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 finds: furry hats

Nothing keeps you warm during a long cold winter like a good fur. Especially when it’s wrapped around your head.

I notice a lot less real furs on the streets here in the UK than in Denmark and other Scandinavian countries. This partly has to do with the colder climate and tradition (Denmark is the world’s biggest mink producing country + our strong connection to Greenland has made seal fur very popular).

But I suspect it’s also political, as people in the UK are a lot more anti-fur than in Denmark. (Fur farming has been banned in the UK since 2004, and this is probably a bad example, but just read what the always obnoxious Liz Jones has to say about the subject.)

This is not going to be a long defence speech about why I choose to wear real fur, as most people know the arguments pro & con, and I don’t expect everyone to agree with me but just respect that this is my personal choice, just as I choose to wear leather and eat meat.

And I do get some of the anti-fur arguments, but what I don’t get is the aggressive behaviour a lot of anti-fur protesters display. Throwing red paint at people, standing in front of Selfridges screaming and “setting free” thousands of mink resulting in them dying a slow, cruel death in nature etc. just doesn’t seem neither constructive nor very intelligent to me. It just makes them look stupid and spiteful.

To me fur is not a fashion statement, nor about showing off or enjoying the blood-dripping torture of innocent animals. I just love the way it feels, the texture and the way it protects me from the cold.

My take on it is that I’ve chosen to only wear vintage & second-hand fur and would never wear fur from endangered species. If I were to ever buy a new fur I would make sure the animals have been responsible reared and humanely killed and I would prefer to wear a fur from an animal that hasn’t JUST been killed for its fur.

Enough said, back to the hats I wanted to show you:

Over the years I’ve accumulated three very different fur hats. Let’s start with my least favourite. This I believe is a red fox and it cost me next to nothing (DKK20/£2)  in my favourite Red Cross shop in Copenhagen.

The second one is black (or very dark brown) and from the same Red Cross shop. I paid around DKK 80/£9 for it. I’m not really sure what animal this is from. Fox again?

And here’s my favourite. I believe this one is fox as well. I bought this from a lovely woman on as sunny summer day at a flee market at Østerfælled Torv, close to where I used to live.

The woman’s mother had just moved to a smaller flat, so she was selling all the things the old lady didn’t use anymore. I paid DKK250/£28 for it.

The red vintage coat, milkshakes & burgers + a very MERRY Christmas to you!

It is Christmas after all. And as the 24th is the big day of celebration in Scandinavia I decided to be a bit festive and dig out my red vintage wool coat.

I bought it many, many years ago in one of my favourite charity shops in Copenhagen and paid around DKK 200 (£22) for it.

I don’t wear it that often as red is not really my colour, but today it felt perfect. I took it for a little excursion to Wardour Street in Soho where I met up with the dear husband and one of his colleagues for lunch.

During our stay in Denmark we’ve been gulping down what feels like 10 kilo of traditional Christmas fare. Pickled herring, warm liver pâté with mushrooms and bacon, ham, grønlangkål (curly kale), sausages, sylte (brawn), roast pork etc etc.

You name it, we’ve eaten it.

So today we both craved something completely different and headed straight for Byron Burgers on Wardour street. (Read my review of it here). I decided to go Full Monty, it is Christmas after all, and ordered a vanilla milkshake to go with my juicy cheeseburger. Yummy.

And not we’re back home, relaxing while looking at our non-existing Christmas tree (well, we do have a couple of fairy lights dangling here and there).

Husband is chopping away in the kitchen, preparing one of my favourite pasta dishes and we have two movies lined up in front of the DVD player: The Last Exorcism + American, The Bill Hicks Story. Now that’s my idea of a cosy Christmas 🙂

And now there’s only one thing left to say: MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!!

 

Second-hand finds: 2 x simple black dresses

I always get a little bit excited when I spot a simple but well-made black dress in a charity shop. But often they turn out not to be the right size, they’re in a bad condition or the cut & style just doesn’t appeal to me.

But sometimes they’re just right and you know they’ll become wardrobe classics that you’ll pull out of your closet regularly for years to come.

Like this wool/polyester-mix vintage dress, that I bought many, many years ago in my favourite charity shop in central Copenhagen (I used to visit it in all my lunch breaks) for around 6 pounds.

I love the simple design and the way the waist is accentuated with at thin curvy band, sewn into the dress.

And here’s another classic;  a black Diane von Furstenberg wrap dress found in a charity shop in LA a few years ago. It cost 20 dollars.

It’s a bit short so I prefer to wear it over leggings or very thick tights.

Second-hand finds: Paddy Campbell wool dress & wood bangles

I’ve said this many times before, but one of the really good things about second-hand shopping is discovering great designers, that you’d otherwise never have encountered.

Like the British designer Paddy Campbell, who is the woman behind this petroleum blue wool dress, bought for £12 in the Trinity Hospice Charity Shop in Chiswick.

I didn’t recognise the name on the label, but when the shop manager saw me looking at the dress she said: “Ooooh, that’s a PADDY CAMPBELL, that’s a really good brand,” I decided to take her word for it. Turns out former actress Paddy has been designing clothes since 1979 and is known for timeless pieces in a superb quality. And what’ s not to love about a designer whose  company slogan is “Clothes to Love Forever”. Read more about Paddy Campbell here.

