Front Page News

We were very excited when we heard from Lucy at The Vintage Rag Mag - she wanted to use one of the shots from one of our photoshoots as her cover shot for the January 2012 issue. How exciting! So here it is, in all its glory, it's one of my favourite shoots from the shoots we have worked on and was taken by the lovely Ursula Roxy at Canon Hill Park in Birmingham. The make up (check out those beautiful red lips) was by Jen from Gipsy Lady Make Up and the model is the superb Jolie Myatt at Adage. We wanted to put together a chic ladylike outfit to match the crisp winter day, and doesn't Jolie look every inch the elegant vintage lady! We're so glad that lots of people will now get to see the results of our hard work.

If you are into vintage (and I'm guessing you might be since you are reading our blog!) then I would thoroughly recommend a read of the magazine too. You can pick up a paper copy from various vintage fairs and events all over the place, but you can also read it online. This month's issue has features on the vintage trends of 2011 and ones to watch for 2012, also a round up of great vintage January sales and lots of gorgeous vintage fashion. Well worth a look!

A belated Happy New Year!

Hi everybody, and how is 2011 treating you? I hope everyone managed to have a good break over Christmas and New Year. We managed to take a whole week off - yes, one whole week! Which is quite a feat when you are self employed. We had a lovely time visting family, catching up with friends and catching our breath to be refreshed for another year of vintage adventures.

We've been a bit quiet this month but worry not, we are busy working away in the background to bring you lots of exciting new developments for the new year. Of course there are the usual dull chores like getting the accounts done, putting some new shelves and generally sorting stuff out after the madness that was the Christmas shopping season, but we have also been scouting down the finest vintage pieces, working on some new products and filling our diary with some lovely vintage events over the coming months, so, keep those peepers on our Facebook page for all the news. In the meantime, if you fancy seeing us in the real world for a bit of vintage retail therapy, here are some dates for your diary...

Bristol Vintage Fair, 29th January
Sheffield Vintage Fair, 19th February
Macclesfield Make Do And Mend Vintage Fair, 26th February
Birmingham Vintage Fair, 5th March
Sutton Vintage & Arts Fair, 13th March
Leicester Vintage Fair, 19th March

We're chomping at the bit to get back on the road, and have some lovely new stock for y'all, so hopefully see you around!

Aside from our day to day vintage selling activities, we've been getting busy doing some styling for photoshoots recently, working with the cream of the creative crop in the West Midlands. It's a fun way to meet talented people and indulge our passion for vintage fashion! Here are a few fruits of our labours...

We had great fun shooting with the fabulous Tom Hart on the 2nd Jan, with the gorgeous Kayleigh and stunning make up from Misfit Makeup. I love this Edie Sedgwick type look!

Jemma Dodd is a fantastic photographer who we have worked with a few times before, so we were happy to assist on her dark fairytale themed shoot, and the results were superb! Make up was by the fabulous Lush By Sharon Ann.

And we were involved in another Tom Hart shoot with one of our favourite models, Alexandra Lanchester, who created a beautiful femme fatale look.

 

Hope you like them! Have a great weekend guys!

The Swinging Sixties!

 

So, I finally started on my mission to document the decades in the form of vintage clothing! That's right, I plan to get a set of photos for each decade that we sell clothes from - the 1940's to the 1980's. It's partly a labour of love and partly part of my grand plans for improving and developing the Minimum Mouse website. I'd love for you to be able to shop by decade and have some beautiful images to document the key looks of that particular decade to give the shopper a bit of inspiration. So, when I was contacted by photographer Adam Fraise about the possibility of working together on something we got chatting about the clothes we sell. He said he'd quite like to do a Twiggy style 1960's shoot, and I was over the moon! I think the sixties is such a rich source of amazing fashion, and sixties stuff is one of our best selling categories. So I collected together all of my favourite 1960's pieces from our stock and popped over to his studio in Edgbaston. Adam is a great photographer to work with, he is very experienced and efficient. And you can see the quality of his work right here...

 

The model was the super talented Caroline Halford, who could not have been more perfect for the look. Sharon Ann Jarvis provided the make up and hair, creating amazing big eyes with fabulous lashes. Much fun was had by all, and I was so happy with the finished results I could not wait to share them with you! Expect to see them on our new look website in the new year. 

Photoshoot with Kera Robson

A while ago I was contacted by a photographer who was looking for vintage clothing for a photoshoot, and since then I have done a bit of styling work on some photoshoots, which is great fun and a good way to get some amazing images that we can use in our promotional materials. I love taking the clothes along to a shoot and then see them being transformed in to works of art thanks to the skills of the photographers and models.

Last week I was contacted by a lovely lady called Kera Robson, a Midlands-based photographer who was planning a shoot at the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, one of my favourite places to visit. The theme was 'Modern Day Marie Antoinette' and I was keen to be involved, especially once I had looked at Kera's impressive portfolio.

The team that Kera had put together for the shoot was equallily impressive, we had Sharon and Rachel the make up artists, the lovely models Chloe, Aly and Elina, Kera's assistant Kate and little old me, supplying the clothes. Sharon and Rachel worked their magic with the make up, they started with more subtle, pastel looks and worked up to full on Marie Antoinette inspired looks.

It was a freezing cold day and the poor models were shivering away between shoots, but once they were in front of the camera it was all glamour and professionalism.

I brought loads of pastel coloured dresses and pieces from our collection, and we picked out some lovely outfits. I had a fabulous day, despite the cold, and we all got on really well. I think that the finished product is amazing as well, which makes the day all the more worthwhile.

That's a wrap!