How many times have you heard your granny say that?

Thing is, she was right. Particularly when it comes to clothes.

Unless you can afford the very best in designer fashion, you will know only too well how quickly hems fall down, buttons spring off and seams unravel themselves.

One leg of my new Zara trousers suddenly became two inches longer on a night out last week – and it was only their third outing.

Shoddy workmanship, cheap fabrics that crease and wrinkle at the first wear and poor fit all have to be put up with if we want affordable clothes.

What do you think? Post your comments below.

Of course, the other thing that makes clothes cheap is mass production. That fabulous new high-waisted skirt you've just bought for spring? Did you stop to think how many millions of women might also be wearing the very same thing at exactly the same time as you?

Is there any wonder, then, that more and more women are realising that granny did know best after all - and are taking a leaf out of her fashion bible?

Our new-found passion for vintage fashion is growing ever-stronger.

New vintage boutiques are popping up all over the city.

And this weekend, Sheffield's first Vintage Fashion Fair will open its doors.

The venue is the City Hall ballroom and should draw shoppers in droves, say organisers Sally Woodhead and Sam Makin, former London fashionistas who recently swapped city girl life for marriage and motherhood in Yorkshire.

The pair, who both had babies five months ago, have been organising similar events in Leeds for the last three years.

At first, they say, it was selfishness that made them decide to stage a fair.

Both were addicted to searching out vintage bargains, but they missed the multitude of shops and stalls in london, where Sam had worked as a textile designer and Sally had been a knitwear designer.

Sheffield's Vintage Fashion Fair is being staged at the City Hall this Sunday, February 10, from 10am to 4.30pm. Admission is £3.
For more information contact info@leedsvintagefashionfairs.com

Sally now lives on a farm on the Pennine Way and has two children while Sam juggles new motherhood with running her own boutique, Tank, in a village near Ilkley.

"We thought: if we get loads of fabulous vintage dealers all under one roof, we could shop until we dropped," admits Sam. "But then all these women turned up and not only did we not have time to buy, we realised there was a big demand for events like ours. In the north, vintage stores and stalls are scattered all over the place. It can take ages to find what you're looking for. The vintage fairs make it so much easier."

The Leeds event is now a regular on the West Yorkshire fashion calendar, with stallholders travelling from all over the UK for the thrice-yearly fairs.

And figuring it was time South Yorkshire vintage fans got a piece of the action, Sam and Sally have been working for months to attract over 40 top vintage dealers to the Sheffield event.

The fashion dateline runs from the 1900s to the 1980s.
More on next page.

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