WORK | Oxfam Vintage, darling!

During my time at Oxfam Fashion I was lucky enough to spend a lot of time around gorgeous vintage and preloved clothing. During my final week we took a venture up to the Oxfam Southern Logistics Centre - Milton Point which is also home to the Oxfam Online Hub which is one of the many locations which lists the wonderful items on the Oxfam Online Shop.

This place is any vintage fashionistas sweet shop with endless rails of donated clothing stretching across the floor, heaving with anything from high street to designer delights.

Oxfam is a treasure trove for vintage both online and in store so visit the OXFAM VINTAGE page for the latest listings, blog posts and decade guides or see what gems you can find in store.

Here's a few of my favourites from my last visit...

Posted with Blogsy

WORK | Glastonbury Festival 2013

This time last week I had packed up the tent I’d called home for a week and was making my merry way home, along with the rest of #teamfash, from my first ever Glastonbury Festival. I joined approx. 250,000 other people who descended on Worthy Farm, Somerset for the iconic 5-day event. Having had a year-long break, anticipation filled the air, soon to be mingled with the odour of portaloo, alcohol, overall euphoria and a mixture of musical accompaniments. 

OXFAM

I was lucky enough to be working as a quarter of Oxfam’s #teamfash for the festival and alongside around 2000 other Oxfam volunteers who were part of the stewarding, campaigns and shop teams. Making our way between the three Oxfam shops and the press/hospitality area, we were intensely style spotting, shop styling as well as having an Oxfam Festival Fashion photoshoot with dome of the shop’s finest wares.

OXFAM FASHION PHOTOSHOOT

FASHION

Glasto is an extremely good looking festival with such a mash up of different styles and fashion statements. Here is a selection of style spots from across the festival site…

Top festival fashion trends as picked up on site are…

FLORALS
BRIGHT WELLIES (particularly Orange Hunters)
DUNGAREES (Despite the portaloo impracticalities)
ANKLE BOOTS
CROCHET
DENIM
MEGA PRINTS

MUSIC

Work took precedent over the epic line up of this year’s festival. Whilst the majority was absorbed as an occasional melody floating through the crowds, we managed to catch the Arctic Monkeys and The Rolling Stones EPIC headline sets. 

ARCTIC MONKEYS//PYRAMID STAGE

I feel it necessary to mention that a low point of the festival falls under the music category also. Public Enemy, I have no idea why you felt the need to desecrate all over Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit but it was excruciatingly painful.

It’s accurate to say that Glastonbury satisfies every musical taste. Even if you ignore the stage scheduling, there are tucked away tents and bars hosting everything from various drum & bass sub-genres to a motown disco. I also felt a lot of love for the Chameleon Bar which was sponsored by my favourite club night Propaganda. 

CELEBS

We couldn’t help but do a bit of celebrity spotting whilst in the press/hospitality area. Amongst the musicians, press, PRs and photographers we saw: Greg James, Nick Grimshaw and Chris Moyles of Radio 1 fame; Dawn O’Porter and Chris O’Dowd; Cara Delevingne who was walking through The Park completely unnoticed (except by us!); a very colourful Florence Welch; Caroline Flack, Keith Allen, Millie Macintosh and Professor Green amongst many more..

HOSPITALITY BAR 

GLASTO PRESS TENT 

ON SITE

To list the amount of weird and wonderful things I saw over the weekend would take a ridiculous amount of time and I’m sure it was only a small portion of the wonders the festival holds. From what I got to see, here were the highlights… 

The Healing Fields 

This area felt like the vibrant soul of the festival nurturing the same peaceful energy as when the festival began over 40 years ago. Quaint tents and teepees offered spiritual healing, massage, tarot readings and various other divine techniques. 

