Georgina Graham…how to wear preloved clothes

We have been super lucky this week to have spent the day with the coolest and most fabulous make up artist Georgina Graham who has worked for numerous high end glossy titles Dazed Beauty, French Vogue and Self Sevice. She has helped launch make up and skincare lines accross the globe and not only has an incredible knowledge of beauty but in her early days also worked as a stylist so has a huge passion for fashion. She is very aware of the impact fashion is having on the planet and wants to do more to help. Georgina is a local West London gal which makes the collaboration even more suitable. Combining our knowledge around each or our careers and try and put sustainability first. Our first collaboration we wanted to bring the two worlds togther and inspire you into wearing vintage clothes in a modern way through styling and make up. Working for The Face back in the day and other emerging titles in the 90's, these memories got her picking out some of her favourite vintage pieces from our shop and she has written about them, adding her beauty take on it as well as her style tips for each piece. We loved this project so much it's something we hope you will find inspiring too even if you wouldn't wear the pieces you might find it helpful for your own wardrobe, giving you confidence to wear preloved clothes and carry on shopping second hand! 🌶️

We sell by colour on the website, we think this way of shopping makes it much easier to navigate buying preloved clothes. Find you go to colour on our website and hopefully add some of the ideas Georgina made above to give you a modern look to wearing vintage clothes. We want to make vintage accessible allowing you to wear clothes in a modern way without much effort and not be put off by a decade or style and feeling the need to dress like that head to toe. We want to teach you how to wear vintage and make it effortless and current. Love to hear your thoughts is this helpful?

More to come watch this space 🌶️

80's pink leather jacket

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How to wear the trends with second hand clothes

We have just dropped our latest coats and jackets online and there are some true gems in there with more being added weekly! This week we shared our favourite trends and what Pre-loved clothes you can have to recreate them. Check out Who What Wear for the full run down but here's a sneak peek.

https://www.whowhatwear.co.uk/autumn-winter-secondhand-trends

We asked the team at Chillie London to create the ultimate cheat sheet for us. Scroll down to discover their favourite trends for the season ahead as well as some pre-loved pieces we've got our eye on.

DENIM

"Another trick of the trade is layering jackets over coats. Denim is the perfect layer: It's a neutral that goes with everything. Lydia has worn her biker-style denim jacket over her faux-snakeskin Clockwork trench and then added red trainers for a pop of colour. Natalie has this amazing padded denim jacket on.  We love sourcing alternative denim jackets that have extra details like padding, zips and extra pockets.  Vintage denim is in abundance, so you can really find some amazing pieces. Natalie has layered her look with a vintage Japanese football top and cords."

THE MAXI COAT

"These maxi coats are statement pieces and as such don't need much styling. We love to play with colour at Chillie, and so Natalie has worn this khaki coat with navy blue. Take a risk with contrasting colours and use unusual colour-blocking as a fun way to restyle pieces you already have in your wardrobe. Lydia has this incredible padded leather coat and has styled it with browns to give a softer feel to this heavy piece."

BROWN

"Brown is another massive trend and one that is so easy to source on the pre-loved market! We are obsessed with wearing thicker jackets as jumpers and styling them with longer-length coats. Looking for unusual linings can break up the tones, too. Lydia has a statement suede animal-print jacket, which she's belted and pulled in tight to flatter her shape. She has added a pre-loved Lacoste rugby T-shirt and simple black jeans and boots. This look has a slightly '80s feel about it, so adding jeans and current footwear keep it looking relevant and on-trend."

TAILORING

"No one can deny that tailoring is big right now. We chose grey tones for this trend and are playing with texture and print to give it some edge. Lydia has this super-cool woollen St Michael skirt suit layered with a waistcoat over the jacket, which is actually a padded lining from another coat. Don't be afraid to get creative! Natalie has styled a classic pinstripe blazer with a loose boiler suit and vintage T-shirt. Just make sure the blazer is oversized."

