The Town Hall was abuzz this weekend with the ‘Access All Arts’ event that took place Friday-Sunday, featuring a range of events from live music to dance and ceramics workshops. One of the events that really drew in the crowds was Sunday’s Vintage Fair in the Grand Hall, the first of its kind to take place in Ipswich. Judy’s Vintage Fair, set up by Judy Berger in her hometown of Leeds in 2005 travels all over the country and provides a feast of vintage clothing, homeware and beauty at affordable prices. The fair’s premier set up in Ipswich attracted curious and style savvy buyers of all ages and the sellers included our very own Fairweather Vintage amongst others who had travelled from Clacton, Frinton, London and various other corners of the South East.

‘Eclectic is the word over at Judy HQ’ quotes their website and amidst the typical selection of reworked Levi cut-offs and army surplus jackets, the fair boasted an array of beautiful vintage clothing next to quirky vintage tobacco tins, 60s boardgames, antique telephones and delectable cupcakes by Hadleigh based company Vintage Rose Cupcakes. Seller Jane Reed from ‘Lady Jane’s Vintage Bandwagon’ even had a table full of fascinating Cuban film poster prints which her husband had brought along to accompany her set up of jewellery and clothing. One seller’s collection that particularly caught my eye was recently graduated fashion promotion student Alexandra Marsh, whose small but carefully selected rail of jackets and silk blouses along with some beautiful leather suitcases had me longing for more cash to spend. Alexandra’s brand ‘Vintage by Lexandra’ is a side gig to her fashion designing and Alexandra hopes to build up both her own pieces and vintage collection alongside interning for a design company in London. Although new in the game, I could tell that Alexandra had a really great eye for picking out wearable vintage pieces and I picked up a gorgeously soft white lace blouse for the bargain price of £10.

I spoke to Jessica Oliver who was manning the fair in Judy’s absence and asked her why she thought vintage had seen such a rise in popularity over the past 5 or 6 years, ‘with vintage the appeal is that it’s really wearable and you can easily mix and match a vintage top with a skirt from H&M to create a really great look. With Judy’s Vintage Fairs we prioritise on making the items affordable so that people can go in with not that much money and get an entire outfit which you can’t necessarily do on the high street.’ Jessica said that Ipswich seemed like a good place to tick off their list of towns and cities as it ‘complimented the artistic vibe’ of the town and the Grand Hall seemed like an ideal venue to host the multitude of sellers. Alongside their regular London fairs, Judy’s team tries to visit each town or city biannually and when asked if they will return to Ipswich the response was very positive, so watch this space!

Words and Images: Louisa Shanks