The Vintage Girlie Magazine oy B y d d e th e T d n i h e b th s
The my n explosio e vintage way g th n ping i p g o g o H l y B d f Lin loor o B t i h b a r e l a t A lit with S t a h c l r u Pip up C Plus, Th e The vin Vintage news t ag more… e diary and m uch
Issue 22
Dear Vintagers… • Well, here we are again and at least the sun is in the sky, happy days are here again! So let’s start the summer hols with a new look! Not bad huh…? • This week, I took a turn on the dance floor this week and made a few trip ups learning Lindy Hop… until the hip gave out, but managed to bag the most essential listening in CD form, Swingin’ at The Speakeasy. (HMV for £7!) Bargain! • We also got together with new vintage business and the ultimate upcycle foundation, Birch and Hare. • Also, we take a trip into the world of blogging and this week, it’s the turn of Sarah Hawkings from Homespun Stitchworks • We catch up with Pip Up Curl starlet and general all round nice gal, Sarah Bloor and how her business is shaping up in the style works. • So, without further or do, let the vintage tales begin…! • The Ed x
…Star vintage blogger this week: Sarah Hawkings and Homespun Stitchworks…
Stitching in the vintage …
by TVG
Sarah brings a whole new meaning to the word vintage. When we think of vintage, we think a lot of the time, how we see vintage as it is recognised today. We hear it through music shops and retro fairs – we think of Elvis, Buddy Holly for example…. And visually, we see people who share our ambrosial devotion wearing it… we watch This Old Thing (thanks Dawn for bringing it to the masses.)
But for me, vintage is fundamentally about sharing. Back in the day, we shared our lives with our neighbours and during the darker years, we shared out plight with those who suffered as a result of the War. For many of us, that sharing is still with us today and for those whose drive is viewing the world not only in a nostalgic frame of mind, but living it, this sharing quality is something that remains. There is something to be said for the technical 21st Century. We can talk to each other from the other side of the world through word and speech a damn sight easier than we could 70 years ago. We don’t have to rely on Royal Mail and Air Mail to get the message across. Today, it’s instant. The internet has given us the power beyond all past imagination to communicate. Sarah’s blog fuses both the old and the new together in a way of making her contact personal. She opens her captivating world up to us and lets us have a look inside. She shares items from around the world with us, howto videos, features from other feeds through the World Wide Web, buttons, beads, threads also introducing competitions, offers and just about anything to tempt even the most stubborn of us needlepersons. She brings together vintage from literally around the globe, focusing on every corner of stitching, embroidery, designing, in fact, she regularly asks us to give it a go! It inspires you to do so! Nothing seems out of the reach of any of us here. It fascinates even the worst stitchers, me included!
It is, for me, one of the most informative and creative blogs around in the vintage world. For those of you who live passionately for the textiles and samplers of this world, then this modern, warm and inviting piece of reading is for you. Â http://www.homespunstitchworks.co.uk/
Check out the photos over the next few pages to see where we’ve been at vintage events near YOU! Do you spot anyone you know? Tell us!
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We marched down to Milton Keynes latest retro romp through the era’s thanks to Harry and Edna on The Wireless and their special brand of nostalgic entertainment..
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The fabulous Bevin Boys Performing their set at IF at Milton Keynes‌
Vintage cycling with Birch and Hare… by TVG
Upcycling, recycling, restoring and distressing. It’s all in a day’s work in the workshop for new business, Birch and Hare
There are, as we aware, dull, lifeless, regimental organisations distributing to the many nations furniture for the masses. IKEA, if I am allow to use such language in this humble magazine, have been exploding in various high volume areas of the world with their angry and slightly opinionated shade of blue. Each hanging in suburbia like a pungent smell in our nostrils.
