Vintage By The Sea

Last weekend saw the return of Wayne Hemingway's 'Vintage By The Sea' festival. Taking place in the charming but often forgotten Northern seaside town of Morecambe, this was the second year in a row that Vintage has returned to the bay. The festival is centred around the grand, art deco hotel, The Midland along side the beautiful unrestored theatre The Winter Gardens and the unique 'Platform' pub, housed in Morecambe's old railway station.

It usually takes around an hour and a half to get to Morecambe from Liverpool but at weekends the traffic is horrendous. The main route to Morecambe takes drivers directly through Lancaster and in total, it took around 3 hours for us to make our way to the festival (and even more to find a precious parking space once we arrived!). Anyway, the long journey to Morecambe was worthwhile and we had a wonderful day at the seaside!

I've been to two of the Hemingway's festival's before -Vintage at Goodwood and last year's 'By The Sea' event- and I have come to expect a lot from these wonderful ventures. This year, no doubt encouraged by the beautiful weather, the festival drew a spectacular crowd of sightseers. The entire promenade was packed for at least half a mile with day trippers enjoying the vintage fairground, free live music and homemade food.

We made our way from the prom over to The Platform pub for a rustic cheese and red onion marmalade sandwich and a cider from the London Bus Bar. I didn't expect to be sitting on the grass in the sunshine in September but it was just beautiful! While we ate, we watched jive dance lessons taking place outside the pub before making our way into the venue to visit the vintage fair. I was surprised to see that photographer Ged Clegg had taken a picture of me on my way in! Doesn't the girl in yellow (in front of me) look fabulous?

There wasn't much time but I managed to have a good rummage around the vintage stalls and I bagged a couple of little gems. A 1950s stripe shirt dress and a black straw and bamboo bag! I could have easily spent a lot more money in there so it's probably just as well that they were closing at 4pm!

After the vintage market we headed over to browse the craft fair inside The Midland Hotel. Inside the foyer was a vintage DJ spinning tracks from the 1930s and 40s and a bar serving Pimms! We squeezed our way into the craft fair and watched ladies making hand printed aprons, customising old clothes with applique, printing Morecambe themed posters and creating handmade hair flowers, it was lovely! Next year, I will make sure we get there earlier so I have time to get involved with some vintage handicrafts!

Outside of The Midland was a vintage car show with a focus on 3-wheelers! I've never seen these cars before! I also got to pose with some beautiful 1940s and 50s cars and enjoyed watching the owners dressed up to perfectly compliment their vehicles!

We took a ride on the vintage ferris wheel, ate ice cream from my favourite vintage ice cream van, browsed an old fashioned book shop and took a walk along the pier to buy a good old fashioned chip butty. I can't wait for the next festival!

I wore my Tatyana dress to Vintage By The Sea. It's a fabulous dress with the most beautiful neckline, as you can see. I bought it in Nashville (30% off!) and it is authentically mid century, duplicated from a dress that actress Shirlee Teggee wore in 1949. It's made from a stretch cotton and has a metal zipper, authentic to the era. It really fits and feels like a vintage dress and made me feel fabulous all day. I wore it with my Office peep toe shoes, repro cats eye glasses and a vintage 1950s wicker and lucite handbag from Flashback Boutique in Memphis.