Fabfrocks at Home: Visit the creepy circus

Hi guys,
Having moved house (and city!) less than a month ago, we are currently busying ourselves with painting, decorating, and themeing all of the rooms in our new pad. I love a themed room, as much as I love a themed wedding, outfit, or party! It's the theatre of it that appeals, as well as knowing exactly what to expect when you open a door. It means you can create some sense of order from the vintage junk yard my rooms tend to look like by the time I've finished with them.

Once of the rooms in the house (which one will be revealed later once it's finished) is going to be circus themed. That means I've been trawling all of my favourite haunts (Ebay, Etsy, Car boot sales and junk shops basically) looking for as much vintage-inspired circus paraphernalia as possible.


My first stop was eBay, where I have been picking up old repro Barnham and Bailey circus prints and postcards for less than £2 each (I got the set of six postcards for £2.50). I've put them in RIBA photoframes from IKEA in the sale, which were reduced to £7.20, from approx £14.99.  I have two more frames, and am trawling the listings daily waiting for two more perfect posters to pop up.

For the soft furnishings my mum and I are making a lot of them ourselves, but I just couldn't resist the following options from Etsy:


Barnum and Bailey cushion cover, Spooky Shades, £22.37
Victoriana Animal cushion cover, StevieBhandmade, £30

And there's more! Not on the high street is also a cavern of wonder when it comes to finding old-school circus treasure. There is literally circus stuff everywhere I turn at the moment!


These wooden blocks from Chippernelly would make great paper weights, and they're only £10.95.  And I can't work out what I want to do with these carnival/fair tickets, but for just £3 a roll I'm sure I can think of something! Use it to trim paper bunting perhaps?!


The best thing about this room theme is that it will and can work for literally every room in the house. Imagine how much more fun it would be to work in the circus themed office? Or eat in a circus themed dining room? Hell if you found the perfect red and white striped wall paper you could even make this work for a seriously cool bathroom! The possibilities are endless!

Do you theme your rooms/interior decor, either intentionally or unintentionally? And what do you think of the circus theme? Is it something you'd be tempted to try?

Love Tor xx

The history of your M&S undies

Hi guys,
I'm always been a big fan of M&S undies (they're comfy, they wash well, they're available in a bigger cup size: what's not to like!) so you can imagine how delighted I was to read that they have raided their archive to create a new vintage underwear range.

To celebrate the Queens Jubilee year, the lingerie design team have taken inspiration from original 1950’s designs to transform them into more wearable pieces for a new collection launching at M&S. Consisting of four looks, the beautifully constructed collection uses silk, lace, luxurious satin and mesh combinations to emulate the glamour of the 1950s, including designs based on the original conical bra, corsetry and the big knicker shape. The collection was inspired by some research M&S had done on their rich underwear history...

Want to find out more about the history of M&S lingerie? The team have created a surprisingly interesting interactive graphic showing the history of lingerie from the 1920s through to the 1980s. I geek out about stuff like this, so I love reading snippets of information I haven't read before. Did you know, for example, that the first M&S bra launched in 1926 and was designed for use under flapper style dresses to flatten the chest?

If you don't want to geek out about bra facts, get excited about pretty pants instead. The collection is available in store and online in May. Form an orderly queue behind me, ladies!

Love Tor xx

Bicester Village goes vintage

Hi guys,
I fell slightly in love with the vintage styling of this new Bicester Village campaign. It makes me wish I had the kind of decadent life that involves long summer holidays spent lounging around the pool indulging in deliciously expensive cocktails, wearing hand-delivered couture, and looking moody! And lets face it, any ad campaign that has a dog in its finale is always a winner with me!

I am long overdue a trip to Bicester Village: I really want a new Vivienne Westwood scarf (preferably the same as my red one, but in black) and I always spend far too much money in the Cath Kidston and French Connection stores. In fact, it might be the perfect activity for this weekend, given the rainy weather!

For a little vintage inspiration for your next Bicester Village trip (and gratuitous cute puppy shots!) check it out:

Viral video by ebuzzing

Love Tor xx

Sponsored Post

The Sarenza trip to Paris

Hi guys,
As I mentioned on Tuesday, on Wednesday afternoon I headed to Paris with Reena from Fashion Daydreams and Jen from A little bird told me, to meet the lovely Sarenza team and go to a party to celebrate the launch of the new "What's Hot!" section of their French site (which will be coming to the UK site soon!) The Whats Hot section basically showcases some of the best shoes they have on the site: there is a Jeffrey Campbell tapestry pair on there right now that i'm totally in love with ! We had such a wonderful time, that i'm going to give you a blow-by-blow account of the trip. This is going to be a pretty image heavy post: we just couldn't stop taking photos!