Heaving great flat packed slabs of chipboard into the back of our Nissan Micra’s, we are led to believe that what we have spent our cash on without so much as a carrier bag in sight, is what the future is made of. We have depleted our coinage for decades now on this Swedish output, and do we have still our furniture? Yes, in most cases. Wobbling, in many cases, and virtually characterless in all cases…. It is refreshing to find that there is still some hope in the world with it comes to items for the home that you can either use, sit on, admire or cook with. Enter Birch and Hare – a business with a vision, a hope for our future and images of what we have had before. Fiona is a thinker, and almost certainly the visionary behind Birch and Hare. The creativity is met first by us through the name of the business. Birch – as it symbolises new beginnings. Hare, because, being a spiritual being, it is her soul animal – an intelligent and discerning animal who has used skill and inventiveness to evolve and advance in our world. For me, the company is aptly named. Fiona and husband, Jonathan, along with the support of Emma and Christopher, their children, are breathing new life into the old and preloved. Recycling, upcycling and free-cycling is the key. Fiona prowls for the quirky and the practical of things from our bygone eras. All of which are useful again and when you cast your eye across her stock so far, you realise just how much we still need these items in our lives.
Birch and Hare is new to the game. Stepping in to the public arena can be daunting for any new business, particularly at a vintage fair, but Fiona is fearless. “I think I have got the right idea about what sells.” She says. Sitting out in the back garden of the house on a warm summers day was hugely delightful. Fiona sits next to Emma, her daughter, who also plays a part in the company. “We always wanted to do something for ourselves.” Fiona went on. “When circumstances shift as you get older, you’re priorities change. It was literally a case of finding out what we wanted to do.” Fiona has got the next five years almost sorted in her mind. “I am thinking about all sorts of things. A pop up shop, I feel would be a good idea. We rent a shop space for 1-2 weeks and see what happens. The feedback would be priceless. I loved that customer contact. It is hugely valuable. I have also thoughts about a shop in the future with someone to run it so Jonathan and I can concentrate on what we are doing.” Would she ever envisage the business growing further still? “Oh I’m not sure about that.” She says with a laugh. “I don’t want to be in a position where someone is making and designing the furniture for me. They can’t get into my head and see my ideas, so therefore it has to be me doing it!”
For the beginning, it is usually difficult to build a business which is selling stock especially when you are sourcing items to sell. Again, they were lucky. With Jonathan’s family heirlooms at hand, they were able to start building up a ‘shop’ as it were, as well as knowledge on specific pieces. “Of course the other thing we need to aware of is chemicals which were used in making these pieces originally. Fiona and Emma walk me in to the centre of the garden and show me a carefully placed array of items that they have, like a cross section. “Take this very old wooden chest here. We thought about making it into a children’s toy box, but I remembered that they used lead paint years ago. These things we do have to be careful of.” As well as a strong business brain, Fiona shows great consideration for what they sell on. “We pride ourselves in using the best paint. We use Annie Sloane’s chalk paint to restore our items. It is child friendly paint and it also means that on a cold day, I can work in the workshop with the door shut. No fumes!” There is always more than one benefit from using a quality product…. Jonathan is a precision man. A chap who was taught the importance of writing and drawing by hand, before the computer age. With a creative mind, he has always had pursuits outside his profession and the draw towards making something with his hands for himself, has always been a tempting prospect. Jonathan has always enjoyed the idea of working with wood, and the creativity and ingenuity that comes from within. For Fiona, it’s painting and restoring something to its former glory or better. They had toyed with many self-employment ideas in the past. “We looked at everything,” smiles Fiona. “Absolutely everything. We even looked at a bed and breakfast. We wanted to go back to Wales, but really couldn’t find anything that really fitted us. Then, suddenly, we just looked at each other one day and said, Oh my goodness. Why didn’t we think of this before? Let’s work together making and restoring things.”
What they indeed found, was that they were capable of much more than that. “We can make and restore items, big and small on demand. Someone could come to us and say, we have this table or similar, can you do something we it, and we can say yes. We then have the scope to turn that item around within as little as 3 or 4 days, depending on what the customer needs are. We have the space here to work like that if we needed to.” The garden of this beautiful house is enormous. From the patio, it is hard to confess where the end is. They are lucky in the sense that they have the space to cope with a demand when business thrives. A purpose built workshop is roomy and adequate for the needs of Birch and Hare. Anything could be made and lovingly restored here. Fiona has the imagination – an ability to see something old and forgotten as being new and refreshed with a coat of paint here and a fix there. She also has the eyes when it comes to finding a piece of furniture or curio and the worth in it. “Sometimes, Jonathan looks at me, and says, yeah? But he will go along with me as I tend to say, yes! It will work! I can’t see failure here. This business is our life. We find things, turn them around and make them into something new again.” I see it as quite a skill.
