Cramp crush: Etsy vintage

The newest recruit to my vintage bag collection! Soft leather and big enough for a picnic:

Vintage basket weave leather hobo bag / $30 (19.20)

A woven body with leather circular drawstring at the top.


Links:
www.etsy.com

Style Cramp at the Blitz Party: Pt II

Style Cramp was back in the Blitz again this weekend for the ever-popular Blitz Party in Shoreditch.

Understated Hollywood glamour was my look this time. In May I went for a younger, evacuee-style look, with bobby socks and brogues and a simple blue cheesecloth dress. More Blitzy than Ritzy. See May's Blitz post HERE.

Dress (vintage), £60, vintage fair Colchester. Mary Janes (vintage), £4, Victoria Pub Jumble Grove Road. Seamed stockings, £9.99, Pretty Polly

The Blitz Party scores big points for me on my Night Out Fun Agenda:

1) Massive lindy hopping opportunities: tick.

2) Mega dress-up facilitation: double tick.

3) No-hassle, jolly-good, right-old-riot frolicking: well for that, it's just the event.

But my second Blitz party just didn't quite cut the mustard. I'm well aware that if this was 1940, there'd still be those silly twerps around fighting on the dance floor and stealing juice from the bar, but it ain't what you want from a classy establishment.

So it just wasn't like my first, where the dancing and the costumes were proper spiffs. But hey, seamed stockings? I don't need much of an excuse to get 'em out.

NB: Despite my moans and groans, i'm very grateful to Village Underground for sorting us out (and boy, thanks for all the gin fizzes - blerk).

Links:
http://www.theblitzparty.com/

HELLO, want more pictures? Go to the Style Cramp Facebook page! And 'like' it while you're there. Thanks sexy.

Here's the Blitz Party album:
http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=491908507159&set=a.491908352159.299719.298377607159#!/album.php?aid=299719&id=298377607159

Time stops on the 9th arrondissement

It's unknown why Madame de Florian left her flat in such a hurry before the War, but one thing is known - she never returned.

This is her flat in Paris, halfway between the Pigalle red light district and Opera, as it stood when she left 70 years ago. Nothing has touched it but dust, until this week.

One thing that stands out in these images is the Mickey Mouse toy. The apartment has a personality and these are Madame's personal things. It makes you wonder why she left a place so suddenly if it was more than just a show-home.

As it turns out, Madame de Florian was the granddaughter of Marthe de Florian, an actress loved by many men, including the 72nd prime minister of France, George Clemenceau, and the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini, for whom she was his muse. The artist's love letters to Marthe lay interned in the apartment, the only clue to the identity of the girl in the muslin dress who adorns Madame's wall.

Call it sentimental, but it's sad to think about the dismantling of the rooms . If it wasn't missed until Madame's recent death, then it would be nice to let it be, as a testiment to a mysterious French woman, and a life lived.

Images
http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/10/paris-flat-unopened-for-70-years/

Sources
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042281/Parisian-flat-containing-2.1-million-painting-lay-untouched-for-70-years.html

Rag N Bone tales

Style Cramp has been going to Deptford market on Deptford High Street for donkey's years. A vibrant and bustling agglomeration of £1 dresses, vintage porn and rickety furniture, the market defines the phrase "one girl's junk is another girl's treasure." And Style Cramp loves junk; the floral cropped vest and wool high-waisted trousers i'm wearing today were £1 and 50p respectively, and there's just no way you'd be able to tell!

Also on the High Street, past the £1 vendor is Rag N Bone, a vintage shop that is packed to the rafters with amazing finds (certainly not junk) and cheap too!

Dolcis leather pixie boots (vintage), £16, Rag N Bone

Harrods beaded gown (vintage), £49.99, Rag N Bone

Rag N Bone

140 DEPTFORD HIGH STREET
LONDON SE8 3PQ
+44 (0) 20 8691 4463

Deptford market is open Saturdays and Wednesdays, on the High Street.

Hardy Amies Past Present and Future: Vintage at Goodwood

Style Cramp were lucky enough to have front row seats at the Hardy Amies runway show at Vintage at Goodwood, showcasing their style archive, with some sneaky peeks at a future collection.

British tailor Hardy Amies opened his English couture house on Savile Row in 1945, after designing utility Clothing during the Second World Waw. Amies was dressmaker to HM Queen Elizabeth II from her accession to the throne until his retirement from fashion in 1990.

Vintage at Goodwood: style spots

Vintage at Goodwood was, as anticipated, a showcase of the best in vintage style. For this festival's punters, music came second to coiffed hair, and immaculate attire. The Saturday that Style Cramp was there (in a leg brace and on crutches!), the look was all about winged spectacles and 50s dresses. The epitome of post-war British couture in a modern setting.

Due to our dedication to photographing the wonderful people and surroundings, Style Cramp and co was (SADLY) unable to peruse the rails and rails of vintage clothing. This was on par with a vinyl aficionado being locked in a record shop and told not to touch anything. Torture! But, professionalism prevailed and I dragged my sorry knee up and down the high street, taking it all in.

Here's a selection of some of the best dressed:

And leg brace-chic (Style Cramp):