VandOak Post – What I Am Reading

It’s been another jam-packed week in V&OAK Magazine Towers. First of all, a nice chap called Gareth has joined us in the advertising department. Gareth is on hand to help you out with all your advertising queries (for both print mag and online). Simply email gareth@vandoak.com for more info. 

Issue 2 of V&OAK is coming together nicely (previews coming soon!), particularly with regards to fashion shoots. We have some absolutely stunning editorials already ready to go for Issue 2, and two more being shot over the next week. I just can’t wait to see what they look like.

In between running the website, the print magazine, designing and attending vintage fairs, I like nothing better than to sit on the sofa with a cup of tea (herbal or fruity for me) and something to read. I love the papers, magazines, and books of all genres, and often have more than one on the go at once. Here is the reading material gracing my bedside table at the moment.

Vintage Fashion & Couture From Poiret to McQueen by Kerrie Taylor

My fiance’s parents very kindly got me some Amazon vouchers for Christmas last year, and I was thrilled. I personally (old-fashioned gal that I am) still associate Amazon with books, and my Amazon Wish List currently consists of 57 books and nothing else, because I am blind to the whole other world of gadgetry that resides beside this almost entirely comprehensive library.

After much deliberation and browsing, I chose this beautiful book by Kerry Taylor. Starting with the turn of the century, this richly illustrated tome charts the history of fashion using key designers and contemporary style icons to tell a fascinating story.

Kerry Taylor is widely regarded as the world’s leading expert on vintage fashion. Having joined Sotheby’s in 1979 at the age of 21, Kerry then went on to launch Kerry Taylor Auctions in 2003, which specialises in selling costume and textiles. Kerry undoubtedly knows her stuff and I am eagerly digesting all that this lovely book has to offer.

Style My Vintage Weddings by Annabel Beeforth

Howard, my fiancé and V&OAK partner-in-crime proposed to me a couple of years ago, by whisking me off to Barcelona on a surprise trip. By surprise, I mean I had no idea where in the world we were going until the airport tannoy announced our names (we were characteristically late for our flight, stuck browsing our way through the magazine section of WHSmith). Hence, I took with me a bikini and a winter coat, and lots of layers (the key, I hear, to clever packing).

After such a romantic proposal, I got home and swiftly started planning… the first Issue of V&OAK of course! V&OAK swallowed me up into a delicious world, and frankly I have enjoyed every last minute of it. But this year, my mission is to get married and weddings now consume my waking moments.

Style Me Vintage is a gem of a book, packed full with inspirational ideas for styling a vintage wedding. There are just stacks of stockists to look up for a start, and for every decade there are handy (and many tried-and-tested) tips for make-up, decoration, music, entertainment, food and even tiny little details that you could otherwise forget about, like perfume.

Frankly, I am getting distracted just writing about it. So, where was I? Oh, yes books…

Flea Market Chic by Liz Bauwens and Alexandra Campbell

Now here is another book packed full of gorgeous images that it will suck you right in. The rooms in this book are eclectic, unique and personal. They are all rooms that people actually live in with lots of things on display: knick-knacks, books, photographs, found feathers, cats. It is all mis-matched and uncoordinated. The people that live in these homes have amassed their stuff gradually from charity shops, vintage fairs and trips abroad.

I absolutely adore this approach, being a bit of a hoarder myself. However I do think there is an art to storing and displaying your worldly goods, and the authors of this book have nailed it. Though the photographs themselves are a vast source of inspiration on their own, Liz Bauwens and Alexandra Campbell really get down to the nitty-gritty of what makes each of the 12 homes featured work so well. There are also plenty of money saving tips to ensure your home reflects you completely, on a shoe-string budget. What’s not to love!

Thanks for reading, and enjoy the week ahead!

Anastasia Grabova from V&OAK (www.vandoak.com)