Birch and Hare may still be in its infancy, but there is a strong mind at work here. I ask the daunting question that every business owner dreads with a dark tinge. “If, the business doesn’t work, do you have a diversion to take? Will there be Birch and Hare in a different form?” “No,” Fiona says, quite firmly. “This isn’t going to fail. There is too much of a desire for it to work. This is a calling if you like. It will work. There is no question.” www.birchandhare.com https://www.facebook.com/birchandhare
Next week….. We catch up with Christina from Ware Street Market – a new and very innovative way of bringing together artisan, craft and vintage inspired homemade from all over the UK, online and accessible under one simple roof…. Not a bad idea huh?
Your Shout!
We want to hear from you and your vintage event! Email us now at thevintagegirlie@outlook.com for more info!
The explosion of The Teds… Dispelling the myth behind the uprising of the Teddy My Boy…. father was a teddy boy, or at least, I liked to think he was. By TVG I have always been fascinated with them. The explosion of the ‘teenage’ era has been, on many occasions in the world of journalism, been misunderstood. I feel, in particular that Teddy Boys have been around for a lot longer that we have first realised. I came across a wonderful website during this week called, Edwardian Teddy Boy. I was surprised and somewhat relieved to read that the author, too, believed, and with good reason, that Teddy Boys were around long before we thought they were. Most of us think of Blackboard Jungle, the 1955 film featuring Rock Around The Clock by the least likely rebellious Teddy Boy, Bill Haley. A middle aged man with a succession of equally middle aged men with wives and children stood behind this large, jolly fellow and belted out a new sound to the awakening youths. But, Teddy Boys had already done it.
The general idea came from, like most misquoted and rearranged shifts in history, a newspaper report on a gang fight in 1953 finds these 'angry' lads being named as Teddy Boys to describe the dress that they wore.
Cutting the trousers tighter, we see the entrance of drainpipes. A long coat, Edwardian style with no velvet, but bone buttons, the boot lace tie across a white shirt gives way to the cross between English Edwardian gent and gun twiddling side kick fresh out of The Magnificent Seven. Teddy Boys (or Cosh Boys as they were first known) were thought of as being a reaction to the uprising of Rock and Roll music from across the pond, in the States. This was unfounded, as Teds were causing a riot of their own in the UK long before the call of Elvis.
Perhaps the most documented event was the first showing of Blackboard Jungle at a cinema in Elephant and Castle, London around 1955-1956. A teddy boy, reportedly, got up and started ripping up the cinema seat and dancing in the aisles. After that, riots were reported up and down the UK where ever the film was shown, thus starting a revolution. Yet it was really wasn't until the Notting Hill riots in 1958 (funny enough, highlighted in EastEnders in recent years as a story line between now two elderly men from different races) that Teds were seen as a menace. Gangs of Teds ambushed young men from West Indie communities in London after the post war colony immigration surge. Similar events were showcased with much glamour along with media exaggeration in popular literature last that same year. The irony that is obvious here is that the Teddy Boy culture and visual appearance was largely based on black-American influences of style and music. The very roots and ancestry of those they were fighting against. Saville Row tailor were looking to introduce the classy, well cut Edwardian style of suits for men shortly after the Second World War. Yet it was the youth of the time that stole the idea and adapted it to their own subculture style.
So what were they rebelling against? Many writers have blamed American Rock and Roll for the surge of mass juvenile delinquency in the UK, but British kids were further ahead from their twanging U.S counterparts. Kids in the northern fringes, like Liverpool, had already created their own rock and roll - Skiffle; born out of jazz and swing from the post War years, kids took their lead from the Americans and used a fusion of folk and traditional jazz as their main base for this unusual, fast paced yodel. In turn, it was an ingenious collaboration of just about any piece of kitchen furniture going - a washboard, pots turned upside down for drums along, jugs, tea chests, combs with strips of paper and with a second hand banjo or guitar you were away. Yet it was the appearance of chatty singer, Lonnie Donegan, another unlikely pop star, who really brought skiffle to the fore. It was more welcoming, jollier, fun and any kid could do it.
