Well… I don’t know if you heard, but we were the Media Partners for the Vintage Section of Clothes Show Live! Woop! We are now back in the office, absolutely exhausted, but utterly proud of how well it has gone!

Our stand was fabulous, classy and eye-catching – much like a certain magazine we could mention!

We met lots of readers, and introduced some new ones to the world of Vintage Life! Very gratifying to see lots of our carrier bags being toted around the vintage section. (more…)

I LOVE to read! Being an Editor, this may come as little surprise. I like little better than whiling away an afternoon in a bookstore and running home with my finds! I love shiny, new paperbacks, crumbly, treasured second-hand finds – I save ‘em all!

Unfortunately as I approach my groaning shelves, it occurs to me that I am fast running out of space, so for my recent birthday (don’t ask how old, I seem to be ageing in dog years) I have been given a Kindle!

I have resisted a Kindle for such a long time (it doesn’t have that new-book smell!), but I have to say I love it. It’s so light and compact and it comes everywhere with me. And the best thing? It holds SO many books…

Now I need a vintage cover, and to start downloading my Christmas reads. For me, the festive season is not truly upon us until I have started to read A Christmas Carol.

Has anyone else succumbed to a ‘reading device’? If so, tell me what you think, and what you are reading!

A fourth and final installment from Penhaligon’s Head of Marketing, Emily Maben.

“The Experimental Seventies

I’m jumping a few decades down the line to the 1970s because this was a really interesting decade in the perfume industry. Fragrance became commercialised, more accessible to the everyday person, more affordable. We tend to think of the 70s in terms of Biba, hippies and patchouli; but it was a decade of great change and contrast. Most importantly, it was an era of female empowerment and this was reflected in the popular fragrances of the era.

Charlie, Revlon, 1973

Hands up if you wore this in your teenage years! I did, and recently bought a bottle (£6.99!! I’m not even sure how that’s possible) and do you know what? It isn’t half bad! Charlie, though hardly a luxury scent, is incredibly important because it was the first fragrance to be truly accessible to young women. It was a celebration of female independence.  Charlie was a huge hit; cleverly designed to appeal to all women by using notes from across the three main fragrance families; floral, oriental and chypré. It’s still wearable, if you’re in the right mood. Only to be worn with a classic 70s flared trousers and other suitably mannish attire.

Opium, Yves Saint Laurent, 1977

Yikes. Opium shouts where others whisper; announcing you presence before you’ve even entered the room and lingering once you’ve left. A stroke of genius by YSL, this became one of the bestselling fragrances of the era. Full of rich florals, opulent spices, incense and warm woods; reminiscent of an opium den some might say. I wouldn’t know of course. Wear with something suitably shocking; I’m thinking a flowing all-in-one, lots of bronzer and a luxurious headscarf trailing down your exposed back.

Anaïs Anaïs, Cacharel, 1979

Launched right at the end of the decade, Anaïs Anaïs was another game-changer. Cleverly created as the antithesis to all the overwhelming Orientals (such as Opium); it is a muted white floral, gentle, sweet, almost childlike. Designed to appeal to young women who were sick of the ‘old-fashioned’ scents available, it was an incredible success. I still own a bottle and wear it every now and again when I feel the need for a little lightness and delicacy. Wear a light cotton floral dress and run around barefoot in a field of wild flowers.”

Click here to discover the scents of luxury brand Penhaligon’s!

At the Vintage Life Mill we need little encouragement to play dress up, so today was no exception. Food, music, costumes, photos and (a lack of) lighting… A shy and retiring bunch we are not.

We have a zombie, a Hulk, an invisible man, a cheeky devil, a coven of Witches and er, an escaped 19th century deranged ghost convict. We are now all on a total sugar high thanks to some suitably ghoulish treats provided by our Editor Rachel!

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I am loving Emily Maben’s journey through the world of vintage fragrance! As Head of Marketing for the luxury brand Penhaligon’s (and a self-confessed fragrance geek), Emily has an impressive knowledge of vintage scents! This blog post, Emily looks at the rather repressed 1930s! Enjoy! xx

“Not the most exciting era in fashion (those rising hemlines and short hair of the 1920s vanished almost overnight) but somehow one of the most intriguing. Influenced heavily by the Great Depression, fragrances in this era are comforting, warm, reassuring and strangely sensual. An illicit embrace in a bottle if you will. Women were looking for escapism from the general prevailing sense of despair; and in the world of fragrance they found it. (more…)