Welcome and win!

Hello friends!

Guess what? I've only gone and started a beauty vlog! It's (cleverly) called You Look Swell! See what I did there?

On my first video I'm giving you the chance to win some amazing Barefoot Botanicals products! Just hop on over to my YouTube channel to find out how.

I'll be back with an actual proper blog post soon!

Much love,

Frankie

Swell Vintage

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Absolutely Fabulous

The other night I was invited to attend a launch party by Fabulous magazine, a fashion-filled glossy that comes with the News of the World every Sunday. It was an extremely stylish affair, held on the 13th floor of the amazing News International Office - in case you haven't experienced it yourself, here's the sort of view you can expect...

Not too shabby, eh?

We were all thoroughly spoiled to say the least! RUSH were on hand to do hair and make up, New Look kindly provided pieces from the S/S10 collection for us to try on and a professional photographer was there to capture the fun.

Reena of Fashion Daydreams gets her hair 'did

Fiona of Save Our Shoes gets a quick trim

The reason for all of this? Rachel Richardson, the Editor of Fabulous, announced that Fabulous and Next Model Management are launching a nation-wide search for a hot new model!

Rachel Richardson of Fabulous

The winner of the competition will appear on the cover of the magazine and a global modelling contract with top international model agency Next Model Management - a pretty incredible prize, I think you'll agree! So if you or someone you know has got what it takes to grace the cover of Fabulous and live a model lifestyle, then log on to www.facebook.com/fabulous and upload your picture. Entries are then voted on by the public to reach a final shortlist of ten. The competition is open for entries until 2nd July and public voting closes at midnight on 4th July.

So what are you waiting for?! Head over to www.facebook.com/fabulous and get uploading!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Something blue...

Got the Royal Wedding fever? Got your something old, something new, something borrow but not your something blue? Then you should enter this SWELL competition!

I'm teamed up with Adorn London, the best website for all things jewellery-related, to give you the chance to win this one-of-a-kind Royal Wedding necklace. As with all of my pieces, this necklace is one-of-a-kind.


I found these striking vintage blue stones on one of my salvaging missions, and decided they would make a perfect centrepiece – not only is it a royal colour, but it could also be Kate’s ‘something blue’! To really make the colour pop and give the necklace an extra luxury feel, I added beautiful and perfectly formed freshwater pearls. Although I mainly used vintage parts, I wanted the necklace to have a modern feel – the asymmetric look is really on trend for this season, and I like how it gives a quirky feel to my designs. This necklace isn’t just right for a bride – it’s fit for a future Queen!

All you have to do to enter our competition is:

1. Follow Adorn London on Twitter (@AdornLondon) and send us a message saying: ‘Win a bespoke Royal Wedding inspired necklace by Swell Vintage’
2. OR Retweet the competition details to your followers to have a chance to win. The more you retweet, the more your name will be entered into the prize draw. Remember to use the title: ’Win a bespoke Royal Wedding inspired necklace by Swell Vintage’ so we know you have entered to win this particular piece.

Don't worry if you don't have a Twitter account - you can still enter the competition by heading over to the Adorn London page and leaving a comment telling us what jewellery you would wear to the Royal Wedding. It's easy peasy!
For more information on the competition, including terms and conditions, visit http://www.adorn-london.com/jewellery-blog/something-blue.

Good luck, everyone! I hope you win!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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A swell winner!

My dear friends,

Upon returning from Egypt at the early hours of Monday morning, I was overwhelmed to see just how many entries there had been for my swell competition! Thank you so much to everyone that entered, I really enjoyed reading your ideas and tweets.

Unfortunately, there can only be ONE winner. The name has been chosen by a random name picker, and I am pleased to reveal that the winner is...

THE LOVELY NIKKINAKKILOU!

Congratulations, Nikki! I know you rather like the 'Oh, Sailor' bracelet, so I'll be working to create you something very similar in style to that, but it can be customed however you like. I can't wait to get started!

The Oh, Sailor bracelet that Nikki loves

I think it's also worth mention that Nikki has a rather brilliant blog that's definitely worth a read - head over to www.nikkinakkilou.co.uk to find out about the current fashions she's coveting.

Thanks again to everyone that entered. If you didn't win this time, have no fear - I'll running another competition very soon.

Until next time...

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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A swell competition

So this is my 100th post! How time flies when you're having fun. Thanks for sticking with me all this time, it really does mean a lot.

To prove just how much this means to me, I'm having a SWELL competition (see what I did there?)! I have never done this sort of competition before, so I am very excited. The prize is, shockingly, a piece of Swell Vintage jewellery, but it won't be just any piece of jewellery. The winner will get a super-special CUSTOM piece! You can pick from either a bracelet or a necklace, and you will be able to specify the kind of style you'd like. I'll work with you, and together we will make something truly one-off.

