Latest news with #vintageclothing
Times
27-06-2025
- Business
- Times
How I was duped by Jack Watkin, the luxury handbag fraudster
Jack Watkin was the last person Christine Colbert expected to walk into Dress Cheshire, her vintage clothing boutique, and inspect a black Hermès Birkin bag. 'I spoke to him by email and assumed he was in his forties,' she said. 'I was shocked when this 21-year-old came in wanting to buy a £35,000 bag in matt crocodile but he was very knowledgeable about the luxury industry. It was all, 'Darling, darling' … He was flamboyant and charming.' Within months of that meeting in October 2020, Watkin charmed Colbert into a business venture. He promised to source and resell Hermès bags while giving her 'a financial return plus a share of the profits'. She placed her trust in him. Watkin, who initially used the alias Jack Holding, pretended he was a millionaire and portrayed a glamorous life.
Daily Mail
21-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
I went on Antiques Roadshow and the BBC said my items were too offensive and politically incorrect to broadcast - despite their eye-watering £20k value
The BBC 's long-running teatime favourite Antiques Roadshow is not known for being a particularly controversial show. But Robert Needs brought quite a different tone to proceedings with his collection of vintage punk fashion on an episode filmed in Cardiff last year. The 68-year-old grandad, who partied with the Sex Pistols in the seventies, reflected on his younger years as he spoke to expert appraiser Lisa Lloyd. He said he bought the clothes from Sex, the punk boutique run by fashion designer Vivienne Westwood and her then-partner and Sex Pistols manager Malcolm McLaren. The shop - now renamed World's End but still on the King's Road in London 's Chelsea area - was also where the band met and how they got their name. But some of Robert's purchases from the shop, known for its outrageous designs, were deemed unsuitable for showing on the BBC programme. Expert Lisa was first to point this out on the show, 'Incredibly un-PC' - but still later valuing his collection of around 20 T-shirts at around £1,000 each. Robert chuckled: 'They told me they couldn't show most of them on camera. Way too naughty for Roadshow viewers I suppose.' He continued: 'I shouldn't really be shocked though because a lot of Westwood's designs were deliberately very provocative, with plenty of nudity or imagery which could be considered offensive - like Nazi swastikas, for example. 'But that was the whole point of it back then, they were intended to be controversial.' The guest said he often used to travel from Wales to London to go to the boutique. 'There was already a ready-made punk scene going on in south Wales at the time, except we called ourselves "Soul Boys" - the term "punk" was more something the media came up with later on', he explained. 'And it was during a visit to Sex that we met the lads from the Pistols. 'They were amazed to hear they had a lot of Welsh fans back home because they'd drawn mostly hostile reactions whilst playing in other parts of the UK.' The conversation led to one of the band's very few performances in Wales, at punk venue The Stowaway Club in Newport in 1976. It was there they invited Robert to hang out backstage with them - and his excitement was clear as he recalled the memory on Antiques Roadshow. 'They were unlike anything I'd seen or heard before and the rubber-style pink T-shirt I wore to that Pistols concert was among the ones I took along to the Roadshow', he said. 'It's still in good nick too, although it would never fit me now. Actually, looking at how small all the shirts are, it's a wonder I was ever able to squeeze into any of them.' The guest explained many of these rare, original Westwood clothes have become highly sought after by music and fashion lovers alike in recent years. He was delighted his T-shirt collection would go under the hammer for a total of around £20,000: 'That's mad, isn't it?' But that was not what mattered to him most: 'That said, I don't really want to sell them – I'd much rather they went on display in a gallery somewhere, as long as they were all safe and properly insured. 'It'd be lovely to think of them getting a second lease of life and others getting the same enjoyment out of looking at them as I had wearing them.' It comes after another guest was just as pleased by the price their precious item was valued at. A repeat episode of the BBC show, which sees specialist appraisers value heirlooms and heritage items, went to Belton House near the town of Grantham, Lincolnshire. Expert Hilary Kay met with a woman who had brought in a unique item - the funeral standard of 17th-century English statesman Oliver Cromwell. He led parliamentary forces in the English Civil Wars in the mid-1600s against King Charles I, helping to overthrow him before his execution in 1649. The soldier and politician then led the Commonwealth of England that was quickly established, serving as Lord Protector from 1653 until his death in 1658. The woman explained how such an incredible object came into her possession: 'It was in a collection about seven years ago. My father actually bought the collection of militaria.' After some more conversation about how precious the item is, anticipation was well and truly built up and the valuation could not come sooner. It did not disappoint, as Hilary said: 'This is about the trickiest thing I've ever had to value. 'It is certain to fetch £25,000 but how much more would it go for?' The wide-eyed guest was rendered absolutely speechless, with Hilary saying: 'It's going to take me a little while to come down from this. 'It'll take a couple of bars of chocolate and a cup of tea but this has been a really special moment with a really extraordinary object, don't you agree?' Antiques Roadshow is available to watch on BBC One and to stream on BBC iPlayer.
