As it is Burns Night we were going to have veggie haggis , neeps and tatties for tea but when I went to turn the light on in the kitchen the blasted striplight blew. I didn't fancy cooking by candle light so instead we traipsed off to the pub to have our din-dins. I've really started enjoying going to pubs again. In London you'd get very little change back on a tenner for two pints but at our local watering hole a pint of ale is a mere one pound fifty. Complete and utter pie-eyedness is well achievable for less than a twenty spot. I think Rabbie Burns would have approved.
Last Thursday Mark and I spent three hours at the storage unit picking out an array of fabulous garments that will be gracing our rail at the Little Birds Market on Sunday the 9th of February.
I also designed a new logo for Frocktasia and ordered some new business cards from Vistaprint.
We are both getting very excited about our launch into the Glasgow vintage market scene. I'll definitely do a "sneaky-peek post" as per usual but it won't be until a few days before the market.
I've also started selling on Asos Marketplace. So far I've only added a few items and it's all stuff that I already had photos and descriptions for. As a wardrobe shop you are allowed to add up to a hundred items for free and Asos only take a 5% commission on sold items. I was just getting a bit fed up with eBay and fancied trying something different, we'll see how it goes.
It's been a busy and productive week. I'm feeling very upbeat and excited about the future. Life is good!
On our way back home from the pub we stopped off at Aldi's to stock up on some more drinkies. At a bargain £1.35 a pop...I don't mind if I do, thank you very much!
On Monday I met up with Jo again, one last time before she headed back to the US yesterday. She very kindly treated me to a spot of lunch and then took me to a secret location.
Before lunch we popped into Traid in Dalston and both of us were sighing in unimpressed unison as we perused their rail of overpriced, crap quality quasi-vintage garb. I did like their Traidremade stuff but their vintage sucked!
After lunch, a short train journey took us to Rotherhithe (don't worry I can't pronounce it either) and the secret location that Jo's lovely partner had stumbled upon recently and that Jo wanted to share with me, what a fabulous friend she is...
The Rotherhithe Picture Research Library is a tremendous treasure chest of inspiration. A vast collection of visual references for sets, costumes and a wide array of other subjects.
It is open weekdays 10am till 4pm and as an educational charity it offers free access to all this magnificent material, all you pay for is if you want to take photocopies.
Jo asked if we could have a look through some of their vintage fashion magazines and the lady in charge let us grab a whole heap of them before perching ourselves by the glossy green table.
We spent a couple of hours pouring over Vogue magazines from the late 60s and early 70s, chatting quietly and taking pics of anything that we deemed inspiration folder worthy. Jo was keeping her eyes peeled for hand-painted shoes, belts and bags and I was thrilled to come across several wig adverts.
I sent these pics to Sam and wrote that I'd love to see a Tangled Wigs advert in a modern issue of Vogue.
You could easily spend an entire day there and not even make a dent in their stash of thousands of books and magazines. This will be my go to place from now on, whenever I hit a bottleneck creatively and need some inspiration to get things going again, what an amazing place. Thank you Jo for sharing this fantastic "secret" location with me, you are a star :)
Before getting back on the train home, we took some sneaky outfit pics. As I was giving my closet-goth tendencies a good old airing on Monday I thought it was rather apt for Jo to take my pics in a tiny graveyard.
Jo will come back over in a few months time and hopefully there will be many more days out and dress-up fun on the cards then :)
I'm very excited about this Saturday's Dandy and I've been working away on my rail all week. While we were up in Scotland I decided that I would theme my rail from now on to make it more cohesive rather than just offering up a random motley mix of vintage & retro threads. I've been very much inspired by the spell of gorgeous weather and the veritable explosion of greenery in the park. I'm bringing a plethora of flirty cotton dresses made for springtime strolls in the sun, chic retro frocks that are perfect for garden parties and BBQs and a whole bunch of festival worthy frocks & separates for those who want to sort out their festival wardrobe early.
Here are all the garments (bar the gents) that will be featured on Frocktasia's full of the joys of spring rail at The Dandy Lion Market on Saturday :)
Close-ups of details, prints and labels...
If you're in the Kentish Town area on Saturday please pop in and have a wee natter and a rummage. There's a fabulous line-up of traders this month, most of which have a feature folder on The Dandy Lion FB page, so you can check them out there if you so wish. There's even going to be a stall selling wigs, how cool is that?!
Happy days!
Here are a few pics that Leslie snapped at last months Dandy featuring me, my little stall and some of my fabulous fellow traders :)
I'll leave you with a fabulous tune by SOUL II SOUL, enjoy :)
May the sun shine on your path and happiness fill your heart!
Granted I almost killed myself getting there carting a huge big case on wheels with my rail strapped onto it and another huge bag on my back. Who said being a vintage market trader would be easy or glamorous, not me anyway that's for sure. It is hard graft but I like it that way.You get a special feeling of smugness after managing to travel from A to B on public transport, laden down like a donkey ..like you've done something pretty special, akin to walking up Ben Nevis in your bare feet for instance ;)
Anyroad I survived and got there early doors too, so that I could give Aiden a quick hand with the bunting.
I took quite a few pics of the day but after I got home I realized that I'd had the camera on some silly setting, so the majority of my pics came out either overexposed or blurry which needless to say was rather annoying but such is life, it doesn't always work out the way you want it to.