Block 9

A train carriage crashing out of a block of flats and NYC Downlow, the first established gay venue at a UK festival, was the post-apocalyptic start of our Saturday night expedition. Purchasing our moustache entry tickets from a glitzy drag queen, we entered the smoky, makeshift cub for a full trans-everything treat. Next door was the Unfairground which was a carnival of nightmares and a salsa sensation at Glasto Latino. 

Shangri-La 

This is a notorious post-headliner hotspot which was this year themed with Heaven and Hell. We sacrificed the last hour of the Rolling Stones to beat the rush and ventured through a maze of graphic obscenities to come across the Shangri-hell stage. Shangri-heaven was alleged to have carpeted floors and a free bar if you could convince St Peter you’re cool enough. 

Arcadia

The 40-tonne, fire breathing spider structure, whose ferocious flames can be seen across site, is the work of arcadia spectacular http://www.arcadiaspectacular.com/ who attend numerous festivals with their recycled sculpture and acrobatic performance. At the heart of the scrap metal beast is a DJ pod where the likes of Andy C and Chase & Status performed sets to the crowd below. 

The Park 

This whimsical wonderland was home to the infamous rabbit hole, the ribbon tower, the famous Glastonbury sign and, most importantly, an Oxfam shop amongst other exciting vendors.

To get even more of an idea of the Glastonbury beyond the Pyramid stage, I highly recommend Julien Temple’s documentary ‘Glastonbury: After Hours’.

Was anyone else at Glastonbury this year? What were your highlights?

MAKE | Carrie Ann Schumacher's Book Dresses

AS ORIGINALLY POSTED ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

Oxfam is a treasure trove of pre-loved literature seeking a new bookshelf and, continuing the celebration of World Book Day, it can be exciting to see how artists, designers and creatives reuse the tattered pages of discarded books in their work. The idea of ripping precious books to pieces feels almost sinful but they can be artfully revived into a whole new story.
American artist/dressmaker Carrie Ann Schumacher has crafted a wardrobe of novel dresses creating a beautiful fusion of fiction and fashion. Working her way through a box of abandoned romance paperbacks, and armed with simple scrapbooking tools and techniques, Schumacher is not trained in fashion design or sculpture but instead let creativity, inspiration and imagination take charge with these glorious gowns.
As an avid reader herself, she takes inspiration from personal experiences, colour, cuts of paper and different textures which she then recreates in unique paper form. She said: "having that one piece of inspiration, whatever it is and wherever it came from, jump starts the entire dress and I react intuitively to what I have placed down and work off of that."
Although the dresses are not wearable, with exception of Desiree and the Boy that Broke Her Heart which can be physically worn but with little movement, they are an exquisite ornamental fashion statement. "I get emails from women all over the world who want to wear these dresses and it is one of my dreams to have they pieces made into wearable fabric garments. So, whoever you are out there who wants to make this happen, contact me.  I'm ready!"
In her own words, here are some of the fantastic fables behind the frocks...

HARLEQUIN
"Harlequin was the first dress I created and was specifically made for a show themed around the dichotomy of invisibility and visibility.  I had sworn off gender specific work after my undergraduate career, but the theme of the show made me think of the visible and invisible parts of womanhood.  For me, romance novels and fashion represent the visible parts, the ideas of love and beauty we sell to girls as they grow into women.  These concepts are seductive, and they hide the not so pleasant aspect of inequality." 

^Harlequin

DESIREE AND THE BOY THAT BROKE HER HEART
"I made Desiree and the Boy that Broke Her Heart next with the intent of seeing if I could make one of these pieces wearable and it is although very uncomfortable.  One day, one of my classmates told me a story about how our friend Desiree had her heart broken years before and was never able to move on.  When I related this story to Desiree, she burst out laughing because none of it was true but I found the fabricated story to be enthralling. I tried to imagine what kind of dress would be a visualization of this heartbreak and made a dress for an innocent and shattered girl."