The Sun
13-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
I was so excited when I nabbed a £2.49 Morrisons Too Good To Go bag – but what I found inside made me feel sick
A BARGAIN hunter thought she'd scored a cheap dinner win with her Too Good To Go bag – but what she found inside left her feeling queasy. Becky Chorlton was hoping for a surprise feast when she eagerly collected a 'hot food' £2.49 bag from her local Morrisons Café. 3 3 3 But when she opened up the two mysterious boxes, what she found inside left her feeling 'sick'. The boxes contained a vacuum-sealed chicken tikka masala alongside boil-in-the-bag rice. In a video posted to her TikTok account, Becky, who has 415,000 followers, gasped: 'Oh my God, what is that? That's so weird, what the hell? 'I'm not sure about that. That kind of gives me the heebie-jeebies.' Too Good To Go bags are a popular way to grab a mix of tasty, often freezer-safe meals at a bargain price while doing your bit to reduce food waste. The video, which racked up 788,000 views, showed an undeterred Becky, who is from Cheshire and runs a vintage clothing business, peeking into box number two. Her mood instantly changed when she spotted seven hash browns, three slabs of black pudding and a mountain of sausages. Viewers were split in the comments, with some impressed by the value and others were put off by the contents of the first box. One commenter said: 'I'd be the exact same with meat in a bag, even chicken in microwave meals can make me feel a bit dodgy sometimes.' Another added: 'It's £2.49 be grateful.' The simple chocolate cake recipe using only TWO ingredients - it's sweet and you won't even need to put it in the oven Another person said: 'That's not bad at all – sure, the plastic pouches aren't appetising, but any food would look like that in a plastic pouch.' Jam Press has approached Morrisons, who declined to comment. How to save on your supermarket shop THERE are plenty of ways to save on your grocery shop. You can look out for yellow or red stickers on products, which show when they've been reduced. If the food is fresh, you'll have to eat it quickly or freeze it for another time. Making a list should also save you money, as you'll be less likely to make any rash purchases when you get to the supermarket. Going own brand can be one easy way to save hundreds of pounds a year on your food bills too. This means ditching "finest" or "luxury" products and instead going for "own" or value" type of lines. Plenty of supermarkets run wonky veg and fruit schemes where you can get cheap prices if they're misshapen or imperfect. For example, Lidl runs its Waste Not scheme, offering boxes of 5kg of fruit and vegetables for just £1.50. If you're on a low income and a parent, you may be able to get up to £442 a year in Healthy Start vouchers to use at the supermarket too. Plus, many councils offer supermarket vouchers as part of the Household Support Fund. How does Too Good To Go work? To use Too Good To Go, download its app on your smartphone and create an account. You can then select your area by entering your location and drop the pin on where you'll be picking up your surplus food bags. On the app, you can select the distance you'd be willing to travel, based on whether you'll be walking, using public transport or driving. The app will then show you the Too Good To Go locations available in your area. These are grouped in categories including supermarkets, groceries and baked goods. There are also options to collect food straight away, or later for dinner. You can then scroll through the app to see what's available and click "see all" to check all the options within a category. Too Good To Go will then tell you how much you can save with each surprise bag. Prices usually range between £2 and £6, with shoppers saving at least 30% on every order. When clicking on a listing, you will get information on the exact location of the cafe, restaurant or supermarket, as well as collection times available, and the price of the bag. The listing also shows the average rating other users have given that particular business. Once you've decided what you want to pick up, simply click the "reserve" button to ensure it is assigned to you. collection. Then go to the shop at the assigned time, show your collection on the app to a staff member and enjoy your discounted surplus food.
