Travelling through threads

I’ve had the black velour jumpsuit that I’m wearing today for over twenty years.

All throughout my teens my mum would let me order a few bits from the mail-order catalogue each season.

What would usually happen is that I would scope out the things that I fancied & then hang on until the sale to get more bang for my buck or kit for my krona as it were.

Invariably the things that I’d chosen ended up in the sale, perhaps cause I would usually favour the more impractical & ostentatious garments.

Whilst my mates took their fashion inspiration from Beverly Hills 90210, I sought my style stimulus in music videos; I wanted to look like the chicks on MTV, hell yeah!

The early 90s saw my wardrobe embrace a holy mishmash of clingy, second skin like leggings, jumpsuits & mini dresses, jewel tone long velvet waistcoats, ridiculously oversized jumpers in a kaleidoscope of colours and a rough and ready camouflage print bomber jacket.

I also bought my first ever pair of DMs and wore them to death.

My favourite shade of lipstick was called ‘Chocolate Kiss’ and my perfume was New West by Aramis. 
I know that some people recoil in horror when faced with photos of their younger self, mainly because of the clothing they were sporting back then but I see these photos as little snapshots of a journey.
Personally I love seeing how someones style has evolved throughout the years and although my own long & winding road has been laced with a fair few fashion disasters, 
all-in-all I'm pretty pleased with where its taken me.
How about you?

Vintage 80s snakeskin print jacket (eBay), 90s velour jumpsuit (Halens), 80s cowboy boots (car boot sale), beaded bib necklace (pressie) & DIYed earrings (made myself)

The words that you can see in the first pic are from a song by one of my all-time favourite bands 'The The'.

You can listen to it here, go on you know you want to ;)

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Those were the days

Back in the early 90s I spent a summer working in a very well known holiday resort on Costa Blanca.

An older friend of mine had done a few summers there in the late 80s and had enthralled me with his tales of excitement, adventure and really wild things.

So after I finished college I booked a flight to Alicante and blagged a seat on a package holiday transfer bus to the resort.

Once there I managed to find some very cheap accommodation in a grotty hostel situated in the old town and set about looking for a job.

For two nights solid I was job hunting, going to almost every bar & club in the resort but everywhere was the same story, fully staffed.

I did have a back up plan, which was to go fruit picking in the south of France, but ideally I wanted to stay where the buzz was, I was only eighteen after all.

On my third day there I was sitting at a café near the bullring eating a huge bocadillio and having several ‘kick in the back of the head’ strength coffees when a handsome middle-aged man approached me.

At first I thought he was just some random perv trying to chat me up but he turned out to be a real diamond geezer; after making a few calls to his mates he’d sorted me out with a club propaganda job.

I started sharing an apartment with three of my workmates & although it was bordering on claustrophobic we had a whale of a time that summer.

On a good day we’d borrow some mopeds and head for the cliffs further down the coast, listen to loud cheesy techno music, drink cheap beer and play truth or dare, in which the dare usually involved launching yourself into the sea off a steep cliff.

In the evening we’d head back into town, feast on huge plates of tuna pasta and drink cheap plonk out of cartons.

Some times we had to do special promotions or leafleting on the beach during the day but most days we just worked from 9pm until 2am and after we would join the throng of punters inside and party until sunrise.

The busy season started slowing down in late September and one by one friendly faces sloped off.

By mid October the resort had been transformed into bingo heaven for well-heeled old timers spending the winter abroad. 

I bought a bus ticket to London and endured the most excruciatingly long bus journey I’ve ever taken.

My diamond geezer had offered to buy me a flight ticket but I quite stupidly turned it down cause I didn’t want to feel as if I owed him anything.

I think that I must have really hurt his feelings cause I never heard from him again.

Sadly I have very few photos left from this time of my life cause I “lost” them in a particularly nasty break-up from a jealous boyfriend a few years later but I will always have my memories.

The choon that defined that glorious summer…

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

From the seventies but still not going downhill

The awesome vintage ski jacket I was wearing today was bought for a tenner fifteen years ago in a Fort William charity shop. 

At the time hubby was doing snowboard instructing at a ski center and I was trying really hard to find a job. 

As we were quite skint we rented a microscopical room in a house owned by what we thought to be a widower.

Only after we'd moved in he told us that his wife had not long eloped to Spain with another man.

It was an odd experience to say the least, we'd hear him argue and plead with his wife on the phone in the middle of the night and whenever we went into the kitchen he'd corner us and talk incessantly about her. 

He was also rather keen on wandering around in his underpants when he'd had a few too many swallies. 

Our little nook comprised of a double bed that dwarfed the room and a chest of drawers with a black and white camping telly & a kettle perched on top of it, there was also a small built in wardrobe, that you couldn't open properly cause there wasn't enough space. 

There were no jobs in Fort William so I spent a whole month holed up in that tiny room watching crap daytime TV and eating Pot Noodles. 

In the end I had to leave my beloved to his snow covered hills and jump on a bus to London.

