Going Global!!

We are always being asked if we sell online and many people just assume that we do (they are the ones who don't know us well!! - think old school, non-techy and thats us!)

But things are changing.....
from now on, the answer to the question "Do you sell online?" is "Yes we do!!!" Woooohoooo....

Yes you heard it here first - we are all set to conquer the world!! Well, that might be overstating it a bit, but for us this is a big step! A HUGE, GIGANTIC, SCARY step!! Aarrrgghhhh!! 

Is it too late to back out?!?!?!

Some people might be wondering what has taken us so long...... Well, we have been worried that we just couldn't do ourselves (and our fabulous collection) justice without the beautiful surroundings of the Lily & Violet Vintage Boutique.  But, heck!! who are we to deprive the world of the Totally Unique, Totally Gorgeous Lily & Violet Vintage? We are surrounded by gorgeousness every day and we want to share it!!

So, here we are - Taking It Global!!!

As with everything we do (and as our wonderful supporters have come to expect), we have no intention on embarking on a run of the mill online shopping venture....Oh no!!! Those 'carts' and 'baskets' are not for us!!  So, how will it work???

Our photography skills are getting better!!

We have been busy photographing our beautiful array of stock. This has become more time consuming than you might imagine; involving impromptu trying on sessions and lots of stopping to admire!!

We have put these photographs, with descriptions, guide sizes and prices on to Pinterest.  You can access our boards from the clothing section of our website: http://www.lilyandvioletvintage.co.uk/clothing-selection

If you are not a Pinterest user, trust us you will love it!!! Thousands of wonderful (and sometimes crazy) ideas for everything you could be interested in; from frocks to frocaccia!! 

Click something that looks like this...

If you find something you like on our boards, then get in touch and we will be pleased to send more pictures, measurements, a condition report etc. The easiest way to do this is directly from Pinterest but you can also contact us via:

email - info@lilyandvioletvintage.co.uk
web - http://www.lilyandvioletvintage.co.uk/clothing/show-me-more
fb - www.facebook.com/lilyandvioletvintage
twitter - www.twitter.com@LandVVintage
phone - 01453 549962
owl /pigeon - not to be confused with tweeting!!!

It couldn't be simpler!!  Well, ok it could, but to buy vintage with confidence, you really need to have as much information as possible. You can't beat trying it on but if that isn't an option, we think this is the next best thing!!  

If you then want to buy, just let us know and we will send you an invoice to pay via card or Paypal and thats it!  Sit back and await your beautifully packaged box of goodies!!

So for all of you who can't make it to the Boutique, take look at what we have to offer via our website. We will not be featuring all of our stock online, so a mooch around the store will never become mundane - we have new and exciting stock coming in every day.  

If you are looking for something for a specific event or have a particular requirement - get in touch and we will try to help.  We love nothing better than trying to come up with those special vintage gems!!!


#goingglobal #lily&violetvintage

Mary & Lisa x 

We Love To Dress Up - OH YES WE DO!!....

We know it is hard to imagine that either of us could make a good Ugly Sister (Oh, Yes It Is!!) but on Friday night we both   managed to well and truly immerse ourselves in our characters.  

The Ugly Sisters

We of course were the Ugly Sisters!!  Dressed in Panto Dame outfits with fantastic wigs (and enough make up for the entire cast of the Dursley DODS Humpty Dumpty) we took part in the Dursley Christmas Festival Evening - and we loved it!!! 

The doors of the Lily & Violet Vintage Boutique were thrown open and the shop was turned into a photo booth for the evening, complete with moustaches, glasses, hats and photo frames.  It was such a success that we are keeping the props in the shop for the whole of Christmas - mainly because we love any and every kind of dressing up!!!

In fact, Lisa was thinking of applying to DODS for a part in their next production. The only problem is that it is going to be a musical* and she is a rubbish singer (Oh, Yes She Is!!) plus she is not a keen musical lover. 

The Singing Sensations

This is quite hard to believe because Lisa does  come from a very musical family. Both her Mum and Dad have competed across Europe in various singing competitions.**  In fact, if Lisa wasn't a vintage vixen she would probably be a Von Trapp, complete with lederhosen (made from a beautiful (vintage) curtain fabric, of course).

