Story Donated By Casey Orr

This jacket was in my dreams. I specifically wanted this exact jacket. Not a jacket a bit like it. No, it had to be this exact jacket. I came out of the dentist’s off Town Street and went into the charity shop round the corner. They had almost-this-jacket. It was very much like this jacket, but not exactly like this jacket.

Then I went to the charity shop across the street, opposite Somerfield’s. And there it was, this jacket. Just like I’d dreamed it. No, not ‘just like’ I dreamed it – exactly like I dreamed it.
Casey Orr

Story Donated By Nomie Parker

Me and my Mum spotted this lovely lady at a table top sale in Grassington. It had a post it note stuck to it that read: ‘Nina by Vandersyde- As seen in the film A CLOCKWORK ORANGE! - went for £40 on EBAY recently’

I was suitably impressed with the picture’s credentials and the level of research done by the stallholder. After a quick discussion with my Mum about the age old dilemma over whether something is Kitsch or just plain old bad taste, I negotiated a price of £10 and left triumphant. On my return home I put it on the mantelpiece sure that Stuart would love it and say, ‘Well done darling! What a glorious piece of retro paraphernalia’

He didn’t.
He said it was in fact an example of Plain Old Bad Taste.

It was in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE because I checked, and it’s still on the mantelpiece.

Nomie Parker

Story Donated By Jenny Hall

I collect antique textiles. I love table cloths, doylies, cushions and clothes but the one thing I have never found in a charity shop or flea market is a handmade quilt. One day I was browsing through the 20p basket in my Samaritans charity shop when I overheard the volunteers discussing an antique quilt that had been donated and sold that very morning, mere minutes before I had come in! I was heartbroken to discover that my dream charity shop buy had just passed me by.
Jenny Hall

Story Donated By Sarah Howells

Fancy going to the sort of tea party where plates are piled high with sandwiches, crusts cut off (naturally), with a marker is stuck in to help you with your choice. Tongue anyone? Egg ‘n’ cress? Ham? Cheese & Tomato?

Naah, I’m having Fish Paste. These are china, pure class, and cost 50p for the lot, Barnardos, Harehills, ages ago.
Sarah Howells

Story Donated By Ella Dee

In 2002 my family and I went to Switzerland on holiday. I visited several charity shops around my hometown of Headingley. In the arthritis charity shop I came accross a bright yellow beauty! It was big and comfy and my 9 year old self felt wrapped up and warm, engulfed in its massiveness.

In Switzerland the fleece travelled with me on our many visits. It kept me warm and survived many a snowball fight. It has now visited Luxembourg, Switzerland, Poland and North Yorkshire regularly and never fails to be a welcome asset to any journey.
Ella Dee

Story Donated By Sophie Gleisner

I bought Peggy The Panda from a fairtrade charity shop in town.

I called her Peggy because the lady in the shop was called Peggy.
Sophie Gleisner

Story Donated By Martha and Hesta

Once upon a time, many years ago, there was a Sweetie Jar on a second hand stall. Martha and Hesta both paid ONE POUND each to guess how many sweeties were in the jar.

The both of them guessed one hundred and seventy four.

And they were both right! This meant that they had to SHARE the sweeties (and the jar) and they have stayed friends ever since!

Awwwwwwwwww!
Love From Martha and Hesta

Story Donated By Hayley Avron

The first time I laid eyes on this dress was during my first week working for St. Gemma’s Hospice. I was working at the Street Lane shop, learning the tricks of the trade. The dress was hanging up in the sorting room downstairs. It was destined for the next Retro Fair and I was nowhere near confident enough to stake my claim on it so I held it up against myself when no-one else was in the room and then bid it farewell… When the fair came around, our paths crossed again and I gingerly asked to try it on, not entirely sure that it would actually fit me. Turns out, it was a match made it heaven…

It’s by a London designer called Russell Stuart and although I’ve not been able to find out anything about him, I have managed to find one other Russell Stuart dress (on EBay). I’ll keep hunting…
Hayley Avron

Story Donated By Wendy Young

In the summer of 2007 whilst on holiday Canada my cousin and I visited an ‘Antique Barn’at Niagra-On-The Lake in Ontario. There was so much to look at but as soon as we went upstairs my eyes latched onto a large 1930’s-40’s quilt entirely made of Suffolk Puffs (in the US they call them Yo-Yos). As if this wasn’t enough excitement there was a 40% off sale on all textiles!

My intention was to take it apart and re-use the vintage puffs in other design work but the more I looked at it the more I grew to love and appreciate the love and history that had been involved in putting it together and as a result I couldn’t bear to dismantle it.

