Edinburgh Vintage Day!

"Right listen!! I went out last night, okay?..." "Hahaha! What happened?!" "I don't actually know..."

Today me and Megan got the train through to Edinburgh, with no idea what to expect out of the day. We were a little worse for wear, with me falling asleep on the train, and Megan nursing a little hangover!

"Puff, puff! Guyyyys, wait for me!!"

Once we arrived in Edinburgh, we met Louise in the City Art Centre and left to visit some vintage shops. Dragging us up what felt like a thousand steps (deary me, I really need to exercise!) we arrived at on the Royal Mile. We were then shown the Missoni Hotel, randomly, by Louise which was amazing!! If only I had money...! Afterwards we stopped off at Totty Rocks, our first vintage shop of the day and although we didn't talk to any members of staff there about their business, we browsed the shop, full of quirky designs, making the little voice inside my head scream, "I want to take you home!"

"Oooh, God! I'm scared of heights!"

Next we visited Godiva, a little vintage boutique in the Grassmarket of Edinburgh, which was full of the shop's own independant designers' designs and various vintage collections. We then met one of Godiva's own designers, Rowan McIntosh who answered some of our questions and talked about her designs for her label "Rowan Joy", in her basement studio below the store. We found out that she collects materials from charity shops and old clothes donated to the store that they won't sell and re-uses them to make her own designs. She also was making her own designs for a market that she was selling at down in England. We found out that Godiva also does a "Made to Measure" service, where a customer would provide the material and consilt Rowan about styles and so on, and Rowan would make the design for them for a cost. After a browse around the shop and making a few purchases, we asked the manager, Fleur McIntosh, how she sourced most of her vintage collections for the store. We found out that she has several ranges made by several independant designers, ranging from Scottish designers, Art College Graduates, and even designers from England too, Rowan being one of the designers for the store. But there are other collections that she has collected herself out of interest and from donations from families of Grandparents who have passed away. It was really interesting to ask her these questions to find out how the business worked.

"Gah! I left my vintage scarves in Sainsburys!"

We then visited our last vintage store of the day, called Herman Brown, which was a lovely little shop, focusing more on Vintage collections rather than quirky, kitsch designs made for the store, such as in Godiva and Totty Rocks. Louise and Megan asked the woman some questions there, while I ran back out to Sainsburys to get the scarves I bought, which I left there. When I returned, I browsed around the store finding a gorgeous lace dress for my Prom, but unfortunately it was not my size, which was heartbreaking! After purchasing, once again, and trying to persuade Megan to buy something too, we left in search of a coffee shop.

"Oh my God! Was he NAKED?!"

We found a little Tea Room called Tea Tree Tea, which was a lovely little place, with the two funniest, crazy men there, and we had a little intern meeting there. With Megan and I being slightly disturbed and distracted after seeing the man lift his apron to wip his hands, revealing nude coloured shorts, hence the nakedness-thinking!

"See that big clock? Do you think if it fell on you, would you die?"

After our meeting me and Megan headed back to the train station, where a lot of randomness ensued! Note to self: GET A HEARING AID!!! haha!
Overall today, I thought today was a great experience to see and understand how different businesses in the fashion industry work and a great chance to see what went on 'behind the scenes', as it were. This would prove to be very useful for me in the future, as the University course that I will be studying next year will include studying about how the industry works, so this had given me a great headstart, and a lot of experience!