Outfits & Outings

I'm gradually working my way through my wardrobe, selling what I don't wear and having fun trying out different combinations of the old favourites I'm keeping. Although I've owned this 1970s Anokhi maxi skirt & Oasis Trading cotton blouse for years, Thursday was the first time I'd ever worn them together. 

It's always a bit of a gamble getting dressed before sunrise and I often wonder how the colours will work together in the cold light of day but, judging by the compliments from my fellow swimmers, I didn't look like an explosion in Oxfam when I emerged from the cubicle after my 40 lengths.

 Other than my denim shirt or a skinny polo neck, I wasn't sure what to wear with this 1970s Phool pinafore dress bought from another vintage trader at Womad this year but, after staring at my wardrobe for a while, this 1960s Jeff Banks W1 balloon sleeved gauzy cotton blouse sprung out at me. I paid 50p for it from a car boot sale over twenty years ago.

This was Saturday's outfit, a day spent listing on Vinted and subsequently dropping off the parcels of all the things I'd sold at the Lidl lockers a couple of hours later. 

I found this All About Audrey wrap top on Vinted the other day, the midi skirt is vintage Phool and has been in my wardrobe for years.

This was what I wore on Sunday to drop off more parcels, a quick browse in the clearance chazza and to pick up some supplies from Aldi. One of the assistants in Aldi recently told me that she loves it when I pop in and always reports to her partner about what I'm wearing. I'm glad that this outfit got her approval!  

On Monday Jon gave the hedge its bi-annual haircut and I followed behind with the yard brush and ended up sweeping up the mountain of fallen leaves from half of the avenue, it's only fair - most of them are ours! 

I'm wearing a vintage Ayesha Davar shirred cheesecloth blouse, a 1970s Papillion block printed wrap skirt and threw my trusty 1970s charity shopped suede coat over the top to rush down to the Lidl lockers with a few more parcels. I left my hair in my bedtime braids and didn't bother with any make-up and probably scared the natives! 

After tea we caught the X51 bus to Birmingham, my third trip into town in less than a week. 

Out, out! I'm in my new maxi dress (bought with some of the proceeds of my Vinted sales) and one of my vintage Afghans.

Jon's dressed in secondhand from head to toe. 

Our destination was the magnificent Birmingham Town Hall in Victoria Square, which was built in 1834. That's Antony Gormley's Iron:Man in the foreground. The Xmas Market is already up, Nikki and I will be giving that heaving tourist hotspot a wide berth next time we meet. Nikki loathes Xmas and the stink of German sausages as much as I do!

Brum's looking very Blade Runner!

We'd got tickets for John Grant, currently in the UK with his Art of The Lie Tour. To be honest, our main reason for going - much as I love John Grant - was to see the support act, Walsall's Big Special (as seen at End of the Road a few weeks ago). Look at the size of that queue! 

We should have caught the earlier bus, by the time we'd got the front of the queue Big Special had already started but luckily we hadn't missed my favourite songs, Shithouse and the iconic, This Here Ain't Water, which started just as we'd got to our seats.

Yes, you read that right..we were seated for a gig, like elderly people...unheard of! Apparently there isn't a standing option at Birmingham Town Hall these days. The last gig we'd seen here was Big Country  in 1993 and we were in the mosh pit for that one.

After enjoying a storming set and a hilarious seat climbing invasion by the Black Country duo we finally got to the bar. Cheers! 

We'd last seen John Grant play at the Green Man festival about 13 years ago, it was pissing down (well, we were in Wales) but his performance was so mesmerising that we watched the whole set despite being soaked to the skin. He regularly curates shows for 6Music and his taste in music is phenomenal.

After an incredible two hour set, he closed with Greatest Motherfucker, what a tune!

It was nearly midnight by the time we got home, we ended up having to get an Uber as we'd just missed the bus and didn't fancy waiting for 30 minutes in the rain for the next one, so Jon didn't thank me for getting him out of bed so we could go swimming at 7.30am this morning. I grabbed the first thing to hand, a vintage Ritu Kumar for Monsoon block printed dusky pink midi dress and my orange fedora - which seemed to kind of go together! 

I've spent a large part of the past week sorting through my vast collection of clothes and selling quite a few of them but never fear, I've not turned into a freaky minimalist. Here's this week's latest additions to my wardrobe...

From Vinted, an Urban Outfitters cotton patchwork maxi skirt (RRP £89, I paid £10), also from Vinted a pair of Dune reptile leather cowboy boots (RRP £180, I paid £7) and I'm not sure where this gorgeous paisley print holdall started life (possibly Accessorize?) but I paid £5 from the clearance charity shop for it.

In addition to my selling I also did a bit of sewing over the weekend and remade this charity shopped block printed cotton kurta into a cropped waistcoat. There's enough fabric leftover for me to make a few scrunchies, ready for next year's festival season. 