As explored to the enth degree in clever blog, The Oz Hiztory Blog, it was thought that by the mid 1950's to 1960, there may well have been half a million skiffle groups up and down the UK, but actual recorded figures appear to be less that this. Of course the most ultimately explosive of all of skiffle groups, was The Quarrymen, or better known as, The Beatles.... They were menacing and their music had certainly not evolved out of slavery. Skiffle was fun and for everyone. The lyrics were usually about subjects that were not dangerous, such as a dam, work, finding work, keeping it together and family....'My Old Man's a Dustman' and so on. Hardly cinema seat ripping stuff.... By 1958, Skiffle had largely grown out of its tight skin and its followers and musicians moved away into more popular roles like Rock and Roll, but by this time, the U.S had a firm grip on the latter and were refusing to let go. Skiffle still plays a role in the roots of many a rock star still around today, although for Skiffle to still mean anything to anyone, even that generation is sadly dying out. As for the Teds, there are still smaller, known groups around England's shores. The Skiffle still plays and old times are still remembered. Fondly, and perhaps not so rose tinted. However, they were the kings of the first sub culture the UK had ever seen, yet still for their time - somewhat dangerous. For more information, please go to these fantastic blogs The Edwardian Teddy Boy
The Vintage Girlie is here to help you! •
If you need a helping hand with your vintage and retro business on the publicity front, why not ask TVG for a helping hand?
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We love vintage. Everything in fact about vintage. Businesses, markets, fairs, events, performers and acts in the vintage and retro world, and this magazine is about YOU! It wouldn't be here every week if it wasn't for you keeping it going, so we are offering the help in return.
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We have a massive platform here of over 50,000 readers a week - that's an enormous audience of customers and fellow businesses who want to hear from you and where you are in the world. Our advertising and bespoke features in the magazine have proven to work brilliantly to help get vintage and retro businesses off the ground and stay in business! Victoria from VJ Vintage says "The write up was fabulous, thank you! Business on the hire side has exploded this week and I've been inundated for quotes!"
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Sarah Hawkings from Homespun Stitchworks says "Thank you for a wonderful write up!" Steph, daugher of Sharon of Magpie Vintage wrote after we came to the opening of her mum's shop, says "Thank you so much for taking the time out of your incredible schedule to come and see us, we're all so proud of mum it was a real wonderful day for us all and it was lovely to share it with you..." Also! Blighty Bazaar from Leamington Spa won Best Regional Shop in The Midlands and the South at the National Vintage Awards 2014 after being featured in The Vintage Girlie earlier this year.
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So, email Michelle at thevintagegirlie@outlook.com for more information on how we can help you keep the vintage alive!
Pin Up Curl and Tea TVG caught up with Sarah Bloor from Pin Up Curl and talked about life, knitwear and what vintage really is..
There are many hair stylists I have met and all of them work in different ways, each adding a special brand of unique-ness to their craft. Sarah is no exception and I find this out very quickly during my meeting with her. She is at first, a perfectionist, a quality which is paramount in any vintage hair creator. She is a perfectionist in herself too and this is hugely clear in the way she is dressed. "I simply love vintage. It is my life. When I find something vintage, I get the shakes. I think, oh my god! What have I found?! It's very powerful to me. I simply adore what I find like it was gold." She beams. This lady almost feels it in her veins. We talk about her love of glamour and in particular, her new business which is she making sure grows from its infancy to something very successful. "I started doing my own hair about 6 years ago. I started experimenting with various styles but I found that the 1940's and early 1950's suited me. I had finally found a style and an era I felt hugely comfortable in. Since then, my passion for it has grown."
