Becka loves Biba

Off to my friends saturday night for dinner and I decided I ought to give my most favouritest Biba frock an outing. It's an early 70's cotton number I got from ebay a few years back and the letters printed spell art deco, it's Big Biba perfection. The skirt is cut in a full circle  and the bust & sleeves are rouched. The shoulders are padded and in the same printed fabric too, soo gorge.

Forgot to take a close up of my shoes at the time, so here's a blurry zoom in. 

They are Miss L Fire platforms with crochet flowers on the toe, and are the most comfortable heels ever!

Staring into space an ode to my dear Annimal!

Also wearing vintage cocktail rings & my nail varnish is Victoria by Nails Inc.

One of my gals gave me an early birthday present, I won £1! There are some more pics from this evening but they are only fit to be viewed on facebook.....

Frock on Friday!

It's friday which means it's officially frock o'clock! I first spotted the Frock on Friday feature over at Vix's blog and the rule is that wherever you are & whatever you are doing each friday you should don a fabulous frock! So here is what I'm wearing today.....

Vintage 60's Dollyrockers floral mini, 70's Biba mini vest/waistcoat thingy (both from Ebay years ago), 70's tan leather wooden wedge sandals (£1 from Demelza Charity shop last week)

And how could I resist not popping on this most amazing necklace which I was lucky enough to win from the super chick Ann @ Annimal House,  I totally loves it! It's a Sarah Coventry piece called Wisteria. I hope I have done it justice.

Slightly squinting as the sun is just about popping out finally!

Hope you all have a fab weekend! I'm very much looking forward to dinner at a dear friends house tomorrow night with all the girlies and am trying to decide what to wear.... it might just have to be another Biba frock! 

Tea Party!!!

As I have mentioned previously I was rather looking forward to Royal Wedding day. Along with all the excitement of the event itself and of course the dress which I think was just perfect, I had planned to host a Tea Party for the fam. Thursday was spent in a baking frenzy, everything was made from scratch. At midnight I was doing paper chains and 1am found me blowing up balloons! 

On the day itself I was up rather early so I watch all the drama unfold... I wore a vintage 70's navy polkadot cotton Biba dress, vintage strappy sandals and a rather jolly little hat (from asda!), oh yes and of course my Auntie's pearls. I did look for my white gloves but alas they are nowhere to be found! What do you think of my patriotic manicure? : )

Onto the spread, I bought an offcut of pink gingham fabric to use as a table cloth topped with an old lace cafe curtain, cos I think it looked pretty! The flowers are white hyancinth, blue hybe (both from the garden) and red gerberas - these sat in old jam jars tied with a little ribbon. There was also bunting & flags! The cakestands were from Fortnum & Masons (as were the biccies, preserves & loose leaf tea). A lot of the china was vintage but  a few bits are from Cath Kidston. 

I made carrot cake (grated my hand in the process - ouch), victoria sandwich, fruit & cheese scones, fairy cakes (soo proud of my piping!), sausage rolls, mini ham & caramelised onion quiches,  the Royal Pie is bacon, egg & sausage (we added the crown and rings after realising WC had another rather unsanitary meaning...), hand cut ham sandwiches, cream cheese & cucumber sandwiches - crusts off of course! A very kind neighbour provided the delicious gypsy tart. I had a lovely day and still have a few bits left (diet starts next week). 

I was soo exhausted I went to bed at 10pm! How did you all celebrate the big day?

Weekend

I do hope you are all enjoying this fine weather we are having! This weekend has been just lovely, I have bootfaired, jumble saled and charity shopped. Plus a bit of gardening where I caught the sun a wee bit (red nose!) and the mossies have had a right field day nibbling me.

On sunday night I met up with a couple of girlies for a night out, I was sadly sober (designated driver), but I had a blast. I have a busy week ahead, I'm snapping stock tomorrow so I can finally start listing.  Plus I have to plan the menu for my tea party on Friday, which means lot's of baking - wooooohoooo!

Here's what I wore....

Firstly a bit of a squint - it's very sunny you know!

Vintage Biba 70's lilac vest, plain lace trim white vest, H&M 70's style flares (love these - got them in black too, super tight), D-Havz gold & nude wedges, vintage leather whipstitch bag, Old England gold chain watch, vintage jewels. 

P.S. Sarah @ Misfits Vintage, this is a 99 - yum!

Faversham

Here I am in the historic Kentish town of Faversham this weekend standing rather oddly! 

I'm wearing a vintage early 70s Biba wrap around jersey top, 60's floral mini, vintage bag, sunnies & pendant. The shoes I bought the day before from New Look, I've been after a pair of sensible shoes I can actually drive in and thought these canvas & leather brogues would do the trick nicely and they are super comfy to boot!

