This week we’re talking to the inspirational Kim-Lin Hooper, a local entrepreneur who founded the company Vintage Hen Parties: www.charlestondance.co.uk , Vintage Hen Parties on Facebook . Vintage Hen Parties offer the complete vintage package based on different eras: dancing, dressing-up, hats, make-up and tea! As Kim-Lin is the bee’s knees on all things 20’s we wanted to ask her about her business and the era that roared.
Hi Kim-Lin; tell us a bit about yourself, what's your background?
I used to work in arts and theatre management … then arts development. I went freelance and started working on projects in schools through creative partnerships, until recently, when I started this business. I also like writing fiction.
So, what's your company all about?
It's a chance to live in your favourite era for the day! We offer 1920’s Charleston dance classes, 1920’s makeovers and photoshoots, complete with a fantastic box of dressing-up accessories for the shoot.
We now offer the same in other eras too, we've moved into 1940’s and 1950’s. We have packages with venues that do afternoon tea and dinner, in London and Cheltenham and we do the parties in Oxford, Reading, Henley and Wallingford too. We also go to people’s homes to do the makeover and shoot with afternoon tea served in vintage china, complete with music from the era and, of course, bunting! Our packages are especially popular with hen parties, and more recently we've been getting bookings for 30th and 40th birthday parties as well as corporate Christmas parties. I've been sending dancers out to teach pre-party workshops and to do dance demos and 'mix and mingle' dance tuition and we can send hairdressers and photographer to events, too!
How did you get into it?
I've always been a bit obsessed with the 1920’s, and I've always danced! The two came together when I was researching a novel set in the 1920’s, for which I needed to learn all about the dancing that was done in African American musical revues. It was this dance that introduced jazz and jazz dance to Europe in the twenties and started the dance craze. I went to classes in New York, Berlin, London and Reading and learnt whatever I could about show dancing and social dancing in London, Berlin, and America. I got to know all about Josephine Baker, and other lesser known dancers. I learnt the dances because my main character was a dancer, and I really started getting into the clothes. Then I got asked to teach some classes at the Rising Sun Arts Centre in Reading, who were running 1920’s tea dances, which was yet another chance to indulge my 1920’s fantasies and pretend I was really there … it all progressed from there!
It's such an original idea - where did you get the idea from?
Well, actually vintage jazz dance has really been taking off recently in the UK, and there are fantastic lindy hop teachers in our sunny town of Reading who have built up a great crowd of dancers. I decided to do the hen party dance classes just for fun, and there turned out to be a lot of people who were very hungry for a bit of Charleston, so it turned into a business - there's now a team of lovely teachers and hairdressers and photographers and other people involved, and it's just really great fun to work with them all.
Why Charleston?
I really felt like I'd found my dance! It's such a funny mixture of clowning and rhythm, elegance and stompiness with dances like the scarecrow, the mess around, birdy walks and the hitch hiker. You can also be quite carefree because it's all improvised and you listen to the music to get ideas - it's meant to be danced with jazz, which was quite radical in Europe and America, because the musicians played the instruments that you'd find in orchestras but in an improvised and entirely new way. It's the spirit of an era. The history of the dance is just amazing. It's an African American art form and you can see the origins in African dance in there. Above all, it's really great fun. You get to solo and to show off! To use terms of the time Charleston is ‘the bees knees’ and ‘the cat’s meow’ (cool, great) and ‘hotsy totsy’ (attractive, great).
What about the 20’s in general?
It was a time of change! I love what was happening for women; they went out on the street like never before. Artistically, creatively and in literature there was a lot going on - there were these artistic communities in Paris and Berlin making great things happen and coming up with very new, modern ideas. There was experimentation with sexuality and dress. I like the androgyny of some of the women’s styles - women wore trousers and men’s suits if they wanted to be seen as racy and daring. It was between two wars, so although there was a lot of poverty and a big financial recession, there was a sense that life had to be lived in the moment, and some people thought it was a time of regeneration. It's a time that still captures a lot of people’s imaginations now.
Tell us about the fashion of the era
It's not all about the tassled flapper dress. There were lots of longer style dresses too. There were drop waisted day dresses and beaded gowns. The classic 1920’s shoe had a round toe and a 'toilet bowl' heel. The look was famously androgynous and favoured the flat chested figure. Most people think of glamorous evening wear but I like looking at the pictures of ordinary people in long coats and cloche hats and little simple sailor dresses. Women who were especially daring - actresses like Marlene Dietrich - wore a men’s suit and waistcoat and top hat.
How are the events based on other eras going? What do you offer?
We've started doing 1940’s dance classes, drawing on lindy hop. Although lindy hop is a partnered dance, it works really well. We've got new 1950’s packages coming very soon, in a fabulous local venue! Watch this space ...
What other eras do you personally love and why?
I like the 1940’s because that was a very exciting time for women, who went out to work and contributed in a new and exciting way. Even though it must have been terrifying to live in a time of war, it created new opportunities and got people out and about and out of their usual comfort zones. My Great Aunt was always telling me stories about being posted in Austria and Italy during the war.
What's your own favourite piece of clothing?
My bright purple felt hat. And I mean REALLY bright. It's the best hat I've ever found. Got it in a little milliner's shop in Brooklyn, so it's not an original, but it's so loud and flamboyant. I call it my Harlem hat.
What's the best part of your job?
Developing relationships with new freelance creative people and with new venues.
Tell us about what's going on at The Rising Sun?
For those of us who would like to know more about the 1920’s, have you got any recommendations for where to go for info and to get the mood and feel of 20’s culture?
Yep, for reading material, take a look at:
'Josephine' The biography of Josephine Baker by her adoptive son Jean Claude Baker - it's by far the best.
Frankie Manning: Ambassador of Lindy Hop by Frankie Manning and Cynthia R. Millman. The autobiography of a legendary swing dancer - Frankie also talks about watching his mother dance the Charleston in the twenties.
The Twenties by Alan Jenkins.
Bright Young People: The Lost Generation of London's Jazz Age by D.J. Taylor.
Berlin in the Twenties: Art and Culture 1918-1933 by Rainer Metzger.
Goodbye to Berlin by Christopher Isherwood (the novel that the film Cabaret was based on).
For films Piccadilly (1929) really captures the era.
Thanks to Kim-Lin for letting Frock&Roll pick her brains.
We’ll be posting about Vintage Hen Parties’ latest exciting offerings as soon as we get the nod and the wink.
Love Frock&Roll
Images from events by Vintage Hen Parties, www.charlestondance.co.uk. All photography (c) Catherine Hadler, all rights reserved, posted with permission.
