Second-hand find: Pointy earrings

Pointy earrings from the Oxfam charity shop in St. John’s Wood. Price: 6 pounds. I love the bold, studded design as I don’t like my jewellery to be too cutesy & dainty.

I don’t really know what the material is, but the colour is something in-between silver and gold.

The old-fashioned clasp means that you have to fasten the screw until tight enough, which almost stopped me from buying them, as I thought they would be really painful to wear.

But they have turned out to be super comfortable, almost as comfortable as normal earrings – something I’m too afraid to wear at the moment, as I have a very active (and surprisingly strong) baby in the house, who happens to loooove grabbing shiny things.

He even managed to sneak himself into these pictures, while mum was busy taking pictures of herself. Can you spot him in the corner? I think he is pretending to help me with the laundry.

Second-hand find: quilted 70’s Laura Ashley bag

Dark grey vintage Laura Ashley bag from my favourite charity shop, St. John’s Hospice shop, in St. John’s Wood.

Price: 8 pounds.

I love the pattern and the fact that it is easy to slide over the pushchair’s handles.

It’s perfect for holding all the baby necessities such as wipes, drinks and food as I don’t have to worry about spillage. I’ll just chuck it in the washing machine…

Second-hand find: Sparkly brocade wool dress

Black wool dress, bought many years ago in what used to be my favourite Røde Kors/Red Cross charity shop in Copenhagen (must remember to revisit it when I go back in December). Here’s a link to something I wrote about the shop when I worked at the city guide AOK.dk.

I paid around DKK 50 for the dress (£6).

The shape is simple and it’s not too short or dressy, which means I can wear it both in the evening or as a casual winter day dress, paired with a cardigan. I love the  brocade bit on the top as it adds that necessary bit of X-mas sparkle.

Second-hand find: White ruffled Betty Barclay blouse

White blouse from German designer Betty Barclay. It cost £7.50 in the Marie Curie Cancer Care shop in West Hampstead (one of 6 fab charity shops, living side-by-side on West End Lane, that I’ve only just discovered – guide to follow!)

I love the ruffles and the detailed gold buttons and the fact that it’s 100%  viscose.

I always feel kinda constricted and too dressed up when I wear blouses, especially white ones, so to tone it down a bit I make sure to pair them with something low-key and casual, like these suede trousers from Zara:

Or a black leather pencil skirt:

 

Second-hand find: 1 pound purple silk dress

While we’re in a purple mood why not show you the 1 pound purple dress I found in the Fara charity shop during my second-hand shopping tour of Pimlico & Belgravia. It’s made of top quality silk and super comfortable. The fabric is a bit faded here and there but I actually think that adds to the character of the dress.

The tag says “Textile Treasures – Gallery of Antique Costume & Textiles”. I found this old article describing this London gallery that specialised in making reproductions of old design classics such as 18th-century waistcoats, Twenties tea dresses and pyjama trousers in silk. I don’t think the gallery exists any more, but at least I own one of their designs now.

Read my second-hand guide to Pimlico & Belgravia
More second-hand guides here
Check out my previous second-hand finds

Raaaaawwwwwwwrrrrr….. – the perfect vintage animal print scarf

Var på genbrugs-tour i fancy-pants Belgravia og Pimlico den anden dag (fantastisk område for genbrug og guide følger i morgen!) og i Retromania hapsede jeg det perfekte oversize vintage vilddyrstørklæde. Det skal ikke være nogen hemmelighed, at jeg har en forkærlighed for dyreprint, men er trods alt blevet lidt mere konservativ med alderen, så SÅ vildt skal det heller ikke være (sagde hun og tænkte med lige dele øm nostalgi og rædsel tilbage på gymnasietidens leopardlegging og jeans med pytonprint).

Derfor er dette her i nude/beige/brune nuancer og med bittesmå  vilde pletter som skræddersyet til at blive båret om min hals resten af efteråret. Gav 20 pund for det, ikke vildt billigt, men det har håndrullede kanter og jeg knuselsker det.

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I recently undertook a charity shopping tour of posh Belgravia and Pimlico (guide to this excellent second-hand area is on its way!). It’s no secret that I’ve been obsessed with animal prints for almost two decades. BUT beware: if you’re not careful those roaring, snarling wild dots and stripes can easily become overkill and make you look more like messy roadkill than sexy starlet.

Less is more is the way to go. So I instantly fell in love with the understatedness of this oversized scarf when I saw it in Retromania.  I paid 20 pounds for it and it’s worth every penny, it even has hand-rolled edges. I’ll probably be wearing it non-stop and use it to brighten up otherwise dark autumn outfits.

