Oxfam Fashion: 10 Reasons to Visit a Festival Charity Shop

Happy Friday! This post is a short and sweet one to say that my latest post for Oxfam is now live, and it’s all about why you should visit festival charity shops.

I know, I know, you might be questioning if a festival is really the place to go on a shopping spree but trust me, you can find so much more than clothes in a festival charity shop. For starters the staff are always cheerful, you can pick up blankets and knitted hats to keep you warm in your tents, and kit yourself out with a festival fancy dress outfit with change from a tenner – what’s not to love, eh?

At Glastonbury, Oxfam alone had three different festival shops spread out across the site, catering for knitwear and blankets, classic festival vintage and an animal-themed stall with leopard print and sequins, and there were also several other charities there too. So if it’s Latitude today or WOMAD next weekend, don’t forget to pop along and pick up a bargain.

Have a great weekend!

SJ

Oxfam Fashion: Bath Fashion Museum

Happy Friday everyone! This is just a quickie to say that my latest Oxfam Fashion feature is now live, and this one is all about Bath’s Fashion Museum, inspired by my most recent visit last weekend, which I’ll be sharing on the blog very soon.

The Fashion Museum is a gem in the heart of Bath that I don’t get to visit as much as I would like, but it would make an excellent destination for anyone interested in fashion, costume or history, and each exhibition reflects this. Previous exhibitions have tied in with the Royal Wedding and the Olympics, and this summer there will be an exhibition dedicated to Laura Ashley fabrics, which I’ll definitely be popping back to see.

Anywho, check out the post (and the Oxfam Fashion blog in general, ’cause it’s lovely) and have a great weekend!

SJ x

Oxfam Fashion: How to Wash Vintage

This month’s post for Oxfam Fashion is now up on the site and the topic was something of a neccesary evil; a guide to washing vintage clothes.

I love my ever-expanding vintage collection, most of which has come from within my family, but it can be a pain to keep clean! Vintage purchased from charity shops, fairs and flea markets can also come with that trademark musty smell, which can be off-putting to vintage virgins, so the Oxfam Fashion post demonstrates how to hand wash vintage clothing – and a tip for getting rid of the odour!

My inspiration for the post came from this blue polyester number, which not only had that tell-tale vintage smell, but also a clothing label that was completely indecipherable.

I find hand washing is the best solution with a new item of vintage descent as one has more control when washing it and if there are any issues, such as shrinking or the dye running, they can be identified and dealt with straight away.

You can read the How to Wash Your Vintage post here, and please feel free to share your vintage care tips below. Are you a fan of hand washing or do you bung your vintage in the washing machine with all your other clothes?

Oxfam Fashion: DIY Stockings

I don’t know about you, but for me, a stocking full of small gifts and chocolate is a Christmas essential. I’ve woken up to find one waiting on the handle of my bedroom door since I can remember, but this year, since I’m a grown up and everything, I decided it would be better for my mum’s sanity if I no longer asked her to do the honours.

So it was that I decided to make Christmas stockings for myself and Mr Ship-Shape this year, and start a festive tradition of our own. I’m not the best with a needle and thread, but I wanted something personal that we could enjoy for years to come, which is why I decided to attempt making both stockings from scratch and write a DIY blog post about it for Oxfam.

Apparently my first attempt, above, looks like an oven glove, which, after an hour and a half of wrestling with my sewing machine, didn’t go down to well, but if you want to have a crack at making your own, you can read the DIY Christmas stocking post here.

I can’t be the only adult out there who enjoys receiving a stocking, can I?

Merry Christmas!

SJ x

Oxfam Fashion: Boutique Bristol

One of the best bits about writing for Oxfam is meeting new people, from the other bloggers that share their thoughts on ethical fashion to the likes of Sarah Marshall, who runs Bristol’s very own Oxfam Boutique.

When the shop first landed on Park Street, which has been home to some of Bristol’s best independent shops over the years, I was excited that little old Bristol finally had it’s own charity-shop-with-a-twist. The boutiques are more select than Oxfam’s usual charity shops, and Bristol is no different, with Chloe bags and YSL shoes making an (occasional) appearance alongside vintage label staples.

This month I interviewed Bristol’s Oxfam Boutique Manager, Sarah Marshall, and I loved how honest and frank she was. Locals familiar with Park Street can’t have failed to notice that the recession and resulting nationwide shop closures have made a serious dent in one of Bristol’s most prolific shopping destinations, and charity shops have been affected too.

If you want to read about how the boutique has been affected, the shop’s top sellers and what Sarah thinks of Bristol’s best dressed, then click here.

To visit the shop, make a donation or bag yourself a vintage or designer bargain, visit the boutique at 77 Park Street, Bristol, BS1 5PF.

Oxfam Outfit: Peach Vintage Dress

This weekend there was just enough sunshine to take a few snaps of the potluck dress I found in Oxfam a couple of months ago at the Oxfam Fashion Blogger Meet.

I say ‘potluck’ because, lets face it, it’s a knitted peach number with a somewhat ostentatious collar. It’s not exactly my usual style, but I was drawn to it when we were dressing the windows of Oxfam’s Cowley Road shop back in October.

The dress was £4.99 and so unique that since my taste sways from floral harem pants to vintage coats, I figured I’d give it a try. The one drawback is the sheerness of the dress. The herringbone pattern is so pretty, but if it weren’t for the black slip I’m wearing, this photo shoot would have taken a very different tone indeed! I’m thinking it would look great with either a neon orange or electric blue slip, but for now I’ll be pairing it with an all black base.