The Sun
06-06-2025
- Business
- The Sun
I've made £18k in 7 months after losing weight & flogging my old clothes – my little-known site makes reselling easy
ARE you trying to flog your old clothes - but don't seem to be making any money? While most of us have heard of Vinted - where some have made a fortune of £18k - there are also other sites to check out. 2 2 This is what one savvy Brit, TikToker Jess, recently shared online after raking in close to £20k in less than a year. Jess, who posts under the username @ started selling items from wardrobe after an epic body transformation. As none of the old clothes no longer fit her, she decided to sell them online - before realising she had ''the bug for reselling ''. Reselling involves purchasing products from various sources , such as manufacturers, liquidators, individuals and charity shops, and then selling them at a higher price to generate profit. Resellers determine a price that covers their costs, for instance, the purchase price of the product and any shipping costs, and allows them to make a profit. They then sell these products through various channels, including Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Vinted. ''It started off small and I scaled it from there,'' said Jess who moved from her ''items to charity shops to wholesale''. As well as flogging the goods on Vinted, eBay and Depop, Jess also uses a little-known site to cash in - Whatnot. The ''vintage clothing reseller'' explained: ''Whatnot is a live auction selling website. ''They have an app [...] and it's a really, really nice platform with lovely people and lots of sellers, and lots of buyers. I've made £18k on Vinted & a hack means I don't have to hunt for bits I've sold ''What I will do is I will get all my items ready and I will show those items on the screen and then people will bid if they want to buy that item.'' According to Jess, you can start at different prices, such as £1, £3 and £5 - which is ''entirely up to you''. The site - where you can also feature the products front-and-center rather than showing your faces - also offers pre-paid shipping labels. Once you've made a sale, slap the label on the box and send it out for delivery. Do I need to pay tax on my side hustle income? MANY people feeling strapped for cash are boosting their bank balance with a side hustle. The good news is, there are plenty of simple ways to earn some additional income - but you need to know the rules. When you're employed the company you work for takes the tax from your earnings and pays HMRC so you don't have to. But anyone earning extra cash, for example from selling things online or dog walking, may have to do it themselves. Stephen Moor, head of employment at law firm Ashfords, said: "Caution should be taken if you're earning an additional income, as this is likely to be taxable. "The side hustle could be treated as taxable trading income, which can include providing services or selling products." You can make a gross income of up to £1,000 a year tax-free via the trading allowance, but over this and you'll usually need to pay tax. Stephen added: "You need to register for a self-assessment at HMRC to ensure you are paying the correct amount of tax. "The applicable tax bands and the amount of tax you need to pay will depend on your income." If you fail to file a tax return you could end up with a surprise bill from HMRC later on asking you to pay the tax you owe - plus extra fees on top. According to Whatnot, 48-72 hours after the order is delivered, you can cash out via direct deposit. It doesn't have to be just clothing you're tying to cash in from - the sellers flog electronics, collectibles, beauty, live plants, and more. Raving about the little-known site, Jess said in a video: ''I personally kind of think it kind of has revolutionised the way we resell things. ''The thing I love the most about it is that when I get my stock in, I can show it on the screen [...] and then you buy it. ''I post it out within a couple of days - so it really stops that whole issue of having to store items for a really, really long time.'' While there are plenty of pros, Jess also noted the platform does have its cons, such as the fees. Seller fees are as follows: 8% commission on the sold price of an item when it sells 2.9% + 30 cents (24p) payment processing fee for the entire transaction Payment processing applies to the subtotal, tax, and shipping price paid by a buyer for a given order The payment processing fee is not currently applied to any international shipping/taxes. ''But with a lot of reseller websites, there are fees anyway. ''The other cons can be the price points - you might not always get the same prices you would on things like eBay, Depop and Vinted.'' Jess also added under another video that she's ''registered as a sole trader and will pay tax during the self assessment window''.