I'm off to Egypt next week, so I'm going to keep the competition open until Sunday 26th September. To enter, all you have to do is tell me the kind of piece you'd like to win and include your email address. If you have Twitter, you can also gain an extra entry by tweeting: "I'd like to win this swell competition! @swellvintage". The winner will be chosen at random.

So what sort of piece would you like to win? Perhaps you'd like to win something pearly and sparkly - a bit like my latest piece, the Isabella bracelet, now available on the Swell Vintage shop?

Made from a vintage doo-dad, freshwater pearls and vintage chain, the Isabella bracelet will make any lady feel like a princess.

I can't wait to hear all of your ideas. Good luck!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Good news, good shoes

Good news, everyone! A couple of the pieces I've made recently are now for sale at the Swell Vintage shop.

Oh, Sailor bracelet

The Sparrow's Pearl necklace

If you want to have a closer look and see the rest of my things, head on over. I hope you like what you see.

Also, I want to talk a bit about shoes. Who doesn't love shoes? If you're one of those shoe loving types, you'll be pleased to hear that Selfridges will soon be home to the world's largest destination for shoes - The Shoe Galleries.




As if that wasn't enough, the other good news is that the very lovely people at Selfridges are offering you the chance to win a whole years supply of shoes! Can you imagine?!

To enter, all you have to do is tell them your shoe story. Do you have a pair of killer boots that never fail to get you noticed? Do you have some simple ballet pumps that have served you well over the years? Tell Selfridges all about them, upload a picture and you could be in for the prize of a lifetime. But you may have to fight me for it...

That's all for now, folks. Until next time...keep watching the shoes.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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It's hip to be swell

The time has come, my lovely friends! FINALLY I can tell you all about the Motorola photoshoot!

Just over two weeks ago, the other four competition winners and I were brought to the glamorous Holborn Studios in the heart of London for a very hip photoshoot. We were there to be snapped with the brand spanking new Motorola FLIPOUT with MOTOBLUR technology and to generally have fun while pretending to be models for the day.

Stu-stu-studio

The FLIPOUT phone of many colours

The shoot was being styled by the gorgeous Alize Morand and Matthew Zorpas of PR Wonderland. I had met Alize and Matthew before, so it was really nice and comforting to see their friendly smiling faces. They did a cracking job sourcing all sorts of dreamy fashion pieces - colour was definitely the theme!

What a pair of beauties - Alize and Morand

All the colours of the rainbow

The INCREDIBLE Georgie Bee shoes I got to wear

Marc Jacobs ring...don't mind if I do!

Not only was the styling amazing, but the rest of the crew were absolutely outstanding. The make up by Becca Harrison was stunning, the hair by John Birchall was totally insane and the photography by Adam Lawrence was mind blowing. In fact, everyone was wonderfully welcoming and talented. It was such a fun day.

Other winners Sabina and Amy get dolled up by Becca and John

Nic gets snapped by Adam

Anyway, I think I've done enough 'behind-the-scenes' stuff. I think it's time to show you the final products:

Lady in blue

Woman in black

So there we have it! What do you think? I'll be honest with you, my dear readers - I was in a state of absolutely terror throughout the whole shoot. As you can see, I am quite obviously not a model, so doing something like this where I was the focus threw my far, far away from my comfort zone. However, I am really pleased with how the photos have come out, and I think it's a testament to how talented all the people behind the scenes are.

I want to say a massive THANK YOU to everyone involved for an amazing day and for giving me this experience. I also want to say special thanks to the gorgeous Nik Thakkar and Milly Hill of JCPR for organising the whole thing and making it so much fun. It's definitely something I will never forget!

To see photos of the other winners, as well as some extra bits about the brilliant FLIPOUT phone, visit http://www.motorolasquare.com/.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

Swell needs YOU!

I love East London - the view from my flat

Lovely, lovely readers of my humble blog - I need your help!

As you may already know, I am very happy and proud to live in East London (Dalston, to be precise). I have lived in this area for nearly a year now, and I absolutely love it. For every horror story you may hear about Dalston, Hackney and the surrounding areas, there are triple the amount of beautiful and charming areas that are worth visiting. If you've never been there before, I think you'd be pleasantly surprised.

So when Gumtree invited me to take part in a competition to help promote my community, needless to say I jumped at the chance. For my entry, I had to write my favourite things about Hackney. It was difficult to pick just five, as there are so many different things! To read my entry, just head on over to my Gumtree advert.

