A member of the Rare Tea Company models a fabulous Katherine Elizabeth creation

Millinery masterpieces were all the rage at Sketch‘s opulent Parlour bar on Thursday night as glam-popstrelle Shingai Shoniwa and award-winning hat-maker Katherine Elizabeth launched their debut collection. Katherine is already an established milliner-to-the-stars (Lily Allen being a particular fan) whilst vivacious Noisettes‘ front woman Shinghai, is fast becoming one of London’s premiere fashionistas, with her wild self-styling (not to mention her regular FROW status at Fashion Week!) so its no wonder the two made such a great pairing and produced such imaginative creations of headwear.

Shingai Shoniwa & Immodesty Blaize model head pieces from the new collection

The party guests were entertained by glamorous 1940′s female vocalists The Tootsie Rollers and served wonderful cocktails in chintzy floral teacups, the ingredients being a healthy measure of Sipsmith Gin imbibed with vintage inspired teas from Rare Tea Company (Ms Ooh La La loves their Battle of Britain tea tins especially!).

Gorgeous Vintage Vocalists: The Tootsie Rollers!

After an evening of surveying such wonderful headwear, inspired beyond her usual netted pill-box and bowlers, Ms Ooh La La vowed to become more adventurous in the hat department this season! If you do too, check out the fabulous collection on sale now at Katherine Elizabeth and p.s. it also launches shortly on ASOS.com so keep a look out!

Fan-tastic!Vintage ChicChic Noir Creations: Perfect for this Season

The Big Apple: A Vintage Lover's Paradise!

Start spreading the news…I’m leaving today!… Well alas not! Ms Ooh La La has (sadly) just returned from a fabulous trip to the Big Apple.  Her shopping-partner-in-crime was Mademoiselle Leona Thrift-ola, & now she’s back to report on the hottest Vintage Shopping, Eating & Partying! Here’s her handy guide to experiencing the best vintage NY has to offer…

MARKETS:

Brooklyn Flea

Various locations so check the web for details, there’s a really fun mix of sellers including Vintage Jewelry by Harry,  & a fabulous antique handbag seller Papushka Vintage, you can also find fantastic furnishings & yummy treats like Kumquat‘s mini cupcakes to eat along the way! Top tip: have a stroll round the surrounding streets for ‘stoop sales’ (for the non-initiated these are the locals selling bargains on the steps of their front door-bargain-ous!)

Hell’s Kitchen Flea Market

Not in such a pretty setting as Brooklyn Flea but nevertheless its worth a trip to pull up your sleeves and have a good rummage! Mademoiselle Leona Thrift-ola discovered bargain-ous felt hats here whilst Ms Ooh La La discovered a fabulous fur stole for a fraction of London prices!

THRIFT & VINTAGE STORES:

Rabbits The delightful Saori Kuno runs a small but perfectly formed boutique on Havemeyer St, Brooklyn, & we had a lovely time talking vintage ‘shop’ in NY! My shopping buddy Leona had a particularly good ‘haul’ in this store! Her purchases included a fabulous Betsy Johnson 70′s jersey dress that she loved so much she had to Tweet about pretty much immediately!

Domsey Multiple locations in NY, this big ole thrift store unearthed some bargain finds from stunning designer vintage leather jackets for $7 to 80′s prom dresses for $10.  Amateur thrifters may want to take some anti-bacterial hand wipes but it’s definitely worth a good rummage!

Daha Vintage On a very cool street in LES (that’s Lower East side dontchaknow!) there’s a plethora of dresses, jackets, shoes and accessories to flick through…plus it’s surrounded by other cool shops and bars.  Be warned early birds the owner, ‘she keeps her own hours’! so don’t bother turning up til after lunch or you may experience the disappointment of a closed sign

Beacon’s Closet By far the biggest vintage store Ms Ooh La La has ever seen in NY! She carried away a dumpster-sized shopping bag full of goodies from this warehouse! Best buys included a sleeveless fox fur gilet for $50, & purple snake skin pumps for $20.  A unmissable stop off for any vintage shopper-in-the-city!

In God We Trust More repro than true vintage but with 3 locations we loved the Brooklyn store in particular for their retro vinyl-player-in-a-briefcase’s at only $120 Super for playing those 45′s!

The Quality Mending Co

Never has work wear been soooo cool! Mostly for the monsieurs, this store offers a treasure trove of old army jackets, shirts and uber cool books… on Russian military tattoos?!!

DINING & DRINKING:

Maison Premiere Oyster Bar In the heart of Brooklyn’s coolest neighbourhood, Williamsburg, a fabulous vintage Oyster & cocktail bar…us mademoiselles got told off for flirting with the spiffing-ly dresses 1920′s style waiters as we got tipsy on our julep!

