Vintage Vixen

Interview and pictures by Cate Hamilton.

Need a little inspiration for vintage styling in your home and wardrobe? Meet Missy Malone: vintage shop owner, international performer, and natterer extraordinaire.

So you are Missy Malone. Yep, Missy Malone – that's me. Have you always been Missy?

No, no it's a pet name that's stuck. It's a stage name really but it's what I got married as, and what everybody knows me as.

That's really nice. Did you do stage school?

No, my path is a very windy one. In high school, well before that, I just wanted to be a performer of some description. That was all I wanted to do. I started acting quite young, about 10, and then started working professionally within acting from about 15. I left school as soon as you could, so I suppose I would have been about 16 or 17, and I joined a circus straight from school. It was a circus group and I trained with them for about a year on trapeze, and my secondary thing was stilt walking, which I still do today.

Do many people know about that?

Well people that know me know, but I've got two sort of sides and that's what happened when I got to 16 or 17. I was exploring the options and I rebelled a bit when I got to about 18. I was like, 'I don't know what I want to do, I don't know anything, I just want to be an artist' and I applied to Edinburgh College of Art whilst I was training with the circus. I applied with a portfolio which I did on the days that I wasn't at the circus. Everybody told me that I wouldn't get in first time to Edinburgh because it's a really prestigious art college and I thought, 'Well, I'll just try it.' I applied and got in first time at 18, which I didn't really expect to because people said that you'll have to go away and do a foundation year. So I went to Edinburgh and because I didn't have a clue about what I wanted to specialise in, I did the foundation year first and then in second year I specialised in costume design for the stage and it was great. It included studying historical clothing: the construction, the fabrics, the design, pattern cutting, making, repairing, buying, sourcing – all that! I graduated with my Honours degree in 2007, but by the time that that came I was already looking for my next thing.

I was always chasing strange goals because I'd been studying and working really hard all through that period and I went off on another performing tangent. I wanted to do something else and travel the world. While I'd been at university there was a very young blossoming burlesque industry at that point in time. Dita Von Teese wasn't well known at that point but she arrived at the time I was quite new and that was good timing for me because everybody wanted to know what it was about and every event wanted something like that. I was just lucky. It was the right place at the right time. I dabbled in that whilst I was at university and then when I left in 2007 it was almost at the peak of its popularity which meant I rode away from graduation to full-time burleseque performing. I've been performing for 14 years. For the first five it was just amazing. I travelled the world, I did all sorts of things. I didn't look back, I was just full-time performing and then the five years after that I started thinking about what would happen when it's not there. It sort of peaks and troughs in that industry. It's definitely been on a downer over the last 5 years. I met my husband in 2007 as well. When I graduated, I went on tour with a band called the Damned as an opening act and he was the drum technician for that band. We lived in a tour bus for two months together and fell in love on the road. We didn't think anything would happen after that but it did and we've been together 11 years. I moved to Cheltenham in 2008 because he's from Cheltenham and he was a bit more tied to the area because he's in a band and the guys live in this area. I was just quite free to do what I wanted so I moved here. It's really funny as I never thought I'd leave Edinburgh because I love it. I still love it and I still get to see it quite regularly as my family, my parents, my best friends all still live there. But Cheltenham is like a little mini part of Edinburgh – that's how I saw it.

Missy Malone, burlesque dancer and vintage shop owner.

What do you think is similar?

Well it's that Regency style. The new town of Edinburgh has a lot of things that look like Cheltenham, like the Montpellier gardens here could be in the Edinburgh new town. Cheltenham wasn't too dissimilar. It had interesting aspects and people. It didn't have cabarets or burlesque or anything like that in Cheltenham. Some people had never heard the word by the time I moved here in 2008. I decided to bring it here and I started producing a show in Cheltenham – The Missy Malone & Friends Burlesque Review at the Playhouse. It's on every April, just once a year and we do two shows, an evening and a matinee, because it always sells out. We've just turned 10.

How did you get into owning a vintage shop?