By Night:
We arrived in Paris and headed to our hotel to change, then it was straight to the party! Several French bloggers had been out taking street style photos, and we had to choose who's style we liked best: all the guests voted, and the winner gets a massive 5000 euros worth of shoes! Once the serious business of choosing our favourite street style was over, we got on with enjoying ourselves. Yummy cocktails, great canapes, hotdogs, and gorgeous shoes: what more do you need from a night out?!








By Day:
Following our party night, we had a leisurely day planned for the rest of our time in Paris. We met the Sarenza team for a delicious brunch, then headed to several vintage shops for a good rummage: I had no idea vintage was so cheap in Paris! I picked up a full skirted dress and a sequinned top for just 15 euros. The rest of our time was spent meandering through tiny streets, and sitting outside cafes in the sun. It was a wonderful day!






Whenever i'm in Paris admiring the little things (like the graffiti or the shape of a tree!) it makes me want to come home and look at London with fresh eyes too: I think it's easy to miss all that stuff in the city you live in, but admire it when you're away. Nonetheless, Paris is beautiful, and I have such fun everytime i'm there. It was such a wonderful break, so big thanks again to Sarenza for organising such a great trip!
Love, Tor x

Fashion maketh woman competition winner is....

The winner of the fashion maketh woman competition is.....Claire! Congratulations to Claire- if you drop me an email with your address/contact details asap I can send these to the event organiser who can get your tickets to you ahead of Thursday's event. Congratulations again, and maybe i'll see you there!

If you missed out then don't worry - I have another exciting competition from delightful muddle vintage coming up shortly.

Love, Tor xx

Reader discount: Delightful Muddle Vintage

I love vintage shopping (in fact i'm wearing one of my favourite vintage coats today) I love wearing something that you can be sure noone else is wearing (not something that happens when you pull on your favourite Topshop dress). So you can imagine how pleased I was to discover Delightful Muddle Vintage: well organised good quality vintage at affordable prices from the comfort of your living room.

Delightful Muddle Vintage is about to celebrate its first birthday. The company was originally set up by the current owners grandmother in the 1940s, but has now been operating online for 12 months. There is no focus on designer items but wonderful wearable pieces that are as relivent now as they were when they were made; some of the dresses are beautiful, and because they aren't recognised designer-vintage labels, they're really affordable too.

Unusually, the store also offers menswear, so you can glam up your boyfriend at the same time as shopping for yourself! And the site has a bargain corner where all items are £10 or less: perfect for a little treat when you're not feeling flush!

Delightful Muddle Vintage are offering FabFrocks readers a MASSIVE 25% off. You simply need to enter the code delightfulfrocks at the checkout. How exciting is that?? I bet you can guess what i'll be doing this afternoon! (hint: it involves online shopping!)

Love, Tor xx

PS - The photos are by Ruth Allen and Zoe Escritt

Vintage Threads: Event for my non-London pals

I am aware that this blog is quite London-centric. I suppose that's inevitable, given that London is where I live and all, but having started blogging in Norwich I am also aware how frustrating it is to read about cool happenings in our nations capital and not being close enough to attend (or in my case, train fare-rich enough). So this post is for my northern pals!

Vintage Threads is an event that spans two days, providing the biggest and best vintage fair including clothing, homeware and accessories in the UK. It will be located at The Triangle in Manchester which i'm told is a very large and lovely venue. (I've been to Manchester before but never to the Triangle. My resounding memory of shopping in Manchester is how big the Primark is!)

To accompany this the event will also be hosting clothing alterations workshops where you are able to learn everything you need to know about basic clothing alteration, sewing and customisation: This would be the part of the event I would be most excited about. It's amazing how much longer your clothes last if you can learn to do basic things like changing a button or fixing a hem.

Image from here.
There will also be a 6 piece band, a tea party filled with scrummy cakes, sandwiches, a haberdashery and alteration service if that tickles your fancy. This is a free event, so if you're in the area there's no excuse not to check it out! And if you do pop down let me know what you thought - I think this event sounds fab and I would love to know if i'm right!

