Shepton Mallet Vintage Flea and Collectors Market

So, the weekend has arrived, bringing with it a blissful two day break from the 9-5 life for the vast majority of you; but the question is, how will you spend your Sunday? Sipping coffee in bed 'til early afternoon whilst perusing the glossy pages of Vogue? Suffering from the dreaded "wine flu" that follows a hefty Saturday night session? For those of you who tend to opt for one of those two aforementioned options and treat a Sunday as a lazy day in which you tend not to do a lot, I offer you two words in a bid to inspire you to do something a little bit more exciting and not waste a precious day off: vintage shopping! As I said in my last post, this Sunday, we'll be heading down to Shepton Mallet bright and early to set up a stall at Shepton Flea and Collectors Market.

The Shepton Flea and Collectors Market is scheduled to be hosted just six times this year, the dates for each event can be found on their website. It's raved about by numerous vintage bloggers, and with over 200 indoor stalls, it's a pretty vast event with plenty of vintage variety. What will we be taking, I hear you ask? A whole host of vintage delights to satisfy all of your vintage clothing dreams. We have a fairly substantially sized stall, so we will have a lot of great stock for you to look through on the day. However, as a bit of a taster, we've decided to give our blog readers a few sneak previews in regard to some of the more specialist items that we'll be bringing along on the day...

As you may know, we stock a wide variety of vintage fur coats and stoles. We'll have a wide selection of both real and faux fur on offer on Sunday. In regard to the real fur on offer, we think it is necessary to stress that we sell only vintage fur we do so in accordance with the EU Wildlife Trade Regulations, and hence have a "no new fur" policy. The image above is taken from our collection with the white fur coat being almost identical to the famous fur coat worn by Marilyn Monroe. Our collection is of phenomenal quality and luxurious design.

Ah, the Silver Cross - a pram so special that it can make even the coldest of hearts become broody. These prams are so exceptionally made that they were dubbed as the "Rolls Royce" of prams, and eventually became the pram of choice for the Royal family. That's right, little princes and princesses were transported in prams similar to the ones we have on offer. We'll be bringing some of our Silver Cross prams along for the ride. They'll be available for purchase, and if you're concerned about squeezing it into your car boot along with the abundance of other vintage bargains from the day, then fear not - you can talk to us about the possibility of delivery. 

So, if you're contemplating giving us a visit on Sunday, these are all the details you'll need:

Opening Times: 9.30am to 4.00pm

Entry: £3.50 per adult, accompanied children free

Location: The Royal Bath and West Showground, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 6QN.

We look forward to meeting you all!

Vintage Markets.

Ah, January; a month of good intentions and fresh starts. Admittedly, it's somewhat refreshing and enjoyable to see people try new things as they bravely tackle their new years resolutions thus leaving the security of the comfort zone in the previous year. However, those countless style resolutions that are uttered at the closing hours of December 31st by women everywhere? They're often the ones that are most difficult to keep. Allow me to both elaborate, and offer a solution...

I could write a fairly gruelling screenplay about the horrors of shopping the high street in the January sales, complete with Alfred Hitchcock-esque creepy music. The clothes, the crowds, the chaos; that's an alliteration of justified fears right there. Then there's the horror of what lies within your own shopping bags when you return home in a dazed and confused state sporting multiple bruises and blisters; impulse buying is just the worst thing. You buy things on the sole premiss of them being a bargain, but then you slowly realise that you'll never wear them and they get cast deep into the dark abyss of your over-flowing wardrobe - is that really value for money? We've all been there, and this year I'm keen to avoid falling into the same relentless cycle. 

So, what are your options for January shopping? Do you go a full month without a fashion fix? Of course not; you simply head to your nearest vintage flea market. As clichéd as it may sound, January really is the perfect time for a style revolution, but the high street always finds itself in the same predicament as its customers at that time of year. They're keen to get rid of the old stock in preparation for the Spring collections. So whilst the gigantic red signs donning the seductive words "50% off" are undeniably alluring, you just end up falling back into the same routine of chasing the ever elusive and evolving trends, wasting both money and individuality along the way. Yet, a flicker of hope remains; vintage shopping allows you to invest in quality pieces at reasonable prices and you can rest easily knowing that your outfit will be unique. It's also surprisingly easy to keep up with the latest trends when wearing vintage. For example, the fashion of the 1970's is set to make a huge comeback in S/S15; so whilst the high street is currently clearing out the dregs of their stockroom in preparation for rail upon rail of mass produced 70's "inspired" clothing, you could be picking up a genuine 1970's piece for a fraction of the price at a vintage flea market. Case in point: last week, I purchased a genuine 1970's suede mini-dress for £25, whilst last year I paid £65 for a faux suede skirt on the high street; work that one out.  

So, this Sunday we'll be packing up our finest vintage garments and heading to Shepton Mallet's Flea and Collectors Market to give you all the chance to come down and get your hands on some new clothes and inject a bit of real style into your yearning wardrobes. This particular fair has over 200 stands inside, and even more stalls outside for those of you brave enough to tackle to the freezing temperatures. Thankfully, we'll be located inside. We'll be taking a substantial amount of stock and even some of our specialist items, including some vintage Silver Cross prams and some of our most luxurious vintage fur coats for you to have a gander at. On Friday,we'll be posting a more detailed blog post about the type of stock we'll be taking, and more information about the actual market and what you can expect to find there.

We look forward to seeing you all!