After you've read my advert, I'd be sincerely grateful if you could do me a HUGE favour. All you have to do is visit the Gumtree forum post about my advert and let me know what you think. The only teeny-tiny catch is that you need to register to post, but it only takes a couple of minutes (it's even quicker if you sign up using your Facebook account). The forum thread is right here.

If you do this huge favour and leave your email address in the comment over at Gumtree, I'll give you 15% off to spend at www.swell-vintage.com! Not only that, but you could also be in with a chance of winning a prize yourself - not bad, eh?

Thanks for reading, and thanks x2 if you leave a comment! It'll mean the world to me.

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Swell loves pretaportobello

I've been a pretty big fan of pretaportobello.com for a long time now. If you haven't been there before, you're in for a treat - not only does this online fashion market stock some cracking independent brands (Dahlia, Toki and Nabi and Blush to name but a few...), but they also have a rather lovely vintage collection.

Needless to say, I was absolutely thrilled to win one of their Facebook competitions! My prize was this absolutely stunning Leonie Saliba leather bag:

Such lovely soft leather! A perfect accompaniment for any spring outfit, don't you agree? It's available in lots of different colours, but I chose 'tan' for a classic satchel look.

However, we have a problem. At the moment I'm trying to be very good with my money, but I have now seen the following things that I NEED in my life as soon as possible:

Image courtesy of pretaportobello.com

This Trollied Dolly floral dress is so Zooey Deschanel it makes me weep inside. I think it could definitely guarantee me 500 days of summer...

Image courtesy of pretaportobello.com

I cannot believe this Ci Ci dress is only £38! With all that ruffle detail and fabric, I would have thought it was double that. I love that it has an adorable bow sash too. It's all about the little details, don't you think?

Image courtesy of pretaportobello.com

The light chiffon and delicate vintage-style detail of this Maggie Cook shrug has got me smitten. I can just see softening a hard all black outfit or adding an elegant touch to a simply dress. NEED.

Image courtesy of pretaportobello.com

I've been eyeing up these Dahlia leather petal shoes for a long time, and I'm convinced they're the shoes for me. It's like wearing flowers ON YOUR FEET! Who doesn't want to do that?! And there's good news, hayfever suffers - the petals aren't real, so anyone can enjoy! Genius.

Anyway, this post has been a very long-winded way of saying a huge THANK YOU to the wonderful people over at pretaportobello.com - I love your site, I love your work and basically, I love you.

What do you think of pretaportobello.com? I'd love to know. Sock it to me, people!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Swell winning

...and the winner of the 3mobilebuzz competition is...

FIONA OF SAVE OUR SHOES!!!

I had such a hard time picking a winner, so in the end I had to use an online random name picker! A HUGE thank you to everyone who entered - the photos were all genius and amazing. The theme was 'the best things in life are free'. Three of my favourites include...

Receiving parcels makes life sweet and amazing by Artichoke Zine

Emails that make you smile by Sarah Drinkwater

Fun things you find in a skip by Lauren Cooke

Fiona and I will be tweeting from London Fashion Weekend this very Saturday, so keep your eye on Twitter if you fancy hearing about our day. We've been given a HTC Hero to tweet from. Needless to say, I'm terrified that I'm going to break it.

In other news, LoveMyDress.net have featured a lovely piece about Swell Vintage. It's such a gorgeous website, and they said some very kind words! If you fancy reading it, head on over there.

That's all for now, folks. See you Saturday!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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Swell excitement

Happy Valentine's Day, my dear friends!

Did you have a magically romantic day? What did you get up to? Have you got that loving feeling?

The very exciting news is that I've got another competition coming up soon, but the prize is something far more exciting than one of my necklaces! If you love fashion and Twitter, you'll really love this!

The lovely people over at 3mobilebuzz have given me a ticket to London Fashion Weekend on Saturday 27th February over at the uber glamourous Somerset House - and you could be coming with me! We'll take in a day of high fashion catwalk delights, and will even be given a special phone to tweet as we go! How does that sound?

To enter, all you have to do is follow me on Twitter (http://twitter.com/swellvintage) and demonstrate that “the best things in life are free” via Twitpic. @reply me with your pictures along with the hashtag #FreeTwitteron3 and the best one will win! The picture can be of absolutely anything - your favourite free place to visit, some quality time with your cat, your group of best friends - ANYTHING! The more inventive and exciting the better, so have a think and start tweeting! The closing date is Sunday 21st February, and you can enter as many times as you like.

In other news, I've made some new pieces recently, and I'd really like to know what you think:






So...what do you think? Any/all feedback will be gratefully received and appreciated! These pieces are part of a collection I'm putting together for Fru & Fröken Kellerman, a lovely boutique in Sweden.

Well, that's all for now, folks! Thanks for reading, and I can't wait to see your Twitpics!

Much love,

Frankie
Swell Vintage

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