Found! Mid-century espresso set

A surprise sunny Sunday morning brocante in the quartier. I popped out for mince meat and came back with a six-piece mid-century porcelain espresso set for €5. Must find a prominent display position before husband comes back...

Back last weekend from a wonderfully peaceful trip to the Hebrides... photos to come.

Little pre-Christmas sale!

We're having a little pre-Christmas sale at pink milk vintage! Take 20% off any item with the code PMV10NOEL until December 14th. Last-minute Christmas shopping is easier when its cheaper...

Christmas shipping...

Please note there will be no shipping from Paris from December 17th-30th. If you want your item in time for Christmas, last shipping day to Europe is December 12th, to the rest of the world, December 6th.

The dress post

My beautiful wedding dress made by my dear friend and vintage officianado, Lola Loves. The day I have a wall tall enough, I want to frame it. Is that a bit Miss Haversham?
 

Cream satin with lace overlay to skirt and the top of the bodice, attached on the bias from the bottom of the bodice; vintage lace appliqué to the back. 

Vintage beadwork headband, also by Lola Loves.

Pearl earrings and necklace from my family.

Back waist detail, vintage lace, found in Portobello.

Bodice overlay, vintage lace with tiny polka dots.

  

Lace skirt overlay was a vintage veil, found in Portobello.

 

 Cream satin shoes, House of Fraser.

 

Wedding bouquet, by Au nom de la rose

Blushbaby, by Mary Quant

Blushbabies pink their cheeks with Mary Quant! A super find at a Batignolles flea market on a recent Sunday sortie: Mary Quant Blushbaby blusher, unused with brush and insert. Now that life is slowly returning to normal for the Paris half of pink milk, we will be doing a lot more of this sort of thing, and we can't wait.


A staple of the sixties London scene, Mary Quant is an iconic designer famous for the Swinging Sixties look of Chelsea girls-about-town, miniskirts, coloured tights and skinny rib knits. At the forefront of the boutique culture that took London by storm in the sixties, Quant's Kings Road shop became a favourite hipster hangout. In 1966, she was given an OBE by the Queen, for her services to British fashion.


Mary Quant cosmetics were launched in Great Britain the same year, and in Japan in 1971, where Nippon girls were going crazy for the London look. Quant made regular visits to the country thoughout the seventies and eighties, launching accessories and home lines as well, in the early eighties.


Quant designed the packaging herself, in iconic white, black and silver to highlight the product colours, all featuring the trademarked daisy logo.


Today, Mary Quant cosmetics are available for mailorder in Japan online, or from the London store.

Brunch belly and vintage bags

...after a belated birthday brunch, I can no longer ingest anything. At all. Busy digesting on the sofa and enjoying my birthday flowers.

A winding walk back through the sunny afternoon in Montmartre and we can across a brocante, where I picked up this chain mail handbag. It's in very good condition, with just one or two links missing around the hinge. No label, but so beautiful and heavy, for my collection, mits off.

One day, when we have some space, I shall have all my vintage handbags together, in a room just for me...

First produced in the late nineteenth century, chain mail bags were a major trend in the twenties, inspired by the medieval revival, and were often paired with the floaty silks and chiffons of the flapper era. Whiting and Davis is the name to look out for on the clasp, an American company which produced trend-defining models into the fifties, when chain mail bags enjoyed a revival. The company still produces mesh bag collections today, including a reproduction of the classic flapper bag.

Coming later this evening to pink milk vintage is this pillar-box red faux leather envelope clutch. I love the gold trim, very maje...

ps, a treasury of my lazy Sunday with etsy's new Treasury East feature

Wedding dress fabric, searching for vintage lace

London, interrupted

...by a few days with family on an extended stay back in the UK waiting for a visa for India.

A grey morning behind Marble Arch, the start of ten days during which my suitcase became a natural extension of my body, melded with my right arm.


A weekend in the East End and after a lazy morning at the York Hall Spa in Bethnal Green, cream tea at The Albion in Shoreditch to start the carb-loading a week early for the half marathon.


Carrot cake, chocolate brownie, fruit cake, a scone the size of a saucer, enough cream and jam to cause diabetes and my sister pouring the tea.

A vintage weekend

Brick Lane, so painfully trendy, so vintage it's mainstream. But much fun, with great bars and restaurants. Hunky Dory vintage is a favourite, where I left my gloves behind briefly, flung down in a fit of excitement while trying on a sixties little black dress that fits perfectly; inevitably Rokit; and harcore hunting ground Planet Vintage, which threw up some nargain-basement finds including a seafoam scarf, a red plastic envelope clutch and a sixties scarlet shell top, with a floral Peter Pan collar, all to be listed on pink milk vintage in a couple of weeks when I'm back from India. There is also a wonderful shop for real vintage hunters, the name of which I have forgotten (- about half-way down on the right-hand side I think?). Not an asymmetrical haicut, shabby demin hotpant or striped tight in sight, this is a calm world of fifties lingerie, thirties gowns, and forties suits where you can browse in peace to a soft jazz soundtrack.

