A Love Affair With The Past - My Vintage Beginnings

As well as a loving, stable, nurturing home, my parents gave me two important things. Two things that have become passions of mine. Music and history.

Music has been with me throughout my life - from singing with my hairbrush to Whitney and annual holidays to Sidmouth Folk Festival as a kid. From training and working as a professional dancer and singer during my early adulthood to now singing in a modern country band. Music has been an absolute staple and, at times, almost a life saver.

History has also always been with me. I studied it at school and at A Level. Visited historical sites throughout my childhood. Our home was filled with shelves and shelves of history books. Even now, pretty much all I read are history books and my favourite TV binges are historical documentaries.

I suppose both of these things fed a fascination with all things vintage. When other kids were listening to Bros or Spice Girls, I was also singing along to Buddy Holly albums and playing my Dad's old vinyl on the big old music system he donated to me when he'd upgraded!

I dressed my Sindys and Barbies in my versions of historical dress and had them play out some historical drama I'd watched or read about.

One thing I distinctly remember is being fascinated with old photographs - of family or historical figures in books. Looking at their clothes and imagining myself floating around in them. Certain outfits stick in my head to this day. The incredible mini dress and knee high boots my Mum wore when she married my Dad in 1971. Her fabulous boho tassled shift dress from the early 1970s. My grandmother's rouched waisted pencil dress she wore to the zoo. The circular skirts and petticoats in the black and white pictures of my aunties.

I still look at these photographs today - and when I'm at my parents' house - one of my favourite things to do is to get them all out again and talk about them with Mum and Dad.

For me vintage clothes are a wonderful way to express yourself as an individual. They're sustainable, they're timeless. They stand against cheap, fast, disposable fashion.

Vintage fashion is way more than a "look". It is also a connection. A connection to my past, my ancestry. I hear music of the era in my head when I see or wear a vintage piece. They all have a life and a history. They all tell a story.