Yesterday my very beautiful and decorative friend Jane and a young Japanese friend of hers Hanae and I trawled through the Aladdins cave that is the Love vintage fair at Canterbury race course. Colour, texture, movement it was a sensory overload of the best kind. I lost track of the time trying on mad hats. I want to get inside those old milliners  heads …’ I have a great idea for a hat it is shaped like a lampshade and covered in pale blue flocked flowers. You will be unmissable in this hat’ The hats looked beautiful on Hanae but I’m afraid I began to see my grandmother in the mirror with each one I tried. There were so many treasures to be had, some for a song and others not. Why do we need new clothes when there are so many amazing old clothes out there?

• Some are not so robust any more. The beautiful old fabrics are perishing with time unlike polyester which never breaks down.
• We have grown bigger and many vintage clothes do not fit the modern (and increasingly overweight body)
• We are used to a certain amount of elastane or stretch in modern clothing
• the wearing of vintage clothing requires a certain amount of chutzpah, style and flaunting of social conditioning

We made discoveries – I found lace remnants to use in future wedding dresses, a lovely old silk georgette brides dress and an amazing Jaques Desses cocktail dress with the models name in the hem. Pictures to come…

It was a lovely way to share time with friends oohing and ahhing over fabrics, prints, fashion styles, jewellery…