When: Friday 2nd April 11-5pm and Saturday 3rd April 9am-6pm
Where: Triangle Shopping Centre, Exchange Square, Manchester, M4 3RT.
You can find out more about the event here.

Love, Tor xx

If I could go to any festival this year it would be Vintage at Goodwood

Vintage at Goodwood is the first festival to combine music, fashion, design and retail. Which I find very exciting!! The email about this landed in my inbox a few days ago, and I have had to take a little time to ruminate on it, because as well as loving fashion I also love music. I realise the two go hand in hand, but combining the two into an event of this kind could either be a very good or a very bad thing. I ultimately decided that, if they do it right, it would be wonderful!
As well as all the usual things you find at a festival, there will also be three daily runway shows featuring vintage designers to future trends and a unique custom-built ‘High Street’ to feature the world’s largest vintage market alongside pop up outlets from John Lewis to Oxfam. I think it will be wonderful to see vintage and highstreet sitting side by side, and could really open peoples eyes to the benefits of textile recycling and adding vintage or second hand clothes to your wardrobe. It would be worth going for the shopping potential alone!

Wayne Hemmingway (of RedorDead fame) is one of the organisers of the event, and he said: "We have carefully curated a celebratory festival in complete contrast to the staid status quo, that re-unites music, fashion and culture; that is unashamedly about dressing up rather than down and being comfortable rather than compromised. There has been nothing to date like Vintage [at Goodwood]"

It sounds fabulous, and i'm especially excited by the five on site clubs recreating each respective decade with unparalleled authenticity to complement the main stage. I can see myself shaking my tail feathers in the sixties one! The event will also see the launch of Lily Allen’s new fashion label Lucy in Disguise, although she won't be performing at the festival.
I know it hasn't been finalised yet, but I just hope the line up of the bands improves a little: I'm sure this one could change my mind, but I always go to a festival for the music first and the fashion second. I think the thought that has gone into the line up is fantastic, which acts chosen from each of the eras represented in the event, but so far the bands booked aren't that exciting. To my mind at least, there is no real headliner. And I think the balance between the fashion and music has to become a little more, well, balanced!

The fashion is more than taken care of though, so if you're looking to shop your socks off, get dressed up in the fashions of your favourite era, and party down with a little live background noise going on, then this is the place to be!

You can find out more about the event on their website, and also read the event manifesto, which will tell you all about the event much more clearly than i ever could! The £150 weekend + camping tickets are a little rich for my purse, but I am thinking of splashing out £55 for a day ticket. I think it will be a great day out!

Love, Tor xx

New web love: Queens of Vintage.com

I know I constantly have a new "love" but I found a fabulous website yesterday that I just have to share with you.

Billed as the 'Vogue of Vintage' (I promise that that awful intro is the only part of this site you will find so trite!) queensofvintage.com’s content spans vintage fashion, beauty, interiors and culture.

You can organise your posts by city: an amazing feature for anyone living outside of London given the majority of vintage sites and blogs (sorry about that!) are so London-centric!

The feature I most enjoy is the reviews of vintage stores in cities near you. It's like someone taking the hassle out of vintage shopping for you by reviewing the stores before you even leave the house!

The layout is a bit confusing to start with (the homepage is so damn busy!!) but you soon get used to it. And although talking about the credit crunch is getting dull and seriously getting me down, it is happening and starting to affect our purses. Or at least, its definitely affecting my purse! So the make do and mend feature is perfect for its easy tips (even someon with monkey paws could do it!) on revamping what you already have. I know, I know, I'm raving again but it is a good site!

And if this isn't all exciting enough, I found a feature (or is it a blog post? This looks like a blog but bills itself as an ezine!?) on where you can buy beautiful vintage brooches online now.

I love vintage brooches (although now the collection has passed the 50 mark i'm trying to be a little more selective) but selective or not, this one would definitely make it into the collection. Or maybe this one:How do you choose!? Queens of vintage is definitely a site I will visit again, if only to see what their top picks are. Not to mention the gorgeous photos in their "Top 100 queens" section. Now back to the important issue of brooches. If I just start raiding the penny jar....

Much love,

Tor

Leaving no stone left unturned.....

