Sigh! Festival season is drawing to a close for another year! But at least it is going out with a spectacular bang! Bestival is almost upon us and the ‘Fantasy’ theme they have adopted this year is a great finale! Make sure the soundtrack to your summer has a wonderful wardrobe to match! Of course, you know we do showstopping fantasy better than anyone (all those sparkles, all that grunged out glitz!) It may be the end of the summer (sob!), but we still have some fabulous festival goodies for y’all! Pretty petticoats, magical top hats, spiky sunglasses and vintage gowns, all a fantasy costume make! And if it rains, you can still keep in the surrealist spirit! Just grab one of our ultra glam ponchos! Prices start at £3 for the poncho but you can grab any dress-up bits from £5 or less!

www.bestival.net

Bestival takes place on 9th – 12th September 2010 on the Isle of Wight

The ultimate lo-fi fantasy dress up!

Pack your festival fancies in this fantasy retro case!

Oh to have lived in the golden days of the silver screen (sigh). When women were seductive, men were brooding, dance numbers were obligatory and diamonds were a girl’s best friend. This Friday the V&A will be hosting a celebration of 1950s Hollywood glamour and the reign of Grace Kelly, Marilyn Monroe and Marlon Brando. Visitors are encouraged to don their finery and channel the decadence of the era in the classic setting of the V&A…you all know how much I love an excuse to dress up!!

The event includes film screenings, performances by dandy comedians Fitzrovia Radio Hour and a specially devised Alfred Hitchcock & Friends quiz. Illustrator Daisy de Villeneuve will be in residence, creating artwork and you can travel back in time to the age of Technicolor with a visit to a pop-up L’Oréal ’salon’, where coiffeurs will recreate glamorous hairstyles for visitors. Guests can also take a turn around the Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition and enjoy exhibition-related talks around the Museum as well as late bars and live music.

Further details available here
http://www.vam.ac.uk/activ_events/events/friday_evenings/friday_late/events/friday-late-aug-2010/index.html

Grace Kelly with her Academy Award for Country Girl, 30 March 1955

Fitzrovia Radio Hour will be performing

We’re not even half way through the summer yet and those festivals just keep coming! This weekend, it is Field Day, happening at Victoria Park on Saturday 31 July, that is keeping East London firmly on the music map! Weirdly, the sun has held up for most of the season and we’re still waiting to put on our dancing gum boots! My fabulous assistant, Dee, got fed up waiting and pulled on a pretty floral pair, just in case! As the picture below shows, she actually got fed up of the week long gaps between festivals anyway and thought she’d just rock up to work ready for the next one! So here she is, a beacon of festival style, in denim, Bakelite bangles and sun shades, seeing where the music will take her next!  With V, The Big Chill, Reading and Bestival still to go, it remains to be seen whether it will be summer playsuits all the way for her, but Beyond Retro have your wardrobe covered anyway! Come by any one of our stores for inspiration, leather shorts, satchels and flowers for your hair or come by, just to catch a glimpse of Dee in THAT straw hat!

www.fielddayfestivals.com

Waiting for the rain, or the sun, or the Kings of Leon...

Of course, it’s the jeans you notice first! Super skinny and creased up, it’s as though Barrie Cadogan fell from planet rockstar! On closer inspection, it appears he has done just that! Check the pristine pointy soles and stripy tee! Soho found the dreamy muso sniffing around the crammed aisles of style at the weekend. And what a find! Turns out he might have been scouting for stage wear, as he plays with (my own personal favourite rock God!), Bobby Gillespie and the boys of Primal Scream. You may also catch him on stage with ex Orange Juice-r, Edwyn Collins. And then there’s the ‘Little Barrie’ trio itself, the London-based hard rock, blues and funk outfit he fronts! No wonder he was out shopping! I bet he gets through a lot of shirts on stage! There you go, proof that Beyond Retro clothes really know how to rock a room!

Little Barrie play Merc Clothing, Carnaby Street on 13 August at 6pm and The Blues Kitchen, London on 29 August at 7pm. For more details on their sound and maybe their style too, check them out here!

Little Barrie at Beyond Retro