Winning! Manchester Vintage Awards 2012.

I won!!! Thanks so much to all of you who nominated and voted for me. I'm now officially Manchester's Best Vintage-Inspired Designer, for this year anyway! I was also nominated in the Best Vintage Blogger category, but that honour went to the very deserving Dormouse and the Teapot, who blog in a far more professional manner than I, about lovely vintage events, recipes and other delightful things, rather than the filthy self-indulgent claptrap you'll find on here.

Here's what I wore: Tiki sarong dress and fascinator by Kalandra Jane Designs, Pleather Jacket by Motel, red hair lily by Dolly Cool, my favourite vintage necklace from Paul, badge by Graveyard Johnnys because we are the Poon Club, vintage bakelite bangles from etsy, and pinstriped bangle by Kool Kat Art.

Organised by the lovely Susie from Vintage Manchester, the glamourous awards ceremony took place on Wednesday 17th October at Matt & Phred's Jazz Club in Manchester's Northern Quarter. We were greeted by the rather delicious Pin-Ups in Pinnies and their equally delicious mini boozy cupcakes, including some amazing tiny vegan mint chocolate ones with glitter, squee!

Here I am with fellow nominee (and, as far as I'm concerned, the designer with whom I should be sharing the award) Maria from Kitty O'Hara's Corsetry, about to devour what was probably my fourth or fifth mini cake of the night!

The awards were hosted by my darling friend and singing coach Kiki DeVille, who treated us to some songs, including an amazingly operatic rendition of 'The Girl in 14G' - look it up! She's the gorgeous femme fatale in front of me in this photo of some of the winners by Jenny Martin Photography, I have no idea why I'm pouting like that! Excessive intake of rum and cake, possibly.

I was so shocked to win, especially seeing as I was up against Limb, who while based locally, are a large, nationally distributed dress company, whereas Maria and I are both sole traders working from our homes.

After gracelessly flailing my way onto the stage and nervously mumbling through the world's most garbled and incomprehensible impromptu thank-you speech, I decided it was time to get even more garbled and incomprehensible by partaking of the official tipple of the evening, Old J Spiced Rum. Blended in Manchester, this stuff tastes exactly like Sailor Jerry did before they messed with the recipe and ruined it - so if you miss your old sailor buddy, this newly-launched rum is the booze for you!

Following the presentations, a gorgeous performance by Suzie Sequin as Marilyn Monroe, and some schmoozing, myself and fellow award-winners Bethany Davies (Best Vintage Beauty), Matt & Annabel AKA Vintage 78 DJs (Best Vintage DJs), Fiona of Rose & Lee Vintage Living (Best Vintage Homeware), and a few others all headed off to the local tiki bar for celebratory cocktails! As you can see from the picture above, we probably didn't need them, but there was much celebrating to be done!

Annabel is wearing a dress, bolero and hat all made by me. Keep an eye out for more details on the launch of the Kalandra Jane Designs made-to-measure clothing range, coming soon!

Here's me in my natural inebriated state, knockers askew, posing in front of the mirror with my glorious little glass trophy at 4am. I had a fabulous night out and am so proud to have been given an award for my work. I never expected such recognition from customers, friends, fans, and blog readers when I started my little millinery venture.

So, thank you to every single one of you, I sincerely appreciate every single word of support I've ever been given, all the models, photographers, promoters and businesses that have generously helped me along with cross-promotion, and every person who has ever bought a hat from me, facilitating my dream of being an impoverished yet decadent artiste rather than getting a real job. (That's a hell of a lot more coherent than my acceptance speech was, and this time I'm not turning bright red, or knocking over the award and almost breaking it because I'm shaking from shock!)

What I did on my Summer Holidays: Kustom Kulture Blastoff!

Brought to you via the lazy magic of Instagram pictures. I use Instagram pretty much every day now as my phone camera is a lot more reliable than my actual camera which eats batteries and doesn't like picking up bright colours. If you're on Instagram, follow me: @kalandrajane

A few weeks ago Clare, Bethany and I packed up our little stalls and headed off to the arse end of nowhere (a.k.a. Spalding, Lincolnshire) for the 3rd Kustom Kulture Blastoff.

I managed to put up my 'vintage' (ahem hem) bright orange boyscout tent in what was possibly record time before it started raining. We lived in our tents for the weekend, and I didn't always look this well put together! Thank you Clare for waking me up with a delicious brew each day and putting up with my terrible morning moods (ie. grumpy hangovers)!

