We ventured out of our comfort zone today in pursuit of tie pins and fifties sundresses - we travelled extreme west to the satisfyingly solid 1930s Hammersmith Town Hall on a pilgrimage to visit the London Vintage Fashion Fair.
Truly vintage heaven this, a cornucopia of of textiles, colours and textures. Beaded bags, silk ties, feathered hats, lace and ribbons and buttons, worn leather Gladstone bags. Everything from ostrich feather fans to heavy beaded flapper dresses to bold fifties prints to seventies polychrome polyester.
I tried on a lilac polka dot forties pinafore and a cornflower print fifties sundress, and lovingly trailed my fingers through trays and trays of bead necklaces and diamante brooches.
We moved on to Chiswick High Street to check out the Old Cinema antiques shop and ate our hearts out over beautiful, mint condition mid-century moderns pieces that we'll never be able to afford: the lead 'if-we-had-the-money' buys? A brick red fifties three piece suite and a haberdasher's chest, full of tiny drawers.
We can but dream ...