^{Desiree and the boy who broke her heart}

NEVER THE PROM QUEEN
"For Never the Prom Queen, I really wanted to work with colour.  I used back issues of magazines, bought a large hole-puncher and knocked this out in a weekend.  I keep changing the title of this piece and I'll probably change Never the Prom Queen when a better phrase hits me.  I feel this one is for that girl who keeps trying to be "it".  She reads the magazines, follows the trends, puts in the work and effort, but never quite makes it.  On paper she should be the prom queen, but she never is because it is just not her."

ALICE AND THE BOY SHE LEFT BEHIND
"Alice and the Boy She Left Behind was made the week after my grandmother's death and somewhat covered all the emotions I have regarding that time period. I felt that my grandmother was having trouble leaving this world and moving on to the next; I felt her presence very strongly in the weeks after her death.  There was a very ritualistic aspect to this dress and it was extremely laborious to make but the mindlessness and repetitiveness became meditative. Secondly, the grief of my grandfather upon losing his wife was quite overwhelming. Their relationship was all-consuming to him and losing her was devastating beyond words.  The enormity of this dress demonstrates the engulfing quality of his grief and desperation; It's poetic and tragic, all in the same breath."

^{Why you don't kiss and tell}

WHY YOU DON'T KISS AND TELL // OH, YOU'RE GONNA LOSE YOUR SOUL
"Why You Don't Kiss and Tell and Oh, You're Gonna Lose Your Soul are sorority sisters, with Kiss and Tell being the young naive sister and Lose Your Soul being worldly and a bit jaded.  Kiss and Tell arrives at college fresh-faced, friendly and eager but then she will kiss and tell and get her heart broken in the process. It's the dress that she'll wear on her first real night out, when her hopes and dreams are still untouched. Lose Your Soul is the aftermath."

^{Emil and le vie en rose}

EMIL AND LA VIE EN ROSE
"My newest dress, Emil and La Vie en Rose turned out to be about my grandfather which was not a preconceived concept but what happened as the piece was coming together.  This one is a delicate little slip of a thing that seemed fit for someone who lives in their own little world, a daydreamer who only sees the world through rose-colored glasses."


If you prefer your books in a more readable form, visit the Oxfam Online Shop for a literary feast.

MAKE | Heart Elbow Patch

AS SEEN PREVIOUSLY ON THE OXFAM FASHION BLOG...

 
Wear your heart on your sleeve, literally with this simple craft. Visit the Oxfam Online Shop for a selection of jumpers, shirts, sweaters and cardigans to customise. 

YOU WILL NEED:

A shirt, sweater or cardigan
Scrap material (big enough to cut two heart patches from)
Pencil
Scissors
Pins
Needle
Thread (either in matching or contrasting colour to your fabric)
Tape
Heart template (we drew around a heart cookie cutter but you could use a paper template)

STEP ONE
Draw around the heart template onto your scrap of material twice to outline your patches.

STEP TWO
Carefully cut out the two lovely heart shapes.

STEP THREE
Now you need to put on your chosen item so you can work out the positioning of your patches. This can be a bit fiddly but we've found it's helpful to bend your elbows then mark where they sit in your item with a piece of tape. It can be handy to grab an extra pair of hands to help with this.

STEP FOUR
Pin your patches where your tape markers are. Try your item on again to check the positioning and shift around where necessary.

STEP FIVE
When your patches are in the right place, blanket stitch (see below) around the edges of your heart to secure it in place.

STEP SIX
Repeat on the other patch and voila, you have a unique item made with love.

HANDY HINTS: THE BLANKET STITCH

- Anchor your thread by doing a couple of stitches underneath the patch and near where you're going to begin stitching.
- Push the needle through the garment and your patch approximately ½ - 1cm in from its edge.
- Pull thread through tight and push needle back through over the edge of the patch, back through the garment.
- Bring needle back through right next to where you just exited the last stitch.
- Approx ½-1cm along from and level with where the first stitch began, enter back through the patch and garment but don't pull the thread too tight so it leaves loop.
- Keeping it vertically in line with the entry hole, bring the needle back though the garment at the edge of the patch making sure you pass it through the loop of thread and pull tight. 
- Enter back through the patch and garment at ½-1cm along from the previous stitch, leaving a loop, and then bring back though at the edge of the patch again passing through the loop. Continue this pattern all along the edge of the patch.

