What Vintage Means to Me

There are lots of vintage girls out there who wear only vintage clothes and furnish their home with beautiful vintage items. As a lover of vintage it’s hard not to envy these girls. Not only does it take a huge amount of time and dedication it also costs a lot to source authentic vintage items in this day and age.

I’m more the type of vintage girl who likes to look to the past for inspiration, I love buying the odd vintage treasure for my wardrobe and I am constantly looking for the real thing for my home, but I also buy clothes in Primark and get the odd bit from Ikea.

I like to pick up vintage treasures at vintage fairs (The pic is of me and my freinds stall from a few years ago when I used to sell vintage)

To me I like a beautiful classic style, I like to pay homage to the past. In my wardrobe and in my home I have a mixture of beautiful second hand, antique and vintage pieces sitting in harmony with brand new high street items.

One thing I love to do is buy old pieces of furniture, usually from charity shops and give them a new lease of life with a lick of paint. I’m not a fan of flat pack furniture, it never seems to last long so I’m always on the look out for big robust pieces of furniture that still have decades of use in them. Being able to buy a beautiful welsh dresser for £70 and paint it to perfection for a tenner just can’t be beaten.

We bought this sideboard for £80 in a charity shop and painted it cream

My love of the past goes back to my childhood when I spent many hours in my grandparents antique shop, it was full of beautiful Victorian treasures with a huge collection of antique lace. It had been passed to my grandma by her mother who was an avid collector of victorian clothing. I was also brought up in an Edwardian house and I’ve always had a love of history and artefacts from the past.

My Great Grandmother in her shop in the 1950s

A vintage lifestyle isn’t just about the objects that we fill our lives with. It can also be an attitude, there’s a lot to be learnt from out foremothers especially during a recession. Being able to make-do and mend can save families a fortune. With clothes being so cheap it is easy to have a throw away attitude but there’s no harm in learning to do your own repairs and alterations. And next year I would like to grow my own veg in the garden and be more frugal with my cooking. Our grandmothers would have used every last leftover in the house and yet we seem to waste far too much food.

We can look back to the past for in spiration in every aspect of life but make sure you allow planty of time for black and white movies, Hollywood glamour and lots of beautiful treasures!

What does vintage mean to you, and how do you take inspiration from the past? Please comment below!

Don’t forget to enter my Les Jumelles jewellery giveaway which end later this week. You can find out more here