Bye Bye Baby - Charity Shopping in 2025

I fell behind with sharing our charity shop finds towards the end of last year, here's what we've found in the first week of 2025.

A 1960s Tricel shift dress, made in England by Carnegie of London. 

A vintage 1970s fake fur.

Vintage fully lined satin pyjamas, beautifully made in India. I haven't tried these on, I might fall in love with them if I do! 

A 1970s maxi dress by St Michael (which was Marks and Spencer's inhouse brand until 2000).

USA-made cowboy boots, two x Harrington jackets and a pair of Dr Martens "Made in England" ox-blood loafers (original price £199!)

1980s cagoule, two Pirate Dressing cosplay shirts with original £42.99 labels still attached, 1980s Men's Republic Casualties (love the name!) long sleeved shirt, 1960s psychedelic top by St Michael.

1980s Cassettes! Elvis Costello: The Man; Pet Shop Boys : Disco; Shakespear's Sister: Hormonally Yours; Swing Out Sister: Kaleidoscope World and saving the best till last...Flaunt it by Walsall's legendary Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

Back in the early 1980s, frontman Martin Degville and Boy George used to share a squat on Walsall market and we'd often see them out and about, dressed up to the nines. Sigue Sigue Sputnik's biggest hit was Love Missile F1:11 which was used on the Ferris Bueller's Day Off soundtrack.

And here's a proper antique, a Staffordshire Flatback, so named as they were made up the road in The Potteries and the backs were left plain as they were designed to sit on the mantelpiece flat to the wall. They were popular from around 1740 up until 1900. Ours dates to the mid-1800s. They fell out of fashion with antique collectors many years ago but was amazed to a couple of near-identical pieces fetching between £50 to £175 and a pair selling for £250. 

Ours was £1.99!

The subject matter, a hunting dog with his prey, is a bit macabre but he looks rather handsome on the mantelpiece.

And he's in great condition considering he's almost 200 years old! 

 

It's the colour that drew me to this brushed cotton blouse, made in India for Superdry and £3 from the Cancer UK Clearance shop.

It's the perfect match with my 1960s Forbidden Fruit cheesecloth maxi skirt and really cosy to wear. It's three sizes bigger than I normally wear but a size label never puts me off.  

I remember drooling over this foil printed Indian cotton voile blouse on the EAST website a couple of years ago. They've got a similar one for £64.99. This was £2 (also from the charity clearance shop).

I've been after something to wear with this 1970s Greek hand-woven maxi skirt for ages and this fits the bill perfectly. I bought this 1960s Italian Tuscan lamb hat from a charity shop last year (£5, bargain!), a girl can never have too many sheepskin hats especially when it's below zero out there. 

A great shopping start to the New Year, here's to the next 51 weeks of rummaging!