Yesterday Ria and I headed out to Lower Hutt to go to a Japanese Spring Festival - we were pretty excited as we are both fans of all things Japanese. First up we couldn't find the place, the GPS really wasn't being useful and the event wasn't right in the city centre and neither of us know Lower Hutt very well. We finally found the place where the festival was happening, but when we go there, NOTHING was happening. Then we spoke to a lady who looked like she knew what was going on - she told us the festival was happening, but on SUNDAY not SATURDAY!
We felt deflated, went to Petone for a coffee and met a friend of Ria's whilst we were there who recommended we head to Rebound for a good shopping time. I remember going to Rebound when I first moved to Wellington, but I haven't been back since so I was keen to check it out. I'm so glad we went, I'm still sad I missed the Japanese Spring Festival - but Rebound is so amazing I can live with it.
We hit up the vintage and retro section for reasons that should be obvious to anyone that reads this blog.
They had the most fabulous wall of old hats which made me think of Helga - Ria picked up an adorable pink hat. I REALLY loved that orange hat with stripes, but it was WAY too small for me so I didn't buy it. But that kind of hat really wouldn't be too hard to sew. If anyone has any recommendation for vintage hat patterns I would be forever grateful as I really want to make a hat like that.
The shoes were next to the vintage and retro section. They had about a million pairs- but all the nice ones were way too small for me, story of my life when op shopping.
After realising no shoes fit us at all we went to check out the vintage and retro clothes - there were some real gems here, you just don't see this kind of stuff in Wellington unless its in a vintage store and being sold at a ridiculous price.
Look at this giant red thing I'm holding! What do you even call this? Is it a kaftan? It was in perfect condition and the trim was beautiful condition. I did briefly consider buying it for a refashion, but I wouldn't know where to even start and a part of me feels that it should remain just as it is.
There were a lot of amazing vintage labels to be seen - especially in the coat section, this one was on a raincoat and I thought it was awesome.
We also checked out the 1980's section - so many amazing, and often horrible things. The ball dresses were especially epic.
Here's a few more general shots of Rebound - so many clothes, more shoes and they even have a bridal section.
Finally it was time to head to the changing rooms and despite picking up like a million things to try on - I ended up buying only two (very restrained of me really). I bought this simple little frock for work - I usually don't like the matching sash that these kind of frocks come with, but I actually thought this one looked ok.
I've been thinking that I would like a few more maxi frocks for the summer months, especially weekends and I've been looking at my fabric stash and patterns to see what I can make. So with that in mind, how could I leave this amazing maxi behind? I'm sure Curtise would approve of this one.
We were all ready to leave then we noticed a few more treasures at the counter and I couldn't resist picking up a scarf from this box of scarves.
So it wasn't the Japanese Spring festival - there wasn't any cherry blossoms or delicious Japanese food but it was still a pretty fun afternoon out. Also I think I need more of an effort to head to Petone to go shopping at Rebound, because as you can see its totally amazing.
Hope you're all having a fantastic weekend xoxo
