Reading, Watching, Buying, Wearing - A Mid-week Round Up

 

With Covid rife amongst our friends, it's been a quiet start to 2022. Four days into the New Year and we still haven't been to the pub. On Sunday I chucked the wilted Solstice greenery on the compost heap, recycled the Xmas cards and put away any Xmas presents we hadn't already drunk, eaten or worn.

Liz & Al bought us tickets for Kinky Boots at Wolverhampton Grand in May - Liz made the fabulous Kinky Boot the tickets were wrapped in. They also gave us a hamper full of treats, vegan soap, a handmade pompom trimmed choker, nail varnish and a handmade toilet bag. Our lovely neighbours bought treats for Stephen, a VW enamel sign and some delicious Dappy Rum, which we've already put a sizeable dent into. As well as the book of George Cartlidge's work and some fancy dates, Jon also surprised me with the painting of us by Liz, which we posed for last year. I bought him a vintage sacred cow collection tin from India, we'd had an almost identical one rattled in our faces by pilgrims on the long-distance bus between Jodphur and Jaisalmer in 2020. I'd also bought him an organic cotton lounging set (already in use), slavery-free chocolate and Mythos by Stephen Fry. Tony bought us some Fortnum & Mason teabags and Cornish rum. My brother & his girlfriend bought us a stone gargoyle named Bill and Pukka tea. Liz's mum bought us an amaryllis which is already sprouting.

On New Year's Eve, just like last year, we received a wonderful card with a hilarious poem from Jo in Canberra which put a huge smile on our faces. Happy New Year, Jo! 

Yesterday was a Bank Holiday which, as usual, I ignored and did what I always do on a weekday, got up at 6am for my Wii Fit Workout. After Jon retouched my roots, we spent most of the day photographing and listing stock on eBay and once we were done I finished my first book of 2022, the post-apocalyptic thriller The Second Sleep by Robert Harris. If you've never read anything by him, you really should, he was my Dad's favourite author - and in my top five. 

Here's what I read in 2021. 

1. A Darker Domain - Val McDermid
2. A Delicate Truth - John le Carré
3. A Distant Echo - Val McDermid
4. A Single Thread - Tracey Chevalier
5. A Thousand Ships - Natalie Hayes
6. A Woman in Berlin - Anonymous
7. Astray - Emma Donaghue
8. Black Flowers - Steve Mosby
9. Cast iron - Peter May
10. Circe - Madeline Miller
11. Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant - Anne Tyler
12. Dissolution - CJ Sanson
13. Earthly Pleasures - Phillipa Gregory
14. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman
15. Grayson Perry, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Girl - Wendy Jones
16. Heresy - SJ Parris
17. Little Fires Everywhere - Celeste Ng
18. Lone Wolf - Jodi Picoult
19. Looking Good Dead - Peter James
20. Loved Clothes Last - Orsola de Castro
21. Lustrum - Robert Harris
22. Missing - Karin Alvtegan
23. My Sister, The Serial Killer - Oyinkan Braithwaite
24. Nutshell - Ian McEwan
25. Our House - Louise Candlish
26. Queen's Gambit - EC Freemantle
27. Reconstruction - Mick Herron
28. Reflections on a Marine Venus - Lawrence Durrell
29. Slow Horses - Mick Herron
30. The Black Country - Alex Grecian
31. The Cobra - Frederick Forsyth
32. The Electric Michelangelo - Sarah Hall
33. The Good Liar - Nicholas Searle
34. The Herbalist - Niamh Boyce
35. The Knife - Jo Nesbo
36. The Last Kashmiri Rose - Barbara Cleverly
37. The Last Weekend - Blake Morrison
38. The Machine - James Smythe
39. The Madness of a Seduced Woman - Susan Fromberg Shaeffer
40. The Mercies - Kiran Millwood Hargrave
41. The Mission Song - John le Carré
42. The Music of The Spheres - Elizabeth Redfern
43. The Resurrectionist - James Bradley
44. The Retribution - Val McDermid
45. The Silence of the Girls - Pat Barker
46. The Silent Patient - Alex Michaelides
47. The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller
48. The Wicked Cometh - Laura Carlin
49. These Demented Lands - Alan Warner
50. Three Hours - Rosamund Lupton
51. Virgin Earth - Philippa Gregory
52. Washington Black - Esi Edugyan
53. White Crocodile - KT Medina
54. Dead Lions - Mick Herron
55. The Taming of the Queen - Philippa Gregory
56. The Other Passenger - Louise Candlish
57. Slammerkin - Emma Donaghue
58. Strange Shores - Arnaldur Indridason
59. Revelation - CJ Samson
60. Rummage - Emily Cockayne
61. The Kingdom - Jo Nesbo
62. The Thursday Murder Club - Richard Osman
63. The Lady & The Unicorn - Rumer Godden
64. An Agent Running In The Field - John Le Carre
65. The Virgin's Lover - Philippa Gregory
66. Morris Ware, Tiles and Art of George Cartlidge - Tony Johnson

TV-wise, we've binge-watched the BBC's stupendously good, The Tourist (leaving the final part to watch later) and loved the first episode of series 4 of The Great Pottery Throwdown. We also watched A Very British Scandal. The new series of The Apprentice starts on Thursday (the British version, ours is mercifully Trump-free) which always divides the house - I love it and Jon loathes it.

