Your calendars may be showing 2012 now but things don’t have to move that fast. I can still remember getting excited about the new millenium like it was yesterday and now I have a “Welcome 2012″ sign on my door. Is it possible to stop the time and even rewind? Well, thanks to some genius minds who have discovered a hidden time tunnel in East London it is possible to go back in time. All the way back to the 1940s! Wondering how? Follow me…
My first Blitz Party: It was on a cool July evening in London in 2011 (no wonder why it was cool, we’re not living on a tropical island). There were ladies so chic in tea dresses with peek-a-boo bangs, wearing red lip sticks and gentleman in Allied uniforms sipping their Spitfire beers by the side of the road in front of a warehouse on Holywell Lane in Shoreditch. Imagine you’re a tourist walking by a group of people dressed in ’40s costumes chatting and laughing casually as if they were not standing on a street corner in 21st century London. I guess you’d have a closer look at your map to make sure that you haven’t taken a wrong turn to World War II! But Keep Calm and Carry On; it’s just a Blitz Party, where you get to dress up in ’40s style and party the ’40s way: Dance in the light of oil lamps to live swing and twist tunes and sip your Gin Fizz behind blackout curtains with sirens in the background. How glamorous! Especially when you know that it’s only a role play and there aren’t actual bombs falling down from the sky!
[youtube width=”500″ height=”300″ link=”http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbZqwOy9Naw”]
Okay but how do you transform from jeans and trainers into tea dresses and uniforms? Just stroll down Brick Lane and dive in all the vintage shops you see to get the best bargain and of course there is the Sunday Up Market (obviously on Sundays) with stands overspilling with vintage goods. You may also check out these photos for inspiration. Women needed to work even harder for their looks back than so a hairdo involved much more than a blow dry. Ladies, get loads of hairpins ready and be generous with the hairspray! If you have no clue as to what you’re doing just type in “1940s hair styles” on Youtube and follow the instructions on countless videos teaching you how to look like Marlene Dietrich. Whatever you do don’t forget your false eye lashes and red lipstick.
Next Blitz Party is on 28 January 2012 at 8pm. Tickets are £20 and can be purchased online: http://www.theblitzparty.com/tickets
See you in shelter!
Village Underground
54 Holywell Lane, London EC2A 3PQ, United Kingdom
T: 020 7724 1617
