If The Coat Fits....

So, there we were at Stockport, working our pitch in the usual understated manner when one of our regular customers presented me with a carrier bag, This is for you, he said, it belonged to my late mother, my wife never wears it and we felt you were the only person to do it justice.

...and this is what was in it. A fake snow leopard swing coat by Martin Blau of London. 

Obviously I was overwhelmed by their thoughtfulness and generosity but, on further reflection, I'm rendered speechless by how incredibly cool Phil's Mum was. Can you imagine the attention this coat got in dreary, post-war Britain?

Don McCullin : Sleeping With Ghosts

The vast majority of vintage crowd look at the 1950s with rose-tinted glasses, thinking it was all cup cakes, cherry-printed dresses, stilettos and Elvis when, in reality, it was shit.

Don McCullin : Sleeping With Ghosts

A peek at the incredible work of my favourite photographer, Don McCullin shows the UK in an entirely different light. Poverty and deprivation were the order of the day .

Don McCullin : Sleeping With Ghosts

The thought of a working class woman strutting the streets of Manchester in a coat like mine blows my mind.

Don McCullin : Sleeping With Ghosts

I don't think Phil's mum was your conventional woman, chained to the kitchen sink, feeding her family Spam fritters, content to make do and conform to the Fifties' ideal of a perfect housewife.

Don McCullin : Sleeping With Ghosts

Imagine an ordinary Northern wife saving up her housekeeping and splashing out on a London-made coat, one which simulated the pelt of an animal she'd probably never even seen a photograph of. I can just hear the neighbours gossiping, Would you look at her, who does she think she is? 

I think Phil's Mum dreamed big, she wanted more. I can see her clattering around the cobbled back streets of the North in high heels, enveloped in a cloud of Chanel No 5 and dreaming of better things. Not for her a once-a-week night out at the local, a half-pint of stout and a few shillings from her husband's wages to treat herself.

1950s Martin Blau coat worn with dress made from a vintage curtain (last seen HERE), 1980s suede boots and peacock feather necklace 

Phil's mum was a bad ass years years before her time. She didn't give a f*ck what her neighbours thought, whether her clothing was age or class appropriate or if the family had to live on bread and dripping for the week as long as she looked good.

Do I do the coat justice? I'd like to think so. Hopefully Phil's Mum would approve of her beloved coat's new owner, a woman who, all too often, overhears Who the feck does she think she is? Someone not content to compromise with the life expected of me (marriage, a career, a wardrobe from Marks & Spencer, a fortnight in the Canaries), who forever dreams of bigger, better and more glamorous things....

Linking to Patti & the gang for Visible Monday.