first day at school

I had my first proper market day on Tuesday and after all of the stresses and worries and problems it was AMAZING!  I literally have never enjoyed anything more (sorry Sam) it was vibrant and buzzy and fast paced…there literally was never a dull moment.  It was over all too soon and I was gutted when I realised that I had to wait another whole week before I got to be there again.  Setting up the stall was harder than I had anticipated as those boards are frikkin heavy and so big that you definitely cant lift them alone.  Luckily I had the trusty boyfriend and his rather lovely mum there to help out.  Sam’s mum runs a stall two days a week so her advice and experience has been pretty much invaluable.  We lugged the boards about for a bit and went through several different sizes before I found two that were perfect.  I opted for a hessian cover as I have brown package labels and crates as props and it all seemed to match quite nicely.  Another thing I hadn’t thought of was how high up the power point is, too high, as it turns out.  That was another job for Sam to compete with.  The rule of the market is that your stall should be ready to trade by 10am latest so we got there at just after 8am and started to set up straight away.  Its surprising how long you can spend fussing over the way a rope is tied or how your hessian is laying.  We were eventually done by about 9.45am which I was pretty happy with.  What struck me was how quiet the market was while everyone was setting up.  I had assumed it was going to be loud and brash with people throwing apples about and shouting “two fer a paaand” but it was completely different.  It was as if people were not only preparing their stalls for the days trade but also themselves.  It was peaceful and there was a sense of contentment in getting their stalls perfect.  The only real noise was from a guy selling records who was switching between reggae, Elvis Presley and what sounded like the entire dirty dancing soundtrack.  This all changed when tourists started wandering around the market, as soon as the first person stepped foot into the square it was like the market burst into life, as this is a Cambridge market there is strictly no shouting or touting for business but there was cheerful banter, music, the sounds of the sewing machines and smoothie makers and chat between traders.  I loved it.  As I said, I had Sam there but everyone was so friendly and we had so many people visiting us we shouldn’t have worried about any first day nerves, I had this dread about being “the new girl” but there was no sense of cliques or groups, everyone was there for one purpose and there was definitely a feel of all being on the same team.  When 4pm came around I couldn’t believe where the day had gone, it was all a whirl of meeting new people, tweaking the layout and chatting to people about vintage, I couldn’t have wished for a better start.  I cant wait to get back on there, the only thing I was upset about was having to go back to my day job!

confrontation station

Ok so I know I haven’t blogged in ages, this is purely down to my day job taking up my whole life.  As I’ve previously mentioned, I work as a retail manager full time and also run a market stall selling vintage clothing every Tuesday.  Due to this I spend a LOT of time interacting with the public and one thing I have noticed is how quickly people will turn when they don’t get their own way.  I don’t know if it’s the colder weather or the approaching threat of Christmas that has made people so confrontational, but yesterday I had a man literally shout in my face and punch over two displays because I wouldn’t give him student discount without seeing his student card.  Before this he had been perfectly nice, we had chatted as I showed him through our range of new stock, we had joked when I tripped over trying to carry him 8 pairs of jeans, we had bonded over our dislike of stale coffee, in fact by the time it got to the payment I was pretty sure I had made a new best friend.  As I was putting the transaction through he noticed the sign saying “20% student discount with valid student ID” (please note the part about a valid student ID) and so he asked “can I have the student discount?” “of course” I replied, “can I just see your student card” that was my fatal mistake.  How could I possibly have the audacity to request some form of proof that he was in fact a student? Why on earth would I need to see that he had just told me that he was a student, why would he ask for the 20% discount otherwise?  What sort of moron was I? What was I thinking!? This torrent of abuse came so suddenly that I was actually too shocked to speak for a second and as I was recovering myself he then demanded to see the manager.  To this I replied I was the manager and I would need to see some sort of ID card with an expiry date to prove that he was studying.  Well, not only did he not believe that I was the manager, he also started shouting “don’t shop here! They rip you off!” great.  Anyway, security were called, he shouted and swore some more, punched two innocent bystanders (my display racks) and was dragged out.  When security asked me how this came about all I could say was that I honestly didn’t know and that I had just asked for a student card.  They laughed and just said “its crazy what people will do for some money off” I can honestly say I have never caused such a scene and cant imagine a situation that would compel me to do so.  Yet people do.  They shout at cashiers when they cant give them a refund, they bitch at bus drivers for getting stuck in traffic and they look down on hairdressers for providing a service.  Once a customer randomly asked me what 30% off £67 was and when I couldn’t answer straight away they laughed, patted me on the arm and said “never mind sweetheart, at least you’re good at folding jeans” I could never bring myself to treat another person like that and so I ask again, is it the cold weather or the approaching threat of Christmas that has made people so confrontational? Whatever it is, next time somebody asks for student discount, I’m getting security in just in case.

fashion?

