It's a Girl Thing...

Yesterday was a good day; I got to spend the whole day with my youngest daughter. She has recently started to show an interest in vintage fashion. Of course I felt a need to nurture this interest, as she is the only one of my daughters to show even the slightest whiff of awareness or curiosity for my passion for treasures from the past. Despite growing-up in a home furnished almost exclusively with old tat (!), none of my three girls have wanted to follow in my footsteps, probably because they want to forge their own style or identity...
But anyway, yesterday began for us with a visit to The Ashley Hall Vintage Fashion and Textile Fair, held at the Assembly Rooms in Bath.
We were able to catch-up with some of my favourite French textile dealers again and I bought some lovely bits and pieces...

I loved these tiny unused dyed and carved mother-of-pearl buttons on their original cards from Paris.

I also bought a full card of Deco buckles.

Beautiful rich red mattress ticking fabrics in a variety of striped designs...

Silvery grey French lace still on it's card and some scraps of Victorian cream lace.

Some good usable lengths of C19th Vichy check cotton and also in a woven linen, as well as some pretty floral fragments.

A sweet selection of vintage buttons including glass, Bakelite, wood with hand painted decoration and glittering paste examples.

My favourite purchase from the fair was this hat stand from the flapper era, with its beautiful boudoir dolls head and fabric covered base. I have a small collection of these, which I have mentioned before on a previous post - If they are within my budget I like to buy them, as they are becoming a very rare find now.

My daughter loved looking around all of the stalls with me and commented how friendly everyone was. After a delicious hot chocolate in the cafe, we decided to take the tour of the fashion museum within the same building. (We were eligible for free entry with being residents within the Bath area.) The main theme of the exhibits at the moment is underwear through the ages. The displays are changed every now and then, in order to show a new selection of garments from the museums huge archive.

We then left the museum and walked into the town centre. I have been looking for a while for an outfit for myself to wear to my in-laws Golden Wedding anniversary party next month. And Sunday was the day for me to finally crack it! - I'm rubbish when it comes to buying on the high street! ;-)) Give me a vintage shopping list over modern any day, and I can usually find what I'm looking for quite quickly! Its just a shame that I couldn't have squeezed myself into some of the 1950's pastel tulle numbers at the fair!...but at least I can take pleasure from my youngest wearing vintage now...

Hope you had an enjoyable weekend too,

Niki x