I didn't sell that much, and it was all a bit quieter than expected really. I spent most of my profits on feeding myself over the weekend, and on a couple of treats. I got a new wallet from Hot Rockin' Belle (who will soon be stocking my hats!) to replace my decrepit Bettie Page one, and a very reasonably priced new bangle from Kool Kat pinstriping, I also got a super cool hip flask from him but I forgot to photograph it.

It was dark and freezing at night in our tents, and the organisers wanted to charge the traders extra to get into the evening entertainment, so we spent most of our time gossiping over jugs of sickly cocktails at Frankie and Benny's, which was the only eating establishment within walking distance.

We got free cocktails at the bar because the new barman didn't know what he was doing! Hurrahs!

Helium was sucked from balloons! (Especially hilarious when you are full of terrible gin cocktails).

Ice cream sundaes were eaten sexily!

Upon returning from the restaurant we snuggled down for girly wine time in my tent, but not before wandering into a Si Cranstoun performance which was full of dodgy old blokes who had just come for the evening gig, jiving to music so clean and sanitised it made me want to punch someone in the face then smear my body with their spurting nose blood just to dirty myself back up a bit.

The fantastic Vince Ray and the Boneshakers had been booked and would have saved our starving musical souls, but they sadly had to pull out at short notice. Needless to say, we were unimpressed by the "rockin'" Michael Bublé soundalike, and I think that considering it's supposed to be a Kustom Kulture event, they should look into booking some acts and having some DJs that play something with a bit of an edge. The daytime event was full of tattooed hot rodders, vintage lovers and psychobillies, all of whom ended up in the pub with us both nights because the evening entertainment was, shall we say, not their cup of tea.

Anyway! Beth and I wandered out on the Sunday for a bit of ridiculous car show posing, as is traditional at these events. I made the top and lime green leopard capris, unfortunately I was feeling pretty bloated and grim this day, hence my slouchy, rotund appearance.

Finally it was time to leave, so Clare and I trundled off through the cabbage fields and into the sunset. On our way home we stopped in at the OK Diner at Carlton on the A1, and were really glad we did!

O, shining beacon of delight!

Clare had a lovely veggie burrito with Mexican rice!

I had a spicy beanburger with curly fries and guacamole! Our waitress was an absolute star, running back and forth getting me ingredients lists and checking things were vegan for me. It was a lovely surprise to be able to actually get a decent vegan meal at a roadside restaurant, I just wish there was an OK Diner closer to where I live!

I also got an amazing pink double hair lily, which Paul says makes me look like Jodrell Bank. All in all I had a really good weekend, despite not having made huge profits and having been forced to listen to the Big Bopper over and over again until I wanted to stab myself in the ears, I loved spending time with two of my favourite ladies, making some new contacts and getting to gab over cocktails!

New Hair and Th'Legendary Shack Shakers!

I finally got a haircut! It only took me a year and three months. I went to my friend Bethany Davies, vintage make up and hair artist extraordinaire, who runs mobile beauty services, pop-up salons and has a gorgeous little salon in her home too. Here I am ready for Th'Legendary Shack Shakers / Dirt Daubers gig on Sunday.

Here's what I wore - my tiki dress and bolero, which I made a couple of months ago after planning it for over a year. It's already a bit too big for me, bah! (But also yay for bodily shrinkage!)

I don't know what that blur is on my mirror, it's been there forever, I can't tell whether it's hairspray which I've managed to miss while cleaning (OK, so I don't clean often), or whether the silvering is starting to deteriorate, it's a pretty old mirror. Also I really need to get a backdrop or something, I'm sure you're all sick of seeing the craphole that is my bedroom.

Even though I saw them a couple of months ago in Liverpool, I just had to go to see Th'Legendary Shack Shakers again, they never fail to put on a great show.



Supporting were the Dirt Daubers, the rather more traditional side project from Shack Shakers singer, raconteur, lowbrow artist and all round mountain music impresario Col. JD Wilkes, his wife Jessica and bassist Mark Robertson. I particularly liked their rendition of the old Appalachian murder ballad Down in the Willow Garden, and of course I can never resist a band with a banjo and a washboard.





They also had girls' t-shirts in different sizes! I almost burst with joy, despite them not having any vinyl records. It really annoys me how on the rare occasion that bands produce ladies' t-shirts, they are almost always 'one size', and that size is TINY. The lovely Shack Shakers had three ladies' designs from s-xl, so I bought two. Admittedly they had run out of xl in one of them, obviously because it is super cool and everybody wants one, so here I am after wriggling into a slightly scandalous large.

