and all the people that come and go

This weekend has been unusually eventful, and although I am completely worn out I definitely think I enjoy being busy. I saw Metronomy at Alexandra Palace with a bunch of friends on Friday night, which consisted of amazing music, glittery tops, velvet scrunchies (I felt very 80s) and lots of face glitter, before a sweet little get-together with people which felt very teenager-ish and unlike me (who often spends Friday nights in watching movies in bed). It made me think my friends should have been scouted for a new series of 'Skins' instead of the new Misfits that they were actually scouted for. I then spent Saturday at work, before heading off to Birmingham on Sunday and getting back in time to see the family. A successful weekend, if I do say so myself.
If you've been reading this blog for a while you'll probably already know that going to Clothes Show Live in Birmingham has become something of a little yearly tradition for me. About a month after starting up this page I went for the first time, and was so overwhelmed by all of the vintage stands in one place that I couldn't help going the next year as well. This year was a little different, as I actually got a press pass sent to me (third time lucky?) and so felt my annual shopping spree was a little more justified as I was 'working'. Definitely.
Anyway, if you aren't already aware Clothes Show is basically a yearly shopping event in Birmingham, bringing hundreds of independent brands, businesses and shops all together under one roof to give the general public an almost physical experience of shopping somewhere online like Asos Marketplace. For me it's become the perfect opportunity to get my winter clothes bought before it really starts getting cold outside, as well as giving me the chance to spend any leftover summer/birthday savings. Usually photography isn't allowed, but the press pass meant that I could capture a little slice of all the sparkly vintage things on display for this post.

Putting Bowie records on your stall wall = guaranteed yourself a purchase from me
This year there was definitely way more vintage on sale than there ever has been before. I'm not sure whether that's because more vintage sellers and boutiques exist now and applied for a space, or whether the demand for secondhand has increased recently, but it was impossible to ignore the fact that the ratio of vintage to high-street was definitely a good 3:1 at least. It was nice to be able to compare so many pieces at once - I absolutely hate the feeling of buying something in one shop, then going into another and finding it for £10 cheaper. Having all of the stalls out together gave me an opportunity to scoot around a few times and make sure I was getting the best price I could (which happened quite a bit, as most stalls were giving discounts and doing offers as the weekend was nearly over).

After spending the day browsing and photographing, we stopped for a quick strawberry and marshmallow kebab situation...Ive only ever been able to get these from Clothes Show and couldn't resist (I can't resist anything that's been dipped in a chocolate fountain).

I wore my Beyond Retro shirt and velvet trousers, Rokit bag, Topshop socks and Deichmann shoes. Since I can remember I've always been more of a gold person, but recently I've been really into silver for some reason. This outfit felt quite witchy and 90s...I kind of regret not getting into my silvery sparkly phase earlier as it would probably have been more suited to Halloween but hey, you can't have everything.

I bought quite a few new patterns and autumn-y/wintery things which should hopefully see me through the next few months of sixth form. Having no uniform is great, but it really speeds up my cycle of loving a piece of clothing and then tiring of it, so I really need to work more on selling old pieces on my Etsy so I can afford to keep my little cycle going! I still have some pieces on there that are worth checking out (super cheap) and hopefully will put some more up for sale this week.
In other news, my Fashion Week trend report was published in Judy's Vintage Digest online magazine, which you can read here! (Pages 8-9). Hope you all have a good week,