The Lily & Violet Vintage Boutique Vision

Lily & Violet Vintage – The Shop!

We are very excited about all of the work that we are doing with Hilda and Marj but we thought it was about time we brought you up to date with this side of things.

The vision for the Lily & Violet shop is proving to be as much fun as the caravans and working with our lovely Marj and Hilda.  I suppose that is no real surprise – we are loving life and loving work! What could be better than doing something you absolutely love as a job!?

Prepare To Be Wowed

We are putting a lot of thought into what we want the Lily & Violet Boutique to be like.  After years of trawling through vintage clothing stores with hundreds of items crammed onto the rails, (many of them from Mango or Atmosphere or H&M) we want something a little less ordinary - actually, a lot less ordinary. There is of course nothing wrong with 'ordinary' (sometimes) or with any of the brands mentioned.. but really?!? in a vintage clothing store?!? We don’t think so…..

We want you to be able to walk in, be wowed and feel free to browse for as long as it takes through our (beautifully presented) racks of gorgeous quality items, and if an item has a story to tell then we will tell it! 

We have been collecting some absolutely stunning clothes, mainly pieces from the ‘50s and ‘60s. Now, we love all clothes - contemporary and vintage (well actually we aren’t too keen on the english ‘70s dresses but each to their own..) - but the lovely things that will find their way into the Lily & Violet Vintage Boutique are SO much more glamorous than today’s mass produced stuff.   And they were beautifully made - often even in the country they were sold in!!! - who would have thought it?!?

‘Made in Britain’ seems to be a thing of the past - but not as far as we are concerned! If our items were "made in Hong Kong" they were probably also bought and worn in Hong Kong! And lots of our American vintage comes complete with the union tags. 

We really believe you will come into our shop and find beautiful pieces of clothing that you will be able to wear with your favourite Primark top, Kurt Geiger boots or All Saints biker jacket.  It will work!! Just as we don’t want to holiday in a ’70s caravan, nor do we want to dress head to toe as if we live in the 1950s. This is not ‘fancy dress’ – it is ‘fancy’ dress!! Get it ?!? 

Totally Unique, Totally Gorgeous. Clothes you will want to wear forever.

We are sourcing our pieces from as far afield at the United States, Italy and France. (It is soooo exciting)!! And we have found some real gems…. and met some lovely people that we hope will feature in our venture for many years to come.

We have made a decision to stick with ladies vintage clothing and accessories. Quite a few male friends want to know why we have made this decision and to be honest we don’t have a great answer!! Buying mens vintage clothes would, we think, be more difficult for us (and not so glamorous or as much fun) and so, for now at least we are sticking with the ladies!!! Sorry menfolk!!! It will be interesting to see if this changes in the years to come…. who knows??..

The Red Lady

A question for you?? What do you think of poodles?? Obviously, because of our Audrey fixation we love a poodle or two. They are starting to feature quite heavily in our thoughts and in our plans for our shop! We are predicting that they are the next big thing! 

So, if you want to get ahead, get a poodle. 

We have our Red Lady to represent the creative side of Lily & Violet Vintage and she will appear on our up and coming Pinterest page, our fb page and on our shop window - and of course she has not one but two poodles! Look out for her - she is very cool!!

Mary & Lisa x 

P.S. I did actually consider getting a poodle, but I think Coco, my Labradoodle might get a little bit jealous. I don’t think she would take too kindly to a poodle addition to the family.  She does live a very charmed life and we couldn’t change that!! 

Mary x