Here I am with my darling friend Natalie outside the venue, it was all finished and we were out by 10.45pm! We are old ladies, evidently. Best dressed old ladies in the nursing home, though.

Date night outfit, and I really need a haircut!

On Thursday we went out for the evening, for dinner then a film. We went to Dough which I cannot recommend highly enough; their modern twist on Italian fare is fantastic, with unusual but delicious pizza toppings a speciality. They also do vegan and gluten free options, and vegan desserts!

I had a gorgeous garlic portobello mushroom with vegan Worcestershire sauce and rocket, the veg deluxe pizza, and a vegan pear and chocolate torte for dessert. Paul had the antipasti followed by goat's cheese salad with beetroot and smoked salmon.



I wore my yellow skirt again, it's basically been the basis of my wardrobe since I finished it a couple of weeks ago.


With my cardigan and bag - cardigan is Collectif, bag is Lux De Ville, both from Rockers.



A quick hairstyle was needed, so I used hot rollers. I liked the bouncy curls, and my fringe came out EXCELLENT, for once! This is how ridiculously long my hair is now though, I haven't had it cut since last April. My local hairdresser went out of business last month after sixty-odd years in the same shop - the chap who cut my hair had been there since the seventies, and his teacher for years before that - I feel partially responsible, for not giving them my business often enough and instead making do with stupid long ratty hair.



This is what it looked like after about six hours, with only mild exposure to damp air. Terrible. I have booked in with the gorgeous Bethany Davies of The Vintage Beauty Parlour on Thursday for a cut, she did my hair in a Betty Grable inspired style for my boyfriend's award presentation here, so I have no doubt it'll be amazing!

Glamourous styling and my clever chap!

A couple of weeks ago we had to go to a fancy event at the Museum of Science and Industry in Manchester, where Aerospace Boyfriend was receiving a prestigious award from the North West Aerospace Alliance. He won the Sir Frank Whittle award, named after the inventor of the jet engine, which is given for the best aerospace engineering project from any North West university. I am very proud of him!


Here he is with some chaps from Project Torpedalo who are going to drive a high-tech pedalo across the Atlantic for charity! Apparently they'll be naked for most of it too due to something called 'salt chafing'... they are braver than I.


...and again looking rather nervous with some executives from Rolls-Royce jet engines, receiving his big cardboard cheque and shiny trophy made from a jet turbine fan blade. I'm not used to seeing him with normal hair and wearing a suit! There was also a very nice three-course meal (they cooked me a special vegan option) and plenty of free-flowing pink champagne! Apparently there exist pictures of us together on his dad's camera (the ones above are stolen from official websites), but they haven't come out very well.


Here is what I wore... my Hawaiian dress, I have probably worn this more than anything else I have made, it's my favourite too. Sorry for the rubbish picture, the lighting in my house is pathetic. The design is modified from Butterick 6582, I lowered the neckline and added the draped and lined front overskirt. I've made several versions of this dress and find it easy to fit and modify. Black lurex knit bolero from Tesco, my Nanna's rhinestone jewellery, and my trusty 1950s green velvet rhinestone stilettos.


My hair and makeup for the evening was done by the fabulous Bethany Jane Davies of The Vintage Beauty Parlour. Her work is fantastic! I asked for a Betty Grable/Lucille Ball inspired updo with classically glamourous neutral 50s makeup and I was thrilled with the results.


I went to her cute little home studio for my styling session (where you will fall in love with Dita, her darling black pug), she also runs a mobile beauty service for bridal or special occasion styling, and a pop-up salon at various vintage events.


Look at my eyebrows! I loved them. I won't be changing from my coloured ones any time soon, but it would be nice to make them up like this for formal occasions or just for a change with a nice outfit.

Upcoming photoshoot, and a feline menace.

This week my friend Berni and I went to Rose & Lee Vintage Living antiques showroom to scout a location for an upcoming Kalandra Jane Designs photoshoot, which will feature the fabulous burlesque performer and model Millie Dollar (also here) and the hairstyling and makeup skills of Bethany Jane Davies.

On the day, I hadn't washed my hair and we were only there to do some lighting tests, so Berni took a few shots of me and managed to make me look good despite me feeling less than glamourous!


Puss the cat was an absolute menace - as soon as I sat down she wanted cuddles and flopped all over me, but when I had to get up she was a fizzing, yowling ball of rage. Can't blame her though for being a bit temperamental, she was taken in by the owners of the antiques warehouse after being abandoned when a neighbour moved away.




This amazing golden Rococo boudoir set will feature heavily in the photoshoot, stay tuned for more glorious pictures from Berni Harris Photography!