Introduction

Vintage Voyage is a magazine focusing on

Vintage fashion culture in the UK.

Our aim is to keep you updated with the latest

vintage news, events and stories.

We will cover a variety of topics including

lifestyle, music and art. Our Website also

contains numerous articles and features for you

to check out and follow. Please Visit

www.vintagevoyage.co.uk

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Contents

A day out in London

The books that don’t go stale

Vienna Ditto Interview

Blogs Vs Books

Shop Reviews

PG3

PG5

PG11

PG13

PG15

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The Brickhouse

Fifties, fashion and

emerging feminism

Cabaret Bar with Burlesque

performances and a stimulating

dining experience

Iconic John

French prints,

from the V&A

Archive, along-

side highlights ...

Study Collection

Saint Martins College of Art and Design,

bespoke visualisations by. FABRIC, work

by WESSIELING and Carole Evans plus

new commissions by ... Artists Freddie

Robins and Alice Angus3

Vintage Patisserie

Wantstead Vintage Fashion & Brocante Fair

Cabaret Bar with Burlesque

performances and a stimulating

dining experience A tea party with a vintage twist

A fabulous, affordable selection of

Vintage Fashion & Accessories in

two spacious halls.

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It has been ten years since Jeanette Winterson’s The PowerBook came out of print - the last one in her seven book cycle which started with the infamous Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit, fol-lowed by the magnificent The Passion, Sexing the Cherry, Written on the Body, Art and Lies and Body Symmetries. At the same time, Vintage has just published a special hardback edition of Or-anges Are Not the Only Fruit, marking the 25th anniversary of the novel’s original publication.

Those who had never been lucky enough, for whatever reason, to discover Winterson’s bright star in the vast

urs, guillotine colours of tumbrel and blade, execution-bright. Each man and woman goes to their particular scaffold, kneels, and is killed day after day. Each collects their severed head and catches the train home. Some say that they enjoy their work.” (Art and Lies, Vintage, 1995).

She weaves fairytales with the ease of HC An-dersen; her words play lullabies of love, passion and loss with a gift of virtuoso and wisdom of ancient philosophers... How important is her “lesbian identity” in her crusade to touch and to unveil the very heart of love, which lays hidden in the depths of human soul? Not all that much, I would say. As Winterson does not recognise space as a matter, time as a flat line, she does not recognise sexuality as black and white either. In her novels the protagonists shift weightlessly in between centuries as in between sexes. “The Hopi, an Indian tribe, have a language as sophis-ticated as ours, but no tenses for past, present and future.

The division does not exist. What does this say about time?” (Sexing the Cherry, Vintage, 1990). In her interview for the Guardian of February this year, she says: “I like the idea of people being fluid in their sexuality. I don’t for instance consider myself to be a lesbian. I want to be beyond those descriptive con-straints.” Therefore, it is not so much about who you love and what you do in bed, but about what do you know about love and what are you capable of giving and receiving. Iden-tifying oneself goes far further than identify-ing one’s sexuality: “And what was myself? Was this breeches and boots self any less real than my garters? What was it about me that interested her?” (The Passion, Vintage 1996)

Winterson is a true master of language; she plays with words as effortlessly as she plays with fantasy and reality. From a blue collar adoptive family in Manchester, via Oxford University to OBE for services in literature in 2006, Jeanette Winterson has walked an impressively long journey towards her true identity. After all, isn’t it exactly what are we all searching for?For an extra touch of magic, you could put your creativity on trial and enjoy a hearty meal in her organic food shop Verde’s around Spitalfields Market in London. As everything that bears the mark of this extraordinary woman – it’s priceless!

The Books That Don’t Go Stale

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Model - Emmie TweePhotography - Nikolas Chondros

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Vienna Ditto is a 3 piece upcoming band from Reading, Oxford and London, comprising of Hatty Taylor on vocals, Nigel Firth on guitar and Scotty Lawrence on the drums. Today I am joined by the lovely Miss Taylor who is not only incredibly musically talented but also shares our enthusiasm for vintage fashion. Vienna Ditto first caught my eye last year when I saw them performing their hit song ‘Long Way Down’ on T4, one lazy Sunday afternoon. Hatty was wearing a stunning 1950’s gold shimmering dress andtruly looked like she just came out of one of our favorite vintage films. Think of Jane Russell style sex appeal and glamour in “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” Of course I knew I had to interview her ever since….

So Hatty, how did you guys decide on the band’s name?

Hatty: “Well we were brainstorming potential names, pulling them out of Nigel’s hat literally but wecouldn’t find that perfect sounding name we all agreed on. Anyway we were just about to give up forthe day when Scott opened up Nigel’s travelling list and there it was, Vienna Ditto. I remember thatNigel was travelling at the time and was going to the same hostel he was just in the previous country soin his notes he wrote down Vienna Ditto. A little bit complicated I know!”

How would you describe the flavour of your music?

Hatty: Modern electronic sound mixed with vintage blusy rock- and roll. Could you tell me what music in particular influenced you when you were still a little vintage diva in the making? Hatty: “Crowded house, Beach Boys, La’s, REM, Beautiful South especially Paul Heathens voice, Muddy waters...”

