Making Secrets

The Secret Vintage Fair first hit Colchester last August and we've gathered followers far and wide since then.  And it's not just followers we've gathered either, the first two fairs were bought to you by Lucy of Lullabelles Treasure, and since then the team has expanded taking on Clare of Clare's Vintage Tea Party and Janine from Lesley's Girls Vintage: which means we are are able to bring you bigger and better fairs.

As this is the launch blog post of The Secret Vintage Fair, and for those of you who don't know about us, we thought we would introduce ourselves by sharing an extract from our "We Make" interview from the 15 Queen Street blog. As three Colchester girls, we support everything that is wonderful in and about this town, especially the burgeoning creative scene, so we were thrilled to be invited along to the creative hub 15 Queen Street to chat with the co-ordinator Alex.

"When and why did you start Secret Vintage?

The Secret Vintage Fair was born in the Spring of 2012, after a desire by vintage lover Lucy Craymer for a professionally run, vintage fair in Colchester. Lucy had been going to sell at other fairs around the country with her vintage venture Lullabelle’s Treasure, and was impressed by some, but disappointed by many fair organisers, who didn’t ever seem to offer quite the whole package; many fair organisers were either too small to care about customer service, or too large to be able to offer it!

And thus the Secret Vintage Fair concept was born: offering a fun day out for all customers and stallholders alike, with a good mixture of stalls, live entertainment, vintage tunes, a fantastic ambiance, and a decent venue, full of character, that fits with the “vintage” vibe! Lucy explains: 'We’d never want to offer one of our fairs in a modern school hall as it just doesn’t offer the right atmosphere that we’re after when we create our events. It’s the tiny little things that we plan into our events that make all the difference!'

What's happened since it started? Tell us a bit about your journey.

Our first event back in August 2012 had only 17 stalls, and was in quite a remote location, yet so many people turned up which made the day a huge success! We’ve now gained a substantial following across our social media sites, which is brilliant as shows there is a lot of desire for this kind of event, and spurs us on to do more! At the end of 2012 Lucy joined forces with Janine Rudkins and Clare Armstrong who both run their own vintage ventures too (Lesley’s Girls Vintage and Clare’s Vintage Tea Party respectively), and so now the SVF team are planning on upping the frequency and scale of their events. We’re now supporting a different charity at each of our events, and hope to be able to make a substantial amount for Headway Essex, at our next event on 30th March in Central Colchester.

How can we get involved with Secret Vintage and find out more?

We’d love you to find out more about us on our new website www.secretvintagefair.com or via the facebook page. For those who enjoy a good tweet, you can also follow us on twitter @Secret_Vintage, or email us on info@secretvintagefair.com to be added to our mailing list. Interested Charities can email charities@secretvintagefair.com to be considered for our future events.

But ensure you don’t miss our next very exciting event, which takes place on Saturday 30th March in central Colchester! If you are a vintage trader (or even vintage inspired or craft) then get in touch if you are interested in a stall, or if you would like to run a workshop we have space too- email stallholders@secretvintagefair.com. We can’t say much about it….. other than it’s going to be amazing and you won’t want to miss it!

What does the future hold?

We’d like to increase the frequency of our fairs, and spread our wings a little further afield, into Suffolk, Norfolk and perhaps Cambridgeshire too…we’re even expanding upon our offerings by launching into vintage fashion shows and other quirky live entertainment aspects!"

See the full interview on the new 15 Queen Street website, and while you're there have a look at some of the other creative ventures that have been springing up in Colchester.