Today was, to me, exactly what weekends are all about; coffee, food, shopping, family and relaxing.
It started off with a quick trip to the OP shop to pick up a dressing table that mum had her eye on for a while, it wasn't there anymore, consider this a tip to all you shoppers out there: if you LOVE something, buy it now because it won't be there when you get back! I would know.. I work in retail and those of you who say "I'll have a think about it and come back" can guarantee I will bend over backwards to sell it before you get back and do get a certain joy on the rare occasion that you actually come back and it's gone!
From there me and mum went over to Chevron Island to our favorite dress agency, we got off to a bad start in there with the sales assistant making us feel like idiots for thinking a PRADA key-ring was real (I'm sorry.. don't sell fakes then!) Anyway mum found a Ben Sherman shirt she had had her eye on a few months ago at a bargainous price and I think knowing that she had pissed us off the lady reduced the price even further.. wonderful, she had won us back!!
Next was morning tea/lunch at a great little cafe and deli called duo, I would definitely recommend this to anyone, it was great service, delicious food and coffee and the deli had some great and unusual things that your kitchen simply cannot live without.
After a quick wander around Chevron Is (and discovering an amazing little gem of a shop called 'Avoir' - see other other blog) we picked up grandma and headed to the main event. A vintage fair called The Way We Wore it's a great event that is held at the Greek club in Bundall and is on every 6 months or so.
From dresses, skirts, hats and jewelry, to art and buttons, this is the place to be for any of you vintage lovers. The prices ranged from as little as $15 a piece to over $200.
Grandma picked up some dress patterns and books.
Mum got a bracelet (pictured below)
And I found an amazing dress and a jacket both for $15 and both to die for..
My iPhone clearly doing the clothes no justice (my camera broke in a freak sand-in-lens incident.. a touchy subject for me as I am not a person you would normally find near any kind of sand!) but nevertheless you sort of get the idea!
We found ourselves spending a lot of time with this hat lady, trying on all of her hats that are not necessarily the kind of thing you would get me wearing but that I can certainly enjoy looking at. She has these hats shipped over from New York, having spent their lives atop many a socialites head they are looking for their next owner to take them home and treat them well. The hats are quite expensive but worth every penny considering their condition and age.
My favorite part of the day was probably finding my wedding dress. This thing was.. EXQUISITE! Layers upon layers of beautiful off white tulle with little rhinestones hidden around the skirt. the top was a high necked ruffled dream.
I held it against myself and I swear to god I nearly died. In that moment I could picture everything about my wedding, stood on the church steps being covered in confetti and having my photos taken, looking 3 million dollars. My hair is sleeked back in a low bun, red lips and minimal eye make-up (I would like to point out at this point that I have never ever wanted to get married in a church and have always said that I would marry in purple with my hair out and lots of extravagant make-up but it's definitely true what they say about what happens when you find the one.. anything that you had once thought goes right out of the window and now you can settle for nothing else, this is my wedding dress now)
As I gripped the dress confused as to what to do, do I buy it despite the fact I had no boyfriend nevermind a fiance or do I let it go.. it wasn't my size after all but I would do whatever it takes to fit into this dress, people started looking at me with smiles on their faces and pointing. It just felt like this was my dress, everyone else seemed to think so, so what was stopping me from buying it?
I didn't buy it and now I am kicking myself, it put me in quite a sad mood for a while, it was so weird but I just felt such a connection with this dress! (refer back to first paragraph for how stupid I was to walk away and "think about it!!")
So what dress could possibly have such a pull on my heart.. I will show you the picture but I guarantee that this picture in no way showcases how beautiful it really was.
I honestly don't think I have ever seen anything so beautiful, I like to think of it's story; who wore it before? what did they wear it for? was it a wedding too? was their marriage a happy one?
That's one of my favourite things about buying and wearing vintage, thinking about the kind of people that have worn it before and where the wore it. It's so much more special than going to the high street and buying something from Sportsgirl, when you Op shop or vintage shop it's so much more exciting, you really feel like you have found a treasure and you can almost guarantee no one else has it anymore. I know that with my vintage items I treat them a lot better than I treat my other clothes and I feel amazing when I wear them.
As we left the vintage fair we saw a Greek wedding going on and had a sneeky peek. It was quite unreal, so beautiful was the church and while we could obviously only see the back of the bride what we did see was gorgeous too. I got out my camera and snapped away ( I also thought this could possibly be a sign that I should buy the dress?!)
From fashion to food, we stopped by Ferry rd markets to grab the makings for our dinner and who was there? no other than Olivia Newton John, she was hosting an event at an art gallery where proceeds go to breast cancer awareness. We didn't go in but we could hear her speech from outside, very touching Liv! Then the next thing you know she's walking right past us, quite exciting! I managed to grab a couple of snaps before she disappeared into a shop.
So the end to the day is me sitting here writing this blog with a lager and lime, waiting for my egg less chocolate cake to cook before I make cumberland sausage and mash for dinner then settling in with my puppy and mum to watch a film.
Such a perfect day!
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