Getting Steamy

 A short and sweet blog this week.  We've reached a new low in the UK with the economy in chaos and a revolving door of PMs and senior ministers most of the country aren't happy with.  So, let's escape into fantasy and nostalgia and steam up the windows from the inside, to obscure the frightening world beyond!

Last weekend we headed to the Shropshire market town of Shrewsbury to visit the Shewsbury Spooktacular steampunk event hosted by St Mary's Church.  The spire of St Mary's has dominated the skyline of Shrewsbury's old town for over 500 years, but last weekend, instead of worshippers, it was crammed full of immaculately dressed eccentrics.

Wearing denim dungarees, an Indian Kantha jacket, beanie hat and boots, I felt distinctly underdressed, even though some kind gent told me I looked stylish.  Emboldened, I asked a few of the visitors to pose for photos.  Don't they look cute?

I wanted to steal this man's leopard print jacket...

...or maybe this coat? (He can keep the cigarette).

Pictured below.  A splendidly sinister figure on the left.  More on him later.

Floor tiles, a dog and some sturdy biker boots...something for everyone!

I happened to exit the church at the same time as Mr Sinister, so seized the opportunity to ask him to pose.  Mr Sinister turned out to be a softly spoken gent and was most accommodating.  

So how to follow the finery of a steampunk gathering?  Well, by a visit to our favourite heritage railway station, the Severn Valley Railway's Arley, of course!  Our visit luckily coincided with the arrival of both a diesel and steam locomotive.  Naturally, I had to capture our visit in a suitably gothic, darkly brooding Victorian style.

On Thursday, it was black over Bill's mother's as we say here in the Black Country and rained incessantly during my first visit ever to Bilston with Vix.  

After a tour of a mock Tudor housing estate courtesy of Google Maps, I arrived 10 minutes late to collect Vix from our designated meeting point.  However, we were soon catching up over the clothes rails of the local charity shops and bagged ourselves a few bargains, including a gorgeous pink pin tuck artist's smock of a top by Yacco Maricard.  I had never heard of the brand, but liked the colour, shape and quality of the garment.  I later discovered that £3.00 was a steal for this item.

Formed by a design collective of three friends, Yaccomaricard began in 1977 as a fashion project in Harajuku, Tokyo.

The founding members were fashion graduate Mariko Watanabe, photographer Ricardo Watanabe and Yacco Hayata; a graduate of the highly respected Bunka Fashion College.

Their aim was to break away from the constraints of conventional Japanese clothing of the time using oversized shapes in an excess of luxurious natural fabrics that could act as an expression of their lifestyle.  I seem to have a thing for an oversized silhouette at the moment, so this top immediately caught my eye.  

The trio refined and mastered techniques such as garment dye process and hand placed pin tuck work, characteristics now synonymous with the brand.

Satisfied with our bargains, we headed to Wetherspoons for lunch, marvelled at the award-winning carpet (which was somewhat reminiscent of the carpet in the notorious Overlook Hotel) and awaited the inevitable news of Liz Truss's departure as the TV cameras were clearly trained on the front door of number 10.  Within minutes of leaving, our phones were pinging with confirmation of her departure.

We wandered around Bilston in the rain.  Grim to some, but not to us.  All around the town are reminders of the area's chain making history.

We both enjoyed discovering some of the town's handsome, if neglected, landmark buildings, including the former Art School and Police Station.  Vix is way more informed on the Bilstonia's history than I am, so read all about it here. Vintage Vixen: A Trifle From Bilston (vintagevixon.blogspot.com) 

Love a ghost sign.  

We also headed for the Museum and Art Gallery and took in the natural history exhibits as well as local industrial landscape artworks and exquisite enamel delights Bilston is famed for.

I was quite taken with the entrance hall's mosaic floor featuring a typical Black Country landscape, which Vix managed to blend in very well with.

The intention was to round off our visit with a drink in Bilston's oldest pub (formerly a manor house but licensed between 1774 and 1820), The Greyhound & Punch Bowl.  Well, we did make it through the front door, but decided against buying a drink.  We're not particularly shy and retiring, but it really did have a whiff of testosterone and beer about it.

We said our goodbyes and headed home and watched the fallout from another disastrous tenure in office on TV.  I'm all for giving Larry the No. 10 cat a go.

I'll sign off now with a warning that try as I might, I am unable to ignore spooky season, so be prepared.  Oh and be scared.  Be very scared.