This year I decided to make my own version and, as an artist working primarily in denim, I themed my design around the influence of denim in society from its humble origins to its current designer status. My new quilt is made from over 300 puffs embellished with reclaimed buttons collected from charity shops.
Wendy Young

Story Donated By Helen Darroch

I found these shoes when living in the Jordaan area of Amsterdam on a street called Hazenstraat. It is a brilliant little second hand shop, run by the most laid back lady, with the biggest curly hairdo you have ever seen…well she does live in Holland I suppose (refering to her temperament, not her hair)… Whenever I would go in, she would be sitting in exactly the same place, a huge armchair, puffing on a cigarette in what could only be described as a den of soft furnishings and piles of higgledly piggledy bargains. This place has an air of excitement; a feeling of impending brilliantness (not even a word but you feel my excitement right?!) Upstairs there were baskets of hand-made lace,a vast array of fabulous shoes and a red velvet chaise longue in which to try on all the shoes.

I have big feet - UK size 7.5 and it was just my luck some rather large Dutch lady had given up her shoe collection of which I bought a few pairs.

I wore these particular shoes to my civil wedding ceremony along with a white trouser suit.

Thanks, oh big footed Dutch lady………
Helen Darroch

Story Donated By Boff Whalley

I got this fantastic safari suit from a Charity shop in Armley about fifteen years ago. I thought it would be perfect for that Morecambe & Wise ‘Riviera Touch’ look. I love it so much.

Unfortunately I have never found the perfect event at which to wear the suit. It sits in my clothes pile and waits to be worn. Sometimes I get it out and put it on, then decide it isn’t the right moment. One day I’ll wear it in public and people will say, “Hey, you’ve got The Riviera Touch”.
Boff Whalley

Story Donated By Emma Adams

I found The Spanish Lady at a massive car boot sale in Leeds. I was making a short film at the time and one of the sets needed to be totally rammed with charity shop glory. So, I was there with my Art Director (Mark Mathews where have you gone?) who is really good. He was holding the purse strings, trying to stretch the budget as far as he could. We were going round and I saw her and I just fell in love with her haughty stare, her creepy sprayed on lacey vail and her chipped nose. I said ‘Mark can we have her?’ and he was like, ‘She’s too expensive and we don’t need her’. I knew he was right but I was sad as we walked away from her box… But then it got towards the end of the morning and people were drifting off and I saw that she was still there! Her price had dropped. Mark bought her and gave her some dignity back by touching up her nose.

She looked ace in the film.

After the shoot I bagged her up and took her home. The Spanish Lady has ever since been my pride and joy. Her showbiz days are not over either. She had a cameo role in a play I wrote last year.
Emma Adams

Story Donated By Helen Darroch

I found this dear little blue bag on a trip to Woodstock, New York on our way to visit friends for New Years Eve.

The shop is called “Castaways” and if anyone is ever in Woodstock, I highly recommend a rummage. I have been there 3 times and come out with great stuff on all occasions.Home of the famous festival (although it didnt actually take place in the town, but somewhere in a 100 mile radius), one would expect to find wild patterned polyester numbers and crocheted kaftans - and you can!

This village has a rich history including a large arts and crafts artists colony that started in the 1920’s. There are mountains, glittering streams, forests and lots of fresh air that many a New Yorker craves, making it a common place for New yorkers to have a second home.

This bag could have belonged to any one; a cocktail bag for a socialite from the Upper West Side? Someone’s Sunday best…who knows. But I love it and have worn it on many an occasion.

At the moment it contains a handful of sour gummy bears that I speedily emptied from a typically enourmous bag of candy we bought whilst at the cinema with my husband and four year old son.
Helen Darroch

Story Donated By Abby Dix

I’ve been collecting these chintzy pictures of flowers for a while now. They’re kind of creepy - a bit like the porcelain dolls that my Nana collects - but they have (scuse the pun) grown on me. The two large roses I bought in the YMCA charity shop when we were doing a Hearts Content event, much to the annoyance of my friend Nomie who wished that she’d spotted them first.

The roses are a nod to the lady who used to own our house. She lived here for nearly forty years before she died and in lots of ways it still feels like her house. I’d like to think that she’d be happy with how we’re looking after it and I know she loved roses because she planted loads in the garden, so I think she’ll approve of these pictures.

I’d not really mentioned the increasing collection of chintz on the wall to my partner but I did think I was pushing it a bit with the bigger pictures. About a week after I put them up he said ‘Are those pictures new?’ but I told him they’d been there for ages.
Abby Dix

Story Donated By Gene And His Mum

We found a copy of Busy Busy World, a book by Richard Scarry. My Mummy liked this book when she was a little girl and she had been searching for the book for me to read as well. We looked everywhere and then we found what we were looking for right on our doorstep in Bramley!
Gene and his Mum