Posts Tagged ‘waste’

Bridging the generation gap, vintage style

Thursday, March 31st, 2011

Alison and Kirstin recently experienced a touch of déjà vu while looking through some old family photos, which we thought might be fun to share. Never mind the picture quality, look at the frocks!

We may post more later as Kirstin still regularly wears pieces from Alison’s vintage wardrobe, but here are a couple of examples of how vintage fashion has bridged the generation gap between mother and daughter at The Frockery.

This is Alison in 1979. Just look at that hideous orange vinyl chair!

1979 dress

Here is Kirstin rocking the same frock in 2011.

kirstin 79 dress

This is Alison (well half of her) wearing a glam velvet frock for a party back in 1984. Note how orange still prominently features in the background!

Alison in 1984 dress
And here’s Kirstin (all of her!) looking stunning in the same dress in 2011.

K 1984 dress

Mother and daughter today – different generations, same love of vintage.

Share

Rising stars of business

Friday, March 25th, 2011

Business networking has become a regular feature in The Frockery’s calendar and one of our favourite outings is to the regular Women in Business events run by the local Business Gateway, which bring together ladies who run businesses or who are thinking about starting out in business. There is usually a guest presentation on a relevant topic such as PR, marketing or finance and plenty of time for informal networking.

We have been attending these WIB events since we started out ourselves four years ago and lots of useful business connections as well as personal friendships have been forged as a result. Undoubtedly, the most encouraging trend has been the significant increase in the number and diversity of aspiring female entrepreneurs who are choosing to enter the world of self-employment for a myriad of reasons and with a myriad of ideas.

There was a (rather too tightly!) packed house for this month’s event in Perth, which featured a ‘no nonsense marketing’ presentation by Steven Gorton of Fraktul. In the audience were lots of new faces, some pre-start up and others at the fledgling stage as well as more established and experienced business women.

There were ladies specialising in image consultancy, calligraphy, proofreading and editorial services, a personal assistant, photographer, jewellery maker, window distributor and even a young joineress! Too many to meet and greet in the time available in fact, but we were delighted to run into a lovely lady who is about to open a dress agency in Perth and who shares our enthusiasm for affordable preloved fashion.

Then on Twitter this morning we spotted an interesting link to this blog post by Matt Thomas of Smarta, who argues convincingly that self employment will soon become the norm.  It seems that the growing entrepreneurial trend is not confined to women as research has shown that young people are also setting up on their own in unprecedented numbers, citing student debt and high unemployment with no graduate job guarantee as compelling reasons for doing so.  And who can blame any of them?

Self employment is not for everyone, of course, as it can involve some very difficult challenges and risks as well as rewards, especially in these troubled economic times. It is, however, heartening to see the nation’s small businesses once again in the ascendant and to witness the wifies and weans leading the way.

Back to shop

Share

Lucy in disguise or pie in the sky?

Wednesday, March 23rd, 2011

So who else is watching Lily Allen’s From Riches to Rags story on Channel 4? We tuned in to see what all the fuss was about as we had read about Lucy in Disguise when it was launched as part of Vintage at Goodwood last summer. Aside from the initial blaze of publicity and a few follow up stories in some glossies, we hadn’t heard much about it since.

The idea of hiring, rather than buying, high end vintage apparel for special occasions certainly sounds an interesting one in principle. Moss Bros has shown for the past 160 years that garment hire works as a concept, and numerous designer dress and bag hire shops have popped up in more recent times, so why not vintage?

Sadly, Lily and her sister seem ill prepared for the challenges of setting up a new business in a sector of which neither has had any experience. At least they were honest about that from the outset and sensibly hired themselves a couple of experts, but throwing money down a black hole without a proper plan is inevitably going to end in tears. And there were more than a few of them from Lily when feedback from Mary Portas and a focus group of consumers was  brutally honest about the concept, and especially the pricing, in the first episode.

