Judy's Vintage Trader Awards

Friday Frock Love – The Best of August

September 6, 2013

Braydeston 5k 2013

September 9, 2013

Published by Retro Chick at September 9, 2013

I got to be a Judge this weekend.

I had a sash and a clipboard and everything.

Old Spitalfields Market had invited me to judge the “Digital Thumbs Up” Award at The Judy’s Vintage Trader Awards at the monthly Judy’s Affordable Vintage Fair.

My fellow judge for the category was Frock n Roll Vintage. Here we are looking all official thanks to Old Spitalfields for the photo.

We were looking for our favourite stall, one that represented the best of vintage, with good branding, good customer service, and great stock.

It was pretty much torture wandering round a vintage fair, looking at every stall in such detail, and not being able to afford to just buy EVERYTHING. I did end up buying some Babycham glasses on a stall, it’s a style I’ve never seen before, so I just couldn’t leave them!

Here are some photos from our wanderings.

Over a yummy lunch at Crepe Affaire we discussed our favourites and drew up a shortlist, before deciding on our winner. The prize wasn’t to be sniffed at, £50 of market vouchers and 2 free stalls to use at Old Spitalfields over the next year, so we wanted to make sure we chose carefully!

Our short list included:

Madam Fi Fi Presents: Madame Fi Fi had a beautiful stall of vintage jewellery and nicks nacks and with her bright red victory rolls she totally embodied her whole brand, she had cards available, but we had no way of finding her online, so on the short list she stayed.

The Old Homestore: This stall had an AMAZING selection of vintage homeware, beautifully presented and with branded bunting. She makes regular buying visits to the US and tailors her selection specifically to each fair she sells at, so you’ll always find something new. However, we can’t tell you where to find her next as, again, she has no online presence so I can’t stalk her round the country!

Our final decision, we felt, had made really good use of the small stall space she had, she also had some wonderful stock, with a preference for earlier vintage items. Her branding was also spot on a lovely duck egg blue sign with details of her website, that also carried through to the stock labelling and even the owners outfit!

So who was the winner? We chose Rebecca Jade’s Vintage a trader from Leeds who had come down to her first London fair this month.

Thanks again to Old Spitalfields for this photo of us and Judy with our winner!

I wore my Heyday! Twizzle dress again for the day, this time with a belt. It’s rapidly become a pretty indispensable part of my wardrobe!

The other awards were voted for by the markets customers using this snazzy polling station.

I don’t have a list of the final winners at the moment, but these were the other categories, and the 2 winners I do know! I’ll come back and fill them in if I find out the other 3!

– ‘The Audrey Award’ for most fashionable stall – Harper & Lee
– ‘The Eames Award’ for furniture stall worth applauding – Pink Elephant
– ‘The Make-do-and-Mend Award’ for best use of craft and up-cycling – Vintage Bits and Bobs
– ‘The Quant Award’ for best vintage brand – And in with the old
– ‘The People’s Choice Award’ for overall favourite stall – Auntie Aviator