Globe and Mail
05-06-2025
- Business
- Globe and Mail
Savvy businesswoman Sandy Stagg helped spark a hip Toronto scene
Running her Antique Clothing Shop on London's Portobello Road in the 1990s and 2000s, Sandy Stagg was particular when it came to the touching of dainty vintage garments for sale. 'This is a two-handed shop,' she would tell customers in no uncertain terms. 'Be gentle and put your bags down. If not, get out!' The rule applied to all, dames included. The great actress Maggie Smith entered the store in 2002 in full film-star disguise: hat, silk scarf and huge sunglasses. When she pawed one-handedly at a rail of Victorian blouses, Ms. Stagg read her the riot act. To which Ms. Smith lowered her shades, uttered 'Indeed!' and walked straight from the shop. 'Sandy was so impressed she laughed for hours,' said her friend, Jo Headland, a seamstress and salesperson hired by Ms. Stagg. 'Sandy was infamous for being rude to her customers, in a way that only a fabulously dressed Englishwoman could be.' Ms. Stagg, from London's working-class neighborhood of Shepherd's Bush, had come to Toronto in 1968 with a lot of nerve, a sewing machine and a Canadian husband who would not be her partner for long. She would establish herself as a savvy restaurateur, pioneer trader in second-hand garb, model and beautiful muse of the General Idea arts collective, cutting-edge scene starter, skilled gardener, pale gamine about town, dog lover, enthusiastic party person and patroness of the arts. She returned to Shepherd's Bush in 1988 to look after her ailing mother, whose landlord wanted her out of a rent-controlled flat. Ms. Stagg was having none of it. 'I'm here and we're staying,' she told him. Ms. Stagg stayed until 2008, when she sold the Antique Clothing Shop and returned to Toronto to live out the rest of her life. She died from the effects of a stroke at Toronto Western Hospital on May 28. She was 84. Ms. Stagg was different things to different people in Toronto. Some shopped at her popular Amelia Earhart Originals, a small vintage clothing store on Charles Street off Yonge Street (and later in Yorkville). Others dined and hung out at her hip restaurants: Peter Pan (which helped spark the Queen Street West art and music scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s) and Fiesta. The grooviest people did both. 'She dressed a lot of the people who came to eat at her restaurants,' said artist AA Bronson, the last surviving member of Toronto's groundbreaking General Idea trio. 'I don't think one can simplify Sandy, but above all she was interested in people and helping people make things happen.' When the General Idea artists would throw ideas around the dinner table, Ms. Stagg encouraged and facilitated their audacious notions. 'Next thing you knew, you'd find yourself in Vancouver or New York or on top of the CN Tower doing something,' Mr. Bronson said. 'Sandy was a magnifying glass. She took whatever was going on and blew it up into something bigger and more interesting.' At her clothing boutiques in Toronto and London, Ms. Stagg elevated second-hand attire to high-fashion status. She had a magpie's eye for lovely, discarded things and the entrepreneurial flair to exploit the finds. While in London, she would visit Toronto on shopping trips. Once, she found a disassembled dress at a boot fair that was made by French designer Madeleine Vionnet. Ms. Stagg purchased it for $13 and took it back to London where she and her assistant, Ms. Headland, pieced it back together with traditional couture stitches and vintage silk thread. The reconstituted garment graced the cover of a Doyle Auctioneers & Appraisers catalogue and sold for $35,000, according to Ms. Headland: 'It was typical Sandy, saving something and building it back to money-spinning glory.' The reclamations of Ms. Stagg extended to cool eateries. She and two partners took the Art Deco greasy spoon Peter Pan Lunch, got rid of the grease and updated the spoon. The Globe and Mail restaurant critic Joanne Kates praised the just-opened place in 1976 for its rare marriage of trendiness and friendliness and its 'intelligently limited' culinary aspirations. 'It has obviously been very carefully put together by people who understand that the best way to exploit nostalgia is to avoid exploiting it,' Ms. Kates wrote. Though Ms. Stagg enjoyed vintage objects, old fashions and retro culture − she jitterbugged with the best of them − she hardly lived in the past. 'Sandy read about history for research purposes, not pleasure,' said her one-time romantic partner and longtime friend, the architect Paul Oberst. She not only listened to the new sounds of the day but supported and befriended the musicians. Ms. Stagg danced to disco, vibed to new wave, was pals with Rough Trade's Carole Pope and dated singers from influential Toronto punk bands the Diodes and the Viletones. 'She was interested in whatever was going on,' Mr. Oberst said. 'We went to see Roxy Music, Bob Marley and Elvis Costello, all at Massey Hall, I think.' The New York art rockers the Talking Heads were introduced to Ms. Stagg and the Peter Pan crowd through two influential Toronto modern art hubs, A Space and Art Metropole. 