Best Believe ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

The quintessential English emporium; Liberty of London has a series of videos on You Tube on how to style and wear ‘the scarf’ including; the chiffon knot, the Plait, the Head Scarf and as above the Pussy Bow.

This is very exciting! On Thursday 4th March The Electric Cinema will be screening Beyond Biba a portrait of the life of 1960s fashion legend Barbara Hulanicki. All information can be found here with tickets available from The Electric.

Our first screening in Birmingham. We’re screening for one night at the Electric Cinema, Birmingham. The cinema is the oldest working cinema in the UK first opening on December 27th 1909. The building is now home to luxury sofa seating, waiter service and a full bar.

There will be a post screening Q&A with Director Louis price and Producer James Collie, which will be hosted by Tom Lawes, owner of the Electric Cinema.

Special edition DVDs signed by Barbara Hulanicki will be available after the screening.

Said with a face full of fashion-irony…” This is what you need to be looking at…”

Über Brum is Birmingham’s first and only street style blog. The aim is to find the beautiful people of Brum and document their style for all the world to see.

Peep here.

Whilst rummaging on tinterweb I came across this gorgeous blog, by the name of Coral Stars, written by the lovely Leah from Birmingham.

Here she talks to Best Believe about her aspirations and gives us an insight into the world of Coral Stars.

My aim in blogging is to document my inspirations and thoughts within the realm of fashion, diy + art. Coral Stars lives to serve as a place for my witterings, creative experiments and other things of that ilk.

Hello, hello! I’m Leah – an 18 year old currently living in Birmingham, I like fashion, sewing, knitting, drawing, writing, photography and generally dabbling in creative endeavors.

My blog, Coral Stars, would best be classed as a fashion blog. It’s my second blog, so I’ve actually been blogging since 2006. The focus on this blog is more diy, personal style and independent craft. I have a slight leaning toward vintage fashion, mostly because I view fashion as cyclical – but am not wholly opposed to mainstream fashion!

I started reading blogs as a way to keep up with the happenings in the fashion world and started blogging to keep a record of my thoughts, creations, obsessions and so forth. I’ve wanted to be a designer for a long time now, so this may explain why a little better!

I like sewing, knitting, generally making stuff, drawing, “thrifting” (to take the american word), music (like most), reading books, writing/blogging, photography (or at least, ‘taking pictures’), learning stuff about history, visiting galleries/museums… and a whole lot more.

It would seem that Birmingham could be the Vintage Fashion capital of the Midlands with the arrival of the new (but old) ‘Vintage fair‘ which is already successfully running in Sheffield and Manchester, making my count of vintage enterprises in the city to more than 8. The vintage movement is a way for us fashion forward folks to put a middle finger up to the relentless high street brands that keep rearing their ugly heads in Birmingham City Centre -  more commonly known to outsiders as ’shoppingham’. Vintage lets you embrace a unique and individual style, not to mention a more ethical approach to apparel too, as you are giving new life to the threads of yesteryear.

With Spring/Summer 2010 catwalk shows revealing 80’s silhouettes and 1940’s floral numbers, vintage fashion has wedged itself firmly within popular culture and does not seem to be showing any signs of retiring. Your body shape can determine which eras and styles suit you best. Slender boyish types look amazing in 20’s and 30’s styles, and voluptuous hourglass ladies are incredible in 50’s outfits. 40’s looks tend to emphasise the shoulders and waist, as does the 80’s but look fabulous on a range of body shapes.

At this point I would like to point my male readers over to my boy Kevin at Proppergander – a Birmingham based style blog that features many an article on men’s fashion.

So here is a round up of all the places in Birmingham that you can get yourself fully hooked up on a purely vintage tip.

Vintage Fair // The Library Theatre at Custard Factory – Starting 21st November – ‘The Vintage Fair now in our 2nd year hold exciting vintage fashion fairs in Sheffield, Manchester & soon to be Birmingham! Our vintage fairs are crammed with stalls of affordable vintage fashion from the 1920s – 1980s, reworked, handmade and eco clothing, cool jewellery , yummy cupcakes and much more from local to national designers and traders! So come and join us for some affordable shopping, a vintage tea party, offers on the bar and some vintage tunes whilst you shop’.

General Stores // Custard Factory - General Stores houses a collective shopping experience including spaces hosted by Diamond Togs, G & B Creative, Nattys Vintage, Coco Black Vintage and veteran-vintage-vendor Urban Village.

Cow // Digbeth High Street - The big yellow place – good for accessories.

Top Banana // York Road, Kings Heath- Good for man gear.

Vintage Fair // Hare & Hounds (Monthly) – ‘XMAS VINTAGE FAIR Ladies & Men’s clothes, accessories & jewellery FAB INDIVIDUAL PARTY DRESSES AT LOW PRICES UNUSUAL XMAS GIFTS FROM ONLY £1 AT THE HARE & HOUNDS PUB HIGH STREET, KINGS HEATH B’HAM. B14 7JZ 11am – 4.30pm FREE ADMISSION ON SATURDAY 7th NOVEMBER 09 SATURDAY 5th DECEMBER 09′.

Flea Market // Custard Factory Flea Market (Saturdays) – ‘The Custard Factory Flea Market is offering a free stall for 6 months to entrepreneurial university students in Birmingham. Birmingham based students are being asked to submit a business plan explaining their creative talents what they want to sell at the market. If successful The Custard Factory Flea Market will provide the five candidates with 6 months free stall rent worth over £500′. For more details read here.

Rag Market // Birmingham City Centre – ‘A place with all genres of taste and fancy, from women’s clothes, fabric stalls and even those lusted after magazines you can’t justify purchasing, just for a pound. A market that has been through Birmingham’s best and worst since the start. Pay it a visit and keep the Bullring’s true roots alive!’.

With London Fashion Week starting this weekend, Birmingham is also celebrating fashion with ‘Style in the City’.  Which looks like a right pile of crap, heavily endorsed by TV stylist Gok Wan, and his desperate attempts to get everyone in girdles and whack jersey wrap dresses.

However there are two ways to give a sultry respectful nod to London Fashion Week here in Brum. Firstly you can go and see ‘ The September Issue ‘ the new docu-drama about Anna Wintour at The Electric Cinema (see the Events page) and secondly is to go check out the Pop Up Style & Fashion shop which is an opportunity for independent fashion designers, independent retailers and boutiques from Birmingham to preview their work.

Pop-Up In The City will be on Corporation Street from Thursday 24th to Saturday 26th September (the old Jade shoe store next to New Era).

The shop is open from 10am-6pm each day and will be hosting designs from the following designers & independent retailers;

Chatterbox Boutique, People, Top Banana, The Wedding Club, Steel & Jelly, Rachel Simpson Shoes, Benjamin’s, Honey’s Lingerie & Terry Terry Accessories

Moseley and Kings Heath town centre manager Nikki Carr has developed the project along with the city council’s leisure, sport and culture chief, Martin Mullaney.

This is a good opportunity for independent fashion retailers to take pride of place in Birmingham’s city centre (where they should be) and to make pretty just one of the many empty shops in the city.

Apparently..

Council regeneration bosses are already working with art students to turn empty shop windows into temporary galleries during the recession and although unable to offer free selling space to businesses they are looking to help with the refit…

Coun Neville Summerfield, a Kings Heath businessman and the Cabinet member for Regeneration, said: “We are discussing what we can do with our empty shops and this is just one of a number of initiatives.”.

The Birmingham Mail

So for an alternative shopping experience check out this temporary shop and support the individual.

“Birmingham isn’t just one big Primark”

Best Believe September 09