Saturday, August 25, 2012

Adelaide Vinage Expo.



Last weekend we had our very first Vintage Expo organised by Cassandra Liebeknecht and I have to say I was very impressed, not only with the turn out but with the way the whole thing was put together. A few of my friends had stalls and they did amazingly well, especially Sass and Liam from Two Bit Villian’s who not only had some great stock but were also selling my favourite soda’s. Liam hand makes these incredible soda’s the likes of which you would have only tasted in the fifties at a soda shop. My fave is the root beer, actually they are all my favourites. If you go to their shop in Adelaide Arcade you can try for yourself.
The Lindy Charm School ran a few workshops and Chrissy and Sam had half the place looking fabulous with curls, up do’s and flowers. Next year I’m sure we will have to make appointments as they had customers lined up. There was a barber shop and tattoo parlour and even a Marilyn Monroe exhibition. Someone had cleverly made reproductions of a lot of Marilyn’s gowns and they were spot on.
My absolute favourite stall was Coutura, in all my years of collecting and selling vintage I have never ever seen gowns and summer frocks and hats like it. Lena, the lovely lady who ran the stall was so helpful and full of good information about Vintage, she had been in the business a whole lot longer then me. I saw so many cute girls all dolled up in fifties frocks, it was wonderful. I asked one particular cutie if she would mind having her photo taken with me and it turned out she was one of the girls off of Winner’s and Losers. The next day when I saw her all of these people were asking to have their photo’s taken with her, then the penny dropped. Duh!
I’m really hoping Cassandra will have the Expo again next year as a lot of my friends in Sydney I’m sure will be very interested in a stall.



 Lucky Seven and The Villenettes played on the Friday and Sunday and I know there were other great bands as well. Belinda from the Satellites had a stall selling some amazing stuff. Ginger my daughter bought another one of Steve’s Hawaiian shirts and a gorgeous apricot beaded cardy that was Belinda's. Gorgeous Rene from In Love Again Vintage had a great stall with lots of vintage wedding gowns. I ran into so many people I knew and a lot of my customers were there wearing Hot Couture. In fact 3 of The Villenette's were wearing H.C. Awww way to make a girl happy Villenette's. The only thing I would have liked was a better selection of food as Hot dogs and chips aren't my thing but for a first time Expo it was pretty darn fine. I have only ever had a stall at the Fifites Fair in Sydney but I would definitely look at having a stall at the next one, it looked like a lot of fun. Speaking of vintage fairs I hope all my fellow stall holders in Sydney have a wonderful day tomorrow, I can't make it this year and  I will miss you all. XXX Joy

Tuesday, August 7, 2012

Emma- Kate Wood visits us.

WOW!!!!!!!! Where do I start. I haven't written a blog for ages we are soooooooo busy even to grab 5 minutes is almost impossible. We did however grab 5 minutes to have a champers with Emma- Kate Wood when she was here last month. In fact we took pretty much the whole of Saturday afternoon off which is unheard of to meet up with Emma- Kate, who used to work at Hot Couture before she flitted off to London to pursue her dreams. I love that she did that, just took off and took a risk. Here is what Emma Kate has been up to over the last 12 months.
Em is working in a fabric shop in Soho whilst putting together a small collection of 1920's/1930's evening dresses which she will soon sell through her website and hopefully in some boutiques around the UK. Go Emma-Kate.

Apparently this year in London has been very quiet for costume making, but EK did do a big job for Colgate making some mascot costumes for a Jubilee event they held. Last year was really busy and exciting for her she got to work on a big budget film '47 Ronin' working in wardrobe. Next year Em is aiming to pick up some more film work once she gets her driving license! But for now she is just focusing on her label...
I'm so proud of all of my girls that have worked for me, I always encourage them to go off and live their dream.  I LOVE that they all visit me when they come home, some of them even coming back to H.C.H.Q to work. XXX Joy