I recently went for a walk along the south-bank of the river Thames and stumbled across a retro boot-fair. It was really interesting seeing various items that I remember from my youth but the nice thing was seeing people dressed in the style of the 40‘s, 50’s through to the 70’s & 80’s.

Some looked fabulous, they looked relaxed and comfortable, in a way that would suggest this was their day to day life while others looked like they were dressing up for the day, and a little self conscious in what they were wearing.

Funny that although some of the style of clothes are over sixty years old many of the items are still copied in fashion today.

Controversially there was a stand selling fur, well actually it may have been faux fur. Faux fur as a fashion garment was popular for a while but seemed to lose its appeal with the hight profile fur and animal rights protests gaining publicity.

I know very very little about how animals are kept or managed when they are bred for fur. I have heard horrible things about how they are killed and I have friends that are vegans. One has been an activist but keeps it all very close to his chest.

I’m not going to comment any further with regards to fur but I will say it was good to see the mods, rockers, scooters and old cars.

It was far to busy to get any particularly nice images but I will keep an eye out for more events as it might be a great opportunity to take some portraits.

I think this year is Fifty Years of Mod. So there should be a few bigger scooter runs around the UK.
If you’re into your northern soul, blue beat and so on, it might be worth a peak at some scooter magazines and taking a walk down memory lane for you slightly older folk; or it might be a chance for a slightly younger generation to discover something and see what it was all about.

Kind regards,

Jim Jimmy James.