I haven’t revisited my vintage stage in a long time and with good reason. Don’t get me wrong, it was a great phase but head to toe sequins for uni? Really. I looked like Dame Edna. I even dyed my hair a vibrant wisteria hue at one point and got a £10 tattoo. A very interesting 3 years at uni that was.
I like to think my penchant for second-hand buys has ahem, matured with age and I no longer need to rely on spangly sequins to scratch my vintage itch, TF for that. I’m more about mixing and matching new purchases with old pieces now and no boutique does it better than Wolf & Gypsy in Brighton’s North Laine. To celebrate the August bank hols and all that, they held a yard sale. But not just any old yard sale, it was a fill a bag for £20 yard sale. Mother. May. I.
Joe and I chose our Sunday breakfast venue strategically that morning, so I could be in walking distance to the shop as soon as I’d gobbled down my sausage bap and dunked my head in a flat white. I barely stopped to wipe my flour-crumbed mouth before I made my way down to W&G. I feel like I’m on abbreviated terms with the place now, since I bared my butt crack while crawling along the floor boards for any (previously glossed over) gems.
But first I had to face the queue. I mean of course there was a queue, I didn’t know what I was thinking. This is Brighton on a weekend and Brightonians love them some vintage bargains.
After queuing for half an hour and chatting to some really nice people about how beautiful exposed filament light bulbs were (well they are!), we were IN and on a time limit. We had 30 minutes to navigate the rails, burrow through the backyard and grab as many bargains as humanly possible. Watching everyone else pick up handfuls of stuff made me feel like I must have missed a trick, so I ended up doing 3 rounds of each section. A bit excessive I know, but this was a free-for-all and I had only half filled my bag.
I spotted some mom jeans hanging up so I folded them up and crossed my phalanges that they would fit. Lovely little Wolf & Gypsy lady was helping everyone pack and giving us all hints and tips, one being that if you take the waist of a pair of jeans, wrap it around your neck and if each end meets around your neck (like a cape), they should fit. They didn’t fit my neck but I put them in the bag anyway. HELLO THEY WERE LEE MOM JEANS.
I then grabbed a beautiful, oversized floral cape/top, a frilly pink blouse (I’m wearing it backwards btw, cos #ootd trends tell me that’s a thing now), a striped shirt that reminds me of a beach hut and an oversized striped shirt. In summary, I bought stripes, denim and a smattering of flowers.
When I got in I tried everything on and I realised I’d actually done really well out of the yard sale! Ok, so I hadn’t stuffed my bag full to the brim, easily done when you’re paying £20 for errrything, but I’ve landed myself some really well-thought out items that I’ll get loads of wear out of. Hell, I think I actually applied some logic to my shopping. Rational retail therapy… Who are you and what have you done with Lareese?
