TOG Blog

  Well guys it's been a long time coming, but the Barbie film is here!! With queen Margot Robbie literally living out every little girl's dream by dressing up in actual Barbie outfits, we wanted to take a look back at the most iconic Barbie looks and really answer the question - How can I dress up like Barbie? - in the most sustainable way of course!   Let's start with one of the most iconic Barbie looks - the late 50s/early 60s fit and flare dress! Classic Barbie (I think one of the first outfits she wore?!), the most girly feminine shape, and we just so happen to have one super similar (and original!) on our site right now!   Now you vintage babes will be pleased to know that Barbie isn't all about the pink! The 60s and 70s hippie looks are absolutely incredible, with some fits that us TOG babes would DIE for! Thankfully you can absolutely recreate them with the hippie pieces on our site right now!  The 60s Barbie also saw some of the most amazing groovy dresses, and

Happy July TOG babes! It might be a bit late to say that but the month is flying by! With festival season in full swing, we thought we would bring you a blog that you can read for those long journeys to the fields. This month we are so excited to chat to the grooviest dance troupe in the UK - The Meyer Dancers!! London is so lucky to have this sensational sisterhood, teaming with energy and embodying everything about the 60s and 70s! Having appeared on TV, music videos, and at festivals and events all across the UK, The Meyer Dancers are a pillar of the vintage community, so we get to know them a little better! We have been a fan of you guys for so long! Tell us how you founded the Meyer Dancers? A group of us met whilst studying dance over 10 years ago, we shared a joint passion for music, all things vintage and the colourful essence of the 60s and 70s. We were inspired by the strong female characters in Russ Meyer movies so that's where our name originated from! We started this f

Welcome to this month's TOG Talks, and this month we are so delighted to chat to absolute ICON Dawn O'Porter! As a writer, presenter, and designer of the most amazing vintage inspired pieces, Dawn is such an inspiration to TOG, not to mention an absolute babe. We chat LA, vintage, and what to pack for Glastonbury! Congratulations on your most recent Joanie launch!!  You have THE best style, what started your love of vintage?       My aunty and uncle who raised me worked on Bond Street in the 60s. My aunty dressed windows and my uncle was a furrier. They talked about clothes a lot of I grew up. My uncle would turn things inside out and show me how they were made. it made me really nostalgic about how it used to be done, and kinda hate the high street because of how mass produced it was. I loved the stories of the vintage clothes. Wondering who wore them first was always part of the fun.  What is your most prized vintage piece?       Well, hard question because I have a lot, but

So we love an over the top sleeve here at The Octopus Garden! But where did it all begin? We chat with the incredible Alicia about the history of sleeves! Hi Alicia! So when did over the top sleeves become a thing? Well, sleeves have had many ‘big’ moments throughout history. Examples of exaggerated sleeves span thousands of years and across hundreds of cultures. From the wide, layered robe sleeves of Japan’s Heian period to the excessively long, flowing sleeves of the middle ages, in 12th century Europe and beyond.            (Japanese Layered Robe Sleeves)         (Sleeve depiction from the Middle Ages)     I’ll highlight some of my favorite sleeves throughout pre-20th century history, as they are what influenced the amazing sleeves from the 1960s and 1970s that we know and love. I’ll focus on Western fashion, as that is the scholarship on which I am most informed! The Renaissance, particularly the 16th century, gave a vast variety of extravagant sleeves. In Europe, these differed f