WORK | Oxfam x M&S Shwop Shop

 

Last Thursday saw the launch of the Oxfam and Marks & Spencer two-day pop up Shwop Shop in the flagship Marble Arch store. As newbie to the Oxfam Fashion team I was very lucky to be there for the two days blogging, twittering and getting stuck in on the shop floor. The shop housed the crème de la crème of clothes Shwopped through the Mark & Spencer’s donation bins plus a collection of items straight from the wardrobes of the stars.

   

Having steamed, priced and lusted after the stock the day before, it was an early start on Thursday to prep the cage-like structure we would call home for the next two days.

Shwopping ambassador, Joanna Lumley, cut the orange ribbon to declare the shop officially open to the eagerly awaiting press and PRs. I grabbed the perfectly poised Ab-Fab star for a chat as she glided round the rails and tried on Gary Barlow’s donated dinner jacket. She admitted to being a seasoned fan of charity shops herself and said: “A lot of charity shops get the really, really good clothes which are then knocked down to a fraction of the price. I have no qualms about wearing other people's clothes, it never troubles me. I don’t have dead man’s shoe syndrome, sweetie, if he’s dead I’ll give him a kiss and take his shoe!”

 

Fashion gurus Brix Smith-Start and Grace Woodward also attended the opening bringing their stylist know-how to assemble some sensational Shwop stock ensembles.

 

Entranced by the rails stacked with M&S vintage, high street classics and the odd designer bargain, Grace Woodward said: “this is my heaven! I wouldn’t have ever got into styling if I didn’t love clothes. Garments themselves have a magical quality to them. Everything here is individual and that’s really special.”

She continued: “I really believe that people should dress for who they are rather than round peg square hole dressing to what you must be wearing this season.” She certainly practices what she preaches as she wore a stunning pair of black and silver sequin striped jeans and bright aqua accessories.

Grace is also a charity shop regular, rummaging the rails for individuality. Reminiscing about best buys she said: “I wandered into a charity shop and picked up an Ossie Clarke dress which I bought for £15 and then later that day it was announced he died which was just so weird. I also found an original John Galliano dress from his graduate collection which I still have. That’s going to be a museum piece!”

Obviously the fashion creative turned TV personality has a keen eye for hidden gems and advises, when charity shopping, to “either shop for individuality or literally go for the trends. Think what is hot on the catwalk and you can have a designer looking wardrobe for next to no money. Go with your gut feeling thinking ‘I really love that and I don’t care what anybody thinks.’”

Woodward’s final words of wisdom were: “It’s not just about what you’re wearing on the outside. To be a truly stylish person, that comes from within."

  

Brix voiced the resounding message behind the Shwopping incentive when she said: “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure and it’s as simple as that. It’s human nature and it’s so positive.”

The fabulously flamboyant style guru, well known for appearing on Gok’s Fashion Fix, was a ball of energy grabbing and combining items left, right and centre! When shopping, she said: “just go with your gut instinct and if you love something, go with it. Sometimes you see things which just resonate with you straight away.”

Brix donated bagfuls of luxurious garments, two of which ended up in my own wardrobe, which she’d worn on various TV appearances and to award ceremonies.

 Over the rest of the two days, the Shwop Drop bins were overflowing and the clothes were making their way off the rails and off down Oxford Street with new owners to live out a stylish second life. This reuse, resell, recycle ethos is vital to encouraging a sustainable industry and a sustainable planet.

For more info on Oxfam Fashion at the Shwop Shop visit the Oxfam Fashion blog and for further info on Marks & Spencer Plan A and the Shwopping campaign, click here.