Top Tip-head there on Monday’s between 4 and 7pm for dollar oysters  sacre bleu! Map & Directions   

Kitchenette Fancy some key lime pie, 1950′s style? Or a great stack of pancakes? Or cupcakes well look no further this is YOUR perfect spot for brunch or lunch or afternoon tea.  We also had fun discovering what a Shirley Temple was…!

Balthazar  With its own in-house bakery this upmarket Nolita restaurant in is perfect for luncheon (excellent for post shop-til-you-drop-dining!) or a swanky dinner with pals or family, bit raucous for a date though cherries! Portions were so big we happily excepted a doggy bag for our sandwich which made a great evening meal! Map & Directions  

Roebling Tea Room a stunning converted warehouse in Williamsburg which serves up an upscale lunch for a hipster or two…hundred!We loved the ye olde-y English huntsman wallpaper & big wooden bar.  With prices so reasonable one can live a champagne lifestyle on a beer budget! Map & Directions 

Pastis Tres French, tres chic, tres yummy – the New York Fashion set filled the place during Fashion Week.  Perfect for a dining any time of day if you want to mingle with the swankiest players on the block!

Need a bit of exercise after all that eating & drinkin’ ? well how about a stroll (or run?!) along the city’s High Line - a totally unique outdoor experience – previously an old freight railway line that ran in the 1930′s to 1980′s, this elevated park sits miles up in the air above the meatpacking district & provides the most amazing views of the city, plus a respite from the hustle & bustle!

Well that wraps up French Kiss Vintage Guide to The Big Apple but if you’re still gaggin’ for more NY Thifty-ness? why not check out Thrift-ola’s Top 10 To-Do’s In NY including top treats we love like Brokelyn …genius!

Hazel from Rag & Bow has Fun with Fondue at the Pop Up Vintage store!

French Kiss Vintage is a big fan of  Rag & Bow‘s pop up shops-they have a tendency to appear at the UK’s coolest, most innovative events & often collaborate with cutting edge style brands like Tatty Devine & On|Off .  Last night was no exception, when they invited a select few (including Ms OOh La La of course!) along to an exclusive party in Clerkenwell’s Boss Design Showroom.  The special evening soiree was to celebrate Design and Style Trends in Furniture & Design, just one of the many fabulous exhibitions of this year’s London Design Festival.

Boss’ showroom has been transformed into a by-gone era to showcase the latest collection of furniture by Lyndon Design.  Guests admired the gorgeous vintage furnishings alongside fabulous dresses for sale by Rag & Bow, whilst supping on retro cocktails at the 1960′s bar. ‘The martinis were especially delicious… but lethal!’ Ms Ooh La La

Further entertainment was provided by the tres jolie girls The Broken Hearts Club who took to the decks to play old-time party tunes.  Ms Ooh La La pauses here to wonder …How do those turntable goddesses keep those bobs so neat? Extreme hair jealousy!

Meanwhile, glamorous waitresses, dressed in 50′s, 60′s and 70′s attire passed round mini fondue for the cool crowd to feast on.  So all in all a fabulous evening and a very decadent way to shop for the home & wardrobe!

Anyhow…want to attend the next glam vintage pop up? Well why not sign up to the Rag & Bow mailing list. Until then here’s a few of our favourite snaps from the evening to inspire your maison et armoire!…

Click to view slideshow.

Inside The Bespoke Service Mirrored Room picture courtesy of Cutler & Gross

Attention vintage sunglasses lovers! Bastions of cool lunettes, Cutler & Gross, have just launched a Museum in West London to showcase their collection of 1000+ designer frames.

1000+ Cutler & Gross Frames on display at The Cutler & Gross Museum

This permanent exhibition of specialist eyewear has been designed celebrate the iconic design duo’s work across the last 40 years and offers a real treat for any glasses addict! For their most discerning customers Cutler & Gross are also supplementing the exhibition by offering a luxurious bespoke service where clients can commission absolutely one-off designs-formidable!  Sophie Ward from Cutler & Gross kindly showed us around the decadent mirrored consultation room, which she explained, has been created for this ultimate service.

Sophie Ward,From Cutler & Gross Sports Her Favourite Frames, The 'Harry Potter's'

This luxurious room was choc full of beautiful vintage furnishings, including a particularly fabulous vintage pineapple lamp which Ms Ooh La La had to physically restrain herself from pocketing on the way out!

