Sod Brexit - Let's Go Charity Shopping

It's happened again. Just like last week when I found that velvet cloak which perfectly complimented the embroidered Indian maxi dress I was already wearing, today I've found the ideal hat to match my Afghan dress. Yay! We may be living in a time of political uncertainty but we can rely on one thing, charity shopping will always surprise us.

There are three towns in the UK associated with hat making, Atherstone, Stockport and Luton, the latter being where my hat was made. Marida was one of Luton's largest hat makers and, at its peak, had two factories in the town. Sadly the company was dissolved in 2001. I reckon my hat dates to the mid-1980s when cobalt blue was all the rage.

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I absolutely love this dress and, until I bought my Anokhi riding coat in Jaipur, was the most I'd ever spent on a garment and I wear it loads, this is the third time I've worn it this week. If I don't post an outfit photo it's more than likely that I'm wearing this.

You may be forgiven for thinking that you've never seen my dress before but you have, it's just that until I did some research on traditional Afghan attire, I never realised that I'd been wearing it backwards!

Traditionally worn with baggy trousers cuffed at the ankle and a long black veil, Afghan dresses have an elaborately embroidered panel at the front, both the V-shaped bodice opening and the fuller part of the skirt, with a two panel detail, are worn at the back. 

I like mine worn both ways, two dresses for the price of one!

Clockwise from top left: Vintage Indian gauze cotton full sweep skirt; Indian jacket covered in scraps of block printed fabric; 1960s wool coat; Banjara tribal bead & shell belt, 1950s lidded basket, 1970s beaded tote bag; 1980s polka dot midi dress; 1970s cotton peasant-style maxi dress; Phool bejewelled kaftan; Dip-dyed knife pleat midi skirt; 1980s reversible jacket, made in Italy by Bellini

This week's mission has been to fill the gaps in our stockroom so we've been out hunting. We're trading at the Classic Car Boot Sale in London at the end of the month and then it's festival season. The criteria for the Classic Car Boot is vintage and/or high quality second-hand and our festival pitch is all about wild, colourful and fun so anything that catches our eye gets snapped up.

Clockwise from top left: Eight hats, seven are made in England and the odd one out is a wild Latin American bowler; Embroidered peasant blouse; 1980s Bruce Oldfield Custom-made jacket; 1980s sundress; Victorian night dress; Cheongsam blouse; Tianello (made in the USA) rayon Chinoiserie print duster coat; Hand embroidered peasant blouse

Charity shopping never ceases to amaze me. Where on earth had that Victorian nightdress been for the last 130-odd years? Who, in a town with one of the highest levels of unemployment within the UK back in the 1980s, could have afforded Bruce Oldfield Custom Made? 

The Bruce Oldfield dress Princess Diana is wearing in the photo above, chatting to the designer in 1987, sold at auction for £56,000. Not that I'm suggesting that the jacket is worth even a fraction of that astronomical figure, I'm just intrigued by the label.

Clockwise from top left: Vintage academic gown & mortar board; Frederick Theak dress shirt; Jeffery West shoes x 2, Clarks' desert boots (new); 1970s Fight Club style leather jacket; 1980s Dunn & Co cord blazer;  1970s St Michael leisure shirt; 1980s hand printed Kenyan safari shirt

The unworn Clarks' desert boots retail at £100 and luckily for Jon they're his size (UK 9.5).
Not one but two pairs of handmade shoes by achingly hip brand Jeffery West from their Muse collection - a pair of these shoes retail at between £225 and £250 and the company even offer a mending service should you wish to prolong the life of your shoes, how cool to repair your existing shoes rather than encouraging their customers to buy new?

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The prize for the star find of the day has to go to Jon for finding this insane Frederick Theak dress shirt featuring Rupert Bear. The company was founded in 1937 and was dissolved in 2008. What did we do before the internet? 

This isn't the only Theak dress shirt in our stockroom, we've also got one in red polka dots. You got to love a man invited to a formal occasion and opting to wear something like this. That's another of the joys of shopping secondhand, you can dream up all manner of stories about the history of your pre-loved finds.

WEARING: Vintage Afghan dress (Goodbye, Norma Jean), 1960s-does-Edwardian leather lace-up boots (car boot sale), 1980s Marida hat (Severn Hospice), Banjara coin pendant (Goa, 2005)

Today fast-fashion retailer Pr*mark opened its biggest store in the world just 9 miles down the road from me in Birmingham. I can't think of a worse shopping experience, mass produced tat made in questionable circumstances of which the majority will end up discarded in six weeks time. Ethics aside, who wants to dress like everyone else anyway? By shopping secondhand, you're not only reducing waste generated by a generation who believe cheap clothing is their god-given right but you're dressing to your own tastes and not those dictated to you by the fashion industry.....Secondhand for life!

Me and the lads will see you soon.