I’ve paired it with my mock tweed H&M blazer and Primark boots, and the shots were taken in my minuscule back garden using a tripod. I’m still new to using it (and thinking that a remote control would make shooting so much easier) hence the shot above, which I actually quite like! Do any of you have tips for shooting with a tripod?

Rock The Week

Fashion related (and totally non-fashion related) things that have made my world go round over the last seven days…

• Gimme Shelter! Vintage Fair. I’ve spent the day selling my vintage wares with Beautiful Plumage at The Lanes. The bowling alley-cum-vintage clothing shop-cum-bar is a wicked venue and although the weather wasn’t great, we earned enough to start our Christmas shopping funds!
• Wardrobe mistress. This week Amy came over to help me sort through my mess of a wardrobe and I manged to part with 12 items of clothing, which may not sound like a lot, but for a hoarder like me it’s pretty impressive! There is still another wardrobe and a rail of clothes to wade through, but I already feel a lot happier and less stressed in the mornings, plus I’ve discovered several dresses I’f forgotten I own : )
• This week I also posted about my pretty new crockery and shared a secret that could get me struck out of the fashion blogging community, and even, according to my in-laws, booted out of Britain. Hint, it involves hot beverages…

What’s been rocking your world this week? How did you spend the wet weekend? Let me know by commenting below…

Oxfam Fashion: Second Hand Sewing

Vintage fashion is ten a penny these days, but for me, visiting charity shops, vintage fairs and car boot sales is as much about the books and bric-a-brac as the potential for a new outfit. This month I wrote about two second hand books that I love for Oxfam Fashion.

The one that I need to do some serious reading of is the 1974 copy of McCall’s Sewing Guide. I’ve mentioned before that me and sewing machines don’t play well together, but there are so many wonderful dresses I want to make, and home furnishings I want to have a crack at – how hard can making a pair of curtains really be!? – that I need to get back in the sewing saddle.

You can read the post in full here and see previous posts I’ve penned for Oxfam here. If you’ve attempted to make your own clothes before I’d love to hear what you made, and how easy (or difficult!) it was : )

Oxfam Fashion Blogger Meet

Oxfam Fashion lookbooks

It feels like ages ago now, but a few weeks ago I ventured to Oxford for the Oxfam Fashion Blogger Meet. Sometimes I find it weird to think that all the people you’re emailing/tweeting/blogging with are actually all ‘real people’, and not just living in the virtual world.

It was great to put a tweet to a face, as it were, and meet Kelly and Tanya, who run Oxfam’s dedicated fashion blog. I’ve only been a member of the team, writing regular posts, for a few months, so it was great to meet seasoned Oxfam bloggers such as Theresa and Rupy.

After a meet-and-greet we got down to business and discussed what blogs we love to read and how we could work to improve the Oxfam Fashion blog. I soon got chatting to Ron about cameras and quized Fran on what it was like to run the Festival Shops at the likes of Kendal Calling and Bestival (hard work but amazing fun, from the sounds of things).

After venturing into town for lunch, Kelly and Tanya organised a visit to the local Oxfam shop on Cowley Road where we set about creating new window displays in two teams. I’d never been into the back of a charity shop before and got far too excited thumbing through donated books and boxes full of handbags.

The shop was packed and I’m sure shoppers must have thought we were mad as ten us raced through the shop to find outfits of our mannequins. I also got a bit sidetracked by a peach knitted dress that made it’s way home with me, but more on that later.

Shop manager Nicoletta declared the contest a draw, though it wasn’t long before shoppers were snapping up our display. The shoppers of Oxford will also get a treat this month as ASOS have donated several boxes of stock to the local stores, and I’m pretty confident that if you wanted to pick up an Olympic souvenir or two, you might find it at Cowley Road…

It was a fun day out and it was lovely to meet the team and discuss our ideas for how the blog could progress. Kelly and Tanya would like to conduct a survey to find out what readers think of the site, so more info on that soon.

Thank you to Kelly and Tanya for the warm welcome and a shout out to Theresa, Rupi, Ron, Hattie, Emma, Fran, Laila, Lydia and Amelia – it was a pleasure to meet you. Here’s to the next one!

Oxfam Fashion A/W12 lookbook

Piles of Penguin books in the charity shop store room

Our Oxfam outfits for the Cowley Road window

Fran, Amelia and Hattie dress their mannequin

Theresa and Laila with their styled looks

The Oxfam window on Cowley Road

Rock The Week

Fashion related (and totally non-fashion related) things that have made my world go round over the last seven days…

• Oxfam Fashion blogger meet. Yesterday I journeyed to Oxford, home of Oxfam HQ, to meet the bloggers and team behind Oxfam’s Fashion blog. I had a wicked time, met so many lovely people and picked up some great new blogs to read – full write up and photos coming soon!
• NYR blogger evening. It’s been a busy few days, as on Thursday I also attended Neal’s Yard Remedies‘ first Bristol blogger event. It was great to meet the whole NYR team and I can’t recommend their reflexology treatments highly enough. I felt thoroughly pampered upon leaving, and hope to work with NYR more in the future : )

• Lucky Jackson. The 365 daily photo challenges that seem to be everywhere right now are impressive, but crafter Lucky Jackson has gone one step further and stitched a piece of embroidered artwork every day for a year. You can see more of her work here – she recently finished the challenge and plans to sell prints of her work on Etsy.
• Welsh delight. This week I also got around to posting the outfit I wore to Wales for the August Bank Holiday weekend. The rugged welsh countryside is both peaceful and dramatic at the same time, and these shots were just a short walk from our holiday home.

What’s been rocking your world this week? Did any of you make it to the mighty Brisfest?