I felt so much more prepared for Twinwood 2016. My vintage existence has developed a lot in the last year and I felt less of an imposter this year. I still have miles to go in the 1940s style stakes, but at least this year I had two outfits I was really happy and comfortable in and passable hairstyling (ok I cheated somewhat on day 2 with a headscarf to hide my lazy bed hair under!)
We’d also learnt from last year and booked Saturday/Sunday rather than Sunday/Monday, with more going on for the first two days and also we had booked 2 nights in a hotel rather than one, meaning I could have a drink both days and we could take it easy checking out on Monday morning. Twinwood is so well established all the local accommodation gets booked out year on year, but we stayed in the Holiday Inn Express in Bedford as we did last year. It’s only a 20 minute taxi ride from the festival and has all we needed.
The weather this year was better than last but we still got two almost identical downpours, one on each day, and as a result a somewhat damp rest of the afternoon and evening. The range of venues at the site and the fact that many are under cover really means the show goes on – only the main arena is really affected, but a lot of people bring fold up chairs, umbrellas and waterproofs and just hunker down!
Highlights include Benoît Viellefon, the Swing Ninjas, the Pasadena Roof Orchestra and the Down for the Count Swing Orchestra. We definitely danced more this year but still not as much as we could have! Here’s a little video I put together:
The market stalls were more numerous this year and I had a detailed browse over all of them. A lot of the clothing was sadly not my size, or I was not prepared to pay the prices asked given the choice in London and now having more confidence in my own sewing skills. I think this was really demonstrated by a repro piece I found at House of Foxy. Browsing the sale rail I was drawn to a familiar fabric….it’s one that’s been in my stash for around a year and a half, and I’ve earmarked it for another 1940s tea dress like the one I made last month and happened to be wearing at the time. The style and cut of the dress was almost identical. I bought that fabric for £3/m and the ticket price of the dress was £50 on sale….’nuff said.
I did however make a few purchases, just not clothes. The first I have to credit Simon with finding – a 1930s needlework bible, containing chapters on all aspects of home sewing including dressmaking and home repairs, plus a section on how to use your sewing machine which may come in more useful than first thought (more on that later). The book was £5.
I also picked up a selection of vintage buttons for £7, after rummaging through an enormous suitcase full of them. I was immediately drawn to the blue gingham ones and the small fabric covered teal ones scream 1940s like the ones on my tea dress. The mustard yellow ones would look great on a coat.
Finally my “splurge” purchase, after much deliberation and review of the offerings of several stalls, was a 1950s wicker frame bag. The leather clasp flap needs a little repair but at £45 this seemed to be well priced given the average condition of the bags I looked at. It already got plenty of use on holiday in Cornwall the following week! More about that in another post though.
I really enjoyed watching the Mr & Miss Vintage UK finals this year, which take place in the Colonial Club on Sunday. There are only 5 male finalists compared to 10 female, which I guess speaks to the bias towards female vintage fashion but I don’t think it’s very fair any more – Twinwood is certainly equally well attended by both genders. Anyway it is fair to say I paid a little bit more attention to the ladies many of whom were dressed extremely elegantly in 30s or 40s styles. The eventual winner wasn’t my personal favourite but was certainly a deserving winner.
Will we go again next year? Perhaps, although I feel as though this is a festival that could be best attended every other year. It had certainly grown since last year, as had we, so it was a somewhat different experience, but I could certainly see it becoming less of an excitement if we went year on year. I would definitely recommend it to any lovers of an immersive vintage lifestyle & music experience though!
A Certain Style 