Ms Ooh La, along with TheBagLady‘s Abi Silvester were two of the lucky few to be invited down to the Museum at its launch to try on some of the legendary styles which you can see below…

Ms Ooh La La Models Her Favourite Vintage Sunglasses

Abi From TheBagLady Models Her Favourite Red Vintage Frames

The legendary frame makers have created bespoke glasses for some of fashion & music’s coolest stars… from Grace Jones to Madonna.  We even heard a rumour that former supermodel Mademoiselle Jones, loved the store so much she used to just hang out there on a Saturday and work for free, as an assistant! Zut alors, can you imagine!

J'Adore These Vintage Cat's Eye Sunglasses With Diamante Corners, Modelled By The Lovely Leigh Donegan

The small but perfectly formed Cutler & Gross Museum is now open to all and can be found situated above the flagship store at 16 Knightsbridge Green, London SW1 so go take a peek!

Bespoke consultations can be made by contacting the Museum direct: themuseum@cutlerandgross.com

Aimee's Winning Outfit! Photo Supplied by Green Energy UK

Now it’s time to tip our hats to one particularly cool mademoiselle who was strutting her stuff last weekend during Vintage at Southbank...Remember Green Energy UK‘s comp to Retread-Your-Threads? Well the lucky winner was a certain University of the Arts London student, Ms Aimee Sibun, whose fabulous style beat off a gazillion other fashion hopefuls to scoop the prize as a fashion judge and guest at last weekend’s Vintage Festival at Southbank Centre. Independent supplier of green electricity, Green Energy UK, who ran the competition with Vintage, selected Aimee after being impressed with her design that gave new life to old clothes.
Aimee’s winning creation was a vintage swimwear inspired two-piece made from a blazer and skirt bought in a charity shop, and here it is in the photo above.

Worth mentioning too, that Aimee whipped up this little vintage number in just two days flat, sacre bleu!

Meeting Aimee at Vintage she told Ms Ooh La La that, “Winning the Green Energy UK competition was brilliant and being a judge of Retread-Your-Threads gave me the chance to see lots of inspiring fashion and talk to people who are as passionate about it as I am.”

Congratulations must also go to the other fantastic entrants.  It sounds like Aimee had some tough competition, as Green Energy UK chief executive Doug Stewart described the judging process as, “…a very difficult decision…but Aimee’s outfit stood out as simple and stylish.”  Ms Ooh La La wholeheartedly agreed, tres bien Mademoiselle Aimee! and we look forward to seeing more of your fabulous designs in the future!

MUSICIANS & DANCE FLOOR DIVAS: from the 1940′s Torch Club to raving in The Warehouse with The Hacienda crew…

STYLISH LADIES & DELECTABLE DANDIES: Our vintage street style favourites…








ART & DESIGN: from antique furnishings to make do and mend…

SHOPPIN’ & SCOFFIN’: from fab frocks to yummy treats to mange & drink!

Very sad to hear the news of Amy Winehouse‘s death this weekend.  The talented young diva singer died yesterday afternoon, aged only 27 years old, her body was discovered at the London flat she owned in her beloved Camden Town.

From her iconic beehive hairdo’s to her love of 60′s R & B pop groups, there’s no doubt Amy Winehouse had a massive influence on reinvigorating the vintage genre & today we wanted to salute that with our own small tribute.  From her rockabilly tattoos to her magnificent soul singing we’ve decided to celebrate her unique vocal talent by looking back to her best vintage cover versions.  Here are our favourites…please email us with yours. R.I.P Miss Winehouse, you left us too soon x

Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?

Amy Winehouse covers sixties girl band, The Shirelles. This song was recorded by Amy for the film soundtrack to Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, it was originally famous for being the first number one song to top the American charts by an all-girl group.

It’s My Party

Amy recorded the cover of this 1963 hit by Lesley Gore, for a compilation album Q: Soul Bossa Nostra which celebrated the work of legendary music producer Quincy Jones.  It was produced by Mark Ronson

Ain’t Too Proud To Beg

Singing with The Rolling Stones, Amy surprised the crowds by joining the vintage rockers on stage at Isle of Wight festival in 2007

I Heard It Through The Grapevine

Amy duets with Modfather Paul Weller on a cover of the Marvin Gaye classic.  The two label mates performed together for the first time in public on Jools Holland’s Annual Hootenanny in 2007

Boulevard of Broken Dreams

This classic Tony Bennet ballad was sung by Amy at the Summer Soul Festival in Brazil Jan, 2011

Monkey Man

Probably Amy’s favourite & most regular vintage cover version was this classic track by Toots & The Maytals, it appears on the deluxe edition of her album Back to Black & its our personal favourite, enjoy!

