Better things for life, not just for Christmas

Better things for life, not just for Christmas

Offers on things that won't last or make our lives better are about to be everywhere as Black Friday promotions roll in. Don't get me wrong, it can be a good time of year to make big purchases like electrical appliances, tech or beauty staples at a "steal", but Black...

Finding oneself in Burniture

Finding oneself in Burniture

‘Our lives don’t need more things, things need to be given more lives’ read a corkboard beckoning me into the exhibition by Burniture, a new collective working with furniture that is skipped, unwanted, broken, about to be burnt… I am no stranger to street-found...

Sustainability and all that stuff

Sustainability and all that stuff

It’s complicated - I do not have the answers, but my hope in writing my column as we close secondhand September is at least to explore some solutions and lay out some of the current debates about sustainability, particularly in fashion.  Responsibility It can be...

Salvage up my street 

Salvage up my street 

So far, I have salvaged an Arts and Crafts hall stand and the below late sixties lithograph poster from a Chagall exhibition at the Maeght Foundation in St Paul. I knew the Edwardian hall stand had value, but it was not until I researched the poster that I found it...

Reclaimed listening rooms and our vinyl shrine

Reclaimed listening rooms and our vinyl shrine

Tune in. Yes, this column is mainly about how we installed a 200kg slab of English alabaster rescued from a convent in Sussex in our 2-bed flat. However, it is also about the rise of listening rooms.  So what is a listening room? For me, it is a space to enjoy...

The Art of Tribal 

The Art of Tribal 

Ewe Kente textiles from the Volta region in Ghana © Tribal Arts & Textiles Art and design have the enviable ability to break down barriers that traditionally divide cultures. The universality of interiors that involve and speak to people around the world is surely...

Rainbows & Tiles

Rainbows & Tiles

My new flat is the equivalent of workout leggings. It’s comfortable and a little styling goes a long way, but I am anxious that renovating at a slow pace will be the home equivalent of a hard transition out of trousers with an elasticated waist.  My current sense...

Let’s get physical

Let’s get physical

As the leaves start to fall, it’s time to feel again with a plethora of physical decorative antiques fairs in the diary.  The last eighteen months have been challenging, but thanks to an unwavering business drive, digital community (and sales!) the architectural...

Salvo Fest of imperfect beauty

Salvo Fest of imperfect beauty

Save the dates 16 - 19 June 2021 because the original architectural salvage fair has found its new home, with the best bits of the virtual and real world to toast Salvo’s 30th Pearl Anniversary. Seven years ago I hadn’t even stepped foot inside a salvage yard, so my...

How to shop art now

How to shop art now

Kissing Couple silver brooch ©Modern Decorative The moment we’re experiencing is quite rightly making us pause for thought, what should we be buying if we feel we can spend money right now? No matter what the pandemic has done for your personal budget for life’s...

ethazon

ethazon

Wearing accessories from my new carbon conscious label ethazon When Beck and I first came together to create ethazon we desired an eco fashion place for people to dress for the world they want. Fast forward two years and we have seen a flurry of fashion trying to...

Buying vintage bins in the time of Coronavirus

Buying vintage bins in the time of Coronavirus

I am not sure where “bins” the abbreviation for glasses comes from, but considering my need for increasingly telescopic lenses it seems appropriate to refer to them as my binoculars.  I enjoy the time when it comes to choose new glasses, well new old glasses as I...

Hot Hot Hot! Reclaimed Woman

Hot Hot Hot! Reclaimed Woman

How will fashion become fashionable again after lockdown? We are waiting to see if the expected shift to more conscious shopping will be accelerated following the reflection time that beings, brands and businesses have had to take in the bigger picture. Categories...

wfh aka Wild From Home

wfh aka Wild From Home

Week three wfh and I am ready to be wild from home. The highlight of my weekend was singing Nirvana's Teen Spirit whilst dancing around the lounge with my husband. "You call that wild? You need to get out more" I hear you say. Yes, I do. And one day I will. We all...

Guide to the dear green place Glasgow

Guide to the dear green place Glasgow

Did you know that Glasgow rates highly for green spaces per capita with 90s parks and gardens? The clue is in the city's nickname "Dear Green Place", which is derived from the Gaelic word for Glasgow. Other glorious green places are uncovered as you chat to people...

How to allure your eco side in Edinburgh

How to allure your eco side in Edinburgh

There is nothing like a good research session to get one in the mood. I like to seek out the eco fashion and decor offering when I visit a new city, but hopefully I can skip you to the main event with my shares from Edinburgh.  Sustainable secondhand usually...

Party dressing with ideas from Ardingly

Party dressing with ideas from Ardingly

I won’t try to dress-up the fact that this is consumption season and this week sets the spending scene with a bombardment of Black Friday offers.  Whether you are wrapping up your 2019 projects, buying gifts, or figuring out how to dress yourself and your home...

Conscious Commuter

Conscious Commuter

Ensure you get space on the handrail during a crowded commute with this voluminous sleeved button-down by Amour Vert [If you're in the US or Canada it’s worth noting that it recently teamed up with the online thrift store thredUP, so you can close the loop on your...

Ready-to-wake: Should fashion weeks be cancelled?

Ready-to-wake: Should fashion weeks be cancelled?

Upcycled kitten heels by Ancuta Sarca at London Fashion Week “Wake me up when September ends” are words I've heard from editors doing the four fashion capitals in less than four weeks.   Our eyes are closed to the emergency according to Extinction Rebellion, the...

Clean cleaning with Norfolk Natural Living

Clean cleaning with Norfolk Natural Living

"You’re going to open a cleaning shop?!" questioned Bella Middleton’s mum when she came up with the idea to create eco-friendly cleaning products.  Now a fully fledged member of the Norfolk Natural Living team, Bella’s mum works in their shop in Holt, which has...

Something borrowed

Something borrowed

Earth Day seems appropriate to talk about something borrowed. The trousers covering my tush and blouse on my back [leased from Laura Ironside] and of course the earth are all borrowed. Fashion is just one piece of the sustainable development pie, but today also marks...

Ardingly wants to bring you flowers

Ardingly wants to bring you flowers

Ardingly Antiques & Collectors Fair showed its mettle (albeit disguised as petals )this week, as a major fair that continues to attract a strong following of dealers, designers and private buyers.  It could have been the sunny start and morning light hitting the...

Seasonal vegging & voguing

Seasonal vegging & voguing

This edit sums up my mood for the month ahead. It's that time of year when your pinkie ring should give you super powers and you can cloak your face and your body in pillows [when not showing off that you're capable of dancing in white whilst eating cranberry...

The Great Indoors

The Great Indoors

  Long gone are uninviting dark Dickensian cluttered shops. Antiques have entered a new (eco) friendly state where they have never been more desirable.  If you are excited to step back inside now that the number of hot days have outweighed ideas for al fresco...

Designing a happy wardrobe

Designing a happy wardrobe

I didn’t see myself squeezing into another capsule challenge so soon - having spent 6 of the coldest weeks in just 6 items of clothes for Labour Behind the Label at the start of the year - but this was too good to resist… 10 items, 10 days, easy right? Ah, but this...