Thank you to everyone who entered the contest for the Way We Wear Fair tickets – I enjoyed all your responses, in fact I’ve found some extra tickets so you can all have some! So: Mel, Belle, Steph, Lyn and Anastasia, please email me with your postal addresses and I shall send some asap. Dilly dallying is not encouraged, as time is of the essence: the fair is on this weekend.

Apologies for all the fair and market announcements; I need to post some actual content soon to make up for them but I can’t help it if the calendar is quite busy at the moment!

The largest vintage fair in Melbourne is happening again – it’s only on twice a year and is the largest dedicated vintage market, in so far as it may not have as many stalls as some other fairs but you will find the most real antique, vintage and retro clothing from the last two centuries.

What: The Way We Wear Fair
When: 10-5pm Saturday June 19th and 10-4pm Sunday June 20th
Where: Williamstown Town Hall, Ferguson Street, Williamstown
Cost: Adult $12 Child (10+) $6 Family $30

Photo courtesy The Way We Wear Fair. For more information please see the official website

The theme for this fair is “And the Bride Wore…” and there will be many vintage wedding gowns on display from Australian and UK collections.

The Way We Wear Fair has generously provided us some free tickets to give away to Circa readers. A contest is open to all who are able to visit the fair, and there are four double passes to be given away.

All you need to is comment to this post saying which is your favourite wedding gown from history and why? For example, perhaps you like Grace Kelly’s, or Queen Victoria’s or perhaps what Liz Taylor wore to marry Richard Burton – the first time. Or there is always Jean Harlow or for something bolder, Dita von Teese. I quite like the elegant silk dress Marilyn wore to marry Miller in 1956.

The contest will run until the Sunday June 13th and then winners will be chosen. Good luck!

At Circa, we get a lot of requests to open Sundays, so as a trial, we will – Circa will be open every Sunday for four weeks starting March 21st. Come down and see Fiona for all your vintage sartorial needs! We’ll be open between 12noon and 4pm.

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest to win a double pass to see “My One and Only”. I enjoyed reading your responses and desperately want to see Roman Holiday again now! Here are the winners, drawn at random – please email me your postal addresses and your prize will be on it’s way to you soon.

- Amanda
- Lyn
- Vanessa
- Ally Hannon
- Louise

Congratulations to all the winners!

I’m looking forward to seeing the film “My One and Only” which has just been released. Set in 1953 and starring Renee Zellweger, Logan Lerman, Kevin Bacon, Eric McCormack & Chris Noth, it tells the story of Ann Deveraux who packs up her two teenage sons and hits the road in search of a new husband after she catches her current one in bed with another woman.

Based on the early adventures of George Hamilton, who’s glamourous mother did a similar thing, the look and style of the film is charming and the eye candy is fine. It promises to be a most enjoyable film.

You can see the trailer here.

“My One and Only” is being released by Hopscotch Films and promoted by Caper Creative, who have kindly offered Circa’s readers five double passes to see the film anywhere in Australia that it is showing.

To win one, all you have to do is comment on this post with your favourite American film released in 1953, and why you love it so. Here’s a list from IMDB and one from Wikipedia too.

I’ll start you off – my favourite has to be Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, a glossy confection about two adventuring showgirls on their way to Paris. Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell are perfect foils for each other, and never fail to please, and the film features some of MM’s finest musical numbers including “Diamonds are a Girl’s Best Friend” and Two Little Girls from Little Rock. Just so you don’t think I’m completely stuck on Marilyn, here’s La Russell in Ain’t There Anyone Here for Love?

Entries close next Wednesday.

Thanks to everyone who entered the contest for free vintage fair tickets – I must say that I loved reading all your comments. I wish that I had sufficient tickets for you all!

There can be but two winners though and in this case the lucky people are frog and Miss Emmi. Please pop into Circa this week and we’ll have them ready for you.

For everyone else – entry is only $12 and I encourage you to go: it’s a great day and a great opportunity to frock up. I’ll be there (as always) on the doorstep when it opens so that I can rush around and say hello and hopefully pick up a few bargains before heading off to Circa for another busy Saturday. Hope to see you there!

The bi-annual Melbourne vintage clothing fair is on again.

What: The Way We Wear Fair
When: Saturday 21st and Sunday 22nd November
Where: Williamstown Town Hall
Cost: Adult $12 Child $6 Family $30

More information about the fair can be found at the Way We Wear Fair website.

At Circa we have two pairs of free tickets to be given away – please leave a comment below and two winners will be picked at random on Friday. Winning tickets to be picked up from Circa.

It was hard choosing a winner for last week’s Love Vintage contest – five lovely people choose correctly the red floral 1950s dress with the big satin bow (that as Christina pointed out, should adorn a bottom not a front).

Photo courtesy Victoria Bennett.

There can only be one winner however – Anastasia, please email or call the shop to arrange delivery of your copy of Love Vintage. Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who entered – and special kudos to those who picked the ’30s dresses – it’s a quirk of the era that they often have high necklines and low backs so they look like they’re on back to front when they’re worn correctly.

Last Wednesday we held the Melbourne book launch for Love Vintage, with a vintage parade of thirty outfits from the ’30s to the ’70s (most of which are featured in the book).

Without further ado, allow me to present some photos from the parade – if you click on each one, you can see it in full. All photos courtesy Victoria Bennett.

I’d also like to thank everyone who helped with the event –
Models: Candice DeVille, Samantha Doll, Becky Argent, Fiona Hamilton, Nici Blue Eyes and Nicole Gregurek.
MC: Andrew McClelland.
DJ: Nic Toupee.
Doorman: Jeremy Murphy.
Stage Manager: Anna Schoo.
Dressers: Esther Hayes, Remie Cibis and Denise Cox.
Hair and Make up: Carly Robinson of the Lindy Charm School.
Book sellers: Anna Knight and Tim Hamilton.
Photography: Victoria Bennett.

Big thank you to The Order of Melbourne for providing a wonderful venue, and everyone who came – including Jean, my step-mother, who flew over from Perth for the night. It was fabulous, the largest event I’ve organised and everything went off like a dream. Andrew as MC did such a great job, he had all of us laughing, especially the models! You have to click on the images to see their smiling faces now.

The books are of course, available to purchase from Circa and book stores every where – cost is $50. I’ve had some enquiries from outside of Victoria so tomorrow I’m going to get some postage quotes for other destinations (apologies to those who have emailed, response will be forthcoming).

And now a little contest…one of the dresses in the parade was worn back to front. Can you guess which one? Comment below (you can see the name of each photo if you hover your mouse over it) and a lucky person will receive a copy of Love Vintage, including postage to anywhere in Australia. Entries close COB Saturday (6pm Melbourne time).