Check out the official Lucy In Disguise website here

But that wasn’t all, Mr Hemingway was kind enough to give us a tour of London’s Royal Festival Hall accompanied by his son Jack, who plays a prominent part in the organisation of the event, along with his sister & mother Geraldine.  Whilst walking us round the venue, Wayne enlightened us by describing the smorgasbord of fun activities we can expect to see at this summer’s coolest festival.

He also explained his inspirations, & that the idea of Vintage festival was conceived by him & his wife Geraldine following their chronic disappointment with certain ‘nameless festivals‘.  ’We were  disillusioned with events where girls donned fairy wings’ & ‘16-year-old boys got drunk for the first time & peed behind bins‘! He says, the couple mourned the ‘lack of glamour’ at festivals, dressing up had been an essential element of the music scene in their youth.  They also felt let down by substandard retro festivals who neglected to make their events relevant to younger generations, like their own kids who have a ‘real passion’ for retro tunes.  They soon discovered that many of their friends agreed with them & low & behold, the idea of Vintage was born.

Citing one of his main influences as Pips, a Manchester club that Wayne frequented in his teens, he described how this iconic venue was,  ’6 different clubs in one… one room played Punk, another Northern Soul, Northern Disco…it was heaven… a great place to go to sample different genres of music… and everyone REALLY dressed up…I wanted to recreate that with Vintage‘.  His aim was to achieve a festival that was not only  ’glamourous‘ but that also, ‘celebrated great moments in time (music, fashion, design) yet also had relevance for younger generations’.  Also important was to give equal prominence to every element of the event be it fashion, design, even the food -not just the music acts.

The festival’s location this year held the most importance for Wayne.   The design guru described how he’d always had a huge passion for the iconic Southbank, &  his face literally lights up when he talks about its history, especially its association with mid-century designers  Lucienne & Robin Day who are personal heroes of the curator & his wife, & there are obvious parallels between the two design couples.

Exclusivity is something the Hemingway’s were keen to avoid, & Wayne explained that much of the event will be free to the public thanks to arts funding, ‘it’s just the music events within Royal Festival Hall that you need a ticket for’.  But that’s not the only reason we’re buying a ticket, & we’ll tell you why…

Why not try one of the many dance classes on offer at Vintage at Southbank?

There’s all sorts of fun going on within each decade-themed zone of the Royal Festival Hall.  From dance classes at the 1940s Torch Club, where you can cool down with a chilled glass of bubbly at Peter Blake’s Champagne Bar, to the ‘Bad Art Bar’ (Jack giggles with his Dad describing a grotesque painting of Princess Beatrice that’s ‘currently the favourite to win’ check it out here on the Facebook voting page!’) you’ll be pressed to see everything!

Take note, it’s not only the Royal Festival Hall that’s going Vintage though, oh no, it’s ALL the venues on Southbank.  Fancy a film? well theBFI will be screening vintage movies all weekend, not only that but they’ll be celebrating the 50th birthday of The Avengers, where you’ll be able to watch free episodes all day long whilst grabbing a free Avenger’s bowler hat-how ruddy cool is that?

After a spot of  shopping along the vintage marketplace you’ll probably have worked up quite an appetite so thank the lord that all 19 Southbank eateries from Canteen to Yo Sushi are offering vintage themed menus & special events to keep you going.

Know a vintage car geek? well they won’t feel left out-there’ll be all sorts of automobiles from 1960′s routemasters to old-fashioned ice cream vans parked around the back of the Hall.

Maybe you just want to chill out? or get a bit crafty with some make do & mend? so why not head to the Classic Albums Living room or take part in one of the many workshops such as 1960′s art school class.  Plus, there’s further educational pursuits in the Museum of ’51, & we were given a quick preview last night:

Museum '51 at The Royal Festival Hall, curated by Hemingway Design

So by now I hope I’ve convinced you to go & buy a ticket…the only thing left to organise is your outfit right? Well there’s no need to worry, as help is on hand from vendors within the Hall, they’ll be styling up guests/hiring out vintage garb plus the team from Benefit cosmetics will be running free makeovers & styling vintage hair dos across the weekend

Mid Century Modern Design at the Museum of '51

Vintage Styling at Vintage at Goodwood 2010

Finally as the sun sets you’ll probably wanna shake your thang?! Well, you’ll be spoilt for choice! Whether you fancy a spin under the mirror balls at Studio 54 or simply yearn for a good ol’ 80′s rave you won’t be disappointed.   If it’s the latter then look no further than The Warehouse, where for the first time in decades, all four of the original big name Hacienda DJs will be hitting the decks – hands the skies people!   Look forward to seeing you on the dance floor!

Wayne and Geraldine Hemingway bring their award-winning concept to the Southbank Centre over the 29th, 30th and 31st July 2011.  Hurry! there are still tickets available, you can buy them here at the Southbank Box Office