Sunday 3rd September saw me hopping on a train again, bound for London. My destination? Angel, where the Business Design Centre was holding the Autumn/Winter 2017 LondonEdge Trade Show.
All ready for London
A somewhat veteran of the show, this would be the 4th visit and I was super excited to see what was going to be hitting the shelves for Autumn/Winter.
Train Selfie
I arrived in London around 0930am and arranged to meet blogger bestie Boo Brown at The Parcel Yard, Kings Cross for breakfast. It is our usual starting point, and I ordered my usual Eggs Benedict. Thirty minutes later and I was ready to attack the day!
Breakfast!
We arrived at the BDC around 1015am and picked up our badges and lanyards and then went to get our VIP goodie bag and event catalogue which tells you all the exhibitors and their locations.
Our first stop, strangely, was The Pin Up Academy who were on the second floor. Why did we visit there first? Well it was to see “Jesus Hands” herself, October DiVine.
Jesus Hands does her stuff!
Why do we call her Jesus Hands? Well she literally works miracles on people’s hair, and boy did I need it!
I told her all about my recent hair disaster and she was speechless. Thankfully she was able to make me look amazing with a proper poodle do, and turned my fringe into more of a Bettie Bangs style. It looked amazing!
The final result
After there we went along to a new company (to me anyway) Mermaid Salon. These ladies had literally flown over from Australia to exhibit at the show so we chatted to them for quite awhile, whilst ogling their products. They also had a sweetie stand which had some great jelly gummy things.
Look at those colours!
The make up was amazing, but they also had inflatable flamingo’s and unicorns. Well we had to have a go and get photographs didn’t we? Before we left they gave us a fabulous foundation brush and some liquid lipstick which was so kind and pretty amazing to wear too. Full review to come soon!
Ride ‘Em Unicorngirl
Flamingotastic
Lucy, Boo and I
It was time then to hit the stands and watch the catwalk shows. The first one featured brands such as Spin Doctor, Lindybop, New Rock, Hearts & Roses, Bright and Beautiful , Collectif and Dr Faust
Spin Doctor
Lindybop
New Rock
Hearts & Roses
Bright & Beautiful
Collectif
Dr Faust
The catwalk ended up with a stylist edit with several different stalls contributing.
The Stylists Edit
Even though not all of the styles were to our tastes, it was great to see a diverse range of styles. The items that were to our taste were amazing, and really gave us a good look at things to come.
We then bumped into the beautiful Soda Fontaine and Lulu from Lulu’s Little Wonderland. Of course we had to have some photographs!
Soda and Lulu
We started to wander around and went along to our favourite traders; Voodoo Vixen, Collectif and Le Keux Cosmetics, where we saw the amazing Lynsey Le Keux and Diablo Rose and had a lovely natter with them.
Lynsey and Diablo Rose
Vintage Ladies with Style
Collectif had some beautiful new things, especially this sparkling dress of dreams. I also fell in love with several of their novelty handbags and their larger shoe range than normal.
Shoes Galore
Collectif – How in lust does Carrie-Ann look?
The Dress of Dreams
Nicki at Voodoo Vixen was keen to tell us of the up and coming (hopefully) plus size collection of ten new pieces which will launch next year. We were super EXCITED just hearing about it! I also fell in love with ALL of their handbags! And check out their bridal range!
How gorgeous is this?
Voodoo Vixen Bags
Moving on to some newer (to me) companies we networked and chatted a lot about their products. One company I was really excited about was Re-Tuned Style, who makes new dresses using vintage patterns and were simply delicious! I wanted one in every colour, however the denim one was my absolute favourite.
Re-Tuned Style
We had a lovely time on the Jelly Jolly stand where they had the best rucksacks ever; made of a jelly like substance, they came in a multitude of colour combinations and had cute key rings with macarons on; right up my boulevard!
Jelly Jolly Rucksacks
One of my absolute favourite stalls of the day was Elements Rainwear, a vintage rain mac company based in the same local area as me. I knew of this company as several of my vintage chums wore their coats and highly recommended them.
We were told that the coats are all made on original Mackintosh machines and were fully customisable!
