I got a lovely little parcel today which contained this wonderful Jean Seberg illustration, which I’d bought from my latest illustrator crush, Emma Block. The lovely Emma had been on the recent vintage York trip with me and told me all about her current projects. I really fell in love with her style icon series and just had to get the Seberg one. I’m hoping there will be another Twiggy (hint, hint)?

Also, the parcel’s stamp was one of a new series in honour of British fashion designers, featuring a great psychedelic look by Granny Takes a Trip. Excellent choice Emma!

The Docs for Liberty range has to be the best satchel collection ever. Number one is my favourite, better start saving up. All available exclusively at Liberty’s from £145

A wonderfully lazy weekend – long breakfasts, enjoying the sunshine in the garden, hanging out with the rabbits, reading.

While I’m usually not into latex (skintight clothing – are you kidding me?) I make an exception for the amazing accessories by latex label Atsuko Kudo. This time I’ve become a little obsessed with their brilliant Kitty Collars that come in a huge variety of styles (£63 and upwards). I would absolutely love a black one with a white trim.

Last weekend I went up to York on a press trip organised by the wonderful Akeela and accompanied by fellow enthusiasts Margaret, Emma and Claire to discover the city and find out more about all things vintage available.

I’ve been to York a few times before so I was really surprised when I realised just how much there is on offer – and how much vintage shopping there is!

After a slight debacle with the train ride up we arrived at our hotel, a Travel Lodge – yes as uninspiring as it sounds - where our tour guide Martin was already waiting for us.

Visit York had arranged for us to each get a York Pass, which got us free entry into most of York’s attractions and made exploring the city really easy. We set off on a walk around the city with Martin explaining some of York’s Viking and Roman history. I loved walking around the city’s walls – most city streets are called ‘gates’ while the actual city gates are called ‘bars’ – from where you have an amazing view across town.

For lunch we were treated to an amazing three-course meal at Grays Court who brought us a seemingly endless list of treats from liver parfait to a special chocolate platter.

The rest of the day was spent exploring some vintage shops starting with a great stall at York Market (on at weekends), which had a great range of extremely cheap but excellent condition dresses, jumpers and men’s suits from the 50s onwards, with prices starting at £5 for blouses.

Next up we went to Purple Haze, which sells a mixture of vintage and repro. I spotted some really lovely accessories but all in all the pricing was very much like London, a real surprise to me as I’m used to finding better deals as soon as you leave the M25  behind you.

The rest of the evening was spent in York’s most haunted pub The Golden Fleece (I am rather sad the WW2 bomber pilot ghost didn’t appear) and checking out the inn where Guy Fawkes was born.

After a rather bad night’s sleep, the first half of our second day was not quite voluntarily spent at York Designer Outlet, which is as bland as every other designer outlet/shopping centre I have ever been. Really, there are so many amazing little shops in York, going to the outlet centre still strikes me as a real waste of time given that there are plenty of similar ones around London.

Anyways, we made up for lost time by heading to what turned out to be my York highlight, the amazing The Vintage Emporium. Run by the lovely Keeley who I’ve known via email for years but had never met in person, this is a fantastic little vintage shop, a rare gem that I would rate as one of the best in the UK. Expect to find high-quality homeware, womenswear, menswear, bridalwear and even furniture from the Twenties to the Seventies. Keeley has a fantastic eye for picking interesting pieces and her pricing is exceptionally good. Her shop alone makes the trip up from London worthwhile!

After a brief stop at jumble shop Banana Warehouse, which I really hated (too much useless crap and a sexist prick of a shop owner who thought it was appropriate to offer his junk in return for sexual favours. Not funny) we ditched the famous Bettys Tea Room - ridiculous queue, very expensive, all a bit touristy – for lunch at the York Antiques Centre before heading to Barley Hall. This medieval townhouse is home to a fab selection of Hollywood costumes – Colin Firth fans in particular can not only see his infamous Mr Darcy suit but also an outfit he wore in The King’s Speech.

Barley Hall was the last stop for me before editing duties and the lack of WiFi at the hotel forced me back to London. Watch out for my proper write-up on QueensOfVintage.com and the other girls’ blog posts!

I rather like my new retro discovery, London-based label Miss Patina. The current collection features plenty of whimsical dresses adorned with my favourite three design elements – lace! collars! bows! – and with prices as low as £60 for most sale items, this beats the highstreet any day!

New in the series “Terrible mobile pictures from the work loos”  – I know the production values of this blog are intense – I bring to you my new Biba coat. It’s a double breasted black wool coat with faux fur collar and cuffs. The lady I got it from had bought it from the Biba mail order catalogue in the Sixties and kept it until now. It needs some re-lining and some of the buttons are missing but otherwise it’s in brilliant condition.

A few weeks ago I was asked if I wanted to try and test the Sculpture Pin Curler, a new gadget to help you roll the perfect pin curls. Although I mainly wear my hair straight in a Sixties style, I do occasionally pin-curl it for a Thirties look or to get some volume into a Sixties up-do.

Saying that, it doesn’t happen all too often which is why I’m pretty crap when it comes to pin curling (aching arms anyone?) so I was rather curious to test out the Pin Curler. The curler is essentially a plastic tube with tiny ‘teeth’ on either side. You simply hook in your hair ends in the teeth, roll your hair around the tube and slide off to get a pin curl. It’s a no brainer, and as the Curlers come in different sizes (each pack contains a small and a larger one)  allowing to roll anything from tiny to big curls,  a really easy way of setting your hair in no time.

The Pin Curler also comes with two booklets which not only explain what setting agents to use but also provide setting patterns and explain the different ways of setting from creating under curls to more complicated styles.

So is it useful? Definitely! I would really recommend the Curler to anyone who’s new to setting their hair or who – just like me – only sets their hair occasionally and can’t do pin curls quite as quickly.

The Sculpture Pin Curler costs $35 and ships over from Australia within a week.

Yesterday the Doc and I went on a London Walk. Run by Back In The Days Walks, the Soho – Roots of The Swinging Sixties walk took us around various points across Soho, retelling the fascinating story of the area from the mid-Fifties to the mid-Sixties.

I can’t believe I’ve lived in London for such a long time and have walked past so many of the buildings without ever really making the connection to the legendary places I have read about and heard mentioned so many times: The 2i’s Bar, The Marquee Club, The Scene Club and so on.

Tour guide Barrie Greene (pictured) is a brilliant, witty story teller and was part of the Soho Scene himself – his personal anecdotes and stories made the walk extra special to me. The walk covers the Soho of the mid Fifties, think cafe bars and beatniks (check out the amazing video below for a look at some of Soho’s biggest cafes of the time, my favourite is The Macabre) and then moves on to the very beginning of the Sixties covering the emerging club promoter, music and comedy scene playing homage to the R’n'B of the likes of Cyril Davies  and John Baldry. Before you know it you’re on Carnaby Street imagining the days of John Stephen before Barrie ends things with a note on the Kray Twins.

I can’t recommend this tour enough, it’s simply brilliant and has really opened my eyes to so many aspects of the late Fifties and early Sixties mod scene I didn’t really know about.