Anyway, enough of musicals and back to the panto theme.... The Lily & Violet Vintage window was based on Cinders (hence the Ugly Sisters). We worked really hard putting them together and we think we caused quite a stir!! Did anyone see them???

We were awarded the winners trophy and people were coming in all evening to congratulate us and to have a mooch around the shop. We have had some wonderful characters popping in and some really lovely comments - so, Thank You Dursley!!

It is hard to believe that we have been going for nearly 6 months - and what an incredible 6 months it has been. For us both, it has been life changing and we like to think that we are having a positive impact on our town.  We like being part of the Dursley community and we love it that we can stop traffic - if it isn't our windows that catch your eye, its our outfits!!!!

Please help us to spread the word - we want to continue to stop traffic, turn heads, cause a stir etc. etc.

*We have no idea what the next DODS production is but they are always brilliant!!
*Di & Tony are a renowned karaoke couple particularly in Turkey where they are asked back year after year (or are they??? - they go anyway!)

You can find us at:
www.lilyandvioletvintage.co.uk
www.facebook.com/lilyandvioletvintage
www.twitter.com@LandVVintage

#stilllovingit #ugleysisters #lily&violetvintage

Mary & Lisa x 

Lights!!

Dursley is just the most exciting place in the world for us at the moment!!  Christmas is coming!!! We love this time of year and the fun is in the planning - it is going to give us hours of entertainment!!

Dursley at Christmas

We have just been to our first ever Council type meeting - who would have thought it?? We are turning into pillars of our local community and having an input into town matters!! And they are Christmas related - yay!

Councillor Lisa Higgings has formally tabled our request for a stall in Silver Street for the light switching on ceremony and we have expressed our delight at the proposals for the themes for the window competition. 

We have a choice: A Traditional Christmas or Panto - so what will it be?? You will have to wait and see!!

We are hoping to attract a few more of our fellow Silver Street traders to join us in making our part of town amazing!!     The shop will be open and looking gorgeous as usual and we hope our stalls by the church steps will add to the festive vibe. 

You might have guessed by now that we absolutely love a competition and when that competition involves making a window look spectacular, we can't help but get totally over excited. We have the best windows in Dursley and this Christmas they will rival Selfridges!!  

Nightmare!!! - We can't possible  lose the
window competition - can we??

........But Dursley is full of talented people and we are sure that ours will be only one of many spectacular window displays on offer. We are lucky enough to have big windows that lend themselves to displays - not everyone does; but that will not stop the talented traders of Dursley coming up with some fantastic ideas.

This year the Christmas lights will be switched on by a 'local Celebrity' on Friday 28th November.  And we are involved this year so it is sure to be spectacular....make sure you bring your families along if you can.  

The Lily & Violet Vintage boutique will be open along with many other shops in Dursley and we are planning a little surprise for anyone visiting us.  So, get yourselves down our end of town - it is going to be the place to be!!


Mary & Lisa x 

Going Gatsby

We are going a bit Gatsby crazy at Lily & Violet Vintage.......... we are going to a Gatsby themed Christmas party this year and are getting a little bit distracted by the whole thing - they flapper, the charleston, smoking in public, drinking hard liquor and everything else that goes with the roaring '20s!! We Love It!!

Wouldn't it have been great to live in the 1920s?!? - Well it would if you were in with the bohemian party crowd and not the 'below stairs' drudgery.  We, of course would be on the side of gambling, drinking, smoking and wearing trousers.

We have been known to smoke the odd cigar in our time so we would have fit in all to well - as for the gambling, liquor and trousers....what can we say?? You know us too well!!

Anyway, back to the shop...we really specialise in garments from the 1950s, 60s and 70s although we do have a few earlier pieces. As you know, all of our clothes are really good quality and condition and finding original 1920s dresses is unusual and therefore expensive - (that said, we do have one or two fine examples, if you are interested).

If you have passed by our windows lately, you will have spotted the '20s theme......one window is showcasing one if our genuine '20s dresses (amazing!!) and the other has a fantastic 1970s lounge suit that we think would make the perfect Gatsby outfit (it is just too cool!!!).

But if you want the Gatsby look without going to the trouble and expense of a genuine '20s outfit, it is really easy to do...go for beaded or fringed dresses and add acres of beads and pearls and some outrageous headgear.  In fact anything goes!! 

