A taste of London

After rainy Friday I stayed overnight with our elder daughter and woke to sunshine and the prospect of a happy day ahead.
We hopped on a bus for a short ride to Clerkenwell for brunch.

It was warm enough to sit outside

but we didn't!

We went inside and settled to the serious business of choosing what to eat.

Oh, what to choose...

Mmm, raspberry and ricotta pancakes, and for me, the spicy waffles.

A long central table had been set out with glasses and jugs of bloody Mary's and in due course the stag party arrived, all adorned in matching bow ties, with the groom-to-be wearing red. Such a happy tableful of men I had to take a photo and as soon as I did so all their cameras and phones came out so that I could record the event for them also.

Hunger pangs dealt with, we were free to wander wherever we wished. There are so many delightful and tranquil  places to be found all over London, even on a busy Saturday morning. This church cloister is just across the road from the Modern Pantry.

We went to one of our favourite streets, Lamb's Conduit, and to Persephone, a lovely bookshop where everything is tempting. (Check out their site, persephonebooks.co.uk)

Then along to the LRB. I'm a member and their bi-monthly magazine is posted to me. It is a joy to visit really good independent bookshops. Not to mention the LRB coffee shop and it's cakes, (which we felt obliged to sample).. delicious!

After visiting another bookshop on Wigmore Street we dipped into the designer Margaret Howell's shop. Such desirable clothes and a lovely autumn display of rosehip branches.

The assistant looked wonderful, her hairstyle was pure Dora Carrington. I love this cut.

"Have a change, Mum," said daughter. I think that she is tired of me looking lop-sided!

We did a lot of looking and a little bit of shopping in the sort of long-established shops that are increasingly hard to find outside London. Rothe and Son have been going for many years.

Their window displayed a taste of London.

I had such a lovely day and caught the evening train back home to the country, all talked out!

Museum style!

I went to London last Friday in squalls of rain. When the appointment that I was in town for was over I stayed on the tube to South Kensington, and, avoiding the battle of umbrellas in the streets above me, took the underpass to the Victoria and Albert Museum. I studied at the museum in the sixties when I was an art student at Goldsmiths and it has been a favourite place to visit ever since. If I lived in London I would be signing up for their courses and workshops. I think that the museum is an absolute treasure trove.
I wandered in the quiet around some of my favourite rooms then went to have a peek in the fashion gallery. Some of the clothes are truly of a bye-gone era, impossible to wear today, such as this enormous hat from 1909 of plaited straw decorated with artificial wisteria flowers made of fine cotton.

 But these scarlet shoes, dated 1900, look very of the moment, both in colour and style.

And the Christian Dior scarlet dress from the fifties, with it's matching petticoat, I would happily wear, given the chance!

When the displays reached the sixties and seventies I was on home ground; I have the same Biba catalogue and some of the clothes that it advertises.

Then.....

and now!

I used to have the matching long, fitted waistcoat and trousers, as seen in the catalogue, but they were unlined and the tweed was itchy so they are long gone! But I'm still hanging on to the rather battered hat and coat - if only for sentimental reasons!

For Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style.

(I didn't go to the 'Ballgowns, British Glamour since 1950' exhibition at the V&A. It's on until early January so I'm saving it up for next time. Unfortunately no photographing will be allowed. Another exhibition starting at the end of this month and running until next January is to be 'Hollywood Costume'. It is advertised as "over one hundred of the most iconic costumes in the history of film-making." Wow, it sounds a must-see!)

Autumn dressing

It's an in-between season, and while the sun still has some warmth it is cold in the shadows. Autumn has definitely arrived, time to look out a cosy jacket. This one in green wool is from Laura Ashley, a hand -me -down from a daughter.

Underneath it there is a bit of layering going on. A velvet waistcoat from Boden, bought at one of their sales. (There is to be another big sale next week - watch this space!)  I have always liked to wear waistcoats and this is a comfortable everyday one.

Worn with M&S jeans that fit at the waist, hurray, so that I can tuck in my blouse and keep warm!

The waistcoat has a soft cotton pinstriped fabric on the back and I'm wearing it with a linen blouse passed on from my friend Janet who made the enamel and fabric brooch that I have pinned to the collar.

For Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style.

Back to the 40's!

Last weekend on our way home from Yorkshire we drove into the next dale to visit my brother and sister-in-law.

They live in the pretty little town of Grassington.

And guess what? It was yet another 40's weekend!

It was an ideal venue because no traffic was allowed through the main streets.

We had a wander round the town at midday as the 'promenaders' and 're-enactors' were tucking in to lunch.

We had seen this 'spiv' at the Leyburn event in the summer. Now he had sensibly added a warm coat to his outfit. "Not 40's prices!" he remarked of his drink of coffee.

Family groups were again on display

and some very strange fantasies were being enacted!

"Are you a nun in disguise?" Himself wanted to know.

Bank Holiday Monday

It's Bank Holiday Monday and, of course, it's raining, heavily. We have come to expect it so have stayed tucked up in the comfort of home. Far too wet to work in the garden but I'm in my old kick- about clothes because the dog  still needs her walk, whatever the weather.

I'm wearing a pink linen blouse from Boden that has a frill down either side of the front buttons, very old Gap crops that were once navy, a ballet cardi from Monsoon and suede flats that were made for me about thirty years ago and which hopefully will never wear out.
But my watch is brand new!

 I wanted something cheap and cheerful to wear whilst working in the garden. £15 from Casio and it has a face large enough for me to read without putting on my glasses.  I love the colour lilac, and that is the 'cheerful' bit.
For Patti's Visible Monday at Not Dead Yet Style.

At the 'Dig for Victory' event last weekend I bought a fifties vintage dress. It wasn't cheap, quite the reverse. It isn't in particularly good condition. There are holes in the skirt, a tear, patched, in the bodice, and the metal beneath the covered buttons has rusted through. I wasn't going to buy it. The stall holder at 'Cock-a-Doodle Vintage' said it's a lovely dress but very small in the waist. My friend Janet told me to try it on. "Not if I can't get into it, I said. The waist of the dress was measured, I was measured. The fabric is unforgiving, some sort of gingham taffeta that doesn't give an inch. If I gain that inch the dress will no longer fit!
So why did I buy it?

It is the Dior 'New Look' style from the late forties, early fifties that I remember my mother loved, dresses with a neat waist and, after years of rationing, a very full skirt. I love this style, so utterly feminine.

Velvet coat, 1955

The cut of my dress is clever,

with a triangular design repeated on the cuffs, pockets and bodice.

And it works very well with my £8 vintage hat!

Which can be worn at a rakish angle thanks to a piece of elastic.

Now all I need is a wedding invitation!