The art of blogging and LOTF outtakes

Hey all,

So some of you may know that I've recently landed a new job. I have left my job at the National History Museum to work with a fabulous company where I will be working in their press department as well as writing their blog. I am SURE that I'll be sharing more details with said company soon, however, I may be keeping this separate. Anywho, we get a lot of emails about how we got this far with Bright Young Twins. Of course our blog isn't perfect, we both don't post as much as we'd like, (and please don't think us 'up ourselves') however, heres our best advice.

Pick yourself a good name and stick to it. The best blog names are the ones that you can remember off the top of your head. Fleur's 'Diary of a Vintage Girl' is a great example of a great name. It just does says what it says on the tin.

Okay, so you've just started your first blog and you keep writing, why is no one reading? Why is it just your cat, nan and psycho ex making the stats? Harriett and I had this for quite a while when we first started. A good way to keep things in motion is obvious shit like commenting on other people's blogs. You must read other blogs right? So take the time to comment. One of the main reasons me and Harriett started the blog is because people came up to us in the street to photograph our outfits or to talk about clothes. Heres an idea, why not tell them? Write it down on a bit of paper, explain you're just getting started but would love them to read it. If you've got something good it'll spread like wild fire. This happened to us with Style East, Wayne Tippetts and a few others.

Find your niche. Whats the point of writing another Vixen Vintage, Fashion Forestry or Andi B Goode? If you wanted to read about an amazing red head who sticks all manner of crazy beautiful head dresses in a Vice style photoshoots then you'd read Nicole's awesome blog right? It took me and Harriett a while to find our niche, it came when we got more creative with clothes and more ahem creative with words. Theres a million great ideas out there, make sure no one can do it like you. 

Lovely lovely original content. Okay, so a lot of bloggers do the whole reblogging over images, but on the whole the best blogs (in my humble opinion) are the ones who produce great writing and photographs. Would you read our blog if we constantly compiled together other ladies' images? Probably not. 

Hang on in there! Rome wasn't built in a day, look at all your favourite bloggers, I doubt their Smorgasbord of loyal followers didn't appear over two days. Keep going, digits aren't everything. If you've put together a great blog with some good quality content then I think thats something to be proud of. 

I hope this helps, lots of love. 
Aimee xx

Got any advice? Think we're wrong? 

Sunday Shopping with Sophie!

Hello Kittens. 

This Sunday I went for a munch with our dear friend Sophie who has 

previously guest posted for us with her amazing Ebay finds. Lately things

have turned to shit again in Harriett Land (got made redundant/losing flat/ blah)

but instead of sitting in my room listening to Brian Eno and banging my head against

the wall I decided it would be good to get out of the house and spend some time 

prancing around Columbia Road. I don't know where in the world you are reading

this from but its fucking cold in London right now. So I dug out some furs and 

started dressing like a 70 year old Manhattan Socialite. Enjoy!

I am wearing 

1970s Fox Fur Hat: Charity Shop

Edwardian Blouse: Gift from Sophie

1970s Leather Belt: Charity Shop

1950s Harrods Mink & Goat Skin Fur Coat: Antique Stall in Lewes

1950s Wool Ski Pants: Rokit

Wool Tights: Primark

Suede Heeled Boots: Zara (Via Charity Shop)

1940s Leather Doctors Bag: Bought from Friend

The inside of this coat is so torn up from me aggressively punching my arms into

the sleeves last winter in Berlin in an attempt to shield myself from the cold as quickly

as humanly possible. It looks like the fox on my head crawled of and mauled it.

Glamorous. 

Sophie bought a little leather 1940s bag from the little vintage stalls just round the

corner from the main flower market. I got a Joan Baez record and some flowers

for my new head dress venture. If you haven't checked out the  Lady of the Flowers 

tumblr yet fill yourself in!

Sophie wears:

1940s Tilt Hat: Ebay

1950s Bed Jacket: Ebay

1980s Riding Jacket: Ebay

1960s Belt: Her Grandmothers

1940s Skirt: Ebay

1980s Leather Boots: Her Mothers

Sorry my Outfit posts have been so few of late. Its hard to take elegant pictures of

yourself when you spend most of your free time standing in an east London alleyway

in the pissing rain downing budget gin and screaming WHY DOESN'T ANYONE LOVE ME?!

But I am going to try much harder to share with you our style, lives and adventures

more often, as we have so much exciting stuff in store its a almost a little daunting.

Love you all

Harriett xxx

Lady of the Flowers: Launch and Casting Call.

Hello dear readers, Harriett's back. I want to apologise for my brief absence from the blog, I have been very busy being creative and am finally ready to share with you all what I have been working on. I have finally committed to launch my custom floral head wear company under Lady of the Flowers.

I will be creating fresh and dried floral head dresses inspired by a range of decades an influences in seasonal flowers.  Custom orders and pre made designs will be available and should hopefully be available for ordering online by Christmas. I am also hoping to get a little stall at one of the weekend markets around Hackney to sell my wears along with a few co-ordinated vintage bits and bobs. If you have anything special in mind I am also making myself available for personal consolations in the London area  to arrange and discuss any custom orders. 

As the company is only a fledgling project I just wanted to share with you some of the concepts and designs I have been working on at the moment. So of course I roped Aimee into frolicking around a graveyard with me in the pissing rain on a Wednesday afternoon. I love that woman. 

 I have a few exciting plans under my elaborate florally decorated hat to of which I am calling on you as readers for help and and offering an opportunity to get involved and

 lend your elegant face to the Lady of the Flowers launch.

Enjoy the photos and see below for more details on how to model for me

So would you like to get involved? I'm looking for models aged between  18-35 in the 

London area. Shape and size does not matter in the slightest. However you MUST have long flowing locks of hair, at least bust length!  Unfortunately I cannot afford to pay you mega bucks right now, but I can offer you these small treats. 

- Featured on the BYT blog and Lady of the Flowers promotional imagery.

- Get to kick back with Aimee and I. 

- Invited to the Lady of the Flowers Launch party and force fed champaign. 

- I will braid your hair. 

- I will also totally make you a free head dress and smother you in kisses.

Professional Photographer and makeup artists will be hired, styling by myself. Aimee will make you cups of tea. Living in the London area is not essential but shoots will be taking place in Hackney so you must be able to get your sexy body to this neck of the woods. 

If this seems like something you would be interested in, please do email a recent photograph and a short

description of yourself and why you would like to be involved to -

harrietthenderson@hotmail.com. 

Thanks so much for reading and I hope you are as excited about this as I am!

Lots of Love

Harriett xx