'Sandy took us under her wing and made us feel part of that world – a crazy and wonderful world that sadly no longer exists,' Talking Heads singer David Byrne said in a statement to The Globe. 'A reminder that a person, or just a handful of people, can be a catalyst that enables all sorts of people to come together and interact − at least for a while. What she did was special." In her later years, Ms. Stagg was a 'feisty old lady' devoted to her backyard garden, according to artist and close friend Charles Pachter. 'Sandy would beam and talk about her roses and peonies and the birds in her garden,' Mr. Pachter said. 'It made her happy.' Ms. Stagg cultivated scenes, friendships and flowers with a maestro's touch. Though a style icon, she believed that fashion should not be considered separate from food, furniture, music or politics. 'She takes an interest in observing how fashion functions as a code of being,' The Globe's David Livingstone wrote of her in 1984. 'Glamour, as a thing of the spirit; style, as a matter of soul.' She was born Sandra Penelope Newton on Oct. 3, 1940, in Dorset, England, at a manor converted to a maternity hospital for evacuated Londoners during the Blitz. Her parents were theatre carpenter Thomas Newton and seamstress Dorothy Newton (née Burke). They raised their only child − a much older stepbrother died in 1960 − in a rented flat in London that had a bomb shelter and a lemon tree in the backyard. Her dad was an air raid warden near the end of the Second World War. 'That is why they had a telephone, and she was always very proud of having one of the first telephones in Shepherd's Bush,' Ms. Headland said. 'Also, she loved sitting in the basket of her dad's bicycle and being taken to see the bomb sites.' She attended Godolphin and Latymer School, an expensive private day school for girls in Hammersmith, West London, that in 1951 became state-supported and ceased to charge fees to pupils. By 1960 she was married, in a gown she had made with her own hands, to John Stagg, a friend of her father's. 'He was much older and she only married him to keep her dad happy,' Ms. Headland said. They lived in the parents' flat in Shepherd's Bush until Ms. Stagg left her husband after four years of marriage. Though she would go one to enjoy a glamorous lifestyle, Ms. Stagg took pride in her gritty British upbringing and looked up to John Lennon, a lowly Liverpudlian who as a member of the Beatles became a celebrated person in a class-conscious society. Without him, she told The Globe in 1984, 'I would not be who I am today.' Though she is not known to have crossed paths with Mr. Lennon, the anti-establishment figure who released Working Class Hero as a solo artist was an inspiration to many of her generation. 'The world had changed somewhat in the 1960s,' Ms. Headland said. 'A working-class Brit could make their way in the world and not be ashamed of their roots.' In 1966, Ms. Stagg met and married a Canadian in London, Bud Petersen. Two years later, they moved to Toronto, where their suburb-dwelling marriage would dissolve. She headed downtown to begin her eclectic career. She made costumes for the maverick Global Village Theatre company and created one-of-a-kind shirts for the Brick Shirt House. At a flea market outside the Church of the Holy Trinity, now surrounded by the Eaton Centre, she sold clothing brought from London or bought cheaply at Salvation Army thrift stores. 'She could look at a huge mound of old clothes and spot a designer number from 50 yards,' General Idea's Mr. Bronson remembered. Gravitating to the city's nascent avant-garde art scene, she was a fashion designer for General Idea. Her image appeared in many of their projects. Ms. Stagg had a flair for the theatrical gesture. Intending to move her Amelia Earhart Originals boutique from Yonge Street to the ritzy Yorkville shopping neighborhood, she was informed by a city inspector that a bylaw prohibited the sale of second-hand goods in the former village of Yorkville. 'Sandy quickly made an appointment with the boss of the bylaws and went to his office on the 10th floor of City Hall,' Mr. Oberst recalled. 'She marched straight from the door to the plate-glass window, turned dramatically and said, 'I may as well throw myself through this window if I can't keep my business!' The stunned bureaucrat saw to it that the bylaw was changed. Her vintage clothing shop in London drew celebrity fashionistas John Galliano, Jean Paul Gaultier, Stella McCartney, Alexander McQueen and model Kate Moss. Fashion designer Paul Smith was chased down the road by Ms. Stagg as he left with his purchase. Because his credit card didn't work, she grabbed back the bag containing a pair of men's brogues. 'He had to send someone the following Friday to pay and pick them up,' Ms. Headland recalled. 'I think he was terrified of Sandy.' In her final days, Ms. Stagg, who had no children, was looked after by a group of friends − dubbed Team Sandy − that included Mr. Oberst and Erella Ganon. One of the visitors was the great Toronto singer Mary Margaret O'Hara. 'She came to the hospital and the two of us sang songs to Sandy at her bedside,' Ms. Ganon said. 'It was beautiful.' You can find more obituaries from The Globe and Mail here. To submit a memory about someone we have recently profiled on the Obituaries page, e-mail us at obit@