When I read about mama was a rolling stone on the fashion tribes blog, I was excited. Billed as a one stop vintage fashion destination we were told we would find look books of celebrities and normal folks alike. A blog, forums, editorial insider stuff, and a fabulous shop.

And nearly all of this is true. The look books aren't completed (unless 10 pictures of Nicole Richie counts as a lookbook to you?) the blog, although well informed and fabulously well written, is super hard to navigate, and more like a very confusing online ezine. And it made my head hurt. And finally, noone has written on the forums (which is OK, as the site is new, but surely a good community manager should at least be stimulating a comment or two?)

However despite all these fatal flaws (I can't help it, it's the web editor in me) this is a great site! The store section is by far the best and what I love most is that Bryna, the owner, models all the clothes herself.

On the fashion tribe blog she says that ""I've been collecting vintage for years and it's great to be able to share that with others," she explains about the cool vintage threads, accessories and kicks from around the world that she stocks. "I'm just so excited to be doing something I love!" As she only sells things she would wear herself, it's like having amazing access to the closet of a stylish pal."

And you can really tell she cares about what she does. The quality of the garments look amazing, and although I would be stung hard on the import tax, if you're from the US, the prices are really affordable.

For the second time today, here's my pick:

All from the online store, and all between $60-$100.

I want to wear so much of these precious things, it's almost enough to make my head explode!

Do it for me, my American readers! Go shopping! (and send me pictures of what you buy!)

Lots of love,

Tor

Running fashionable late!

OK, so when I said I would post this weekend I lied. I’m sorry I lied to you dear reader. I didn’t mean to. My weekend was filled with movies, over indulgence and Halloween costumes and I forgot all about you. My bad.

But I’m back now, and I am ready to talk about parties. Oh yes.

Firstly, because I made a ruddy great fuss about the whole thing, here's what I wore:

And without the jacket (plus some rather disheveled hair) with the hilarious Dressed and Pressed:

The dress is from a stall on the east street market (it was only £20!) the lace top is from warehouse, I made the head band myself, and I went with curly hair and leather jacket. As you can see no doubt. Of course, I desparately want to show you Beckys fabulous outfit too, but I think her soul might weep if I ruined the reveal. You'll have to wait, sadly. As did I.

The event was blogger heaven with folks like disneyrollergirl, the recently renamed make do, and the above mentioned dresses and pressed in attendance, and everyone was uber friendly and cool (in a non-intimidating way, thank god!) The combo of free vodka and fabulous vintage dresses, hats, shoes, and anything you wished you had in your dressing up box when you were a kid was intoxicating. It was a feast for the eyes. Never before have I seen so many people dressed so imaginatively all in the same room. But don't take my word for it. Here is the photo evidence (which sprinklings of dressing-up box Tor and Becky to stroke my vanity of course!):

I think I can safely say a good night was had by all.

Much love,

Tor x

I'm an Absolut tease....

Becky and I will both be writing up our first free fashion party experiences like queens this weekend, but in the meantime here is a teaser in the form of the professional snaps that were taken on the night:

Vintage clothes courtesy of the fabulous Mint Boutique. These weren't the outfits we wore: more on those delights later!

Oooh, get us!

Love,

Tor

We Lives in His Lap

Hello blogosphere,

I'm sick sick sick of fashion week. It's been singularly unimpressive and chock full of bulging ribcages. Let's instead celebrate a certain level of Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik-liciousness as personified by Andre 3000 (or Andre Benjamin, if you insist) and his new clothing line Benjamin Bixby.

Here be the man:

Obsessed with this tiger polo combo.

in. frickin'. overalls.

Legimitised in our bloggy eyes via The Sartorialist

Here be the product:

Quote from Andre's interview in The Guardian:

"I think a lot of African-American kids don't have fathers to teach them how to dress, so you end up being taught by pictures in magazine and movies. You see cowboys, Indians, old Hollywood films, Cary Grant. It has an effect on you."

Randolph Scott & Cary Grant. Yes, I know. I know.

Fred Astaire

No offence Big Boi, but you be looking like a chump next to your bandmate. Would a little tailoring kill you? A jaunty hat?

Friends, if you have a penis, consider my advice to Big Boi as applying to your very own self. Basically, if you're not dressed as a 1930s college football star, I just don't have time for you.

'cept this guy. This guy can be in my gang.
via Facehunter.

Suit up here and here. And report back here at 0900 for your next orders.

Love,
Sgt Wigmore