I feel almost ashamed writing those words, but it’s true – vintage is everywhere.
Open a fashion mag, Hello or any Sunday supplement and there it is, the little vintage dress or skirt and the vintage accessory, handbags or luggage or vintage shoes and scarves. While at the Miami Beach antiques fair I was surprised to see that one of the liveliest and obviously most successful stands specialised in vintage sunglasses. Vintage watches, particularly those manufactured by Patek Philippe and Rolex are fetching eye-watering prices in auctions around the globe, forcing celebrities to stop wearing them in public for fear of being mugged.
Suddenly, groups of men and women wearing vintage are gathering in pubs on a Friday and Saturday night in city centres. Vintage is mainstream and celebrities are leaping in. Lily Rose Cooper – the artist formally known as Lily Allen – and her sister, Sarah Owen, opened their shop, Lucy In Disguise, to much fanfare last year. Originally intending to rent their stock, they are now converting vintage fashions and selling cheaper copies while launching a line of fragrances too.
Following on from his success last year with Vintage Goodwood, another vintage entrepreneur celeb, Wayne Hemingway has been sending out very confusing emails promoting this year’s vintage extravaganza he is organising at London’s South Bank on the 29th and 30th July – the “Bad Art” exhibition looks like fun.
Blind Lemon Vintage Fairs are thriving and Edwin has sent a list of upcoming fairs:
There are some spaces left for dealers with quality stock.
Affordable Vintage Fairs are also enjoying a good year and Judy has sent this list of fairs planned for this summer and autumn:
Lovebox Festival
Friday 15th July – Sunday 17th July 2011
Victoria Park, London, E9
The Vintage Kilo Sale London
Saturday 16th July 2011
The Rag Factory, 16 – 18 Heneage Street, London, E1 5LJ
Open: 11:00 – 4:00
Vintage at the Southbank
Friday 29th July – Sunday 31st July
The Southbank centre, Belvedere Road, London, SE1 8XX
Kendal Calling
Friday 29th July – Sunday 31st July
Lowther Deer Park, Hackthorpe, Cumbria, CA10 2HN
Beacons Festival
Friday 12th August – Sunday 14th August 2011
Heslaker Farm, Skipton, N. Yorks, BD23 3AB
Fly to the Past Festival
Sunday 21st August 2011
Oxford Airport, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxfordshire, OX5 1RA
Spitalfields Bank Holiday Market
Monday 29th August 2011
The Old Spitalfields Market, 16 Horner Street, Spitalfields, London, EC1 6EW
Open: 10:00 – 6:00
End of the Road
Friday 2nd September – Sunday 4th September 2011
Larmer Tree Gardens, North Dorset
Who knows where vintage is going next year, but I’d get around to my granny’s sharpish – if I still had one living – and clean out her wardrobe.
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Vintage Fabric Document Swatch - Printed Cotton - Floral Ditzie
Two new pages of vintage printed cotton textile fabric samples have been uploaded.
From a collection of vintage cotton textile documents dating from between 1900 and 1920 a selection of Printed Cotton Floral Ditzies dated 1914 and a selection of Russian Printed Cotton Ditzies also dated 1914.
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It has been widely reported in the press this week that China has overtaken the UK as the second largest art market in the world. There appears to be a great deal of hand-wringing and whinging too, mainly aimed at the increase in duty (the resale levy, droit de suite) payable on art sold in the European market introduced in 2006.
Currently this levy is payable only on the work of living artists, although an extension is planned to cover the work of artists who have died in the past seventy years, for the benefit of their living relatives. This extension will bring some of the big names of twentieth century art, such as Picasso, into the levy period.
The complainers point out that, although Europe has introduced the levy, the USA, Switzerland and China are not intending to do so and they seem to be predicting a further decline of the UK’s position in the future, due to this lack of an agreed worldwide policy.
It’s nonsense.
China is an emerging economy with a population of 1.3 billion people, all born to be collectors. Every year thousands of Chinese millionaires are being created and they all want to buy and collect art and antiques, particularly Chinese art and antiques.
A quick scan of Chinese art and antiques sold in major auction rooms in London, New York, Paris, Zurich and almost any other city outside of China or Hong Kong during the past ten years will yield a long list of pieces that have subsequently been sold for considerably more in Hong Kong. It is not unusual for a Chinese piece to be sold in one of the major rooms in London in the spring, only to turn up in Hong Kong in the autumn. And now the Chinese are buying art across the board, from wine to old master paintings. Obviously vendors want to sell in China.
Here, in the UK, the market has been declining for years because young people don’t want to collect art and antiques. The youth of the UK are interested in vintage and retro and Ikea. The recession has only made matters worse.
Any extra taxes or levies added to the cost of art will certainly encourage professional dealers and savvy vendors to utilise cheaper options in states not signed-up to the scheme. But, the average non-trade seller will still continue to wander into the first auction house they come to and offer their treasures for sale oblivious to commissions or levies. And the majority of collectors will follow their obsession, wherever it leads them, regardless of cost, as they always have.
I assume that much of the anti art levy rhetoric has been stirred up by the auction houses, who fear diminishing sales in their European rooms. These are the same companies who take hefty bites out of both sides of the sale of every lot in their catalogues. Who exactly are they representing? And why are they allowed to continue this practice, when solicitors and estate agents are, quite rightly, not allowed to do so? Never mind auction houses fixing the rates, that’s small potatoes compared to the utterly immoral position they have been allowed to exploit as the “honest” broker, without oversight. I for one, will not be crying for our major, “respected” auction houses and will continue to avoid their services whenever possible.
