Bus Stop!

As I do occasionally, I've been having a wardrobe reshuffle and selling clothes & accessories which no longer bring me joy. The funds are rapidly building up and Vinted, keen for me not to withdraw my money, keep tempting me with things they know I'll love. 

Lee Bender at Bus Stop for £10! Now that's what I call vintage gold.

To those unfamiliar with Bus Stop, it was a boutique established by Lee Bender and her husband Cecil in London in 1968, the name chosen to reflect something the couple considered identifiably British. The Kensington store became a chain of twelve boutiques and was bought by French Connection in 1979. Sadly Lee Bender died in 2023. I was astonished to discover that she had followed me on Twitter (I'm not on it now).

I regularly visited Birmingham's branch of Bus Stop with my mum in the 1960s and '70s. She bought me my very first grown-up size piece of clothing, a olive green satin jumpsuit, for my 13th birthday. 

 I found this amazing Bus Stop suit in a charity shop back in 2023 for the princely sum of £10. I've still not got round to wearing it, I really should rectify that. 

Here's my Vinted find - a gorgeous 1970s wool maxi skirt, chevron striped and the perfect length and fit. 

 Last Friday, whilst roaming the charity shops on the way home from swimming, one of the volunteers told me that someone had just donated a bag of jewellery and would I like to look before it went on the shop floor...did I need asking?!

Most of it was blingy high street stuff and not my thing at all but this caught my eye, a 1960s pewter pendant by R Tenne of Sweden which the assistant said I could have for £1!

 

My Bus Stop / Swedish pendant combo was Tuesday's outfit for a trip to the newly opened council tip, the biggest in Europe (HERE), there's a tip shop with some incredibly cheap furniture and homewares but there was nothing to tempt us, we fared better in the nearby charity shops. 

On Wednesday morning for walking down to the pool for our early morning swim, I wore this vintage 1970s Ian Rayment hat I'd bought from a charity shop on a road trip to Tewkesbury back in 2019 and had completely forgotten about. It added a new dimension to a couple of my oft-worn wardrobe staples, the maxi dress and velvet wrap top I bought new! from All About Audrey a couple of years ago.

We had a couple of gloriously sunny and warm days this week. I didn't even need a coat to walk down to drop my parcels off on Thursday morning.

 

This outfit made me happy, I've owned all three pieces for a while...a second hand blouse by Indian designer, Bhamami by Jyoti, sold in Anthropologie, a vintage Ayesha Davar waistcoat and my Anokhi maxi dress...but hadn't worn them together before. Indian block prints go together like magic.

Other than a multipack of trainer socks, which ended up in the bin after their first wearing, I've never shopped in Pr*mark. I spotted this maxi skirt in a charity shop this morning and despite the brand thought the skirt had potential so handed over my £2.

The fit isn't great.. I don't think women have waists any more...but I love how it looks teamed with another of my All About Audrey tops (this green one was bought via Vinted), my 1970s Falmers denim waistcoat and trusty Australian-made cowboy hat.

My new to me bag from Vinted deserves a special mention, it's a Santa Fe Kilim bag with leather and rope handles and is the perfect size for lugging my swimming gear around. Google Lens tells me that it originally retailed for $299, I paid £10! 

When I poppd into the charity shop earlier, I noticed that they'd got a few more Holland & Barrett boxed toilteries, now reduced to £1. I tried the Beauty Balm when I got home, its amazing and with a SPF 15, too!

Here's our recent charity shop finds. The festival offers are starting to roll in so stock's foremost in our minds!

Two x 1990s deadstock rayon hippy tops with lace-up backs, 1980s gents' leather waistcoat, an offical Indiana Jones fedora (who knew?), the mostly insanely fabulous 1960s hat ever - violet velvet trimmed with shocking pink marabou feathers (if they didn't bore the pants off me I almost want to be invited to a wedding just to wear it!), 1960s American dagger collar shirt by Arrow.  

A so bad, its cool 1980s shaggy jumper, 1960s dagger collar shirt by Van Heusen, a 1980s rainbow sequin biker jacket by Panache of London, a tiger print leisure shirt, two Day of the Dead bandanas, printed in Mexico (Jon's claimed these!) and a 1970s Liz Claiborne maxi dress. 

Another 1990s deadstock rayon hippy top, a fabulous pair of stack-heeled 1970s leather brogues (these fit me...tempted!), a 1970s batik Greek tourist shirt and a Y2K Coast silk cocktail dress with an asymetric hem (the kids are obsessed with this style of dress!)

We've finished watching both seasons of Poker Face and loved every moment, if you can find it I can't recommend it highly enough, one of my favourite series ever! I wanna hang out with Charlie Cale (and steal her wardrobe).  We've just started Landman, it's written by Taylor Sheridan, a master of the Neo-Western and so far, so good, especially Tommy, the always excellent Billy Bob Thornton's character.

Jon's just called me, the bar's just about to open. Have a bostin' weekend! Cheers!