The Style Eye cruises by The Vintage Festival





Hello?? London Calling 'Say what you want, do what you want, wear what you want, on The Royalty'

Ship-shape and own style fashion



The Style Eye and crew spent this weekend all aboard The Love Boat as part of the Vintage By Hemingway Festival , checking out the cool retro vibe that took over The Southbank from the 29th to 31st July.  We cruised along on the respectively retro MV Royalty, and set sail from Festival Pier for a series of two hour long parties along the River Thames. Each event was hosted by one of a selection of London's finest music scenesters and DJs, who brought with them an array of diverse followers. Kicking off the first party on the Saturday was the legendary Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze who spun his collection of old 45's to his hardcore fans, who all made an immense effort to dress to a 'nautical but nice' theme. Later on in the evening a special cruise came courtesy of DJ Anna Greenwood, from the ever popular Guilty Pleasures parties. The dress code here was Hawaiian beach party for the guests. Although, Anna indulged in her very own guilty style pleasure - a tiny royal blue, one shouldered ruffled cocktail dress - very eighties and yet so very great. Joanna Gibbs, South East London's finest curator and dealer of vintage clothing danced the night away in an original 1930's bias cut silk gown, accessorised with faux flowers in her hair and flip flops on her feet. Andrea Britton, singer ,songwriter and all round legendary Love Boat organiser looked her usual cool cat self in her Alexander Wang steel tipped wing sunglasses. Me? well I was having fun in an original 60s short A-line dress from The Beehive in Greenwich, in the colour of a Quality Street toffee wrapper, paired with Pucci ankle strap pumps. So eye catching was the colour it got me a Fash-Papping by street style blogger and photographer, Pat Lyttle of Jstreetstyle . For the last cruise of the day, Ben Jamin from The Century's Sunday Happy Day, included in his set De La Soul's Roller Skating Jam - which of course required a footwear change by me -a pair of white, red laced new/old stock 80s roller boots (on a moving boat after gazillion drinks in? Bambi on Ice springs to mind) So this week, readers, I think I can safely say, style wise, that absolutely anything goes at a 'retro-spective' festival. Life is too short to harbour style snobbery or insist on vintage purism at a vintage themed festival. Take a little bit from the past, mix it up your way and make it new. There is one little rule though...ALWAYS have fun!!!