I have recently been looking at my fashion sense (or lack of) with an increasingly critical eye.  I think it was an inevitability seeing as I now choose what I sell so am essentially a walking advertisement for my business.  This comes with many pros and cons, for example; I now never leave the house without my jewellery on which does make me feel more “finished”, however finding jewellery that matches the mood/era/colours of the outfit that I have chosen means that I generally don’t have time to do my makeup which leaves me feeling decidedly “unfinished”.  I know that now I am scrutinizing myself more it would make sense to pick out my outfit the night before, maybe lay it out all ready to put on but nine times out of ten when I do make the effort to do that, the following morning I hate what I picked last night and cant see why I would ever have thought that looked good.  I envy these people that seem to be able to throw anything on and breeze into town with perfect hair and makeup while I run red-faced and out of breath for the bus and then end up searching around in my huge bag for about ten minutes trying to find my ticket.  As a lover of all things vintage whenever I feel like nothing looks nice I will always retreat to cut off shorts, chunky knitwear and cropped shirts, however this has never been particularly fashionable.  Until now it would seem.  Now everywhere I look there are cosby jumpers, burgundy knee socks with cut off high waist shorts, sheer blouses with button down cardigans and of course the classic re-worked satchel bag.  Suddenly  I’m seeing people walking around proudly showing off their faux vintage coin purses or raiding their parents wardrobes for anything circa 1980.  So I’m going to enjoy this trend while it lasts, and then when its over enjoy being out of date again even more.  

eBay trials and tribulations

Hello, so today I spent a large proportion of my time musing the correct etiquette for eBay.  I’ve been a fan and a user for some time now and some of my favourite pieces have been picked up from there, but there is always the dilemma of feedback.  Now I’m very much the, instant payment instant feedback sort of girl, however there seems to a be a growing trend of “I’m not leaving it until you do” and this can often lead to a kind of stalemate.  I recently bought a cropped blouse which was described as being “in perfect vintage condition” which can mean two things:  either it is in fact not vintage at all and has had its brand new high street labels cut out just that morning, or, more often than not, it is genuine vintage but in such terrible condition that it takes a lot of work to form it into something sellable.  This item was the latter.  It wasn’t a cropped blouse it was in fact a shirt that had been clumsily hand sewn at the bottom using the technique of what can only be described as a rusty spoon ramming wool through holes.  It was awful.  So as you can imagine it took a lot of work to try and salvage it, I had to unpick the stitching which was so knotted in places I thought I was going to rip the poor thing to shreds.  Then there was the laborious task of measuring, cutting and re-sewing it into a piece that I was happy to sell.  Seeing as it took ten days to arrive from Durham to Cambridge I wasn’t going to give it a glowing review, however, as a fellow ebayer I decided to hold back.  I simply put, “not exactly as described but a lovely piece nonetheless” how restrained of me, I thought, how generous.  Not according to the seller, “don’t expect feedback after that” was the message they sent me.  Now, I have been using eBay long enough to know that a standard positive feedback comment goes something along the lines of: ~*~*~*A+ super star ebayer~*~*~*would recommend J J….etc etc so I know that mine was a little shorter than they probably expected, but surely they must have realised that what they sent out was not “in perfect vintage condition” apparently not.  After a week or so of emails I managed to get a feedback comment of “paid invoice”…WOW.  Thanks.  So, a warning to all eBay fans out there.  Unless you want a lengthy battle, often ending in bitterness and bad feedback (is there anything worse? ) just put feedback of, “would deal with again” and carry on living your life.  I’m currently in a stalemate situation over an item that was described as “over sized granddad jumper” hmmm size 6, over sized for an eight year old wasn’t exactly what I had in mind.  I’ll let you know how I get on.

August

As this is my first post I feel like I should introduce myself and my world a little bit.  I’m Hollie, I live in Cambridge with my boyfriend Sam, and our hamster Travis.  I’m obsessed with vintage clothing and accessories.  This is where my small business came from, I own a stall on Cambridge market called BoutiqueVintage from which I sell clothing from the 20’s-80’s.  I am passionate about finding unique, quirky pieces that are wearable and beautiful.  I source all of the stock myself and never buy “job lots” as I’ve found that most of the time you end up with one nice piece and fifteen write offs.  I also work as a store manager for a denim retailer so at the moment my life is quite hectic!  This blog is just an opportunity for me to write down my thoughts, feelings, ideas, inspirations and frustrations about fashion, life, love and juggling two jobs and a social life.

While I have been starting up my new business venture I have become something of a social recluse communicating only through email, twitter and facebook.  My life has revolved around getting home from my regular work as quickly as possible so that I can trawl the internet for new finds to present to my long suffering boyfriend.  I seem to have finally built up a big enough collection to sell items and not have to immediately replace them with something else.  I‘ve got to say it’s a nice place to be.  I love finding my vintage gems but working full time and keeping on top of the stall and everything else that comes with it, the website, twitter, facebook, requests etc etc was getting a little tiring!  This week I went out to lunch to a little pub by the river in Cambridge and wore a beautiful 70’s yellow silk shirt tied at the waist with a plaited brown belt, it was a lovely sunny day so I wore it with brown brogues and a cute 80’s leather shoulder bag, here's a picture of the shirt, let me know what you think!