Beyond Retro Vintage Clothing Blog

Beyond Retro Sets its Sights on the Sea!

Diana Kiernander — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:42:09 +0000

Ship Ahoy! Why not spend a sublime weekend at sea! St Katherine docks in London is the destination for sailors and showgirls looking to catch some waves! As ’The Thames Revival’ festival celebrates vintage glamour, classic boats and the golden days of sailing, expect some seaside surprises! Come Saturday, you’ll be dancing between the Oyster Smacks and Classic Yachts, to the sound of swing bands and sipping cockails on the deck! This website has brought you news of vintage bike rides, glitzy tea dances, and Victorian walking tours, but this event is by far the most ’escapist’ you’ll get! You’ll want to look the part, of course! So get yourself down to Beyond Retro to find some vintage finery! You’ll want to look your best after all, if you are going to catch a sailors eye!

The Thames Revival, Saturday 11th and Sunday 12th September 2010

Dockside activities from noon

For further information and ticket details, please call 0207 724 1617 / info@bandgroup.com

Looking to Catch a Sailors Eye!

Beyond Retro: Everyone’s favourite shopping hangout!

Diana Kiernander — Tue, 07 Sep 2010 13:11:56 +0000

News just in! Leaving tumbling long hair, cute curls and wizardry far behind her, Emma Watson was spotted out shopping with a beau and a very big Beyond Retro bag! Maybe she’s got a new wardrobe to match her new look! Coming from Beyond Retro, there’s sure to be a few fantasy pieces in those parcels, proving she’s still got it in her to be quite the little witch!

Fantasy Shop Off!

Have a Fantasy Splurge at Beyond Retro for Bestival!

Diana Kiernander — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 13:50:09 +0000

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!

Retro Hollywood Glamour at the V&A This Friday

deirdre — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 16:39:40 +0000

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

London’s Next Top Tranny has returned!!

deirdre — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:43:17 +0000

Whether it’s Miss America, Miss World, Miss Universe or even the innocent Rose of Tralee we love a good beauty pageant here at Beyond Retro…the glamour, backstabbing, tiaras and tears!!! This September the Fabulous Russella invites you to London’s Next Top Tranny, the original and best tranny talent competition.

Contestants will be judged in various rounds on categories to include performance ability, overall look, catwalking ability and cookery skills. So whether it’s runway ready dresses, sky scrapper heels, creative wigs or vintage aprons we have everything you need to be Top of the Trannies. The first of three heats being held at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club starts on 8th September with the grand finale on 30th September.

To Enter email – toptranny@googlemail.com for details

The only thing holding the Beyond Retro press team back from entering is that there are no boys on the team…although that may give our entrant a slight advantage.

Look out Tyra here comes London's Next Top Tranny

Look Good in Leather

deirdre — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 17:00:13 +0000

While I love the image of James Dean brooding in his leather jacket in ‘Rebel Without a Cause’ my heart did a little fashion flip when I saw these cute camel coloured leather trousers calling to me from the Beyond Retro aisles. In fact, I even swapped the traditional motorbike for a vintage pink Raleigh Caprice. With everything from leather trousers, high waisted shorts, waistcoats, skirts and jackets there’s no reason why we can’t all sing along to the words of the Cody Chestnut classic “I look good in leather. And I know you, wish that you, could look like me.”

Raleigh Without a Cause

Hey College Boy, Beyond Retro Thinks We Love You!

Diana Kiernander — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 17:56:08 +0000

The Dragons, of course!

Ah, sportswear! Loved by millions, though traditionally never really my thing, though I’ll admit a well-worn varsity jacket can look good teamed with a balldress on a chilly night! (It’s got that mid-80s American teen romance vibe! Sigh!) Still, whilst I’m still gazing at my Kiefer Sutherland sparkled hearthrob sky, you can feast your eyes on some genuine sportswear fit for the Ivy League! Or just come over all modish and British with retro track tops, Fred Perry tees and wildcard ’sateen’!

I try to be a cheerleader!

Looking for 'The Breakfast Club'

There will always be a place in the Beyond Retro heart for a sheepdog!

La Isla Bonita at Beyond Retro!

Diana Kiernander — Thu, 19 Aug 2010 13:21:03 +0000

I love how vintage clothes have the power to take me back a few decades! Sometimes the memories can be recent, like cherished days on the dancefloor at any number of East End bars, in my scuffed stiletto heels and batwing tops. Then I go further back and somewhere in the fashion stratosphere, you always find Madonna! The original queen of reinvention (though Lady GaGa has beat her now!) always worked it best in the ‘80s! The classic, ‘La Isla Bonita’ sums up how we’d all love to spend the summer, Spanish style! Beyond Retro are coming over all flouncy and passionate, with red hot dresses, boleros and lush flamenco skirts! And the rosary beads?! You might need them later!

Flamenco style at Beyond Retro!

Red Hot Lovelies at Beyond Retro!

Sign Up here for the Beyond Retro Online Store!

Diana Kiernander — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:52:05 +0000

Drum roll please! Beyond Retro have a mega announcement!Our superscale shops are about to go cyber, with a showstopping online store opening very soon! Our team have conjured up a mammoth array of glamorous retro and vintage surprises, spanning decades of style! Everything from stockings to swing skirts, screen siren dresses, winklepicker shoes, bow ties, military frock coats, trash-glam cocktail gowns and much, much more, will soon be just a click away! For bedroom fashion dreamers in faraway towns, devoted retro heads and vintage lovers everywhere, this will be your new favourite shop!

Coming very soon! Sign up here, and be the first to know!

How Online Shopping May Have looked in Vintage Times!

The Big Lemon Bus!: Beyond Retro’s Latest Squeeze!

Diana Kiernander — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 15:58:07 +0000

If you read my blog often, you’ll probably know about my frustrations with the Northern Line (I just really want ‘Miss Overly-Happy-Scottish-Storytelling’ train guard at Old Street Station to calm down! She keeps waxing about how much fun we’re about to have on a late-running, overcrowded tube!), but the idea that there is a pollution-free alternative for getting around a city, makes me want to move to Brighton!

The Big Lemon Bus, famous in Brighton Town, runs entirely on recycled cooking oil! The not-for-profit run company (with the customer friendly fares) is so dedicated to the creation of a more ethically sound travel system, that waste oil is collected from chip shops, hotels and restaurants in Brighton and processed locally to make a unique plant based alternative to diesel! It runs across the city (mainly in term time for those idealist students I imagine!), at festivals (idealist rockers) and is available for private hire throughout the year (idealist grown-ups then!) And this, vintage dears, is what travel would be like in an ideal world! Let’s help make it so, by supporting such an innovative scheme! With carbon footprint damage and air pollution warnings ringing in our ethical, 21st Century ears, you have to admit, this is the most uplifting way to travel! Kooky, American schoolbus style kudos aside (oh we Beyond Retro heads love a dash of yellow bright!), this goes the extra mile (ahem!) for an environmentally aware travel experience. Sounds great! One day, I dream of a Northern Line experience to match!

Click here for more details!

Meet the Lemon Bus: Our Latest Squeeze!