LEATHER

"These incredible leather coats are winter's answer to the cotton trench. Look for shape in the shoulders and across the front and back. Lydia is wearing this epic red leather coat and has added loafers. Then she's paired it with simple nylon tracksuit bottoms but has tied the waist to add shape. Natalie has left her coat loose and has layered a suede jacket underneath to break up the black. We've styled this combo with Adidas tracksuit bottoms and trainers for a modern twist."

PINK

"Pink is the colour of the season, but we like to turn pink into a more universal trend by wearing the colour with pieces you may not expect. Here, Natalie wears a suede bomber and trousers, combining two shades of pink that work really well together. She adds white trainers to give it a neutral pop. Lydia has styled a simple shirt dress with a really oversized men's suede jacket. Beige and pink look great together, and combining the two is a stylish way to wear the trend for autumn." 

In Defence of Black Friday

Chillie Journal weighs in on the spending-driven day and asks, is Black Friday really all that bleak?

The winter months can bring a lot of negative things into our lives family tension, overeating and don’t forget the waves of seasonal affective disorder which seem to intensify with every 3pm sunset. But one of the most hotly contested social pressures of every holiday season is the intense pressure from seemingly every media outlet to spend money.

Black Friday, another adopted tradition from across the Atlantic, originally a one day event after Thanksgiving where you’d be subjected to mildly entertaining news footage of fistfights over plasma TV’s in a Walmart. The term ‘Black Friday’ has it’s origins all the way back in 1869, and was used to memorialise a particularly destitute day in financial history, when a gold-buying conspiracy failed, causing the stock market to nosedive.

But now it’s turned into a festive multi-week spendathon. The day has also paved the way for other shopping-centric events such as Cyber Monday, usually (you guessed it) the Monday following Black Friday, after you’ve come down from the Bargain hunting-induced high and cried a few times over your bank statement and you’ve decided you’re ready to go into round two. But now most shops and e-commerce names opt to combine both days into one; holding reductions and special prices for the entirety of November all in the name of Black Friday.

Understandably, the now seemingly global push to set everyone on a spending spree has been met with some considerable opposition, most notably from environmentalists and sustainability advocates who understandably reject the consumption-driven nature of Black Friday. Truly, you find yourself dropped into a herd mentality where you’re encouraged by a nonstop barrage of marketing to buy things that at times you don’t really want or need because of the created urgency of these so called bargain prices.

This year many independent businesses are even going one step further and completely boycotting the event in entirety. The Guardian predicted that 85% - the highest figure ever recorded - of small retailers across the UK are planning on either completely shutting down their websites or donating all or a portion of profits made over Black Friday weekend to charity.

Now don’t get us wrong, we love seeing fellow small businesses going against the grain, making their own rules and doing things their way. But we just can’t ignore one of the few positives in the midst of of Black Friday negativity – it makes beautiful things - in our case expertly curated, cool and top quality vintage fashion – more accessible to the masses. Think about it, if there’s something you’ve really wanted for ages, you’ve been dreaming of owning but it’s just slightly out of your budget, you’d jump at the chance to get your hands on it at a lower price, right?

So, we’re rethinking Black Friday at Chillie London with our simple tips for Black Friday Hunting. Make a Wishlist, and stick to it; preferably a few weeks or months in advance, if you’ve got a clear idea of what you’re looking for you’ll be less likely to cross into frantic buying territory. Know your stuff: Larger retailers will use the sneakiest of subliminal marketing tricks to trigger impulse buys – don’t fall for it! Ask yourself: ‘Do I really want this?’ – make sure you’re buying things you genuinely want and will want in the new year – the price reduction is just a final push towards the checkout, don’t buy something just because it’s slightly cheaper. And most importantly, check out Chillie London’s Black Friday edit (Insert link); get something fabulous and save money, that’s what we call a win win…

Happy shopping!