Traid Kilburn and my 6 pound shopping spree

The best (and one of only a few) charity shops in the Kilburn area is Traid. Traid stands for “Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development” and this charity has a number of shops all over London. Find them here.

Basically what they do is divert clothes from landfills, then they hand sort it and sell the best stuff in their shops. The profit is used to “support projects fighting inequality and exploitation in the global textile supply chain, and projects establishing environmental sustainability in some of the world’s poorest communities.” Quite admirable and worth supporting.

I always walk past this shop on my way to our local Sainsbury’s and last time the sale signs were screaming at me “2 pounds, only 2, come in and have a look Mette!!” So I did. The shop is long and cluttered and filled with rows of clothes arranged by colour and type.

It can get very busy and your second-hand treasure hunt will probably be time-consuming so don’t bring your better half as he will slowly deteriorate outside the shop while you manically flip through row after row of skirts, bright ethnic caftans, polyester shirts, boyfriend’s jeans etc.

Traid, 69-71 Kilburn High Road. Map

It can be difficult to dig out the really brands or vintage finds here as 80% of the stock is made up of newish  cheap stuff like Primark, M&S, H&M etc. I ended up with these three in my basket:

It’s a basic cotton T-shirt (C&A) but I like the wooden pearls that have been applied around the neckline. before: 6.99, now: 2 pounds.

Mexx was all the rage amongst nice little girls when I grew up in Denmark in the early 80’s so this see-through top hit the nostalgia spot. But I also like the bordeaux colour and the animal print. Will definitely have to wear a black top underneath. Before: 6.99, now: 2 pounds.

Well, who can say no to a pair of 2 pound striped Jaeger trousers? Not me, as I love that brand. Only drawback is that they’re slightly too small and when I wear them I resemble an over-stuffed sausage (I didn’t feel like queuing for the changing rooms, so didn’t try them on). Oh well, they’ll go in the “stuff-I’ll-wear-when-I-get-slimmer” pile and probably stay there for a long time. Before: 14.99, now: 2 pounds.

Second-hand finds from the bottom of the monster chair: chequered trousers

I have this really scary chair. It has been creepily stalking me ever since my childhood. From city to city and one country to another. It’s always there, shapeshifting (yup, I think it’s been watching True Blood over my shoulder) and lurking in the background. This is what it currently looks like:

Good thing about it is, turning it over is a bit like digging for a treasure. You never know what you’re going to find. Yesterday I dug out two pairs of chequered trouser that I’d forgotten all about. Turns out they’re perfect for autumn walks (paired with a Burberry trench and Mulberry bag for that conservative British look) :

First up are these trousers from wonderful Aquascutum. I paid around 10 pounds for them in the St. John’s Hospice charity shop. They are the most  comfortable pair of trousers I own.

My mum actually bought these Betty Barclay wool trousers for me in a second-hand shop in Hjørring. Just like the poncho she found they’re spot on (it’s normally hit or miss when she buys things for me).

Second-hand find: off-white Sheilagh Brown wool coat

I let my hands run up-and down this thin wool coat in the Oxfam charity shop in Highgate, caressed the soft and smooth fabric, tried it on, put it back, almost walked out the shop and then ended up trying it on again and finally buying it. Price 11 pounds.

The thing was: I instantly knew this was a top quality jacket but couldn’t really justify buying another off-white wool coat, as I already own these two.

But I’m very glad I did. Especially after having done what is one of my favourite things about second-hand shopping: Googling the designer. I’d never heard of Sheilagh Brown before but it  turns out she’s one of the British Biggies. She had her own London brand back in the 70s and was the famous hat maker/milliner Philip Treacy’s tutor at the RCA.

If you want to know more about her I can recommend this inspiring interview video, where she talks about her life as a fashion designer back in the good old days where Mick Jagger would come and lie on big pillows and smoke in her shop.

And best of all: it’s getting cold here in London, so I can start wearing it soon!

Second-hand find: Escada wool sweater

Vejret er blevet koldere, så jeg er begyndt at grave de vamsede uldsager frem fra gemmerne.

Og selv om jeg er anti-royalist kan jeg vel godt iføre mig en gylden krone. I hvert fald når den sidder på en lækker varm, mørkeblå Escada uldsweater. 10 pund i Cancer Research genbrugsbutikken i Chiswick.

Læs min genbrugsguide til området

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It’s getting colder outside and time to dig out the warm woolly things from the closet.

And just because I’m an anti-royalist doesn’t mean I can’t wear a gold crown. Especially when it’s woven onto a lovely warm dark-blue Escada wool sweater. Cost 10 pounds in the Cancer Research Charity shop in Chiswick.

Read my second-hand guide to the area