Shop at CLIC Sargent’s Shop on Gloucester Road!

Hello all! I thought I'd enlighten you with what I do with my free time.

Seeing as it's the time of year for students to be packing up their things to move to new accommodation or back home, what a better time to go through their wardrobes and see what things can go to the local charity shop!

Now since moving to England, the British have most definitely opened my eyes to the wonderful world of second hand clothing. Don't get me wrong, there are most definitely charity shops in America...we just call them thrift stores. Not nearly as an attractive name, but it's what you do; You thrift! And most of them smell vile. Anyhoozle...

I totally love charity shopping now! Especially since it's all about the recycling now and I've surrounded myself with people who really believe strongly in sustainable fashion in the past 3 years so it's only natural for me to jump on the bandwagon! I love that the money made in the shops go right to charity! Just amazing.

Bristol's quite good for charity shopping, especially Gloucester Road! Man, oh man! It's just shop after shop after shop and it's BRILLIANT! I found an absolute gem of a charity shopping partner and her name is Sarah Noon. She always finds the loveliest things and goes to the greatest places and that in itself is a gift.

One afternoon whilst making our way down Gloucester Road, she pointed out this one charity shop that she said was one of her favourite. If it's on Noon's favourite list, how do you say no? That's right, you don't! ...Especially if you're shopping with Noon.

What's the shop, you ask? Why, it's called "CLIC Sargent’s Shop on Gloucester Road" - clever, huh? This particular shop is part of the CLIC Sargent charity, which helps children and young people with cancer. Check them out! There are several CLIC Sargent charity shops around Bristol but this particular one is the charity’s first specialist shop Bristol. Oh yeah. Specialist shop, baby.

THEY SELL THE MOST FABULOUS VINTAGE CLOTHES AT THE MOST FABULOUS PRICES.

Walking in that shop just makes you smile because the atmosphere is so lovely! The decor inside is made up of the items they sell including a lovely array of teacups and all sorts of china, various hats, shoes, bags, paintings, oodles and oodles of vintage dresses and oh everything a girl (or boy!) could ever dream of.

My mate Charlie, who I recently found out works there, promptly whisked me around the shop to show me all the new additions to the rails, her favourite pieces and she also proudly showed off her window displays as well as others she had done around the store. She was even amazing enough to model some outfits for me!

As Charlie went between helping customers and showing me things, she managed to tell me a bit more about what she loves about volunteering there. She explained that Shop was really creative and different to all the other charity shops on Gloucester Road. She mentioned that the BBC had come round not long ago to buy some vintage things from the show "Casualty." Crazy huh?





Mazing, aren't they?





My mate Stacey also came along to try on some things too. There's nothing quite like playing dress up!

I even tried some stuff on, but shh. I don't usually do the whole "lets model clothing thing" But I happened to like the casino inspired playsuit, I had to have it and at £15? Bargain. Oh I can hear the taunts from my mother now on how she used to have something like it and blah blah blah. But that's what vintage stuff is all about right? Riiight!

So after spending a nice time browsing and stuffing my guilty (but awesome! why do I always spend money though!?) purchase of my new playsuit into my bag, Charlie pointed out that everyone should be buying picnic hampers* at the moment. Go on picnics in cut-off dungarees* or 70's maxi dresses*, people! That's the fun thing to be doing this summer, trust me.

*all of which can be purchased at Shop! Quick, go get em before they're all gone, ya'll!

So when you do that whole thing where you make those charity shop piles, why not donate to CLIC Sargent? Every donation helps children and young people with cancer, so trust me, they and their families will thank you. Oh and all vintage-mad, charity shop people who shop at Shop will thank you too. I know I will, blates.

Peace! xx

Whoa-hoooa. A Month down the line

See how easy it is to get swamped with work and life? SEE?! Absolutely swamped and quite drained and all we had to do was one outfit. One. Just one stupid outfit. It really puts everything into perspective when you get your new brief for the real thing.

Life's been like a whirlwind of crap lately. We had terrible news last week about one of our coursemates causing our assessment to be postponed and a serious funk went around uni. No one went in really and when they did, the mood was off. Just nuts really...but I managed to have Thanksgiving to kind of cheer the mood up a bit. I cooked and cooked and I managed to feed a good bunch of people. They seemed to enjoy it as well so that was brilliant. Should have dinner parties more often. I had another Thanksgiving as well on Saturday which was even more of a success because I fed even more people and made a good chunk of money (which I won't be able to use because away it goes to rent...)

Anyhoozle, it's been difficult getting back into the swing of things. I keep wishing for snow because I got my first taste of first snowfall of the season on Saturday. Stacey and I were properly excited and kept staring out the window going "It's snowing! .....It's still snowing! ....It's snowing more! ....It stopped >:( " It snowed this morning too. It was so exciting!!

Ahem, now back to this whole fashiony side of my life again. I finished my jacket and annihilated my trousers, but together it looks quite nice. I managed to fit the outfit to my good buddy Horigan and it looked quite nice to be honest. Toile that is...I haven't had a chance to try the final thing on him yet, and I wont find out until tomorrow as well. I don't know if he can make it in time or if it will snow even. Please please snow! I'm ready for this assessment but at the same time I just want it to be over and done with. Totally tired of seeing everything I've worked on in the past 2 months. Lame.

Now to consume some more mulled wine and sort out the research for my final collection. At the minute Stacey, Slawa and I are sorting out a critical path so there is no way any of us will fall behind over the next few months. I will be so organized that it will hurt me. Promise.

RIP Melissa Smith. Love and miss you, girl. This year's for you!