Vintage Weekend By The Seaside

We might be sitting in (still) snowy Birmingham right now, but our minds are still on the south coast, where we have just spent a lovely weekend trading at two super events organised by The Vintage Fair. First up was Southampton Vintage Fair at the Guildhall on Saturday. The hall was bustling with shoppers pretty much all day, it seemed the perfect escape from the cold, drizzly day, and the hair salon and dance workshops really pulled in the crowds. The range of stalls was excellent, we spied all kinds of goodies, including a splendid range of hats...

 

Best Dressed - Southampton

We see so many well dressed people at the vintage fairs we trade at, so this weekend we decided to try and pick our favourite outfits of each fair.  It wasn't easy! But here is our pick for Southampton-

This is the lovely Amy Baker, who treated us to a superb performance of nostalgic tunes on Saturday afternoon. We just loved her 1950's peach dress and embroidered cardigan combo. She completed the look with classic court shoes and sparkly earrings. So pretty!

Art Deco Splendour at The Cumberland Hotel, Bournemouth

 

We usually find ourselves in the more basic end of the hotel spectrum when we're away working, but this weekend we treated ourselves to something a little bit special. We're suckers for a bit of Art Deco and love nothing more than watching an episode of Poirot of an evening, so when we spied this Deco gem we just had to stay there. The Cumberland didn't disappoint, with classic Art Deco styling inside and out, the lobby and lounge were beautiful and there is even an outdoor swimming pool (which we didn't try out, unsurprisingly given the Siberian winds currently battering the UK!) and stylish deck area. We had a meal in the Red Door restaurant which was lovely, as was breakfast the following morning. The only slight disappointment was that our room wasn't decorated in quite the same style as the rest of the hotel, though it was very nice. Here are a few snaps of the place...

Sunday-The Bournemouth Vintage Fair, at the Pavilion

On Sunday we found ourselves in the stylish Bournemouth Pavilion for the Bournemouth Vintage Fair, with a view from our stall of the sea and a funfair. How lovely! We might have fancied abandoning our stall for the day and frolicking on the sand and eating ice cream, but we managed to hold off and get set up for the day ahead. The fair was just as busy as Southampton, and there was another great range of stalls. Our friends from Mooch Vintage, Little Old Me, Goldrush Vintage, The Vintage Revolver and Used had come along for both days, but there were lots of local traders who were fresh for the Sunday, so there was plenty of scope for us to have another good browse of the the stalls. We spoke to lots of people who were very excited that the fair had come to Bournemouth, and we're glad it did, by the end of the day we were utterly exhausted!

Best Dressed - Bournemouth

Best dressed in Bournemouth on Sunday had to go to this smart couple, in beautiful authentic vintage outfits. We particularly loved the zingy lemon yellow swing coat and matching shoes. Superb!

So, all in all, it was a fantastic weekend, we met so many enthusiastic and friendly shoppers, and they cleared us out of an awful lot of vintage. We can't wait to return to the south coast, hopefully it will be a few degrees warmer next time!