Reviewed by
Evelyn
Have a look in any current fashion magazine, be it Elle, Vogue, In Style or Net A Porter, and you’ll see features based around looks that are heavily inspired by trends and patterns from decades ago, especially in designer collections. But why buy something brand new that sort of looks like a vintage fashion piece, when you can actually purchase the real deal?!
Vintage Nutcase are a small family run business, who have seen the rising growth in popularity for vintage fashion accessories, and they’ve created a subscription box service to cater for this demand. They travel across England, France and Italy to source the very best vintage and retro accessories for their subscribers, and they clearly have a lot of passion for what they do.
Each month, they’ll send you a box that will contain a minimum of three vintage accessories which are curated around a certain look or combination so that they’ll all compliment each other. It’s a surprise as to what you’ll receive, but Vintage Nutcase state that they have a ‘treasure chest’ of vintage fashion accessories available, such as evening bags, clutches, silk scarves, belts, brooches, necklaces, earrings etc, and you’re guaranteed to receive a scarf or a shawl in your box every month as the main accessory. All of the accessories are cleaned, and where applicable, polished, before they’re sent out which is handy to know when you’re purchasing second-hand/used goods.
Vintage Nutcase kindly sent me a box to try out and I was really excited to see what was inside!
The box arrived via Royal Mail and slipped easily through my letterbox. I’m not sure if all of their boxes are letterbox friendly like this, as I couldn’t find any information on their website to say so, but it may give some indication as to the kinds of accessories that they’ll include (nothing too big or bulky).
Inside I found three accessories, which were wrapped in tissue paper and presented neatly alongside a welcome card.
The main accessory was a beautiful pale yellow silk scarf with a floral print – absolutely perfect for Spring! It was in excellent condition, with no frays or pulls in the fabric which I was really impressed with as it can be difficult to find vintage silk scarves without any noticeable signs of wear. As it’s a standard length (not a square), it can be used in lots of different ways to dress up an outfit or even attach it to your favourite bag. And for those of you who are wondering, it didn’t smell musty or old at all – so it’s definitely been cleaned!
My mum’s always collected vintage silk scarves, and I’ve accrued my own collection of them over the years, so this is a lovely addition as I don’t have anything else that’s quite like it.
The second accessory was a pretty faux-pearl necklace featuring seven strands gathered together. You can see from the photo above how well polished it is, and it feels really good quality with only a slight discoloration on the clasp fastening to show its age and authenticity. Whilst it’s not something that I would wear often, I know a necklace like this will come in handy for one of the retro-themed fancy dress nights that my Uni puts on every now and then, and I can’t wait to show it off when a suitable event comes up.
The third and final accessory that I received in this Vintage Nutcase box was a pair of clip-on earrings which match the necklace above. I thought this was a lovely touch to complete the look that they’ve created here, and again, the quality is great with only a tiny amount of wear showing on the reverse of one of the earrings (you wouldn’t see or notice it when they’re worn anyway).
Overall, I’m very pleased with the quality of this box, and I think that Vintage Nutcase would make a great gift for someone that’s into vintage fashion accessories. The only slight downside that I can imagine with this kind of box for subscribers, though, is that you can’t choose what you’re going to receive, so you may get something that isn’t suited to your particular style or tastes. I think it would appeal to more people if there was an option to fill out a profile saying what colours or products you like (e.g yes to coloured scarves, no to brooches for example) as the subscription is rather expensive every month, but I do love the element of surprise if you’re a more open minded person or a vintage accessories collector.
By Mary 