I never buy anything new and that's now more than ever a conscious thing but even as a student it was mainly because I didn't like anything new. It was cheaper if it was second-hand and nobody was going to have the same thing and I liked styles that weren't 'in-style' if you know what I mean? It worked really well for me but I saw the possibilities of introducing it to people that maybe hadn't considered wearing pre-owned because for some reason they might think it's not good enough. I'm changing the preconceptions by showing how nice vintage can be.

Yes we have got such a consumerist, throwaway culture now, but my grandparents still have the fridge they had when they moved into their house in 1952!

Exactly! I buy a lot of furniture that's good design names. Ercol is one of my bestsellers and a lot of people that I buy it from are older generations that are downsizing or moving into a smaller house or getting rid of some pieces. It's stuff that they got when they got married and they've still got it now and it's lasted and it's beautiful and now it just deserves another chance. But the difference when you look at flatpack furniture – it just doesn't last. New Ercol is wonderful because it's British and handmade, but it's not accessible for people like me. I can't afford it, students can't afford it, young families that are building a home can't afford it new, but there is still Ercol of the same standard available second or third hand.

Personally I prefer it if it has a story.

Exactly, as things gets older, I like to leave things as much as I can because I like things that don't look new. My husband and I never bought anything new.

What did you put on your wedding list?

We didn't have a wedding list. What we did is get married in Las Vegas!

Of course you did!

Of course we did! We just told people that we were going and that if they happened to want to go on holiday in America, that we'd give everybody two years' notice. We had 18 people who came out and then went elsewhere on other holidays. We said if you really feel like you wanted to get us something, because we'd been living together for 8 or 9 years by that point and had everything we needed, to put anything towards the honeymoon because we didn't need things.

There are so many things popping up now about decluttering and editing. People just have too much stuff now!

Yes! I'm still guilty of that, I'm massively guilty! I mean my house is full. And I'm a collector, but I'm not a hoarder. I definitely have too much stuff, but I keep it nice. I like things and I have collections of things which I probably don't need but they bring me joy!

What kind of things do you collect?

I collect all sorts of ridiculous things! I collect different kinds of globes from different periods of time, like 40s and 50s world globes. I like globes and maps that change with countries that have been renamed over time. Different sized globes, with different functions like lamps. Globes and maps is one of my collections, and that's why there are a lot of maps and globes in my shop.

Yeah it's difficult actually with the shop but now I've got a one-in, one-out rule so if I get a globe for instance, and I want to keep it, I have to give up one of my other ones. And if I'm not willing to do that, I don't get to keep it. If I want to give one of mine up then that goes in the shop. I do the same with my wardrobe. If I want to keep a dress, then I have to put another one back in the shop.

Well I suppose you could wear it for a bit and then put it back in?

That's what vintage is and that's why it's great! I've had dresses for 10 years that I've worn to lovely events, like 50s dresses and they're preowned before I owned them so then you dryclean them, make sure they're in really good condition, and pass them on. People change sizes. I was tiny to start with and then I put on weight and then I've got back down again. Things which don't fit anymore get switched out. Once I've found something, that's lovely but I just want to sell it on. I'm always on the chase. I really enjoy the finding and the buying. Always on the hunt!

Have you always got items saved on ebay?

I don't use ebay that much actually. I find that it's not really a marketplace that I can rely on for quality and I've had bad experiences with buying on ebay. I like Etsy which is where I sell as well because it has quite strict rules to do with vintage. You can't list things as vintage which aren't actually vintage. Etsy police it quite well and make sure that everything is what it says it is.

Do you go past skips and just think, 'Stop the car!'?

Oh yes! I've knocked on doors if I see something in a skip to ask if I can take it and most people are like, 'Yes, that old thing!' My husband and I have the same interest in stuff and we'd already decided that we wanted to think about having a vintage business when we bought our first house. We didn't know we'd have a physical shop but started selling vintage online and at vintage fairs and the Suffolks markets for five years.

And presumably, you could end up buying as much as you sell at a fair?

Oh you could definitely, yeah! Absolutely, if you're not strict with yourself. But there are so many things that if I saw it at the right price, then it's going to be tied to the roof of the car! I've got sections of my brain for different clients and what they're looking for.