Christmas shopping...

Yet to make any actual 'sale' sales ourselves (20%offbothshopsNOEL09inmessagetosellerforrefundpleasethankyou) here are some pieces that have caught our eyes over the past few days... and all of them are pre-Christmas bargains.

We've been following Silversmithy on Twitter for a while, and as suckers for anything chunky, hammered and silver, this ring, $70, was a top pick in her ktsilver shop, with free shipping until December 1st.


A rather fabulous notebook from Mrseliotbooks has already been safely ordered for a lucky list-maker this Christmas. We love these beautiful patchwork graph notebooks too, just $9 with super reasonable shipping and great service.


If this delicate dragonfly wing ring is not under the Christmas tree come December 25th, it will certainly have to be a present for self in the New Year. And we don't even have to choose between the ring, earrings and pendant - by Jessedanger, it comes with free shipping if you buy another item. A very reasonable $35.


Wings, twigs and feathers remind this city girl of home and this hand-pierced feather necklace by Samantharose is a reminder of wide open spaces, with free shipping.


Finally, the party season is upon us and to really turn heads you need elegant accessories, like our knight in shining armour vintage mesh bag, from the 1920s. A very special piece, take 20% off for a vintage bargain at $62.40.

Sale time!

Christmas is coming, seasonal gift buying panic is rising. Why not go a little vintage this year? Whether it's a Christmas gift with a difference or a present to yourself, take a look at our vintage clothes, accessories and homewares. And if you're searching for something special, there is still time for us to source it for you...

Take 20% off all items - including the Sale rail - in the pink milk vintage shop, until December 12th - just use the code NOEL09 in the message to sender and we will refund the difference. And if handmade is top of your Christmas list, you can also use the code on everything in the pink milk shop too.... Feel free to share the code and spread some pre-Christmas love!

Our last shipping dates for Christmas are:
Europe: 12th December
US and Rest of the World: 7th December

If you're in the UK...

Visit the Affordable Vintage Fair for me. It's currently heading northwards, I would absolutely love to be at the Northumbria University Student Union on November 29 for reworked fashion from local designers and vintage goodies from all around, but sadly I'll be here instead...

More magazine-hunting, St Ouen

1960s Vogue and L'Officiel

Reflets de Paris - fashion, fiction, news and patterns
14 January, 1960

Reflets de Paris

23 June 1960

Reflets de Paris
11 September 1958

Reflets de Paris
12 November 1959

Paris Match, 1957 & 1961, from street market, rue St-Isaure, Paris 18

snakeskin and sun showers

A busy, dreary few weeks, brightened by some lovely weekends at the races, lovely dinners, lovely cocktails... After lunch in the Marais yesterday with friends from London during which an unusually obliging waitress helped us make a sunshade/come shower cover out of a spare tablecloth for our friend's baby, I found this snakeskin vintage clutch/shoulder bag which I love... one to keep for me, as I sell too many things that I love. So there, hands off. Also delighted to find the new branch of Cos, which, along with the new and massive Uniqlo at Opéra will make for a marvellous new season shopping trip next pay day. For it is tax season in France, oh yes, we are all poor. The red Uniqlo cashmere sweater and navy Cos jumper dress for the will have to wait another day.

Another find, was the lilac wine floral scarf, just listed...

Anyway. For ages now I have been hearting peacocky things and while it's too late on a Sunday night to post about all the gorgeous peacock themes items I have found - however beautifully they would go with my new snakeskin bag - that will be coming soon.

Walking into the sun

Café au lait in the sunshine with a fresh-from-the-kiosque copy of French Grazia which launched this morning, followed by vintage-hunting and sunshine wandering round my quartier.

Plenty of secret moments in my favourite places while D has been away.

Old ladies outside the hairdresser, rue Lamarck.

This little china ring dish is already available on pink milk vintage.

Glass pot found in the same brocante... this stays with me.

Sunny summer days

Bring me Sunshine vintage lemon top... cool down in pastel shades... up the poolside glam factor with your Carrie-style pearls.

Hot summer days are a little cooler in Paris, which means I'm running faster for La Parisienne race in a few weeks (*sponsor me for the Lymphoma Association*) and sleeping more at night. Over in Crete it is still blazing, which means plenty of pool time for pink milk Sarah and some lovely light for vintage photo shoots. Some super finds for your wardrobe coming from Chania over the past few days...

In the Garden vintage red dress... Japanese-inspired blossom print for drifting round the market... but hands off the parasol!

Lost on a Greek Island vintage skirt... long and A-line, for nautical eighties style... set it off with sharp navy and red, our current favourite colour combination.