Charity shopping, the Seventies, and me

I know charity shops (thrifts stores, op shops) can be full of rubbish. Or more precisely, stuff I don't like and don't want, even though someone else might.

However;

as I pottered around various charity shops this week, I was struck by how easy it is to construct a decent wardrobe very cheaply, including some higher-end high street labels in the mix. It might not be what I want to wear, but why shop for clothes at Primark or supermarkets when you can find Monsoon, Reiss, Karen Millen, Topshop, Kew, Phase Eight, Hobbes, ASOS, Gap and more in charity shops?

Here's my favourite find of the week, and the reason for this extraordinarily supercilious and smug expression.

A 1970s Co-op maxi skirt. 

£2.99.

Thank you very much, Barnado's charity shop in Dronfield; you can keep your M&S and Dorothy Perkins, but this will do nicely.

I picked up a little pointelle-style cotton t-shirt too, just because I need a short-sleeved red top and it was £1.99. I clocked the label as soon as I lifted it off the rail;

 British heritage knitwear brand John Smedley, which began manufacturing in 1794 just down the road at Lea Mills in Derbyshire. A quick look at their website reveals that their Sea Island cotton t-shirts retail for £100.

Oh I know; I don't need to tell you lot, you already realise charity/thrift/op shopping is a no-brainer.

Another label caught my eye too;

This groovy 1960-70s men's flower power cotton shirt started life on the King's Road in Chelsea; I can't find any information on the brand at all, I guess it was a little independent business which came and went, as so many did. The shirt is sadly too small for the man of this house, but I am sure I can find a new home for it.

I'm no label snob, but I like finding good quality clothing at cheap prices, and unusual vintage labels always intrigue me. 

1970s Co-op maxi skirt, velvet jacket, top, tooled leather bag, belt and bangles, - charity shopped

Boots and belt - retail (sale)

Necklace - gift from Gisela

Royal Worcester porcelain brooch - car boot

What else took my eye and came home with me this week?

1960s timer, 1960-70s engine-turned pendant, big rings, 1975 Tammy annual, and another 1960s amber genie bottle (the twisty one on the right).
Nothing cost more than £2. 

I found a 1977 Pink annual too. I remember reading Pink as a young teenager, it was an alternative to Jackie but doesn't seem to have been as successful.

The fashions and hairstyles are quintessentially Seventies, although the comic strip illustrations look very 1960s to me.

 I chuckled at Elton John's description of his ideal girl (I like a girl to be very adaptable), but shuddered at Gary Glitter's (Girls with black hair, that's what turns me on!)

Oh dear...

I really can't recall if I read articles like this at the time and believed them; I probably did, more fool me.

 1970s teen magazines were obviously a feminism-free zone. Telling girls and women how they should behave has always been the stuff of magazines, hasn't it?

As though inflicting Pilot, Mud and the Bay City Rollers on impressionable girls wasn't bad enough...

 That's better - some things about the 1970s never lose their appeal, at least not to me.

I'll be taking my skirt over to Patti's for Visible Monday - see you there!

xxxx