There were so many colours and options from bright red to clear so you could still show off your beautiful vintage dresses without them getting wet. I was in love.
We talked about a possible collaboration, which would be great to do. I am so ashamed to admit that I was so engrossed in their coats and chatting away, that I didn’t even get a photograph!
Another amazing stall was the Original Atelier who makes the most luxurious and splendid headpieces, masks and jewellery in metal.
Too much for Sainsburys??
The Original Atelier
The products were almost sculptural in their design and so stunningly beautiful that I couldn’t stop looking at them.
Stunning Collar
Moving on we had a chat with GatsyLady about their stunning 20’s dresses. There were some amazing colours and they even go up to a size 32 which is fantastic.
GatsbyLady
We went back to the Catwalk area and watched the second show which featured Dr Faust, Hell Bunny, Burleska, Collectif, Unique Vintage, Innocent Clothing and ended up with a second stylist edit, featuring scores of different exhibitors.
Dr Faust
Hell Bunny
Burleska
Collectif
Unique Vintage
Innocent Clothing
The Stylists Edit
We loved the Hell Bunny, Collectif and Unique Vintage offerings, of course.
Discussing the fashion shows
Moving along we went to see Herman’s amazing direct hair colour which was a very colourful stand indeed with oodles of pot of colours from white to bright magenta and beyond. I bought a Gilda, a semi permanent colour in steel grey. As they use no bleach it would be much kinder to my badly damaged hair.
The Gilda
I have since reviewed this product and so has the lovely Kelly over at Jelly with the Belly who had considerably more success that I did.
We moved on to House of Foxy and spoke to the wonderful Claire. House of Foxy make the most beautiful repro vintage clothes and currently go up to a size 22-24 at the moment, but were interested in exploring larger sizes and wanted opinions and interest. Both Boo and I spoke candidly, telling her that for us cost isn’t always the problem and a lack of choice is!
I was keen to tell her that I have ordered things from Pin Up Girl Clothing in America, which have ended up costing well over £130 a garment after postage, import and tax duties!
I have to say I was really excited to chat to Claire. I have loved their work for a long time but never thought I would have the possibility of being able to buy some of it!
We then went along to see my favourite people, Ellen and Maarten who collectively are known as Woody Ellen. I have spoken before of the Woody Ellen products, including a blog I did quite awhile ago when I purchased my first item.
The Wonderful Woody Ellen
Woody Ellen produces the most beautiful bags, purses, silk scarves and more. Ellen herself paints the designs, which are then turned into pretty items that I lust over a LOT!
Look at these colours!
We chatted for quite awhile about the new range that is due out soon and had some lovely photographs taken by the very dapper Maarten.
Woody Ellen herself
The last stand of the day for us was Pyropets. A fantastic collection of animal shaped candles. Very angular and geometric, however made with great colours. The best thing about the candles is that when you melt them down, they reveal a metal skeleton of the animal; Just genius and very appealing to the eye.
Pyropets
More pets!
All too soon the event was coming to an end and so Boo and I decided to make a quick detour to Five Guys before heading to the VIP after party.
Held again at the Ironwork’s, it was a feast for the eyes!
Swallowing swords
Dark Burlesque
Sword Swallowing, Dark Burlesque and a compere who sang her heart out too, it was a fabulous evening all round. I had my picture taken by the amazing Chris Heath whilst posing with Ombra Cristian. The differences between us, me all in Barbie Pink and Ombra with black tattooed eyeballs was pretty striking!
Ombra Cristian and I – taken by Chris Heath
I spent the evening with the fabulous photographer extraordinaire, Phil Russell, Nikee Rayner and Kerry Davis before it was time to make my way back to St Pancras for my train home.
Nikee and Kerry
Vintage flare
Hopping on the last train, I settled into my first class seat, put on some tunes on my phone and set an alarm 10 minutes before my station…… just in case!
I needed it, having dozed off for around thirty minutes. I have to say, I was so grateful to finally arrive at my bed, after such a busy but brilliant day.
Thanks again to everyone at Londonedge for hosting a great event and inviting me.
****Thanks also for some of the photography of Chris Heath – Street Style Photography****