Yes, we have active wishlists for people looking for specific things and it can be as detailed as, 'We're looking for a cabinet of this exact width and depth and height but we don't really know what it will look like,' to people who know exactly what colour they want.

Missy Malone with her collection of vintage globes.

Are people waiting more for the right thing?

Yes. There was a lady the other week who drove from Essex up here to get a print and it seems to be that if people are really curating their home and it's a piece that they've wanted for the right price, they just make a day trip of collecting it.

Have you got any thoughts for how can you do mid-century style for children?

There are some really lovely classic things that we sell quite often to people who are having children. The most common one is a nice rocking chair, or a nice chair with big arms for nursing. That's the vintage item that people seem happy to invest in because it will go past the nursing and baby stage.

Do you think you can mix and match the old and new if people are not ready for the full vintage makeover?

Absolutely! You just need a couple of key pieces to style a room. I think easy key pieces are chairs, lamps, mirrors, and the kind of art work that you choose. Simple statement things, like a globe for me is a piece.

There's a real vogue at the moment of old portraits of girls isn't there?

Yes! The kitsch 70s sort of artwork, the Tretchikoffs, the Lynches, all these things have always been popular but they've been up and down in fashion.

It's all over Instagram with the pampas!

Everybody loves a peacock chair and a Tretchikoff print and that's great for me because I love it. You can get reprints of these prints online but you get people who want the actual ones. I sold one recently that had the original price sticker on it in shillings. People love the old typography. I love to just look at it and think it's been around much longer than me and it's looking fab! I think for a similar sort of price to an IKEA print, certainly if you were to buy a vintage print from me, it's going to be less than what you'd pay for a framed print in John Lewis.

Ercol table and chairs, and Poole Pottery coffee cups are two of Missy's top collectables.

If people are out and are doing a bit of charity shop wandering, is there something they could keep an eye out for?

Yes! There are always things! Charity shops are wonderful. They usually have big collections of glass and pottery. You have to rummage in those sections to find anything good because a lot of the time in charity shops, I find I am sifting through our throw-away culture. Unfortunately, it's full of Primark and very rare that something will pop out in the clothing that's actually vintage. You can easily get overwhelmed and say, 'Oh this is all rubbish' and leave, but if you persevere there are bargains to be had. For instance, if you really like 60s or 70s printed dinner sets, you can mix and match them. Orla Kiely has taken that into modern style and you can get some pieces that are actually original and have that bold pattern and build sets for yourself. But you won't usually get it all at once. You might find three or four plates of one type and then in another shop, a few months later, you might find the cups or something similar. That's what I enjoy!

And things like kids' stuff – I'm definitely going to be launching an Etsy branch of the shop that's just for children's stuff because I've got a lot of vintage kids' clothing that I've picked up through the years. Some of it has never been worn and still has tags on it but it's from the 70s. There's so much handmade stuff like beautifully knitted capes with hoods and pompoms on, and smocking. And wooden toys, like the pull-along toys, look great with age. The older and more battered they are, the more lovely! And old ABC blocks – I love all that!

Where can we go in the Cotswolds for a good vintage rummage?

Stroud, definitely. It has a whole trail going down the hill of antique shops, vintage shops, charity shops, jumble sales, and cafés for pitstops. They do a street market on a Sunday and one in May on a Monday. They've got a nice community of dealers and I think they still do this but they have something called the Stroud Vintage Trail. It's a map that has each of the different shops and each shop has this map so that you can find the other ones. I like the community over competition approach – we all have different stock and can refer customers to each other. Cirencester is great for charity shops, and the Bath Road in Cheltenham. I like the Suffolks street market because it's got local artists, bakers, creatives, all that sort of thing, alongside vintage and antiques dealers, and it's in a beautiful setting. The place has great shops on the other side of the stalls so it's got everything, it's amazing.

Malone's Vintage in Cheltenham.

Pop in for a chat with the lovely Missy herself at Malone's Vintage, 7 Well Walk, Cheltenham, open Thursday to Saturday, and follow @malonesvintage on Instagram.