Twinwood 2015

We had sun, we had rain, we had dancing, fun and frolics! Plus plenty of shopping... not only in our stall but we also spent some time perusing the rather marvellous vintage stalls and picked up some real gems!

As mentioned time and time again, we love this event. Its down to earth in the way it runs and the people that visit and we simply have so much fun!

A few highlights from the event:-

Electric Swing Circus

Very 40s! Edna!

Purchase of classic 40s coat - it really is a rectangle! (terribly warm though)

Harry & Edna's battered kettle - a life saver!

Our fab customers!

Carradine's Cockney Singalong - with Champagne Charlie - very silly

More fabulous customers!

Thankyou to all our lovely customers who visited - see you again next year

Get Ready for Goodwood Revival!

The first time we had a stall at Goodwood, it would be an understatement to say that we were overwhelmed.... The event is truly a spectacle!

That was four years ago and the event just keeps on growing and evolving. Never a dull moment that's for sure.

There are thousands of people that attend this event over the 3 days - most of whom are dressed vintage style. Some are vintage enthusiasts already - whilst others are new and maybe a little unsure of what to wear. At this time of year, we get many phonecalls from ladies asking for assistance on what to wear - so we've put together a few ideas for you.

The event generally covers 1940s to 60s - although there are plenty of other eras covered by vintage enthusiasts. 

Ideas for 60s Enthusiasts

Fancy yourself as Joan from Madmen? The 60s doesn't have to mean mini - check out our grown up glamour options - all limited edition of course:-

1. Queen Bee Dress- early 60s shapely wiggle dress
click here

2. Dolce Vita Dress in Red Rose
click here
(available in many colours and prints)

3. Lucy Dress in sunshine floral
click here

Ideas for 50s Enthusiasts

There's no doubt that 50s is one of the most flattering for all shapes - whether you go for a wiggle pencil style or a full and frothy petticoat - it's all so glam. Take a look at our 50s suggestions....

4. 50s Halter Swing Set -
pair with a chiffon petticoat for volume!
click here

5. Mansfield Dress - wiggle your way through the day
click here

6. 50s Jezebel Dress - pure opulence!
click here

We have a full selection of Goodwood Revival ready outfits on this page for you to peruse: http://www.thehouseoffoxy.com/en/goodwood-revival

We will be in the revival market - number 21 - please do come and see us!

Getting Ready For Twinwood

Twinwood - 29th to 31st August 2015

We are terribly excited about Twinwood! Its one of our favourite 40s & 50s events of the year. So much to see, so much to do and plenty of dancing to be done. Its always wonderful to see so many of our customers both throughout the day in the stall but also out and about in the evening. So many fabulous outfits to see too!

This year, our stall has moved to the main traders area between the arena and the dance tent - not far from the Colonial Club. If you are around on friday night - we are hoping to be open for a few hours so do pop in.

We are bringing our full 40s range plus an extensive sale rail with end of lines and samples - you will be guaranteed to grab a bargain! We have also got some brand new special editions that we are taking along - including the below 40s Whirlaway Swing skirt that we have made especially for the event. Designed with dancing in mind - this skirt has a sweeping skirt, handy front pocket and 4 shell button fastening.

Outfit ideas for Twinwood

If you havent been to Twinwood before - check out the website here: http://www.twinwoodevents.com. There are still tickets available.

The quest to find the ultimate tea dress!

We all love a 40s style tea dress - and i think this is because they make the best of almost every figure. 

A well cut tea dress is very flattering for curvy ladies and yet enhancing for those less well endowed. It is certainly my favourite style of dress and i have several in my ever growing vintage collection (blushes).

I think a tea dress needs to be good for dancing in! As a swing dancer myself and knowing many of our customers enjoy a parade round the tea dance floor, I often consider a dancers' needs in designing some of our frocks. A swirling skirt and easy sleeves are a must - plus fabric must be appropriate.

So for years I have been trying to find the best cut. Waist or empire? High neck, tie neck, sweetheart?or a simple darted bodice? I have come to the conclusion that one must have several styles in our wardrobe as there are just too many gorgeous features that simple cant all be included in one ;-)

I have been collecting images and researching, buying originals where possible and have come up with the following definitive list of features that every tea dress from The House of Foxy MUST have:-

1. A demure neckline - never too much cleavage or too low cut. Leave that for the wiggle dresses! 

a 40s original example neckline

2. Gathers/ruching above or under the bust.
There may be a yoke at the shoulder with gathers above the bust, or an under-bust seam with gathers making a more empire shape at the top of the bodice.
I have found a few more simple styles that gather simply into the waist seam.

original example: pleats below bust and into shoulder yokes

3. Fabric MUST be rayon or silk.
Synthetics or cottons don't drape or ruche the same and just dont look right. Prints are important - not too busy as this with disguise the styles lines too much which would be a shame.

