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

Summertime and the living is easy and the here at Beyond Retro we think the fashion should be too. And what better way to attain some of that summertime lo-fi glamour and effortless cool than with a simple and chic maxi dress. Whether you want to waft away a summer afternoon in a cute and girly floral maxi or bop along at festivals in this colourful printed number, maxi dresses are the best way to give your wardrobe that summer lovin’ .

Or for something a bit more glamourous why not try this nude maxi teamed with a messed up over the shoulder plait and heels for a more sophisticated evening look.

Seasoned festival goers rejoice, we no longer have to pretend it’s all about the music! Your summer of love should start with the style! Post GaGa, our festival wardrobe demands to be as big as those electro beats!

Cue a dress up plan for every day! Pitching a tent under the evening sky? Our cut-off denim shorts teamed with a nautical striped tee and summer wedges will set the tone for laid back times! If the sun shines in the daytime, you’ll want to attract a loved-up audience of your own! It will happen in our custom made fifties two-piece! Complete with showstopping bloomers everyone!  But get ready with our fabulous glitter frocks for that Saturday night cider picnic under the setting sun! Wear with our astonishingly cool and colourful wellies for an individual glamour hit! And Sunday, should forever be about the comfort-zone playsuit! Of course there’s fun ponchos, dotty rain macs and kookie sunglasses too!

We want your festival weekend to go off like a dream, so we’ve worked out your wardrobe needs in advance, and we’re hosting a late night shopping event so you can pull together those last minute looks!

Come to any one of our Beyond Retro stores (across London and Brighton) on Thursday 17th June between 6pm and 9pm and we’ll show you how to rock that festival fever!

Free cider inside! Live DJs in Brighton and Soho, while the Cheshire Street gang get ready with the live music action! Indeed, the lovely, rootsy ‘Holden’ are playing a set in-store! I hear they hail from my homeland (Edinburgh, in case I never said!), so I expect great things! In the meantime, I’m going to let you loose on the clothes! Come on, it is all that really matters!

Beyond Retro always knew it was world class and this week’s Vintage Fox has travelled all the way from Paris to sniff out the best in vintage fashion in our Cheshire Street store.

Deborah’s outfit just oozes Parisian chic with the feminine lace dress and classic fur coat, while the untied black bow and SLR camera offer Left Bank cool. Beyond Retro especially loves the rope Alice band.

A touch of the Left Bank in the East End