 

I'd better not sign off without giving William a shout-out. It was Black Cat Appreciation Day on 27th October and I'd hate to get in his bad books.  

Thanks for reading, see you soon!

The Girls Are Back in Town

This week's been spent in the company of some fabulous women! 

On Wednesday I met up with my friend Lynn, caught a train to Birmingham's New Street Station and then caught a bus up to the leafy suburb of Edgbaston, home to The Barber Institute of Fine Arts.

The gorgeous Grade 1 listed Art Deco building, designed by Robert Atkinson in the 1930s and opened by Queen Mary in 1939, was the first building in the UK to be purpose-built for the study of art history. 

The Barber Institute is currently hosting a free exhibition called Scent & the Art of the Pre-Raphaelites, exploring the genres' relationship with fragrance which started on 11 October and runs until 26 January 2025.

 

 Founded by Lady Martha Barber in 1932, The Barber Institute was bequeathed to the University of Birmingham for "the study and encouragement of art and music" in memory of her husband William Henry Barber, a wealthy property developer. 

Lady Barber by James Shannon

According to the catalogue: The paintings of the pre-Raphaelite movement are rich in references to scent. Linked with concepts of hedonism, beauty, and synaesthesia, fragrance is an often forgotten aspect of these famously sensual works. Ideas of aroma and smell also intersected with the most heated issues of Victorian society, including sanitation, urban morality, immigration, race, mental health, faith and the rise in women's independence. 

John William Waterhouse, The Shrine, 1895

Evelyn De Morgan, Medea, 1889

Simeon Solomon, A Saint of the Eastern Church (formerly A Greek Acolyte), 1867

Eleanor Fortescue-Brickdale, The Lover's World, 1905

John Everett Millais, The Blind Girl, 1856

Frederick Augustus Sandys, Gentle Spring,1865

John Frederick Lewis, Lilium Auratum, 1871

 John Roddam Spencer Stanhope, Thoughts of the Past, 1859

Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Proserpine, 1882

John William Waterhouse, Psyche Opening the Golden Box, 1903

Scent is a compact exhibition with an optional scent experience with floral and incense aromas to accompany the artworks. There's only eleven paintings on display which means we could spend ages admiring every tiny detail rather than being overwhelmed by beauty.

The Barber is home to one of the finest small European art collections in the UK and has works by Sandro Botticelli, Thomas Gainsborough, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Gwen John & Käthe Kollwitz amongst many others.

After a break for a cup of tea we wandered around and admired the exhibits. Hot Jesus (next to the Magritte, above) was a particular favourite. 

Hot Jesus is actually Anthony van Dyck’s Ecce Homo painted between 1621 and 1627.

We felt sad for Fanny, despicted in Rossetti's The Blue Bower (1865), below. She needed to be with her Pre-Raphaelite sisters.

 

Here's Lynn looking fabulous and here's me & a toilet selfie (classy to the last!)

We caught the bus back into town, enjoyed a chicken shawarma wrap (Lynn) and a cheese & tomato panini (me) accompanied by chilled glasses of Pinot for a bargain £7.15 in the buzzing Wetherspoons' London & Northwestern within New Street station, before catching our train back to Walsall. 

Two days later and I was back in Birmingham, meeting up with Nikki in our usual spot, outside M&S Food in New Street Station.

Although he was from Wolverhampton, there was a large tribute to Liam Payne from One Direction, who'd died last week.

Nikki and I's destination was Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery which had reopened on Thursday after being partially shut for four years. We headed straight to the Edwardian Tearooms when we went utterly mad and shared a slice of lemon drizzle cake with our pot of tea.

It was good to see my old friend, the mural depicting Corporation Street, Birmingham, March 1914 by Joseph Southall. A copy of it hung on the wall at home when I was a child.

The people of Walsall own a large amount of Jacob Epstein's work, bequeathed to us by his widow, Kitty Garman, born up the road in Wednesbury. The gorgeous Lucifer (above) was gifted by the artist to Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery in 1947 and has weakened many a museum visitor's knees over the decades (mine included!)

Stunningly beautiful art by Edward Burne-Jones, a founding member of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and a famous son of the city.

The much-missed Benji. RIP.

An instantly recognisable Grayson Perry ceramic.

 

And an equally recognisable Nikki!

Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery opened to the public in November 1885.

After a wander around town, taking in Pigeon Park along the way, we headed to the Indian Brewery at Snow Hill for Chaart Attack and pints of IPA.

The Indian Brewery is opening a second venue in Mary Ann Street on 15th November, offering real ale and pizza...we'll be there!

Despite Shefali Oza (the BBC Midlands weather woman) promising us sunshine, Friday was damp and misty, the Post Office tower was barely visible ut at least it wasn't cold.

Time to strike a pose before catching our respective trains home. 

Thanks for two top days out, Lynn & Nikki! Let's do it again very soon.

(And thanks to Nikki for the blog title suggestion!)