This jacket was bought with giro money on my last day in Fort William and I remember wearing it for the entire duration of the ten hour bus journey down south cause it was absolutely freezing. 

I sat together with a bald, toothless weegie who had just been paroled & he was plying me with sickly sweet MD 20/20 and telling really crap jokes but he still had me in stitches.

I've had fifteen years of wear out of this jacket and it is still going strong.

70s ski jacket,  80s Wrangler cowboy boots, 90s velvet jumpsuit, wide mock-croc belt, knitted scarf & sequin beret.

I'm not the only one in this house who poses for pics by the way. 

Here's Mark showing that anything I can do, he can do better...

Mark has been feeling a little bit blue this weekend cause the ski center that he used to instruct at is open for business with powder galore, I believe my man is pining for the hills.

To cheer ourselves up we revisited the pub that we went to last Sunday cause they were hosting a vintage jumble today. 

I'm hoping to get a space here myself next time, fingers crossed. 

The pub has got a really nice, laid-back vibe & the monthly vintage jumble was well stocked, cheap and cheerful, just how I like it.

Did I buy anything?

You will just have to wait and see ;)

Have a fab Sunday folks!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Burns Night

Tonight is Burns Night and as an adopted Scot I am celebrating it with gusto.

Veggie haggis, neeps and tatties for din-dins and even a small bottle of  malt to follow.

In honor the man I decided to wear a bit of tartan today...

Vintage 20s tux jacket, vintage 50s blouse top, vintage 80s Ralph Lauren tartan trousers, vintage 80s suede hiking boots (still dirty from when I helped mum do her kitchen up over a year ago, tut-tut) & a sequin beret (that looks a bit like a Jimmy hat when teamed with my hair) to add a bit of quirky glam to the proceedings.

When I bought these pants last November I couldn't do the zip up but now they fit like a glove, I love loosing inches without even trying. 

Maybe I'm burning more calories trying to keep warm, eh?

It's frigging fridging here in London!

(pics sourced on Google images)

Scottish comedy at its best...

Have a great Friday night folks!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

"The planet is fine, the people are fucked"

I felt a little sad today (post-holiday blues no doubt) but a healthy dose of my all-time favourite comedian George Carlin soon had me giggling again :)

Here's a selection of my fave George Carlin quotes....

"Just cause you got the monkey off your back doesn’t mean the circus has left town."

"I don’t have pet peeves — I have major psychotic fucking hatreds!"

"If it’s true that our species is alone in the universe, then I’d have to say that the universe aimed rather low and settled for very little."

"If it requires a uniform, it’s a worthless endeavor."

"I don’t like to think of laws as rules you have to follow, but more as suggestions."

"I love and treasure individuals as I meet them; I loathe and despise the groups they identify with and belong to."

"Property is theft. Nobody “owns” anything. When you die, it all stays here."

"The future will soon be a thing of the past."

"The only good thing ever to come out of religion was the music."

"Atheism is a non-prophet organization."

"The reason they call it the American Dream is because you have to be asleep to believe it."

"Instead of warning pregnant women not to drink, I think female alcoholics ought to be told not to fuck."
"You can prick your finger but don't finger your prick"

"What was the best thing before sliced bread?"

"One tequila, two tequila, three tequila, floor."

"As far as I’m concerned, humans have not come up with a belief that’s worth believing."

"May the forces of evil become confused on the way to your house."


Sadly George is no longer with us but thankfully his masterful comedy still is.
Lot's of love,
Jennie
xXx

The Frocktasia Winter Sale

Frocktasia is having a massive winter sale.

All 74 items in store have been reduced.

Plenty of awesome bargains for both vintage lovers and style rebels.

Stunning vintage frocks, tops, jumpers, jackets, bags and footwear.

Handmade unique jewellry and shapeshifter ponchos.

Why not pop over and have a look :)

If you have any questions you can contact me on

frocktasia@yahoo.co.uk 

FROCKTASIA WINTER SALE...

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx

Snow is Magic

I love snow so for me these past few days have been a real treat.

At lunchtime we swung by the £1 shop to get some grub for the wild birds before hitting a nearby parkland trail.

En route we ventured into the snow clad undergrowth to place fat balls and scatter some seed mix.

Not that I think that our feathered friends in this area are particularly hard up but it's a nice thing to do just in case there are a few of them going hungry in these snowy times.

We spotted a black bird and a robin but both were way too fast for me to get a photograph.

There were a lot of people out and about walking the trail, many more than on an average Sunday.

What I like the most about snow, is its seeming ability to make strangers smile at each other and even spontaneously break into conversation, something that is sadly not commonplace in London.

Snow is magic!

It wasn't actually that cold but  that probably had something to do with the umpteen layers that I had piled on. 

Re-emerging  from the undergrowth. One chap stopped and asked if we'd lost our dog to which I replied "No, we're just feeding the birdies", he did look a little bit bemused...hehehe!

Once we'd reached the end of the trail Mark and I rewarded ourselves with a quick pint at an all but empty pub before making the trek back home.

Hope everyone has had a brilliant weekend!

Lot's of love,

Jennie

xXx