‘Why we love living in the past’
As the UK vintage scene grows, we meet one woman who says living and dressing in a bygone era has given her a new lease of life and taught her so much
As Lynda Easton fixes her victory rolls and touches up her glossy red lipstick in the mirror, she looks like she’s stepped straight out of a time gone by. From Forties’ utility suits to Victorian petticoats, her wardrobe is a memory box of pre-loved treasures from the past, many of which she’s saved from landfill by making do and mending them herself. All around her old radios, a Singer sewing machine, vintage teapots and even Hilda Ogden-style flying ducks (below), as seen on Coronation Street, capture a forgotten spirit of yesteryear. Lynda, along with her vintage-loving partner Dean, are part of a growing number of people in the UK turning back the clock to enjoy the fashions and lifestyles of the past.
For Lynda her love of things from the past goes back to childhood but for many years she felt unable to delve into that side of herself. “I married young, was a carer and was living in a place where I felt I had to wear beige to fit in, but that never felt like me,” she says.
When her children left home for university, Lynda decided to make a change and moved to a new area.
‘Vintage is about recycling and using forgotten skills’
She then began to attend vintage events around the country. “I’m not a confident person but I found dressing in vintage made me feel more comfortable and more ‘me’,” she says. “It was also nice that people would see me and say things like, ‘ooh you look like my aunt Nelly!’.
After attending a few vintage events, Lynda was spotted by photographers and asked to do vintage modelling in which she dresses up as characters from history, from Anne Lister to suffragette leaders. She’s also made several TV and film cameos in her vintage costumes. As well as giving her a new lease of life, Lynda says she loves that her vintage lifestyle allows her to breathe new life into old clothes. “We’ve become quite a throwaway society, but vintage is all about recycling clothes and using forgotten skills like darning to make things last longer.”
Her home, which she shares with her partner Dean who she met at a
vintage event, is full of muchloved pearls of the past. “The house was built in 1938 and the previous owner lived there all his life and never changed anything. Other buyers said they would rip everything out but we couldn’t bear that.” From the Victorian-style bath to the original picture rails, Lynda and Dean kept all the original features as well as many of the old items that the house came with, from the mangle in the garden to the original 1934 Co-op bed. “You feel like you’re borrowing a part of history and continuing the items from someone else’s life, rather than throwing them away,” she says.
While Lynda and Dean do have mod cons such as a washing machine and TV, they embrace the old ways whenever they can. “Whether it’s using produce from our vegetable patch, baking from scratch or making my own bath salts, it’s a joy to do these things but it also helps the environment and saves on bills,” Lynda says.
She’s also hoping that one day in the future she may be able to use the items
‘You feel like you’re borrowing a part of history from someone else’s life’
in her house to help stir memories in people living with Alzheimer’s.
“It’s lovely to remember how much people appreciated the simple things and their resilience in difficult times. They’re lessons we can take into our own lives now.”
■ For more on Lynda’s modelling, visit facebook. com/vintagedapperdarling
■ Pick up the latest issue of Yours Retro, in shops now or visit yoursretro.co.uk