We have been wearing clothes this week (honest!) but by the time I'd thought about taking photos, it was either too dark or too wet but I managed to get my act together today. Lord Jon's wearing his Levi 510s (eBay), Clarks' boots & Fatface cashmere jumper (both charity shopped) and the antiqued leather bag he bought in Rhodes. I bought him the herringbone overcoat from La Redoute twenty years ago and today was its last hurrah before it goes on eBay. 

I spotted this English-made Celtic & Co sheepskin hat listed on eBay as a Buy-it-Now for a fraction of the £83 it currently retails for and soon snaffled it.

Here's what I wore under my coat today - the mild weather has left us and we've got snow forecast for later in the week. The vintage dress, labelled "hand-embroidered, 100% cotton, Made in India" was my birthday present to myself in 2020. The Art Noveau belt was a charity shop find and the 1960s-does-Edwardian boots were £1 from a car boot sale in 2010. I had them reheeled in November.

We've been charity shopping twice since 1st January - that's half the year! 

Finds included: a vintage sheepskin coat; Ted Baker suede loafers; a 1970s Littlewoods fake sheepskin (Jon's swapped it for the La Redoute coat); Ted Baker wool blazer with tags still attached; 1960s all-wool Stirling Cooper cardi; a vintage navy leather clutch bag with woven peacock detail, labelled "Real leather, Made in Britain" (possibly made in Walsall, now mine!); Indigo Moon jacket; 1960s Skips sheepskin boots; Paul Smith "The Byford" blazer (part of a suit, still on their website for £790); another Indigo Moon jacket; an Indonesian surf shirt with a groovy bikini babe print; scalloped edge leather jacket; a pair of 1970s Bermona Trend straw hats.

Here's the cardi in more detail - check out those sleeve stripes! It's 100% wool and in pretty good nick for something as old as I am. A snip at £2!

Anthony Price with Shelagh Brown at Stirling Cooper (Italian Vogue, 1968)

Stirling Cooper was a fashion wholesaler who, along with Biba and Quorum, helped define British fashion in the late 1960s. It was started by two London cab drivers, Ronnie Stirling and Jeff Cooper in 1967 who used a double-decker bus as a mobile showroom. After being introduced to Jane Whiteside, a graduate from the Royal College of Art, Stirling Cooper launched its own designs in March 1968, quickly gaining media attention. Until then, their clothes had only been available at the Peter Robinson department stores in London & Sheffield, a booth at Kensington Market called Make Believe Dreams and a stall at Bond Street Market.

By October 1969 Stirling Cooper had opened a stand-alone boutique in London's Wigmore Street. The Times fashion editor, Prudence Glynn wrote: Descent, is through the jaws of a dragon and you expect to find yourself in a salon with a digestive tract decor. In fact, once you have been swallowed by Geoffrey Vivas' smiling monster the style is Japanese bathhouse.  After warning Times readers about the skimpy and body-revealing doors of the women's changing rooms, Glynn added that this store was the best way to see Whiteside's whole collection in context. She described dresses trousers and shirts embellished with men's silver trouser buttons, adding: free from the qualms of any store buyer she does ankle-length bonded jersey skirts, long waistcoats, tie-around spiv jackets and saggy mid-length jersey coats. A whole personal statement in clothes at such modest prices that the message reaches a mass audience.

Mick Jagger in Anthony Price's button-side trousers from Sterling Cooper

Menswear was also available in the new store, designed by Anthony Price, like Jane Whiteside, recruited straight from the London College of Art. Price's directional garments attracted a large fan base – especially after Mick Jagger became a customer of Stirling Cooper, wearing Price's button-side trousers on the 'Gimme Shelter' tour.

I do love a bit of fashion history!

Talking of fashion -well, not really, these new additions to my wardrobe aren't fashion-led, I'll hopefully be wearing them for years. I've been eyeing up the dress on the right for three years and lusting after the other one for months. As with any new purchase, I go through my wardrobe and sell anything I don't love as much as the garments I've set my heart on and once I've raised the funds I buy them. Out went an Afghan waistcoat, a suede coat and two quilted block printed jackets - empty coathangers and cash in the bank!

Tomorrow looks like the last dry day of the week so adventure beckons. I'll report back very soon.