Love this original - looks like silk

4. A swing skirt.

Lovely in panels but must skim the hip and create a decent amount of swing (but not a full skirt).

5. A short or cap sleeve.
\We know many of our customers love to dance so we often bear this in mind when designing many of our dresses - we like to be able to raise our arms and then there's the perspiration to think of ;-) So, a small cap, flutter or petal sleeve is perfect for this style of dress

petal sleeve - allows arm to raise 

In our opinion, a tea dress is more demure than wiggle styles - but is the most feminine whether worn Land Girl style with wellies or with a pair of killer heels ;-)

**To see our current tea dress styles - please click here

Our Autumn Tea Dress Styles - coming soon

A new design...

This is a new design we are working on - which adheres to all the above rules.

It is gathered above and below the bust to create a flattering silhouette and gently skims the waist and hip into a 7 panel swing skirt.

It has a higher neckline which is very authentic for the late 30s/early 40s fans amongst you and is in our own exclusive  vintage repro print.

This dress was inspired by this little vintage beauty: http://tinyurl.com/owhrktc 











Also coming soon are shown below:-

Production news! The Jezebel Dress

The Jezebel Dress - so named because it's complete indulgence. 
And because this stunning dress has caused a bit of a stir, I decided that a little post about it might be interesting ;-)I always had it in my mind that i wanted to add more 'high end' and perhaps 'indulgent' designs into the collection. We all love something that little bit special and because we make here in the UK, i sometimes allow myself to pursue a few of my fantasies (of the dress kind i assure you of course!)

The lace fabric I found inspired me to design this. It comes in several great colours but i love it most in the canary yellow.

There are 5 metres of lace in each dress - this is because there is so much wastage. We use the scalloped edge of the fabric across the back, the front, the hem and the sleeves.

But i think it's worth it and im sure we will be able to use the odds and ends for other garments in the future.

We showcased this dress for the first time at York Vintage Fair at the end of April and we were pretty surprised that it got such a reaction. Many ladies thought it was an original as our model Ellie strutted her stuff throughout the day. In fact, i was pretty relieved to get the sample back off her ;-)

Ellie in the Jezebel at York Vintage Fair

So - we are frantically working on this dress because we are getting lots of requests for it. Currently we are grading it into the sizes and getting it ready for production. We have redone the under bodice to include some boning for structure and even more fullness to the skirt.

So - herewith the Jezebel dress...ready to order in canary: 

I expect we will do the dress in blue, black and natural in the future as well.

In blue!

C'est fini - for now xx

Spring Photoshoot

So we did a shoot last week for high summer and autumn but this post is about our previous photo-shoot back in Feb because we need to catch up on our posts (eek)

Usual suspects included Clare from HoF to style and Bethany Jane Davies from The Vintage Beauty Parlour in Manchester who we often have for our shoots. We at Foxy have worked with Bethany for several years and she is a good friend and has recently been nominated in the National Vintage Awards - good luck Bethany.

New faces for us are Tanya, our model, and Chris Lord photographer.

Tanya is a professional model and part-time student. She was just what we were looking for - strawberry blonde and freckly. But even better - she is a quirky, free spirit who isn't afraid of anything new! Not a diva in sight ;-)

We wanted a studio shoot that was beautiful and vintage inspired - but not pin up. Chris is an inspirational photographer who brought many new ideas to the shoot including a rotating set which ties our collection together whilst not detracting from the garments.

Creating the set

It was a lot of fun (although messy too) getting it ready.


There's a lot of yellow in this SS15 collection - I think this could be because I have been frustrated by the lack of sunshine (certainly in Yorkshire) and wanted to add some extra brightness in the stock room.

But there is plenty of variety in print and texture in this collection and we are pleased to see the entrance of some styles that are influenced by the 20s - something that I personally, am very excited about. I especially love the late 20s/early 30s when staggered & asymmetric hemlines started coming through and the waistline started to move up to its natural position.

the hem of our new 20s inspired 'Sheba' dress

Anyway - thanks again to Chris, Bethany and the gorgeous Tanya for helping us create this great collection of images.

A New Direction

So this post is about our recent rebrand and why it marks a new move for us.

Customers will have noticed our subtle rebrand at the beginning of the year.

We wanted to keep the 'Foxy' element of our name but we felt we had grown out of the play on words that marked our initial brand. 

We are different because we make everything in the UK, in a dedicated factory. And here we can create a number of new products throughout the year and are not restricted by seasonal collections that are mass produced in the far east. 

It also means that we can produce short runs of 25 or less easily. Our customers tell us that these limited edition garments are possibly the next best thing to original vintage because they yearn for something different...

This prompted us to look at what we could do to use this better - more detail, more limited editions, better quality and more higher end garments that are made to order. 

With all the above in mind together with the fact that we are/were all fans of national treasure TV series ' The House of Elliot' - The House of Foxy felt like a natural progression for us ;-)

We hope you like it too!