Sabina Lucia

My love affair with vintage clothes started early; collecting corsets from the ’50s and ’60s at jumble sales as a teenager and shopping at Planet Hollywood vintage store (sadly no more) in Edinburgh, prompting many enquiries as to the source of my outfits. So I was really excited when I got an invitation to Frock Me! Vintage Fashion Fair at Chelse Town Hall on King’s Road. Print is key this season and you could do a lot worse than to stock up on some unique pieces from a vintage fashion fair like Frock Me!

There was such an exciting array of print designs from painterly and tribal to  bold, block ’60s graphics. Jean Dubberly, one of the exhibitors, mixes different vintage fabrics and re-works them, turning them into beautiful skirts, dresses and eye-catching chokers. What I love about these fairs is that they’re a cornucopia of trinkets and treasures from past eras and you feel like Mr Ben of ’80s children’s cartoon (anyone old enough to remember him) embarking on an adventure as you chose your outfit. Accessories were fun too with everything from kitsch costume jewelery in bakelite to sparkling antique diamonds and aptly-named fascinators like this Lady Amherst feather one worn by the creator Lilly Lewis.

The pièce de résistance of the whole fair for me though was a fabulous Zandra Rhodes wedding dress with a very flattering knotted waist and pretty netted skirt with flower corsage which you can see it soon at Anita’s Vintage Fashion Fair on Sunday the 18th of April in Battersea. If you’re a bride-to-be and you fancy a vintage dress for your big day there’s also The London Vintage Wedding Fair on Sunday 11th April. Happy vintage shopping everyone!

© Sabina Lucia 2010