Sarah is self taught in the proper sense. Working hard at a chosen craft takes time and patience, both elements which have come naturally to her. the internet for everything I could find. You "I scoured tube videos and 'how to' films. I gathered old books from Amazon and read them carefully. What I wanted to do was create the styles that were original from the glamour era, rather than create a modern day twist on them. I work now with pictures of Hollywood stars from the Golden Era. I copy them very accurately and my customers love it." Sarah has become professional very quickly and with a business head on her shoulders, she has been inspired to work with others to get her portfolio looking immaculate. "I was very lucky to work with photographer, David Travis recently. He has created some stunning photographs for me of models I have created hair styles for. He has really given me the platform I need to grow my business."
Sarah doesn't only look authentic and formulate styles of a distinctive vintage form, but she also used products that were very much of the day. "The problem these days is that there is too much choice when it comes to hair styling products and I firmly believe that. I used the original products they used then. They are the best. I use on my own hair the same products as I use for work. I swear by them." Pomade and Elnet hairspray is still favoured by leading stylists in the trade today and like many of Sarah's counterparts, she is leaning heavily and most cleverly on these items. "You can't beat them," She tells me. "They have stood the test of time and they are still workable." Another thing I noticed about Sarah is her drive and ambition. "I have a gut feeling about my work," She says, "I breathe it. I am looking forward to events I am doing such as The Summer of Vintage Festival at Uttoxeter next Saturday and a Film Noir
project later in the Autumn, I am really excited! " So what does she hope for the future? "I would love to do glossy magazines!" Her eyes light up and she smiles. "I really want to do glamour as well as major events. I want Goodwood next year and I am badgering the organisers for 2015 already." She has drive, that's for sure and she is in the process of steering her boat to secure shores. "I know where I want to be in five years time," she says with her business look. "It's just a case of getting there, but I can't think of anything else I would rather do. I want to stand out from the crowd." Sarah has known humble beginnings. She giggles when she tells me of the time she was styling hair in a rough, spit and sawdust pub. "I have done styling in the weirdest places, but it has taught me to focus." She adds. "I've done the places where it has virtually been impossible to pitch up my craft. You can't do it in a muddy field." It is here that I become fully aware of her customer service. "For weddings, it is my responsibility to make the bride feel like a million dollars and look equally the same. If she doesn't, I haven't done my job properly." She has a talent which she can find humour in, but also a seriousness of doing the job properly. She strikes me as a person who fills her work with a whole lot of herself, her soul and spirit go into her craft.
"You have to," she confirms, "Or there is no point. Vintage is all about destination, and you have to think that way. You save up and look forward to an event. When you arrive, you are arriving at a place that is you, and is for you. It is the same with my work. I have to make sure I am giving that to the customer, but it takes confidence. Vintage suits you when you are confident about it."
You can find Sarah, looking fab, fully booked and hugely popular but still worth coming to watch her craft at The Summer of Vintage Festival, this weekend coming and also at her facebook page, Pin Up Curl.
Mr TVG's column... City gent and all round jolly good sport, Mr TVG takes to the typewriter and shows us what industry, careful wording and vintage is all about...
I often hear La Belle Madame TVG describe the Vintage Community as an "industry", in a slightly apologetic way, as though the word wasn't somehow quite fitting for something so delicate. Yet "industry" comes from the same root as "industrious" which we all know to be an accolade of hard work. And hard work is certainly what I notice in the professional results I see every week with every function, every interview. That hard work delivered with love and care - raises the image of Vintage above the parapet.
I hear that a visitor was dismissive of one such contributor's efforts as "just copying Kirsty" - which, by the way, we all could, if we had her budget and a supporting team the size of Manchester. And I don't mean to disparage Kirsty's efforts either - let's hope her message reaches the right people to grow the Vintage family - but it has to be remembered that she is doing what she does because of what YOU do, not vice versa - that's how TV works!
