Friday 13 July 2012

The New Vintage Look... A thing of the past

So it looked like I had given up on my blog for quite some time now, but I've actually got my backside in gear and managed to write a post, hoping it'll relight the spark I had for writing... here's hoping! I am proud to say that I have completed my university degree and I shall be graduating in a few weeks with a 2.1 Ba Honours in fashion promotion. I managed to get this overall grade by co- organising a vintage inspired fashion evening with my friend Sarah for our final major project, you probably read about it in my last post... three months ago (eek)


I had this idea of holding a vintage fashion show in my head for so long so I turned the dream into reality by asking Sarah to come on board with me as front of house manager. We put our heads together and put blood,sweat and tears into what seemed like a never ending couple of months and managed to pull off the first ever New Vintage Look, a vintage inspired fashion evening showcasing the best of 1940s and 50s faux vintage companies, there was a fashion show, 
live music, burlesque and cabaret with all money going to the Royal Brompton and Harefield Charitable fund. I wanted the money to go here because the Brompton hospital in London had helped my brother when he was a baby and I thought it would be a great way to repay them for all they did.

After many months of organising the show came round on 10th April, Sarah and I trundled on down to London on the train with a few of our friends carrying copious amounts of bags and 

suitcases and we got our chosen venue which 
Part of our small team on the day
 was Proud Cabaret, a fabulously unique venue in the heart of centeral London that suited our
venue perfectly.



We got underway in early afternoon with models turninng up and having their hair and make up done by Amanda at Lipstick and Curls, Verity and Gemma of the Vanity Box and Betty Flowers 

who all created fantasticly vintage hair styles but extravagant make up that gave the show the contemporary twist we were looking for. 




We had hiccups along the way with a couple of acts cancelling, however our compere, the ravishing Coco Du Bois saved the day by stepping in with a couple of songs where the acts should have performed. I was very suprised I didn't have a nervous breakdown at this point but I held it together rather well I think. I felt that I was running round like a headless chicken pretty much the majority of the day, however I think this was due to the adreniline. Everything didn't exactly going to according to plan, but with it being our first event I knew it wouldn't because we organised it as much as we possibly could and a lot of things that happened were out of our control but I remained calm for the majority of it... in my opinion anyway. 


A lot to sort out in such a short amount of time
The hours went by and before we knew it, it was 7pm and doors were opening and the first guests were arriving, I was surprised to see so many people there, it made me so happy and proud of what we'd managed to achieve in such a short amount of time. It was nice to see family, friends and unfamilar faces in the crowd, all our promotion had pulled off and people were sitting dressed up to the nines snapping away with their cameras. 


Just some of our lovely audience












As well as Coco Du Bois giving us a few songs and keeping the crowds entertained, we had the internationally renowned burlesque performer, Tempest Rose perform her La Revue en Rose act which had the crowd wooping and cheering. To end the night we had live music from Knocksville, three great guys performing a mix of rockabilly,psychobilly punk and blues, perfect for the crowd that had their dancing shoes on.




We were so happy to announce we raised £1000 for the hospital through ticket sales and our charity auction that had some great bits for sale from companies such as Tara Stalet, the Vintage cosmetic company and Shanty tramp jewellery as well as many others. I still look back on it and find it hard to believe that we managed to organise such a professional show, especially as a university project, but I had many people saying what a fantastic night it was so we obviously did something right, it's even made me consider a future in events management but I won't be going over that for quite some time. Look out for new posts from me (all being well)


Until Next Time
Toodle Pip xxx

Photography: Sheradon Dublin
                       Tigz Rice