Sleepy Saloon Girl

Have you met my sleepy Saloon girl, Chloe? She's drunk on love and is seeing stars, always. Waves of blonde ocean hair, fall down over my 1970s Jungle Jim's tee. What could be more dreamy and desirable than she?

It's quite nice to have a post on on here, that isn't of me for once so I cant actually show you some of my styling work. This is a lookbook, I recently directed for my new online web store E.R. Saloon. If you haven't taken a look yet, then please do! It's been running for almost a week now, but still oh so very new. 

This week, the new arrivals are so insane - it's going to be really hard letting go. I've especially grown so attached to this original 1970s orange tee. It's extremely soft, and I love it's seventies sporty feel. It's got SUMMER OF LOVE written all over it. Full of fun and mischief. 

Photographed by my friend Hannah Mae Clark and modelled by dreamer Chloe Nickerson. 

Vintage 1970s Jungle Jim's tee, available this coming Sunday 2nd April. Now take a walk on the wild side baby, and join us... Into the E.R. Saloon.

Sky Rocket

I've had a mellow few weeks. I've spent the last month or so completely on my terms, in that I've not had to get up in the morning and rush off to work for someone else. Instead I've been waking up and working from home and when I say 'working from home', I mean working on the launch of my online vintage store; E.R. Saloon. I've been busy adjusting the website, sourcing product to sell, and then the fun part - co-ordinating lots of shoots. I really can't wait to show you everything that's been worked on so far. E.R. Saloon goes live this Sunday (26th March) at 6pm with new arrivals landing every week going forward. Sign up to the mailing list, as you'll find out about promotions, lookbook previews etc and also would just be incredibly appreciated by me. It's quite daunting starting something from scratch, and building it up from the floor so any support and following from you, will really go a long way! 

Anyway, I took a break from my flat and all things E.R.S today and headed out into the fresh air wearing some trusty vintage Levi's to meet a friend. Public Desire had recently sent me these rad disco boots and I wanted to style them down with something that was super laid back. I'll be completely honest with you, I DID NOT wear these on my journey to and from. HAHA no, I wore some converse and put these on to shoot some photos. (I wouldn't make it from east to north in one piece, I would have fallen over about 20 times by now).

These sky high platforms say to me; Get your back up off the wall, it's DISCO TIME! They are fit for centre stage at a glam rock gig. They are a pair of funky party boots, if I ever did see. 

I've always liked to toughen up those obvious party-pieces though, and basically give them a good old slap on the ass! Rough them up a bit. By this I mean take them somewhere unexpected - style them with a leather jacket, dirty them up with denim, have scruffy beach hair etc. I can't be an obvious party girl you see, I just can't do it all! If I've got sky high boots on, then I doubt I'll be wearing a body-con mini dress. If I am wearing a body-con mini dress (then throw a blanket over me, and take me home immediately) then I doubt I'll be wearing it with sky high boots... too much, too soon. 

Vintage 501s are from my online store; E.R. Saloon and my Metallic Platform Boots are from Public Desire, my smelly old jumper is by Free People. 

True Seventies

It was March 10th and the sun came out, for the first time of 2017. A warmth transcended over London. People were cautious, not quite knowing to trust and believe it. Was this really the first sign of Spring? 

Camper van yes but road tripping, sadly not. Alas those hazy, long journeys filled with sunshine, cigarettes and the fuzzy radio wasn't of the essence this time. No, instead we were just lurking (posing) around some poor bugger's VW that doesn't belong to us. Dare to dream. 

So I just wanted to show you a really easy, everyday outfit for me - a uniform if you will. I'd recently gone to the Hackney Flea Market, at the Bussey Building in Peckham Rye where I picked up this original 1970s long sleeve. What I liked about this piece is it's multi-blend stripes and it's tight fit. It's a signature look from the seventies and cannot be mistaken for any other era. There are so many modern imitations of this style of 70s top, it's really nice to have found an original classic. I'm always looking out for this type of stuff, as I know I'll get so much wear from it. A true vintage staple and handy as hell! I'll wear this with all my vintage jeans, and I'll play around from converse to western boots.

Long Sleeved Top is an original from 1970s, my jeans are of course heavenly vintage Levis 538s from my store E.R. Saloon (launching 26th March). Vintage tassel leather jacket from my girl Sara at Waiste Vintage. Black mesh boots are from Public Desire, belt and sunglasses are both ASOS.

Shop E.R. Saloon

‘Businesslike Bohemian’ Tom Hodgekinson. 

My life so far has been a colourful twenty five years in that I've always got by, by doing a bit of this and that. I've cleaned primary school toilets to handing Kanye West his nail clippers, worked long hours at a greasy grill to handling thousands of pounds in cash doing one woman's personal shopping. I've been in utterly unglamorous working environments to the most surreal and magical. Not being adverse to rolling up my sleeves has kept me grounded. Being grounded is, and always will be, a true quality. 