Toodle pip for now, chaps,
The Vintage Diary‌.. You guide to the best If you would like us toof feature your event flyer or poster or just a vintage finds and quick hello, please email Michelle at thevintagegirlie@outlook.com events this week‌. We simply love attending events, so if you have a fair or market you would like us to attend then get in touch and we will be there! We can chat to stall holders and performers and generate a good warm crowd, as well as a great platform for your business! So if you are interested, please email us at thevintagegirlie@outlook.com to book us. No event too big or too small! The Retro Festival 8/9/10 August 2014 In the TVG office, we are thrilled to be going to this event. At present, we are clutching our hangbags and doning the victory rolls and counting the sleeps until we hit the road for White Waltham Airfield. EEEKKK!
Frock Me! It's that old London Vintage Fair! 14th of September 2014. Chelsea Town Hall, SW3 5EE. The roving London vintage fair in it's bloom again this weekend, (Sunday) with the next date on the list of 'must go tos' being on the 14th of September. It has been showcasing all the best in fine vintage fashion since it's humble beginnings in Kensington, 1997 and has the reputation of the some of the top London vintage traders favourite place to sell. You will find anything from the 1930's tea dance, floor sweeping dress to the hard rockabilly, red boxy number the ultimate in jiving attire. So come to spend several hours browsing the threads, along with occasional breaks at Blackbird pop up vintage tea stop. Don't think for a second that its a venue to swan in and out of in a hurry - don your best vintage, take a large trunk and your butler and be prepared to be there all day. Unfortunately, many vintage trades don't expect cheques anymore, or even heavy items of jewellry.... and if you are thinking of pawning the E type then think again, someone has already tried that trick...
Huddersfield Does Vintage! Saturday 16th August. Brought to you by the most excellently glamorous team and jolly good chums of TVG, at 'Britain Does Vintage.' They write... "Huddesfield Does Vintage will be back in 2014 with a summer spectacular! Huddersfield University is renowned for it's fashion and design courses and has over 23,000 students (fun fact)! Huddersfield town is steeped in Victorian architecture. Huddersfield railway station is a Grade I listed building described by John Betjeman as 'the most splendid station facade in England' second only to St Pancras, London. A perfect location for the Huddersfield vintage fair, we say! Expect exquisite vintage stalls supplying you with the finest vintage clothing, jewellery, homewares, kitchenalia, prints, crockery.....whether you are a discerning vintage fashionista or avid vintage home lover, Huddersfield Does Vintage promises you the perfect purchase! Alongside an vast array of vintage stalls, you'll find plenty of fun things to keep you entertained for hours - vintage inspired workshops, tearoom, live music and much more! All for just £2 (or £1 with a Britain Does Vintage Card), there really is something for everyone!“ If you are interested in being a trader for this event or any in the future, please do get in touch with Britain Does Vintage
And now for the best of the rest! Discover Vintage at Twinwood Festival-Bedfordshire Saturday 23th -Monday 25th August 2014 For the third year running we are bringing our Vintage Market to Twinwood Festival. Twinwood is the UK's Best Vintage Festival with a fantastic lineup of Live Music & Dancing. Get your tickets now! Twinwood Festival, Twinwood Road, Clapham, Bedfordshire, MK41 6AB For more info visit www.twinwoodevents.com Monthly Undercover Vintage & Antiques market in Bath First and last Sunday of every month, 9.30am-4pm Green Park Station 2nd August G&T Vintage FairTerrace, 43 Thomas Street Northern Quarter
2nd August Summer of Vintage Festival Uttoxeter Racecourse Wood Lane Uttoxeter Staffordshire ST14 8BD12noon-8pm Entry £5 3rd August Little Vintage Lover Fair Heydon Parish Rooms The Street Heydon Norfolk NR11 6AD 10am-4pm Entry £1 3rd August Quorn Pre-Sixties Vintage Fair Quorn Village Hall Leicester Road Leicestershire LE12 8BB 11am-3.30pm Entry £1 5th August Richmond Monthly Chic Vintique Fair Town Hall Market Place Richmond North Yorkshire DL10 4QL 9.30am-3.30p Entry 50p 6th August Barnard Castle Monthly Chic Vintique Fair The Witham 3 Horsemarket Barnard Castle Durham DL12 8LY 9.30am-3.30pm Entry 50p
What’s in next week’s TVG?
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