Catwalk and Cocktails; The New Vintage Look

Being interested in all things 1940s & 50s we were very flattered to be approached to be included in the catwalk show for The New Vintage Look. We eagerly obliged as this evening was for a great cause, all money raised went to the Royal Brompton hospital in London. This event was organised by the lovely Bethan Soanes who you may know from her blog Nothing but Bettina Scarlett.

The event took place in the luxurious burlesque venue Proud Cabaret and being a stones throw away from our office we decided we had to go. So after a long day in the office we decided to glam ourselves up and head for an evening of vintage reproduction fashion and cocktails.

 After walking in to the venue filled with a gorgeous crowd in their 40s & 50s finest we found a table and had a gander at the show pack. Filled with an introduction to each of the clothing brands and sponsors and some freebies this was a great memento for the night.

We played the CD in the office the next day to relive some of those wonderful retro tunes that accompanied to catwalk show.

We managed to choose some delicious cocktails and settled in to watch the catwalk shows and entertainment. (I forget the name of mine but it included Gin, Grapefruit & Elderflower and went down rather nicely) 

Singer & Compare Miss Coco DuBoir

There were a few vintage repro brands showcased and each had around 12 outfits. We included a mixture of our new SS2012 collection and our classic pieces in our segment of the catwalk show and were excited when we caught a glimpse of the first outfit.

Our New Futura Play Suit on the catwalk. Find it here on our site!

Our Dolores Doll White Hibiscus (find it here) is our classic swing dress in our ivory and pistachio hibiscus print new for this Spring! This great photo of the show was taken by photographer Tigz Rice.

We had a great night the outfits in the show were gorgeous and I came away with a few more things on my list of clothes I NEED in my life.

All in all a great night of Vintage fashion!

xoxo

Collectif needs your old photographs!

I was giving my house a well needed spring clean this weekend when I came across these very old photographs I bought from a vintage store in Brighton. They were only a few pennies each and I was absolutely fascinated, thinking about how they got there. Did people find them in their lofts? Who are the people in them? Are any of these people still around today? Anyway, I soon noticed all the pictures had one thing in common. The way people dressed back in that era. Do you see any jeans/hoodies/t-shirts? No us either. This was an age when people would recoil in horror at the thought of "casual" wear. Infact, this was their casual wear.

This got me thinking, when did it become OK to leave the house in anything other then your best clothes? All the people in these photos are dressed to the nines complete with matching hats, pearls and shiny shoes. If you saw a lady pushing a pram around dressed that smart now days you would probably think her eccentric, which is a shame because we think dressing your best is very important here at Collectif.

So in celebration of these well dressed (possibly deceased!) people, we would love it if you could send in any old photographs like this and we will make an album on our Facebook page. It will be great to see how people really used to dress and how times have changed. Either follow the link above and post your photos on the wall, tag us in them in your own albums, or email them to us and we will post them up for you!

If you fancy making a 40's statement, why not try our vintage inspired Button Suit?

Click to shop

Or like the ladies enjoying a picnic in the top photo, wear a classic 40's style high collared faux fur trim coat. It's an easy way to look dressed up and like you have made a lot of effort, even if you are wearing your scruffiest clothes underneath!

Click to shop

Remember we also do a selection of hats to top off the look.

Click to shop

Love the Collectif team XOXO

You can never have too many accessories....

At last! We have finally got some dishy new accessories in. We are big on all things Hawaiian/floral/tiki as you know, so we (Tara & Julia) had lots of fun selecting our new accessories.  

Click here to shop these accessories.

First we have lots of new gorgeous hair flowers. We have the large ones for those special occasions when you want to really stand out from the crowd, and also (as modelled below) the smaller, daintier flowers which are great for every day wear. 

Tara wearing the triple lilly.

Julia in a triple lily, click to shop!

Why not match it with one of your favourite Collectif dresses?

Click to shop for this dress.

We also have a 2 new sunglasses frames! 

Channel your inner Pink Lady with our greaser sunglasses, they come in red, black, white or hot pink so there is one for every girl.

Greaser sunnies in red, click to shop.




We couldn't help but try them on of course.....

Tara in the black greaser style shades, click to shop.

Or maybe you want a more subtle hint of 50's glamour? Why not try our cat eye sunglasses, they are super flattering for all face shapes.

Julia in the cat eye glasses, click to shop.

Personally I was always a Rizzo fan.......who would you be if you was a Pink Lady? You know you loved one of them just that little bit more... ;)

We will have a lot more accessories and jewellery coming in very soon so  keep those peepers right here!

Love the Collectif team XOXO