I’ll definitely love this one until it falls apart. First of all there’s nothing better than those well-constructed everyday dresses that looks good in their own right. Only thing you have to do is pull them over your head. This one has tiny shoulder-pads which give it a bit of structure and the not too tight cut is quite flattering and doesn’t cling in the wrong places.

It’s a little bit plain though, so here I’ve spiced it up with a pair of second-hand wood bangles.

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: The perfect winter coat for a tenner

Når man leder allermindst, så har de gode fund det med at springe ud fra stativerne. Som den her ret så fantastiske vintage uldfrakke med pelskrave, som pludselig blinkede frækt til mig i St. John’s Hospice genbrugsbutikken i St. John’s Wood i går. Sådan en klassisk sort frakke har jeg været på udkig efter i flere år i alverdens genbrugsbutikker (jeg køber aldrig splinternye vinterjakke, da kvaliteten er for dårlig i forhold til prisen, – med mindre selvfølgelig, man har råd til at investere i mærker som Burberry, Celine og Aquascutum).

Jeg kunne se at kvaliteten var i orden, og jakken sad perfekt, men jeg var lidt i tvivl om, om den var vintage, da alle mærker var klippet af. Men så fandt jeg denne gamle seddel omkring et ophørsudsalg i en nu hedengangen fancy butik i Mayfair i inderlommen. Tilbage var der kun at spørge til prisen, og jeg var skeptisk, da de godt ved, hvad de skal tage for tingene i St. John’s Wood. “Hmmm, skal vi sige 10 pund? Vi skal have alt solgt, da butikken skal renoveres,” svarede den venlige dame bag disken.

Jeg har aldrig været hurtigere til at få pungen op af lommen…

Se flere fund fra St. John’s Wood…

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When you least expect it, great finds have a tendency to hijack you in the charity shops. Like yesterday when I went for a tiny, innocent walk to St. John’s Wood and quickly stopped by the St. John’s Hospice charity shop. Suddenly it was there: the perfect black winter coat with a fur collar that I’ve been looking for for the last many years. (I always buy my woollen winter jackets second-hand as it’s very difficult to find top quality nowadays, – unless of course you have enough money to invest in Burberry, Celine or Aquascutum and the like.)

I checked the quality and it was great, and it fit me perfectly.  But all the tags were cut off so I wasn’t 100% sure that it was vintage, until I found an old flyer from a now defunct Mayfair store in the inner pocket. Now I only needed to know the price. I warily approached the woman behind the counter as the prices tend to be pretty high in St. John’s Wood. “Shall we say 10 pounds? We need to sell everything as we’re having the shop refurbished,” she answered.

I put the tenner on the counter almost before she finished the sentence and was out the door before she could change her mind.

More St. John’s Wood finds..

Second-hand find: Pianoforte di MaxMara dress

Photo: Mette Bassett

Photo: Mette Bassett

Sort vintage MaxMara kjole fra deres aftenlinje, Pianoforte. Synes den er så fin og elegant med sit silkebånd og broche, og så er den faconsyet med en smule skub-op effekt, hvilket giver mig en smule kavalergang – noget jeg ellers aldrig har. Et andet kæmpe plus er, at der er elastikeffekt i stoffet, så selv om den sidder stramt bliver det aldrig kvælende ubehageligt, heller ikke efter en god middag (husker med gru tilbage på en nytårsaften for mange år siden, hvor jeg havde taget en lidt for stram kjole på og fik det halvdårligt efter hovedretten).

Kostede 30 pund i Trinity Hospice genbrugsbutikken i Chiswick. Så jeg gned mig godt i hænderne da jeg så PRÆCIS den samme kjole i kommissionsgenbrugsbutikken The Exchange på Gloucester Road til 180 pund.

English: Black vintage dress from Italian MaxMara’s evening line, Pianoforte. I think it’s very classy with the silk band and brooch details. And the fabric is stretchy which means that although it’s pretty tight I can still wear it to a dinner party (I still remember a New Year’s party many years ago where I wore a slightly too tight non-stretchy dress and almost felt sick after the main course).

I paid 30 pounds for it in the Trinity Hospice charity shop in Chiswick. Recently I had to pat myself on the back when I spotted the EXACT same dress in the very expensive depot vente/consignment store The Exchange in Kensington: Price 180 pounds!

Photo: Mette Bassett

Photo: Mette Bassett

Second-hand find: ? ? by Moschino

Foto: Mette Bassett

Smuttede en tur forbi St. Johns Wood i går for at tage billeder til min genbrugsguide. Jeg kunne altså ikke stå for disse vintage Moschino clips-ørenringe med store hvide spørgsmålstegn. 80/90’er kitsch blandet med et eksistentielt budskab, Så bliver det ikke bedre. For hvad er egentlig meningen med det hele?? Det bør man stoppe op og tænke over en gang imellem.

Pris 15 pund. Fundet hos den udmærkede Oxfam, 61 St. Johns Wood High Street.

English: I went for a quick walk in the rain yesterday to St. Johns Wood to snap some pictures for my upcoming second-hand guide. I couldn’t resist these vintage Moschino clip earrings with white question marks. It’s 80s/90s kitsch with a message. Because what is the meaning of it all?? Not a bad question to ponder, once in a while.

From the Oxfam shop, 61, St. Johns Wood High Street. Price 15 pounds.

Photo: Mette Bassett

Foto: Mette Bassett