I'm a creative, and find creativity in everything that I do. I may have been sweating over a grill at some point, but was still designing the menu boards. Learning from the inside out, working for other creatives, means that the time has come for the launch of my own 'thing'. It is with great pleasure that I announce E. R. Saloon, launching on the 26th March. E.R. Saloon will be an online destination for cult, selective and desirable clothing - vintage of course. You'll be able to shop to your hearts content, lust over paper thin T-shirts and dream about Levis denim. Sign up to the mailing list to be kept in the lasso (lol).

I remember my infatuation with vintage clothing started at a young age. In primary school I wore one of my older sister's vintage Dr Martin T-shirts as my P.E kit. On the front it had a B&W photo print of two naughty looking grunge girls leaning against a brick wall. I was in year four, and completely misunderstood by everyone.  In my last year of secondary school instead of wearing the supplied blazer as my uniform, I insisted on wearing a true 70s forest green velvet blazer. It fitted like a glove. Year eleven wasn't quite ready for this, and I'd often get laughed or threatened with being beaten up. I was labelled a grunger, goth, emo... and that was all completely fine by me. I relished rebelling. 

I'd find vintage completely mesmerising. The fact you could find a piece from decades past, that no one else was likely to have. What could be more cooler and special then that?

Fast forward a few years, through my teens (spending time dying my hair every colour, sewing up my jeans into drain pipes and pretending I could BMX) to my early twenties; I landed a job as a Stylist for Topshop. This later turned into Junior Personal Shopper at the flagship store at Oxford Circus. It was here, that I inherited 'how to be chic' and my style refined itself. I learned how to update vintage style bringing it into current times. I spent my days in the dungeon of Topshop with some wickedly stylish women.  There was a french Personal Shopper named Sophie Moureto, who was the epitome of chic, rock and roll style. She'd give Kate Moss a run for her money any day. Sophie, to this day, is a huge style inspiration for me - I've linked her blog, you must take a look. 

I learnt how to update my rebellious vintage approach and bring it into modern times. Mixing classic 60s/ 70s/ 80s pieces with up to date staples and so on. Being bohemian at heart, in the end I buckled under the rules and regs of retail but I'll always have Topshop to thank for this stylistic learning curve. 

So it's with this history lesson, that brings me back to the point of this post. I'm exceedingly excited for E.R. Saloon to be ready for you all to see. You'll be able to shop (this outfit above!) vintage T-shirts and denim to your heart's content. P.s - a young Robert Plant was my inspiration for this look, did you notice? 
Original 1970s LA Dodgers T-shirt by Champion and Low Rise Levi Flares - coming soon to E.R. Saloon. Online store opening 6pm, Sunday the 26th March. 

Worn Thin

“Luxury is the ease of a t-shirt in a very expensive dress.” ― Karl Lagerfeld

To be quite honest, I can't make sense of this quote. I think what Karl is trying to say here is if you can entertain comfort and style in one, then this is an absolute luxury, so well done. Or, perhaps he means the ease of a t-shirt is the same blissful experience as the luxury of an expensive dress? Hopefully with either of these, I've interpreted it right. 

The ease of a t-shirt, is a very beautiful thing. It doesn't require much know how. You can love fashion and style, or you can be very far removed and not give a dam, yet the T-shirt speaks all languages and can be understood by all. To many, the T-shirt serves a basic purpose, to others it serves a bold fashion statement. It can be widely appreciated and collected, or completely over looked and disregarded. 

What's your relationship like with T-shirts?

My relationship with T-shirts, makes for a lovely tale. It's a two way, well balanced and functioning relationship, that goes way back. Commendably, I've always held them up quite high as I see them as a great wardrobe essential. I know they are more then compatible with other things on my clothes rail. I'll team a T-shirt with a leather jacket, I'll wear it with good pair of jeans, cut off shorts, or I'll simply not take it off and roll into bed with it. Recently, I've been wearing this one T-shirt of mine underneath a tulle layered dress. Versatile no?

I like to go for the well worn, paper thin, super soft, see through, cotton types. Vintage of course. The more distressed the better, I love holes, I love the stitching to be coming undone, I love the colour fade. Hard to come by, unless you have your trusty sources. Believe me, there are racks and racks of vintage T-shirts in your local vintage stores, but how many of them of them are rigid and thick? 

The one I'm wearing here, is a recent find. A 1970s worn-in babe, she is really showing her age. Perfect and beautiful in my opinion. If you too, happen to really appreciate lovely vintage T-shirts like me then I have some exciting news. Watch this space. 

Vintage original 1970s Highland West Panthers, super soft thin cotton T-shirt - available to buy soon on my store E.R. Saloon.

Rio Fedora from new S/S17 Brixton. Crop Kick Flare Jeans, are cut down Jamie Flares from Topshop. Studded Levi Boots from Office.