The Daily Bread #14 - Gigging Hell

Top - Topshop

Cardigan - Vintage Engelhorn

Jeans - Cubus

Belt - Topman

Brogues - Swedish, Unknown

Necklace - Ethiopian airport

I'm not sure how many of you will be familiar with Northampton, UK, but I assume not a great deal.  Growing up there was interesting experience.  The town itself is bleak, and I'm not just saying that in a 'woe is me, curse my hometown' kind of way - visitors regularly comment on just how dreary it is.  Yet the utter misery of the town meant that its youth seemed to rally together in a bid to have some fun.  Whereas other places seemed to have more cliquey divides, Northampton seemed to have that less, in my experience at least.  You were simply in on the attempt to make some fun, or you were out, and that was that.

A key source of entertainment was live music.  I guess it was because it was something that people could do without much help - you could buy a guitar, you could coerce a grotty pub into letting you play, and there you had it, a night out for all your friends.  As I can't even clap in time, I participated in this scene purely as an audience member - but what's a band without their audience?  For a pretty nondescript Midlands town, we also got a surprising amount of bigger artists coming to play.  The best gigs were at the Soundhaus but that unfortunately closed down due to noise complaints (a cause of uproar in the glory days of 2008) but the bands kept coming to the Roadmender.  

Given that my social life revolved around sweaty gigs - from the good to the bad, the famous to the hopeless - I was pretty familiar with gig clothes.  I find they fall into an awkward category; they need to hit a certain level of nighttime dressiness, yet incorporate the comfort and practicality of day wear whilst also being almost indestructible.  It wasn't until yesterday, when I remembered I had tickets to see The XX tonight, that I realised I no longer had any idea how to dress for gigs.  Do I even have the materials for it anymore?

This morning I raided my wardrobe and cobbled together this outfit, which I think tonight's look will be based around.  I think the black jeans and the breton style stripes are a classic combination which, to me, gives an air of chic yet looks simultaneously carefree.  I will probably swap the cardigan for a denim shirt or leather jacket later and add some more edgy jewellery, I'm thinking chains and spikes.  I chose these brogues because they seem pretty indestructible and I don't care too much about them.  If I had some Converse here in Sweden with me, then I'd probably throw those on instead, but sadly I do not. 

I think part of my problem with gig dressing is that I get a little protective over my clothes and find it hard to be relaxed if I know I'm going to be stood on and crushed.  Do you have this problem, or is it just me?

Merry Monday,

Elise.

The Daily Bread #3 - A Vintage Flurry

A word of warning - I've waffled on a bit here, oops.  This isn't a particularly exciting outfit just one built of many pieces which have stories.  I love clothes with a story, it's what makes fashion for me, but if you don't then you can stop reading here, ha.

Cardigan - Vintage (Engelhorn)

Shirt - H&M

Skirt - Vintage (Hennes)

Boots  - Bianco

Scarf - Vintage

Belt - Vintage

This morning, much to my displeasure, involved a 7am rise and shine in order to make my presentation seminar at 9am.  On arrival at university, we realised that we were an hour early and that our class didn't actually start until 10am.  Sigh.  Given that I'd been so exhausted whilst getting dressed this morning, it wasn't until I came home at lunch time and took these pictures that I realised quite how much vintage I was wearing.  Whilst I do love vintage clothing and enjoy nothing more than hours spent trawling through piles and rails looking for treasures, I didn't realise quite how much of my wardrobe was made up of second hand finds.  Interesting.

Both the velvet skirt and the cashmere cardigan were found in Trashy Flowers, a vintage haven in Northampton that has unfortunately shut down now.  I have my friend Lewis to thank for both of these.  He took me to Trashy for the first time back in 2009, when I bought the skirt for a meagre £3.00.  It actually went straight to the back of my wardrobe until recently as at the time I deemed it 'too long'?  Now I see that it is clearly a mini skirt - the mind of my 17 year old self constantly concerns me.  The cardigan was bought after Lewis appeared in an A Level Literature class screaming about £5 cashmere, meaning that I obviously had to skip class and go and buy something before it all ran out.  Again, this item didn't see the light of day much at the time as I was convinced it made me look 'boxy'.  I've come to admit now that I just was a little boxy at the time.  Since turning down some pies since then I have come to love it though and it's made a real comeback in my life this year.

Discussing these purchases has made me quite sad; Trashy Flowers was just so great.  There's no other word.  It's first incarnation was a giant warehouse in which you could easily get lost for weeks.  As it's popularity grew along with hundreds of Northamptonian youths jumping on the vintage bandwagon, it moved sights to a more traditional shop layout in the town centre.  It lost some of its charm in this move but it was still pretty spectacular and it was here that the infamous £1 leather jack sale occurred.  Oh my.  Sadly, last time I went home from university, I heard that the shop was long gone.  I really have no idea why as it was so well loved.  I think the company still deals in wholesale vintage, but that isn't really of much use to a student on the breadline. 

Anyway, back from this diversion down memory lane.  I picked this belt up a couple of weeks ago in Birmingham at the Harper & Lewis vintage sack sale which opened on New Street very recently.  The premise is simple: you pick a sack, you stuff it to the brim, you pay £10, you limp away loaded with purchases.  For my £10 I got - as far as I can remember - two skirts, two jumpers, a denim shirt, a denim jacket, a blouse, four bags, this belt, one pair of trousers, a real leather jacket and... wait for it... some lederhosen!  Unfortunately I had to leave a lot of these treasures in Northampton as I was returning to Gothenburg via plane and so had limited packing but I plan to do a better post on this wonderland when I go home for Christmas and can take picture of all my finds.  If you are anywhere in the Midlands area though, go and devote a day to scouraging, I beg you!

I found the scarf in a, frankly, overpriced second hand shop whilst on holiday with my family in Southwold this summer.  It was £6 which was a lot for a second hand scarf I think, but as I'd been looking for one similar for a long time and would have realistically ended up paying four times the amount in Topshop in the end, I just bit my tongue and handed over my money.  I have worn it a lot so it was worth it, it just annoys me when people call something 'vintage' and think that is an excuse to overcharge.

Now that you know my life history, all that is left is for me to say please ignore the monstrosity sitting atop my head and calling itself 'hair'.  I'll go into this whole fiasco in more detail at another point but basically I'm avoiding heat styling and haven't dyed my roots for over three months now and so my hair has been living either in a haphazard bun or french plaits, neither of which are particularly attractive.

If you made it this far, huge thanks,

Elise.