It seems likely that this current blow to the UK art market is only the beginning.
By Sam Trader – Visit Cathay Trader
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50 vintage traders from all over the UK & Europe with vintage and retro designer treasures from 1800s-1980s.
Vintage and retro menswear & womenswear, vintage accessories, vintage textiles, trimmings, buttons, handbags, luggage, dolls, frames, hosiery
parasols, brogues, mirrors, boots, sandals and more…
Tea Room des Artist
Featuring ‘The Polka Dot Dolls’ close harmony trio
Serving up some vintage numbers, delicious food & refreshments
On-the-spot Alterations
The lady that does…offers speedy nip n tucks or revamp a classic vintage or retro style in a modern fabric.
Over 1000 attended our last event so please arrive early to get your hands on a bargain before someone else does!
Nearest tube:Angel (Northern line)
Farringdon (Hammersmith & City, Circle, Metropolitan)
Eurostar:Kings Cross Buses:38, 19, 55, 243, 68
www.clerkenwellvintagefashionfair.co.uk
info@clerkenwellvintagefashionfair.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=75169152548
Hammersmith Town Hall, King Street, London W6
Vintage and retro bargins vinatge clothing, vintage accessories, vintage fabrics.
Sunday 13th March 2011
10am – 5pm Admission £5.00
Early entry 8am £10.00
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Following last year’s Vintage At Goodwood Festival the Hemigways are bringing their vintage and retro show to London. I decided to print all of their press release.
Vintage 2011 is coming to London
In 2007 Wayne and Gerardine Hemingway and the HemingwayDesign creative team developed a concept of a festival that celebrated the history of British Creativity. Working with a team of researchers from Wolverhampton University they forensically assembled the archives, the experts, the knowledge bases that would enable an authentic celebration of the music, fashion, art, design, film and food of the 40s , 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s and be able to look at how these “decades of cool” are influencing today’s world renowned British creative culture .
]]>No sooner is one virtual Portobello Road online than another appears behind it. AntiquesAtPortobello.Com is currently representing the antiques end of the most famous antiques market in the world and PretaPortobello.Com, a new online fashion market, dedicated to selling fashion and accessories, including vintage and retro, is going to represent the other end of the market.
PretaPortobello will sell direct from London’s Portobello Market, and other fashion markets such as Spitalfields, Camden, Brick Lane and now Sydney, Australia.
With pretaportobello.com, you don’t need to brave the crowds or the bad weather, for the latest fashion trends or vintage bargain. You can now have direct access to the great new design talent and quirky fashions available at these fabulous markets from any computer screen.
Browse the virtual market stalls and you’ll find distinctive, cutting edge clothing, vintage and retro fashions and accessories at affordable prices. PretaPortobello have created virtual market stalls for you to browse 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
But what if you want the market experience and love to haggle? Don’t worry, PretaPortobello lets you do that too, by visiting their Let’s Trade section, where you can barter with an online market trader and grab yourself a real bargain.
The creators said: As fans of London’s Portobello and Spitalfields markets, we often found it frustrating when we wanted to get something from the market but couldn’t make it down there. And so pretaportobello.com was born.
Will we see the Portobello Road greengrocers and fruiterers offering their wares online soon?
]]>From our archive of vintage & retro fabric documents I have uoploaded a new selection of printed cotton “ditzie” designs, mostly dated 1914.
Vintage Fabric Document Swatch - Printed Cotton - Ditzie
Click here to be taken to the page.
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The Vintage Fair now holds vintage & retro fashion events in 15 major cities around the UK. Starting out in their hometown of Sheffield as a one-off event and blown away by their success they and just had to continue.
Quickly establishing themselves as Sheffield’s finest vintage and retro fair, they decided in 2009 to take their fairs to Manchester & Birmingham.
The national demand for an event such as theirs was soon realised and 2010 saw them become the UK’s largest vintage fair. They are even in London on the first Sunday of every month at Bloomsbury Lanes.
They have gone from strength to strength and are now the fastest growing event, currently visiting over 15 cities and festivals, rising to 25 later in 2011.
The average fair hosts between 30 – 40 stalls of amazing affordable vintage & retro clothing and accessories dating from the 1940s to the 1980s.
Alongside men’s & women’s vintage & retro clothing and accessories you can expect to see handmade jewellery & clothing, vintage & retro homewares, artwork and crafts plus retro sweeties and much more.
To each fair they bring a Vintage Tea Party, serving delicious cakes and cupcakes and tea in fancy vintage china, allowing visitors to put their feet up and enjoy a sophisticated tipple.
A new and exclusive addition to their fairs is The Vintage Hair Salon, where a fabulous team will style your hair, make-up and nails. You can be transformed into your favourite star or icon for a night out or just as a treat – The Vintage Hair Salon is extremely popular and booking is essential.
The Vintage Fair will be introducing new venues and events in 2011, so sign up to their mailing list or join their Facebook fan page to be the first in the know. They say it’s going to be a VERY exciting year!
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Flamboyant Vintage Floral Metallic
From a vintage textile scrapbook of silk samples collected by J Borgey & Company, Lyon, France during the first half of the 20th century. A selection of vintage silk document swatches in various designs colourways. Follow this link to page >>>>
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Faux Rhino Horn Plastic Walking Stick
When I first saw this vintage walking stick stick in a provincial auction, estimated £10 – £15 I thought I’d found a small treasure.
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