About the guest blogger: Victoria Lambert is, in her own words, a journalist, artist/politician's wife, mother of one, rabbit-keeper and independently minded. On Twitter she can be found tweeting about most of the above as @lambertvictoria
Take a peek in my wardrobe. Nestling between the 1970s Burberry raincoat, 1950s Riviera-style evening gown (turquoise and violet nylon), and the 1930s black and white spotted tea-dress in chiffon with floaty panels, you can find sleek linen shift dresses, fat pink palazzo pants, slinky hippie dresses that are Stevie-Nicks-tastic jostling for airspace with Chanel jackets and a velvet T-shirt decorated with horses, and sporting long Baroque purplish chiffon sleeves (embellished with tiny square-shaped gold sequins) that even the sainted SJP would struggle to team.
What you won’t find is a clear fashion identity – or anything that marks me out as either fashionista or fashion victim.
My gear is eclectic, and spans nearly a genuine century in age. The colours are like an acid trip; the fabrics like the rummage basket in an old-school haberdashers. The only thing that seems to define the melange is disunity.
I always know the bits I do wear will fit and flatter – because like everyone who gets into vintage (or starts there in my case, influenced by a mother who couldn’t throw anything away herself…) – I don’t follow fashion so much as follow my heart and my figure.
I’ve never thought I’d make it to Vogue – but I don’t expect to make the Mistakes pages of any of the weekly mags either… no VPLs, no muffin tops, no (whisper it) camel toe. Wearing vintage can set you free from all that.
Yet there is the one conundrum I cannot solve – how to tie vintage finds to the rest of your clobber. I don’t want to look like Dr Who’s Assistant – out of time, out of place. But these are the clothes I trust the most to suit.
This week, my challenge is to initiate the FAB Vintage Chanel Navy Lace Trousers (bought from Lovely and this very website!) into the wardrobe – and make the most of them. Would a pair of wedge-y espadrilles help? A white T? That velvet horse-patterned top – soooo early 90s - and in mint condition, if you are reading this SJP ;)
I’d love to hear suggestions (bearing in mind I am a respectable mother in the shires and a classic size 13)…