Totally Gorgeous

If there are any Gatsby-ites out there looking for a totally unique, totally gorgeous headpiece, come and check out the  Lily & Violet Vintage range.....we have used genuine 1920s beading and embroidered fabrics to create some very special accessories.

Amazing!! 

I have decided to go with a bit of an alternative take on the Gatsby theme.....this is my inspiration.....Completely mad but vert cool don't you think??? Very questionable as to whether I can pull it off though...

So far I have got some black satin pyjama bottoms (by What Katie Did, of course) and some fur to stitch around the bottom and I am still working on the rest of it - I will post a pic when I am done (maybe!!)....


Mary & Lisa x 

Downton or Cilla?? Which one are you.....

…..Or maybe it’s Grantchester, Peeky Blinders or Mrs Biggs……

Whichever one, we have got it all going on here at Lily & Violet Vintage!! It doesn't matter which drama you are into, I am sure we can find something to take your fancy!! And British drama is bigger than it's ever been.  We love it!!

Anybody catch the return of Peeky Blinders this week? Dated a bit earlier than some of the fashions we have got in the boutique, but some of that fabulous headgear is here - come and take a look! 

But one of our favourite bits of this show is the music - just awesome - and we have got some of that going on too! 

So Very Lady Mary

And what about Downton? 'Granny' is our favourite (if we are as cutting and witty at her age we will be awesome!!) but if Lady Mary is more your thing then check this out…..we can recreate her look!...and with authentic period dress too! 

1920s dresses are very difficult to find in a Totally Gorgeous state (after all they are nearly 100 years old). But we do have one or two little beauties!  If you happen to be coming along to our evening shopping event on Saturday, maybe we can encourage you to try it on!

My favourite recent drama has to be Cilla!. Whilst being suckers (like everyone else!) for the lovely shapes of '50s fashion, it is the '60s that have the ability to span all generations. This is just our humble opinion, but - there is no one that can't do a classically cut shift or A-line! You just have to have the attitude to match!

'60s Mink -Gorgeous

The fab dresses and coats that Cilla was wearing in the recent series were just amazing. Surly, no one watched that and didn't wish that they were part of the Cavern crowd in the '60s. amazing! 

We have got lots of '60s stuff in the Lily & Violet Vintage boutique, ranging from shift dresses to fur coats. The fabulous Biba boots have gone - but we have plenty more great stuff from the swinging ‘60s!!

If the tea dresses gracing our screens in Grantchester are more your thing, then we have one or two of those as well!! 

But, the party season is nearly here, so ditch the tea dress!!! and get yourself a fabulous shift to dance the night away in, or a beaded or fringed gown for your Gatsby party!!!

Right, time to stop!!! We might be giving the impression that all we do of an evening is curl up on the sofa and watch TV.  Us??? Never!!!, we are out there partying most nights away……If you happen to see us out, please send us home - we need to watch more telly….

Mary & Lisa x 

Autumn is here!!

Have you seen our new window display yet?? 

We have such a lot of fun dreaming up the plan for the windows - when we opened, we created our lovely Lilies and Violets (it was absolutely obvious to us what they should look like and they didn't disappoint!). Simple but spectacular!!! 

Out with the old!

Now that we have taken the flowers out of the windows, they are dotted around the shop adding a splash of colour everywhere....When we start marketing ourselves at vintage fairs, we are hoping to utilise them on our fabulous stall (and fabulous it will be!!!). 

In fact we will be attending our very first vintage fair -  the Blackfriars Vintage Fair in Gloucester -  with one of our caravans!! - watch this space for more details!!

Lots of people have asked if we are selling our props but to be honest they take such a lot of time and effort that we are going to keep them and re use them all!!

We have decided to change our window displays seasonally which means that our Autumn windows have just been done and we will be creating the winter scene to go in at the beginning of December.  We have started putting the plan for them together now. 

We have a pretty gorgeous double fronted shop and that enables us to stick with the idea of simple but spectacular (a bit like the two of us!!)....... Although, we would rather be simply spectacular,( but spectacularly simple could be a better description!)  So our Autumn windows are full of falling leaves and toadstools - and they look AMAZING. Well, we think they do - in fact they are worth a visit just to see them.

