Wow, life has been sooo busy since we came back. First, it was the unpacking and the washing. Why is it, even if you wash things before you come back, there’s still a huge heap on the floor after you’ve unpacked! Then we had to pack a whole load of stuff away for decorators to come in – difficult in a small flat. That was so unsettling – it felt as though we were moving again! But the main thrust of these hectic days has been the hand-over of the film society we set up in Newhaven. It was, and still is, a great success. But you know what, the same people shouldn’t run things forever – there should be new people with new ideas and enthusiasm coming in. Mind you, it was such a big thing finding them, as in, it was difficult. But we found them. And they’re going to be great.
So, there’ll be one more ‘what I wore on film night’. And then a gap as we won’t be going for a few months – to give them space, which is important. But, for those of you new to the blog, on film night I always dress up in my thrifted charity shop finds. I shall miss doing that and I’ll have to find other opportunities and events to get into my glad rags. (Actually, that won’t be difficult in Brighton).
Anyway, I thought this might be a good time to show you some of my favourite charity shop outfits worn over the years on film night.
This is my favourite skirt – a tulle tutu – worn with, I have to tell you, my favourite little bootees. And now that those boots have fallen apart, and are in the bin, I admit they’re a bit clunky and not all that attractive. But you have to indulge me. They may not have been all that great but, oh my word, they were comfortable.
Another favourite was this amazingly rich, deep-coloured satin skirt, which unbelievably, while it looks a million dollars originated from Tescos (a UK supermarket). And natch, I got it for £3 as it was thrifted from a charity shop.
While I love full skirts here’s one that is another favourite. Note that in the pic I was wearing it all wrong as actually you should wear it with the long, long zip at the front.
And here below is a skirt that got sent back to a charity shop some time ago.
It was just lovely but, I never wore it again, and I’m very strict with myself, if it doesn’t get worn – out it goes.
This is two years ago. Note the shorter hair. The skirt has long gone but I still have the jacket which was found in a charity shop unworn and still with its label showing the price at £129 – I got it for £20! And oh lord, those boots!
Look at that skirt below! What a fantastic pattern to it!
There are others – but these were my favourites.
I think the reason for this post is to remind everyone that you absolutely can find really outstanding items of good quality for next-to-nothing that can be worn for that special occasion. You also see that I love skirts and wear simply appalling shoes, or, in this instance, boots!
That’s all for now
With love
Penny, the frugalfashionshopper
And sharing this week with the usual lovely people:
Catherine of Not Dressed as Lamb and her weekly iwillwearwhatilike
Patti of Not Dead Yet Style and Visible Monday (I’m always late for that!)
Nicole of High Latitude Style and
Nancy of Nancy’s Fashion Style and Fancy Friday
Hi Penny – I’m really interested in your experience of setting up & running a film club.
I’m living in Spain with my partner amongst a mostly British population with some Dutch & German friends.
I’d be very interested to know how you got your club off the ground & where you sourced the films & the costs involved. I hope you don’t mind me asking for details but this would be new to me although I do have a lot of experience of event organising. This would be a great event to put on in our community maybe on a monthly basis. I’d be very grateful for any info & advice.
Many thanks, Karen
Hello Karen and here’s a quick reply. (Btw, I’ll get my husband to reply to you, if you want, with more technical details. That’ll be next week when we’ve stepped down).
Ok the thing is you’ve got the right experience because running a film society is similar to event organising. When we were going through the challenge (!) of finding new people we made the mistake of asking film buffs if they were interested. Actually they were only interested in showing their favourite films and when we gently suggested that running a film society was a management role – they backed off pretty quickly. So having said that you need to start with two things; first the technical side. Here you will need certain technical pieces of equipment (my husband can say exactly what you need) which cost. Now we had the good fortune of wanting to run this in our local community centre who after some discussion decided to fund this initial equipment as it could be used for other purposes. The community centre also charged us a peppercorn rent (£10) for the whole evening because it reflected well on them to have a film society on their premises. So that briefly is how we got round the initial starter costs and (with my husband) we also had the technical know-how.
Then there is the licensing. So what is the situation in Spain? I don’t know this – you will have to find out. But every film shown by a society in the UK has to be licensed and no matter how small you are this has to be done and it’s roughly £100 a go.
Btw, we have the experience of being involved in a film society some 15-20 years ago and you showed a proper film on a reel that had to be spliced together! How things have changed – you just buy the cheapest blue-ray DVD! But there is the licensing – that is still there.
To actually set the whole thing up we followed instructions and a kind of template provided by the Federation of British Film Societies which is now called Cinema for All. It actually says you should have a Constitution, Terms of Reference, AGMs and proper officers like a Treasurer because you are holding public events and money is involved. Here in the UK if you do any grant applications for fundraising (which we did for our comfy chairs) the grant providers will want to see minutes and bank accounts and details of all your officers which we could provide as we did set it up like that. That was what put off the film buffs who felt quite faint I think at all the behind-the-scenes admin that went on!
So with you being an event organiser I think you have the right experience – treat setting up a film society like a public event that happens once/twice/three/four times a month. And let me know if you want more technical details – which my other half can provide. Hope that helps x
Hi Penny. Thank you so much for taking the trouble to give such a comprehensive response.
The Cinema for All website didn’t come up when I did a quick google search so that will be really useful.
I take your point about having other people involved in the organisation – that could be an issue!
I’ll be taking some soundings locally over the weekend & see where we go from there.
I’ll let you know how it all goes
Thanks again- best wishes
Karen x
Hi Karen – glad you like the response 🙂 And definitely don’t run it on your own – you need others around who can step up. Here’s the link http://cinemaforall.org.uk
All very best
Penny
Hi Penny! Welcome home!! Hey, I hope you are going to be writing about the film club. What sorts of film? All? French? All of your outfits are gorgeous. But I have to tell you, I made a reference to “mid-length” tutu skirts on my blog today. I’m laughing my ass off now because you are a blogger and you are in one of those tutu skirts–but you’re not the kind of blogger I was referring to!!! XXOXOXOXO!!!
Hi Catherine – yes, back from France – what a shock! And as you can see I do have a tulle tutu but I absolutely don’t wear high heels – maybe I should????? xxxxxxxx
I love your taste of skirts! Especially the Tulle one. Fabulous!
Thanks Nancy – it is such a lovely skirt but I really must wear it with daintier shoes!!!!
Such outstanding looks Penny! I love all of them. Just goes to show what precious gems you can find if you have a rummage. In fact, I am off to Epping to do that right now – it’s a rich seam of good charity shops!
Epping – ooh. Always good to hear where there are rich sources of pre-loved clothes. I think the thing is some towns have great charity shops and some don’t. And you just have to find them.
Some fabulous outfits here, Penny. I’m a fan of pencil skirts. I guess that’s because they flatter my figure!
Thanks for linking up to Top of the World Style. This olive tulle skirt is such a great find! You look awesome!