Lou Lou's Vintage Fair, Derby

Lou Lou's Vintage Fair is titled "The UKs Leading Vintage Fair". It travels all over the country from Bournemouth to Glasgow and everywhere in between, including Derby! I was going to go to the fair when it came to Nottingham but it was arriving in Derby first so I decided I couldn't wait.

The fair was held in the Darwin Suite of the Assembly rooms, which surprised me as in comparison to other spaces available the Darwin Suite is quite small.

For a £2 entrance fee the website advertised an array of men's and women's vintage (1940's to 1990's) clothing, accessories, art, home ware, and gifts. It also advertises a vintage salon, live acts and a tea party. I have to admit I was excited! However, when I got there I was a little disappointed.

Everything was very compacted together, resulting in there being very little room for manoeuvring around the stalls. I suppose to a certain extent this has to be accepted, however, knowing that there is a bigger hall not so far away where the stalls could have been set out with a bit more space, it did make it seem a bit ridiculous.



The tea party was a little limited. Cupcakes and some sponge cakes were pretty much the stars of the show. When it said tea tarty I was expecting teacups, cute little desserts and small triangle sandwiches.

Manoeuvring my way around I found that there were only a few stalls that really stood out with things that weren't repeated else were.

Frilly Knickers!



It felt like a lot of the stuff was very similar. But then that could be due to not being able to have a proper rifle through the stuff there.

There were however some seemingly unique pieces that did jump out at you.

Some bits of the fair were a bit jumble sale-y. Neither a good nor a bad thing, I guess, it just depends on your patience level!

There was a distinct lack of home wares, art and, most disappointingly, live acts.

Ultimately I'm glad I went. I wasn't quite expecting what it turned out to be so my patience was not prepared for it! I was a little disappointed that it felt a bit like a jumble sale, but I think that it would have been different if it was in a bigger place. The size of the place also meant that the vintage salon was tucked out of the way which made it very miss-able. It did have a good mix of genuine vintage and "modern takes on" vintage.

If you are planning on paying one of Lou Lou's vintage fairs a visit I would definitely recommend going just to see for yourself, but do take your patience, some cash (not all vendors take card) and expect to do a bit of barging!

If you'd like to go the Nottingham one is open from 11am at the Albert Hall on Sunday 9th February, £2 entrance fee. I'm not sure if I'm going to give the Nottingham fair a go in the hope of bigger space and different vendors......I'll see if my patience is up for it!

For any information on the other locations have a look here, or search Lou Lou's Vintage fair, Your Location, (e.g. Lou Lou's Vintage Fair, Bournemouth) on Facebook.