I have a confession. Back in the day, my magazine of choice was Heat. It coincided with student loans, watching Bargain Hunt and eating Chicken Tonight peppercorn sauce, minus any involvement of chicken. Magazine purchasing experienced a hiatus after my heady days of student life. The big glossies? Too full of advertising. The plethora of gossip/real life weeklies? Like the Chicken Tonight sauce it filled a hole, yet a slightly dirty feeling lingered. After years of being resigned to picking through the Sunday supplements in the hope that a feature might cover my interests, I am delighted to announce that I have proper new favourite magazine. Feeling all grown up, I would like to introduce BBC Homes and Antiques magazines.

In 2008 we took part in a shoot entitled ‘Party like it its 1959’ . Decked out in a one-in-a-million Horrocks dress (sadly gone now), the day passed in a whirl of gold balloons, Ossie Clark and fabulous 20’s dresses, all in the back of a deco themed club near Great Portland street. This was my first introduction to a magazine which , despite my love of the Antiques Roadshow and vintage, I had overlooked. When the complimentary copy landed at my door 2 months later, featuring yours truly, I read it cover to cover. Let me enlighten you: it’s a heady mix of interiors, collectables, photo shoots and now more and more vintage clothing, that would enamour any lover of culture, without a hint of musty snobbery that you might expect from the Antiques world.

The second time we were mentioned by BBC H&A in January this year, I was more interested in Judith Miller’s retrospect of collectable handbags. This month I tweeted ferociously about their mid-century china issue, a veritable must have for lovers of 50’s/60’s tea sets (and featuring commentary from VS favourite Katherine Higgins). Its still in the shops now so hurry. There is something for everyone, whether you like vintage, interiors, textiles, china with some amazing competitions to boot.

I am so pleased to have stayed in touch with the team and am chuffed to announce that they took time out of their busy schedules to organise an exclusive shoot for Vintage Secret, so without further ado, and looking a million dollars thanks to a wonderful vintage wardrobe from Gimme Shelter in Bristol, I present to you the team that puts the ‘A’ in Homes and Antiques.

From left to right, Rosanna Holmes (editorial assistant), Kiera Buckley-Jones(assistant decorating editor), Angela Linforth (editor), Natasha Goodfellow (deputy editor) and Katie Hallet (houses editor)

Wardrobe – Gimme Shelter Vintage Boutique located at The Lanes Bristol (gimmesheltervintageboutique.co.uk)

Fab hair do’s Headmasters, Bath (01225 447 028; hmhair.co.uk) Desk and office accessories Orange & Brown (07968 218029; orangeandbrown.co.uk)

Here are some lovely photographs of our latest Tart event at 40 Winks, taken by the talented Sophie Mitchell- thanks Sophie!

Delicious cakes and chocolates from Vintage Patisserie.

Expert make-overs from the Benefit team!

And vintage hair from Lipstick and Curls!

Milliner Extraordinaire Sarah Freemantle of UglyLovely.

If you missed Tart, don’t worry, we’ll be back next month, and in the meantime you can find lots of other wonderful vintage events on our site.
One of the highlights has to be White Mischief’s birthday extravaganza on the 27th March- for which we have two tickets to give away!Featuring multiple themed rooms, curiosities from across the empire, steampunk arts and accessory stalls as well as historical clothing showcases and of course lots of live music, this is definitely an event to dress up for.Just leave a comment on this blog post describing the outfit you’ll wear, and we’ll draw a winner.Good Luck!!!

What a week its been! Thursday night Vintage Secret held a dressing up stall for guests of Gabby Young and Other Animals’ Single Launch at Bloomsbury Ballroom; Gabby looked and sounded amazing as always; wearing the first creation for her own fashion collection’ Salon Gabrielle‘ by the Miss Kiki Salon presents collective, as well as a stunning headdress from UglyLovely. Here’s the VS team below, from left to right, Naomi, me(Katie) and Zoe- you can tell what big fans we are of headpieces!

Our friends Tinsel Edwards and Twinkle Troughton were selling their artwork and DJing there too- it was a real family affair!

Next stop; The Parlour! Celebrating old fashioned socialising and etiquette in a pop-up parlour in Clerkenwell Vintage Secret were invited to bring our wardrobe to the space for Saturday morning. VS@Home is also supplying the Parlour with vintage crockery- today we had scones , tomorrow afternoon you can go for tea and cake from the wonderful Vintage Patisserie.You can also see some of Tinsel and Twinkle’s amazing artwork, plus all the vintage furniture is for sale at ridiculously cheap prices, with all profits going to charity. Full schedule here.

Naomi with Cate Sevilla, founder and editor of BitchBuzz

Dana, editor of Mien magazine and the brains behind the Parlour, and Grainne- the brains behind the scones!

On Thursday night we’ll be selling our wares and sharing our dressing up box with the crowd at Gabby Young and Other Animals’ single launch for ‘The Ones That Got Away’. As is usual with Gabby’s gigs, there’ll be so much more than her performance with the band; you can expect stalls selling wonderful handmade products, from hats to cakes.

Our good friends Twinkle Troughton and Tinsel Edwards will not only be selling their artwork but also gracing us with a DJ set too.

Gabby’s been getting a world of well deserved press from people like The Guardian who’ve tipped her as one of the stars of 2010, and The Times who featured an article about how unique her gigs are.If you haven’t been to one yet, nows your chance- you can book tickets here. Any creative types; there’s still room to squeeze a couple more stalls in, so if you’ve something to sell, drop us a line here at VS and we’ll put you in touch with Gabby.

Miss Kiki Salon Presents are busy creating a fashion collection inspired by Gabby, ‘Salon Gabrielle’ and she’ll be modeling their first dress at the gig on the 4th.

You can read more about the vintage inspired Miss Kiki silk scarves on the Queens of Vintage site, and the scarves will be being exhibited on the 4th too!You can read Gabby’s London Fashion Week diary and win tickets to her gig here on Run-Riot.So many reasons to book your ticket now.We hope to see you there!

(Gabby papped for the Sketchbook streetstyle blog during LFW!)
Watch the video for Gabby’s last single here.