Lisa has done a brilliant job of pulling together the toadstools. It wasn't all plain sailing though and 'fungi' is our new favourite swear word.  (Actually, one of us is struggling with this concept, so we are practicing with Fungi and Shitake just to get a bit of variety into the swearing)... 

After a whole day of work, we walked into the stock room the following morning to find unravelled toadstools everywhere!!  (Top tip - fungi masking tape is not the thing for toadstool making!).  And that's without the pain of cutting and painting all the Shitake leaves.....And then stringing them up in the windows, invisible cotton is evil stuff!!

In with the new!

The new Autumn windows were unveiled last week and we have had lots of lovely comments about them.  We are obviously trying to catch the eye of the passer-by, and we think we have been really successful in this! We will continue to change the mannequins on a regular basis - and we get so many people asking about the things in the window that they don't stay in the windows for too long!

As we said, we have a few ideas for our winter windows but any and all contributions to put in the idea stew will be gratefully received......so come on, give us your favourite ideas…. 

Mary & Lisa x

Lonesome Town

Yay!! The school holidays are over at last and Lily and Violet have both returned to school this week!!  And the reason I am so pleased about this?? No, it is not that I want my daughter out from under my feet (although I have wished for that many times over the past 9 weeks) but rather that I can't bear to be in the shop on my own for days at a time!!

Labourer Lily

Lily has kept me company on a couple of occasions and has helped to open up the shop....although I obviously don't advocate child labour, I can see nothing wrong with instilling a good work ethic at a young age!! Actually, it may look as if she is being really helpful and couldn't possibly get in the way, but believe me, this shot remarkably managed to snap a rare moment in time....

At the start of the holidays me and Lisa decided that we would take it in turns to look after both the girls and be in the boutique on alternate weeks.  At first it was all great but as the holidays went on, I found that I most definitely do not love my own company!!!.... Well, not unless there is sun, cocktails and a good book involved..... And there has not been a lot of sunshine in the past few weeks - and cocktails during the working day are not allowed!!

The biggest drawback of our 'arrangement' is not having a partner in crime to banter with and share ideas and gossip (not that we have any time for that sort of thing!!! ).

Something funny or amusing happens and I find myself looking around for someone to share the moment but there is no one there - sad isn't it??  Don't feel too sorry for me - I am still in the most Totally Gorgeous, Totally Unique shop EVER - but it is so much more fun when there are two of us!!

To keep myself amused during any quiet times, I have taken to singing along very loudly to our fab music - the world is just a great big onion don't you know??

This is especially entertaining when customers come into the shop and they too join in the sing along!! This seems to be a couply thing to do!! - he starts singing along quite quietly and then she
joins in - or if she doesn't join in she throws one of those 'stop it now' looks - and invariably he stops!!

I have now progressed onto choreographing little dance routines to accompany my singing - much to the amusement of the bike shop opposite and slow passing traffic!! My very favourite so far is 110th Street (it is just my key I think!)

My next challenge,( had the holidays not come to an end,) would be to encourage a bit of SSD!!  According to the Urban Dictionary:

spontaneous synchronized dance

An unplanned but obviously pre-choreographed outburst of dancing within a normal, non-party setting by a group of three or more people, usually including singing, as in most films classified as "musicals." Often abbreviated as SSD.

Lisa has now saved me from myself!!  She has a rather special Birthday coming up (don't tell her I told you!) and has decided that the theme will be "I Hate Musicals". 

Now, I personally love a musical and can sing along to just about anything! And I love nothing more than trying out the dance routines in my living room!!

Oh how I wish!.....

Admit it!! - Who hasn't tried being Sandy (or Danny) doing "You're The One That I Want - you are the one I want - oooo oooo oooo Honey!"?!?!?

So anyway, we thought that Lily and Violet would look pretty cool dressed up as the Blues Brothers doing "Shake Your a Tail Feather".  We might not be able to pull this one off though - Lily is practicing songs from Annie all day every day (wearing a red clown wig) and Violet is insistent on being the donkey from Shrek...... Mmmmm not quite what we had in mind!!.. 

If you come up with any good ideas the girls (or us), then please let us know..

Mary & Lisa x