that fits into our very modern lives. 

A: We are very much feminists and that's something we wanted to stress in our blog. People have this idea that women who wear vintage are expected to carry the morals along with that time, which is ridiculous!

Do you think living in London gives you a greater freedom to dress the way you do?

H: I think I would dress this way no matter where I lived, but I love this city. It has an impact due to the fact we have access to so much more. 

A: There's never a point where we would change our style to suit our surroundings, we dress the same no matter where we go. 

Give us some London tips, shops, drinking or otherwise.

H: We love Spitalfields on a Thursday. It's definitely our favourite place to shop. We love charity shops but if we told you our favourite charity shops then we wouldn't get all the best stuff! And Paper Dress too - clothes and booze! 

A: We love bad bars. The irony is coming out now! We just love how the weirdest people would try and chat us up. But now we love parties...so Harriet's flat. 

Harriet, you and flowers! When are these gorgeous floral hair pieces going to be available to buy?

H: ...definitely by Spring next year?! I've just started working in a florists' so it's pretty tiring getting up at 5am everyday but yeah, I love flowers. I'm just lazy!

A: That's exactly it! People follow us more for Harriet's style, but if it wasn't for me then the posts wouldn't even happen! 

Aimee, congrats on graduating in English Literature! Has that been a big inspiration for your style?

A: I would say so, yes. I only started wearing dark red lipstick because of all the women in Dracula with their big plush lips not because of the magazines! 

Dressing certain ways attracts attention. Have you found this and how do you react to the extra attention?

H: In Berlin a couple of years ago, we were stood next to the Brandenburg gate and people were taking pictures of us instead of the famous monument right next to us! We were like, "It's over there!" 

A: It's not very nice. Harriet hates it and I don't like it very much either. 

H: I have a strong opinion on the whole thing. Why can't people leave each other alone? I'm not a freak show. I may think that I think somebody dresses awfully but never in a million years would I think I had the right to tell them! 

A: I suppose on the other hand, I've just come to expect it and accept it. You just have to deal with it.

H: I actually feel sorry for people. It's like, my hat is blowing your mind right now, it's a hat!

It was an absolute pleasure to meet the Bright Young Twins, keep up to date with all of their latest posts as they get up to goodness knows what wearing goodness knows what! 

Gina x