The Tab tries: Norwich Vintage Fair

In the past couple of years vintage fashion has gone from the reserve of the kooky kids to a full blown industry-wide phenomenon.

It seems that recently even the biggest high street chains are constantly trying to emulate something older and more authentic in their designs. The result of this boom in vintage has been a rise in the ease of shopping for it; Urban Outfitters and Ark, not to mention Ebay, both offer a vintage section on their website, shipping freshly laundered vintage items straight to your door. This eliminates the need to rifle through charity shop rails for hours to seek your ideal vintage item.

However convenient this online vintage option might be, it’s important not to neglect the importance of a few hours spent going for a dig through a selection of really great old items with a like-minded friend, with no particular purchase in mind.

Luckily for the rummaging enthusiasts amongst us, the monthly Norwich Vintage Fair, held in St Andrew’s Hall (opposite Cinema City) provides probably the best opportunity for this kind of activity anywhere in the city.

Far from being a second hand sale-esque experience, the Norwich Vintage Fair is appealing to both vintage lovers and people who only like new things alike. With around fifty stalls selling everything from 50’s style luggage (which you don’t realise you need until you see it) to a massive selection of tie dyed t-shirts, as well as a vintage styled beauty salon and tea shop, it’s definitely possible to get a bit too excited on first entering the fair.

The sheer amount of really pretty things on display is enough to make your student loan shiver, but the plus side of shopping at a fair is that you are a person buying from a person, you can haggle a little bit, making shopping at the Vintage Fair a student friendly experience (even if three antique brooches weren’t really in your budget for this week).

Without trying to sound like Mary Portas, buying things from an event such as this just puts a little more soul into the whole shopping process. Traders set up their stalls lovingly, paying attention to what they think looks best and paying attention to their customers because it matters to them whether or not someone is happy with their purchase.

An advantage of coming to an event like the Vintage Fair is the fact that most of the vintage traders in Norwich will be there, if there’s a particular item niggling in the back of your mind that you have to find, be it Sloane Peterson’s jacket from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, or a Great Gatsby-esque turban headdress , if it’s in Norwich, the chances are it will be at the Norwich Vintage Fair.

Even if you’re not after anything in particular, just have nothing much to do on a Sunday afternoon, a Vintage Fair is definitely a worthy cause to leave the house for. After all, who doesn’t like pretty things?