Dress 9 of a dress a day under £100

Today I'm stepping away from black and the high street and back to the joy of second hand clobber. Yes yes I know you want me to say 'vintage darling' but I like the words 'jumble sale' and 'second hand' much more than 'vintage' and 'thrift'.

I've never been a fashion snob nor the fashion police and happily have a broad church of shopping approach to clothes. Nothing and nowhere is off limits. My only criteria is do I love it and do I like the material. One of the benefits of second hand garments is often the superior quality and the fact the item is unique in the current climate of mass market shopping.

This dress is a party wow number, the lovely material has a nice colour depth, texture and pattern.  It is also perfectly current and under £100 at £75.

Bernard Freres 1960s dress £75 Vintage-a-Peel

Party Party

Mrs MDS loves nothing more than a good party and Saturday was a party day of three parts.

The first chore of the day in a day of being prepared was to cycle to the nearest supermarket (excluding the local Tesco express) which handily is Waitrose. I was of course getting all the ingredients together to host a welcome home meal for Mr MDS, although by rights gallivanting with a bunch of chums in Spain is nothing to be celebrated. Still it was going to be nice to see him again and hand over sole charge of the petit garcon.

We have no car at the moment which is great as I'm as fit as a fiddle from walking everywhere and the tide on the fat hips has been turned. Also with no Mr MDS to feed my diet had improved 100%, no meat and smaller portions. Saturday was to continue in this vein with a pre return request of 'no meat' from Mr MDS. A tad too much jamon and boys barbecue's for any grown man.
I took my own bags and one of my current favourite handy bags to have is my Isabella Oliver black bag,which the clothes are packed in for delivery. I'm sure when they were designed they didn't anticipate them being packed full with Campari, Prosecco, white wine and soda water. I had to cycle slowly home in order to avoid a spillage. My poor bicycle basket was creaking under the weight of the bottles and the groceries.

The rammed Isabella Oliver bag

My poor basket

My cycling companion (he only learnt to ride a bike 2 weeks ago & loves it!)

My next mission was to hot foot it into and across central London to the northern outpost of Belsize Park and the wonderful vintage clothes business launch party of Penny Dreadful Vintage hosted by its owner Margaret. It was the perfect party combination of vintage clothes, retro high tea food and Pimms. I tried on a to die for pleated Christian Dior skirt and darn it, it fitted, how I wept. There was such a wonderful selection I could have stayed for hours trying things on but I did actually want to see Mr MDS.

How many gorgeous items!

Ah the skirt

Sharon Rose from MyStyle

Yummy!

Perdita's Pursuits in person

More yumminess in the form of Mad Men shoes

Mr MDS and I reunited over spritz and frittata, constantly interrupted by the petit garcon, who by now was a proud owner of a Real Madrid away kit, decided to get into the party spirit of the Eurovision song contest. In truth our party began well but declined as firstly petit garcon had to be put to bed once 9pm had been reached. I got too handy on twitter and Mr MDS fell into a snoring slumber on the settee, missing the best bit, the voting. So there I was alone with Graham Norton and twitter - quite a party!

The flag waving support for Blue

Jumper love

If I could have two jumpers then these are my top choices. The first one I have coveted for years. Oh I wish it was mine.



The second is recent discovery via a fabulous series of posts by PennyDreadful Vintage on 50s supermodel Suzy Parker. Now I so want a yellow jumper - exactly like this.

Biba co-incident

The new range of Biba clothes is a House of Fraser exclusive with Daisy Lowe as the face of the relaunched brand. Completely by co-incident I've been asked to photograph a small collection of Biba clothes for archiving. I'm not taking the photos but creating a setting for it all. I've currently got one of the dresses hanging on my bedroom door for inspiration - it hasn't come yet although a preview of Vintage-a-Peel's Autumn collection has me chasing some gold platforms so maybe my eureka moment will come soon.

Just browsing

On-line vintage boutiques are such a treat and Mary Moore Vintage is one I dribble over. I always wish I'd discovered this before I got married as I love the wedding dresses and would have snapped up the Snow Queen 1940s one.


It is the wonderful diverse selection of 1950s dresses that makes me wish I had a cocktail evening or two to throw

all dresses Mary Moore Vintage

Vintage Saturday surprise

On Saturday morning I caught up on blog posts and had a good read of Sharon Rose's tips on thrifting and vintage. A friend of mine who runs an ebay business Closet Encounters came and picked up my wares to sell for me and then I popped to my parents to see how they are getting on a week later after moving.

Driving there I was thinking of life post MA, going to car boots sales, reading fiction and what things I could do to the house. I don't know how it happens but any time I have a quick Sharon Rose channel regarding thrifting something unexpected happens.

My dear mother had unearthed 3 maxi dresses of hers from the 70s to give to me. I couldn't believe my luck. They fit although the cut does highlight the change in living, I will be adding full focus on losing 8 pounds to my post MA to do list - it's all that comfort eating during my writer's block moments which are in greater proportion to my outputs.

pattern of dress and rope detail on waist, which is also finishes the neck of the dress. The dress was actually made in the UK

Bit of a snug fit but it is a lovely summer number. I was amused as this dress was from C&A, however the design and construction of the dress is far superior to most high street offering, I realised how cheaply made are the cheaper items we have today. This dress will look wonderful accessorised with gold

pattern of dress

the kimono style sleeves are brilliant and it's probably from Fenwicks (most of her clothes were from Fenwicks - there's another old Fenwicks velvet maxi dress which I shortened and added heavy beading bought from John Lewis

this snap shows the colour of the third dress which is another Fenwicks number we think

a closer look at the sleeve detail

the evening maxi dress

Alas that's my lot, no more hidden gems. I won't dwell on a Balenciaga number she lost....