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In your own words describe your own personal style?

Hatty: “I would say it’s a mixture of high street and vintage. 5o’s eclectic feel when I am power dressingor doing gigs”.

If for some insane reason you could only keep 3 items of your vintage wardrobe what would they be?

Hatty: Ok, firstly it would be my long high neck dress, Victorian style with blue china print.(sourced fromField Staff Antiques Rochester, Kent) Number two on my list would be a gor-geous handmade floral dressfrom the 50’s that I picked up from a charity shop last year. Last but not least would be my straw schoolgirl hat that is so special to me because it’s been initialled by the previous owner and when I am wearingit I feels like I am wearing a little piece of history that was once loved and cher-ished by someone else.

What Vintage shops do you regularly visit?

Hatty: Umm, charity shops in general usually. Oh and also Starfish in Brighton and Frock and Roll inReading, because it’s just down my road.

If you could be a vintage Hollywood scarlet for a day who would you be and why?

Hatty: Betty Paige because she has the best fringe.

When can we expect to see you next?

July around Reading and London. New album upcoming in autumn.

For more info please check out viennaditto.com or myspace.com/viennaditto

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“I recon,” said Angelo, looking down, “ that humans are just about intelligent enough to be crazy.”

“I think,” said Masklin, “that maybe they’re intelligent enough to be lonely.” (The Bromelliad, T. Pratchett, Doubleday, 1998)

The weB LOG – BLOG – started off as a proliferation of public diaries – some of them are still the same, resembling Hyde Park corner babble, often driven by sheer narcissism and exhibitionism and not at all un-like “Broadcast Yourself” on YouTube these days, just with a much larger crowd – as example Potter Puppet Pals – the Mysterious Ticking Noise had over 78 million viewers.

Nevertheless, numerous blogs, some created by prominent writers, scientists, contemporary thinkers or even their creative followers and fans have progressed greatly to having all the ideas and arguments of best newspapers, magazines or literature, with all the engagement of some captivating live radio programs. Which is more, every blog bears its personal mark, in many cases in greater touch with the reality than some right or left-winged papers or any other strongly opinionated magazines.

Blogging is also fast, you think of an idea or you hear something new and in ten minutes is already all over the WEB, as opposed to a painfully long process from author to a book, involving so many hands and con-suming so much money.

A while ago someone wrote an article, saying that a blogging is for reading what Napster used to befor the music. The crucial difference is that by now blogging has proven its tendency to last and to involve a good share of creativity.

The most important factor in rocketing success of blogging is that by doing it, people communicate with each other, which seem so important in our increasingly alienated lives, sharing their thoughts and feelings on every subject imaginable without crippling factors of time or space (if you don’t believe me – google it!). Communication is obviously a key to rising

supremacy of blogging over reading, driven by human primal need for exchange of thoughts, experiences and feelings. Throughout the history reading was often considered a pastime for idle minded, and, which is more - a damaging one, which could overheat and burn down your brain with some nebulous ideas, dragging you out, far from the real world, while life slowly and undetectably slips away from the one with a nose buried deep in between pages of some fiction book. Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, written in between 1798 – 1799, manages to demonstrate spot on how novels set up unrealistic expectations for the real world. Author and Maryland Institute College of Art -

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professor Mikita Brottman’s The Solitary Vice: gainst Reading, 2008, is not arguing that much against reading as such (if not done in excess causing mind-warping of young and fragile minds), as she argues against reading novels. Well, then let’s read only history and memoires – except that what are those but memories, unreliable and fabricatedby victors and winners? Stephen Johnson’s“Everything Bad is Good for You”,2005, plays with a thought what if the video games were invented before books in the similar manner as Phillip K Dick plays with the thought what if the Axis won WWII in hi “man in the High Castle”. Johnson says: “Books are also tragically isolating. While games have for many years engaged the young in complex

social relationships with their peers, building and exploring worlds together, books force the child to sequester him or herself in a quiet space, shut off from interaction with other children.” Here we are again: “Social relationships with their peers” – as noted earlier – it’s all about the communication, about that oldest human need to touch, to share, to hear and to be heard. Another argument against reading is that you cannot control the path of narration, whatever is going to happen has already happened and it’s there, on the last page of the book, while with the blogs you can meander freely from one subject to another, interweaving them, digressing whenever it pleases you; there is always going to be someone who will bite into a digression and – hey presto – you have the whole new story going on now! Could books do that?

No. Reading books have some completely different kind of magic up its sleeve, which at this point of human development appears to be getting swiftly outmoded. It is a pastime for the outnum-bered old-fashioned romantics and altruists. In the conclusion, it seems we should just shed indi-viduality as an old, obsolete skin – and jump into a pool of collectiveness, all is one and one is all. Forget about quiet evenings by the fire with a book that made you think and wonder “who the hell I am”; forget about the mushroomy smell of a book that spent half of your lifetime on a top up-per shelf, just to coincidently get rediscovered in times of a great spiritual need... Forget all those armies of writers from the past twenty centuries and more, who had wasted their lives in solitude, scribbling some nonsense for the generations to come. As we care! Stop following the plot – live life instead – get on a blog!