The two episodes to date have not shown the project in a particularly good light and we can only hope it gets better. Storing couture vintage clothing  in a smoke filled room which doubles as an office is nothing short of criminal – indeed is it not now a crime to smoke in office premises? –  and will obviously be offputting to prospective customers, smokers and non smokers alike. Similarly, going off on buying sprees without customers or suitable premises on the immediate horizon is an especially perilous pursuit in the current economic climate as it will kill the cashflow stone dead. Enthusiasm for your product is no substitute for the hard work of marketing and selling it at the right price, preferably before your capital runs out!

We’ll continue to follow Lily’s  progress (or otherwise) as it makes entertaining viewing, if a bit ‘car crash’ at times. As fellow vintage enthusiasts, albeit on a smaller and much more affordable scale, we wish her every success, but we’re very glad she has a fall back position in that she can sing!

Back to shop

Share

You know it makes eco-sense

Saturday, March 5th, 2011

We are pleased that our first ever February eco-fashion challenge has helped raise awareness, albeit in a small way, of the benefits of wearing vintage, second hand and hand made clothing and accessories. Each and every participant demonstrated how great  looks can be achieved by mixing charity shop purchases, vintage finds and hand made or recycled fashion, and everyone had fun doing so.

As well as attracting dedicated eco-fashionistas who needed no persuasion that it’s the way to go, we also made a few new converts to the cause, including young people who had never previously considered eco-frocking. We also made some lovely new friends along the way. Result!

We have previously blogged about the Preloved Reloved project which is the brainchild of Kim Sklinar, one of the new friends we met as a result of our challenge. She is raising money for charity by dressing exclusively in second hand clothes  for a year and is on our exact wavelength as far as eco-fashion goes. Being waste aware sorts ourselves, we especially enjoyed this recent post, Frugality vs Waste, and we wholeheartedly share her antipathy towards rampant consumerism and our wasteful throwaway society.

Although eco-frockers like ourselves are rarely to be found in high street fashion outlets, just occasionally we take a stroll round a few of them when we are in town. So last week, with some time to while away before a dental appointment, we visited two such stores to see what is currently on offer in the world of fast fashion. First off, the sheer volume of identical garments in a factory sized space felt like an assault on the senses. Rails and rails of mass produced soulless sameness! On closer inspection, the quality of some of the pieces ranged from poor to appalling, but equally shocking was the price of some of them.

Indeed the experience was almost as painful as the subsequent root canal treatment and we naturally left with nothing (without feeling remotely like the weakest link). Fortunately, we found welcome solace in the charity shop next to the dental surgery which offered up a fabulous military style coat dress, originally from Principles and in good as new condition. It will be having its first second hand outing with its new owner this weekend.

Back to shop

Share

Congratulations to our winning eco-fashionistas!

Thursday, March 3rd, 2011

Our first ever February eco-fashion challenge has now ended and we’d like to thank everyone who took part. Showcasing charity shop finds, vintage pieces, hand made and recycled frockery, it was such fun that we we’ll definitely be repeating it next year.

So who won? Over to our independent judge Amber, who has now completed her deliberations:

First of all, can I just say that judging this was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do, because I really wanted to award the prize to everyone. (Looking at the photos has also made me determined to hit up my local charity shops at the first possible opportunity – so many great outfits!)

Anyway, after a lot of thought, I’ve finally come to a decision and the winner is (drumroll)…

Mary Wellock!

I chose Mary, not just because of her flair for fashion (I absolutely loved all of the bright colours and patterns in Mary’s outfits), but also because I was really impressed with her knack of being able to alter items, either by dyeing them, or by taking them apart and turning them into something else. That takes a good eye and a lot of skill, so kudos to Mary!

In the runner’s up position, I’ve chosen Annick Breugelmans. The main thing I noticed about Annick’s photos was her ability to create lots of very different looks, proving how versatile eco fashion can be (and also that Annick can wear just about anything!).

Well done to everyone who took part and thanks, Alison, for running the challenge and allowing me to be part of it!

So congratulations to Mary and Annick! Your prizes will be winging their way to you very soon.

And since this is our first ever challenge, we have decided that everyone deserves to be a winner this year, so we’ll be sending some thank you vouchers to all the other great participants.

See you all next year, if not before!

Back to shop

Share

  • Archives

  • Recent Posts