Please give some advice to Newbie at vintage Fashion fair!!!...

T

trulyvintage

Registered Guest
Hi everyone,

I'm new to the forum and vintage fashion in general. But absolutely loving it! It started about six months ago when my mum lost her husband. She needed something else to focus on and I was looking for a new challenge. Mum is a massive charity shop fan and I'm an antiques dealer. And we are both shopaholics who love beautiful individual clothes or something that speaks of a particular time in history. Anyhow to cut a long story short we've got together a hopefully good collection from 1890 to 1980 and just spent 6 months buying some real unique pieces. Now we are about to launch our venture and decided to go in big by doing the vintage fashion fair in London.

To tell you the truth I'm as nervous as a new bride about what to expect. I've got some questions and would really appreciate some advice

What level of goods should I be selling at a London Fair?. I have some accessories at only a fiver up to 1960's designer pieces I've priced at hundreds. Is that normal?

The biggest struggle is pricing. The vintage websites seem to ask a lot of money for most things compared to what I've paid. Are fashion fair dealers selling much cheaper? And what about ebay.? The discrepancy in price between ebay and vintage fashion sites seems quite large. Should I aim inbetween ?

This may seem a silly question, but how busy footfall wise are the London fairs normally. My experience is mainly in the large antique fairs seeing thousands of trade visitors. Do the fashion fairs see less trade but more public and should I expect hundreds rather than thousands.

Is a dateline up to 1980 very strict, thus excluding most 'eighties ' items. ?

Are they fairs attended by trade looking to buy in volume. ?

Sorry about all the questions but I am new to the fashion fairs and to sales in London normally, we are from Lancashire. Any advice from seasoned fairgoers would be really appreciated, even answers to questions I haven't thought of. We've put so much work into this I need every possible edge to get it right

Thank you all so much in advance

Maria ( and mom )

Thankyou Maria
 
I trade regularly at a few London fairs. It's really hard to answer your questions. There are a soooo many markets in London, and they vary. Which fair are you trying out?

Prices vary from fair to fair and within fairs from stall to stall, but £5 to hundreds sounds okay. People often haggle, so price prepared to come down a little. You will see how your pricing works when you get there, the learning curve on pricing is constant. Footfall varies hugely too. Personally I rarely sell anything for 3 figures, but it depends on your stock, and the customers you find at that particular fair. You have to find which ones work for you. I trade at the low to mid-end fairs, rather than high-end.

Most are aimed the public, but often have trade buyers coming in early - some charge a higher entrance fee for trade to come in before 10am say.

I find eighties stuff goes well, but again it depends on the fair - some are more aimed at students and young people, who tend to love the later stuff, some at vintage aficionados who are looking for rarer pieces.

I like to visit a fair before I trade there, to get a feel for it, but that's harder if you aren't local.
 
Hi Ruth

I am going for the London vintage fashion show at Hammersmith town hall. I really appreciate you taking the time to share some advice

I would have liked to have gone down first but it was just to far, so its straight in at the deep end. I think the majority of my items are under 3 figures with the odd rarity well exceeding that. Its so nerve racking when you've done nothing but buy for 6 months then suddenly you have to present your view of vintage fashion to the world!

I'm hoping antiques experience will help with the fairs side of things but it may be totally different.

I think my figuring was test the best market in the Uk first, i.e London.

If you have any more hints regarding the hammersmith fair I'd love to hear them.

Kind regards

Maria
 
I haven't traded at Hammersmith - I found it pricey for a pitch, didn't want to take the risk, plus it's the wrong side of town for me. I have visited it though, and did talk to a few traders there. It's one of the oldest vintage fashion fairs, and probably gets a discerning well-heeled customer. It's somewhere I would expect more expensive, and older, items to sell. I remember there was someone offering a gorgeous full length 50s Horrockses print dress, in a good size ie 12-14, for several hundred (I think around £250-£300) - though I don't know if she sold it. I'd still bring some 80s stuff though - I know they say up til 1980, but no I don't think that's strict. Pricing between ebay and top vintage shops sounds about right.

And as you can probably see, they have more expensive entry before 10am, so you may get some trade, or more likely some fashion industry buyers in early, though I wouldn't expect large bulk buying.

I'd be really interested to hear how you get on.
 
Sounds like an exciting venture for you. Do let us know how it goes and if you ever have time to post some pics of your lovely items, we'd love to see some!
I wish I could offer advice but I am in Canada. I would agree with Ruth and what you had stated about pricing in between eBay prices and websites.
 
Hi Everyone,

Thanks for your support and interest. I'm not sure if I can post photos as I'm not yet a full member but I'm going to join anyway so if I do I'll post some.

I'll let you all know how it went at Hammersmith, god I feel like I've lived and breathed vintage for the last 6 months. I've got a little addicted to be truthful. I nearly stopped a guy on the street the other day to buy the vintage leather from his back. I decided it was just a slight level above a polite mugging!

Thanks for the links to the 2 shops, I'll try and get some ideas of pricing.

I love the forum, everyone seems really supportive. Anyhow hope I've done all I can to get my first fair right, and I look forward to letting you all know how it went

Thankyou

Maria
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top