Alternatively, try to find a golden middle ground, embrace the novelty of blogging as a modern communication vessel but still treasure those moments of intimacy with your soul using a book as a powerful medium.

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Urban Village - Shop Review

Urban Village is a vintage shop in which you do not feel suffocated neither by musty smell of old clothes nor by items unreasonably packed from floor to ceiling, beyond any good taste – it is light, it is spacious and evidently set up with plenty of style. As soon as you step in you can feel the at-mosphere of late 60’s or mid 70’s. The music, the jukebox, black and white photos of young Rolling Stones, pink shaded sunglasses – l would not be surprised if I saw Keith and Anita sitting at the doorstep, smoking some prohibited substance (Keith Richards and his girlfriend Anita Pallen-berg, I am talking about here, for those either young or ignorant enough to wonder).

The shop’s logo is a vinyl record (see picture) and it says: “selling the finest vintage clothing and ac-cessories – music and artwork from 50’ 60’s 70’s 80’s” and I am pleased to confirm that this is not overstatement at all.

Urban Village is situated in the heart of vibrant Custard Factory, probably the only truly

alternative place in Birmingham, a city which is today barely a shadow of its former energetic and creative self from mid 70’s. The shop is surrounded by ateliers, various art shops and music scene. It is effortlessly decorated with memorabilia marking the “Make Love Not War” era, as rare and hard to find old vinyl LPs, old books neatly stacked up on an upright shelf (Camus: Stranger, Sartre: Nausea, Hesse: Steppenwolf) – all for sale, Union Jacks and London Underground signs…

I talked to lovely Tiffany who has a plenty of experience in working in vintage market; she spent few years working in Oasis, another alternative, but somewhat sloppy outfit in Birmingham, but she pre-fers it here. She says the atmosphere is groovy; music is on all the time and Frankie, the shop owner, is a cool guy with a true flair and a rich history in vintage trade. “It’s all about getting the right items at the right price and for this you have to know the right people. Frankie has connections all over as he has been in trade for so long. “ Tiffany tells me that the Urban Village has been at this location for about one and a half year: “It’s a great location; there are regular vintage fairs (next one is coming on 4th June!), and there are lot of students and young people in general who are our main customers. “ I ask Tiffany of her opinion why people buy vintage clothes. “Well, some things are getting back into fashion, and you can buy them new – “retro” – from the Top Shop, but the price is high and the qual-ity is just not the same. Back in days all clothes used to be British made and items were produced in smaller quantities -that is mark of its quality; it makes these clothes desirable and unique.”

Urban Village Vintage The Custard Factory ,Gibb Street, Digbeth ,Birmingham, B9 4AA

http://www.urban-village.co.uk/15

Kate & Aud - Shop Review

It’s a sunny day out in Brighton and I am here to pick out the best vintage shops in the area by reviewing them and recommending them all of my fellow vintage hunters. Kate and Aud is my first stop, located just on the corner of Brighton’s famous shopping district, this charming little jem radiates with vintage goodness from across the road. As I walk in small leather suitcase filled with frilly vintage lingerie grabs my attention. They are lady’s knickers remade to look retro using various fabrics – no pair in the suitcase is the same. The price tag (£20) is a bit hefty for my student budget but I instantly want a pair! Katy later tells me they are all made from recycled material by a girl who distributes them to sellers.

The downstairs is generally small spaced, but very well arranged. The accessories take up the big part of the shop with a long row of charm necklaces, earrings and broaches. Underneath the rails of clothes shoes and boots are lined up neatly. The staircase leads to the sec-ond floor and as I began to climb up I am immediately drawn to the cloud of dresses, displayed along the walls. The second floor reminds me of a dressing room and without the rails of clothes I am sure it could pass off as one. Fear not though, there is a changing room

and everything you like you can comfortably try on. There is also a lovely abstract style sofa in the cor-ner where you can sit down to try shoes on or simply just to catch a breath if browsing around gets too stressful.

On my way out I had a little chat with Kate who was working on the tills and also happened to be the shop co-owner. She was extremely friendly and once I told her about my blog she was kind enough to give me 10% of all of my purchases. I found out that she and her business partner and friend Audrey Tay-lor had been selling their wares on markets independently for years, Katy dresses and leather bags and Audrey charm jewellery, before they decided to merge together and move into the compact two-storey Trafalgar Street unit in November 2009.“We both always wanted to have our own little boutique selling things we love,” Audrey enthuses. “We knew that we were hard working and passionate about what we did and if we brought our businesses together we would do really well if we had the right location. And so here we are.”Visiting Kate and Aud was truly a pleasure. It’s a small boutique full of good vibes, mix of vintage and modern pieces and ethically-sourced garments from India. Must see when in Brighton!

27 Trafalgar StBrighton BN1 4ED

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Model - Blane ChapmanPhotography - Nikolas Chondros

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Image Sources:http://www.fantasticfiction.co.uk

http://www.vintagepatisserie.co.ukhttp://www.thebrickhouse.co.uk

http://www.lovevintage.co.uk/

(C) Vintage Voyage 2011