I haven't been here since I was a wee thing and was pleasantly surprised by the mix of quirky boutiques, good charity shops (by this I mean non colour coded!), junk & antique shops.
Famous for it's Shepherd Neame Brewery, the architecture is fab too, lots of rickety old houses and tudor shopfronts.

I managed to score these cute little turquoise crochet hotpants from an antique shop where the very kind lady also gave me a cardigan which came form the same person too for free! I don't know if I'll ever be brave enough to wear these, maybe on the beach? 

New Years!

Firstly I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year and thank you for all your visits and sweet comments this year, they are all appreciated sooo much! 

Here's hoping 2011 is filled with love, happiness, prosperity & beautiful shoes.

So I finished my last post with the promise that I would post a picture of the dress I was planning to wear on New Years. Well at 6.30pm last night I had an outfit disaster. I had delicately hand washed the dress a couple of days before and hung it to dry but it still needed to be ironed. Nightmare situation - I had the heat super low and used a clean cloth to protect the fabric but the damn steam iron dribbled onto the satin and left awful watermarks on the skirt and sleeves. I don't have any decent dry cleaners near me so I'm hoping I can sort it with another gentle wash and a dry iron! fingers crossed...

So this is what I ended up wearing: Bus Stop peach satin jacket/dress, Dollyrockers cream crocheted dress, D-Havz gold & nude wedges and vintage peach Boa.      

I don't usually go out for New Years but I had a really great night, even though I was totally sober (was driving), I still had a good old dance! 

Biba on Sky Arts

I was just flicking through tonight's TV listings when I spotted some vintage fashion shows tonight on Sky Arts 1. One is the 1970 film by the Centre of Information called The Pacemakers: Biba, the synopsis is as follows "The Central Office of Information goes behind the scenes with Biba founders Barbara Hulanicki and Stephen Fitz-Simon at their legendary superstore on Kensington High Street in 1970."

The airing times are: 

Wednesday 11/8/10 at 22.40

Thursday 12/8/10 at 10.40

On further inspection of their website it seems that this Friday night (13/8) they are showing Beyond Biba, the recent film made about Barbara Hulanicki. Biba is my all time favourite label, I'm rather excited to see these shows. You gotta love Sky Arts they really do show some interesting and varied programmes, just the other night they played a Small Faces film, and quite often repeat the awesome 30th Century Man (about Scott Walker) and a rather good documentary called A Technicolour Dream about the legendary 14hr Technicolour Dream happening in 1967 at Ally Pally.

Anyhoo here's is the links to the Biba programme & film, oh yes and some obligatory Biba loveliness!

http://www.skyarts.co.uk/art-design/article/the-pacemakers-biba/

http://www.skyarts.co.uk/film-docs/article/beyond-biba/

All pics are scanned from the fabulous "Fashion in the 60s" by Barbara Bernard.

The Outfit Post

Last night my fella's band put on a night, I don't usually go to his gigs, but as he was DJing too I decided to go as I haven't been out dancing for ages. He plays 60s/70's rock n soul, real vinyl peeps, not on itunes! So I decided this little vintage Biba number needed an outing, I haven't worn a mini for ages (I feel like I'm getting too old to wear one!) and teamed it with original Biba boots too, gosh these are tight on the calves, but they fit really well and are quite comfy too, perfect for dancing! Blimey I look miserable in this pic, I had a fun night though!

Dress: Biba Navy Jersey Mini

Boots: Biba Petrol Blue Canvas Knee Boots

Jewellery: R Pendant from Etsy, Old England Chunky Gold Chain Watch,

Sarah Coventry Bracelet & Ring Set, other rings all vintage/antique.

I dream of this...

Petticoat Magazine - 1973, model wears Satin Dress from Biba, Lace Gloves from Nostalgia, Bracelet from Emeline, Necklace from Adrien Mann and Perspex Shoes by Terry De Havilland

Barbara's Boots

As you are probably aware, Biba legend Barbara Hulanicki has a new range coming out at Topshop next week, and as I'm a bit of a Biba freak, I am definitely intrigued to see it, but I am more excited to see lot's of little interviews & snippets from her all over the web at the moment promoting it.

Whilst perusing the Vogue.com galleries earlier I stumbled upon a new set of pics exploring Barbara's personal style over the years, there aren't many pics but one stood out for me over all, BLACK SATIN BIBA BOOTS!

Do check out the full gallery here.

This picture is my idea of Biba heaven.She states that these were sample boots and were stolen at the end of the party, I can see why someone would pinch them, they are stunning. I am lucky enough to own two pairs of original canvas Biba boots, and they are amazing, very very tight, but fab none the less.

(Also, there is a new film coming out soon called Beyond Biba, which Sharon Rose recently blogged about.)