Here is my wonderful friend Leslie next to her rail of vintage loveliness and her dapper son Erik that helped out with the leafleting on the day. Leslie is not only the organizer of the Dandy and a fellow vintage seller, she's also a magnificently creative soul. You can check out some of her wonderful wares on etsy HERE.
Another fellow vintage peddler La Maison Pearl was my stall neighbor for the day and gave me some smashing tips on what London fairs are worth doing.
Thay had some cracking stuff on their stall and I was very tempted to bag this wonderful colour explosion of a frock...
This gorgeous chick was trading at the Dandy last month but she was on one of the downstairs stalls so sadly I forgot to mention her in last months post. The Jewellery Garden creates a stunning array of fabulous jewellery with a special emphasis on holistic crystals & gemstones.
I met the lovely Amanda of the The Prettiest Thing last month. She was back with more of her tremendously funky and very useful items. I think this wonderful woman can turn her hand to making anything, just check out her impressive FB albums HERE. I hope Amanda will be there next month cause my Oyster card holder decided to disintegrate this morning and she makes totally brilliant ones.
Bright River sells beautiful cards and prints and is run by a very lovely lady called Claire Shannon and Gorgeous Jewellery sells splendid handmade jewellery and is run by husband and wife team Sue & Mark.
When I was perusing the product pics of Juliet Rose Soaps before the market, I just couldn't wait to smell them in real life. These handmade soaps look good enough to eat and smell absolutely divine. Like myself Juliet is a newbie to the market scene and it was actually her first ever foray into having a stall.
I think she did herself very proud, just look at her fabulous display and the soaps did not disappoint they smell just as good as the look. You can buy a bar in her on-line store right now.
There was more fragrant goodness for the body at yesterdays Dandy too. Brown Angel Fragrances were there with a wonderful array of beautifully packaged homemade natural lotions and potions. They also have an on-line store where you can purchase their lovely goodies.
The three gorgeous girls behind Triptych Designs & Wheels and Butterflies are architectural students with an interest in quirky design. They make fabulously unique jewellery and I loved their amazing display. You can buy their stuff on-line HERE & HERE.
This lovely lady is called Gillian Bull and she was selling a mighty fine collection of vintage bric-a-brac and home wares...
This next chick was another newbie to the Dandy with her funky stall The 3R Crafts. She makes both decorative and useful things with upcycled materials like cork and cans. You can check out her FB page HERE.
Next up are the lovely peeps from Genuie scarves. They were offering up a vast range of stunning hand painted scarves made from 100% Mulberry silk. These fantastic scarves are a colourful treat for the eye and feel amazingly lush against the skin. The Genuie team have an on-line store where you can purchase their beautiful wares.
Dapper chappy Roderick Barker-Benfield is the brains and creative talent behind Rodology handmade jewellery. I'm so gutted my camera was on the wrong setting cause I would have loved to have captured his wonderful work in a sharper picture to do it justice. He's got an on-line store where you can marvel over his fantastic pieces, especially check out the cufflinks. Roderick said that they are his best selling item and I am not surprised, marvelous stuff.
These two lovely ladies were selling vintage compacts, cases and a whole heap of other lovely stuff on their one off stall. A friend of theirs is a dab hand at crocheting so they'd brought along some of her creations too. I was especially impressed with two pairs of mittens that had been knitted with wool that their friend had spun from the molted hair of her angora rabbit. I did take pictures of them but because my camera was on the wrong setting they came out all blurry. Hopefully Leslie got some pics, if she did I'll add them later.
In the smaller picture you can see the lovely Juliet of Juliet Rose Soaps rocking a fabulous frock.
Downstairs we had Shonel of Poetic Solace with her awesomely funky jewellery stall. I only briefly caught up with her as she was setting up and the picture I took was...you guessed it very blurry. So if you want to see Shonel's lovely face you'll have to check out last months Dandy post. She's been keeping herself very busy this month, doing regular markets. If you want to check out her wares she's got a fabulous store on etsy HERE.
I hope I haven't forgotten anybody this time.
As I was on my own, I didn't have that much time to wander around with my camera, it's much nicer when you have a stall buddy at hand. Mark very kindly came around at five to help me with packing up and carting home, which was much appreciated...especially by my back and arms ;)
Today I've been feeling like someone gave me a right old kicking last night. I guess that if I'm planning on doing this on a regular basis there is only one thing for it...get fit!
Frocktasia's next market will be Can't Buy Me Love at The Boogaloo in Archway on Saturday the 27th of this months and then I'll of course be at the next Dandy Lion Market on Saturday the 4th of May.
If you see anything in my for sale or preview albums on the Facebook page that you'd like to purchase directly from me just give me a shout, I ship worldwide.
For next months Dandy I've decided that Frocktasia has to stop procrastinating and pull her proverbial straw to the stack as regards to spreading the word about The Dandy. So the Friday before the market I am scheming a "leaflet bombing" of Camden in full dress-up :)
People need to know about this market and its fabulous sellers!
I'm burying my face in my First Aid book in preparation for my course next Saturday but I'm hoping to get a couple of hours over the next few days to catch up with all my faves in the blogosphere.
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