Caroline Brown's love of vintage embraces fashion, furniture and even food. Sharon Dale reports
You'd be hard pressed to find someone under 40 who has never visited an Ikea store – it has become a national pastime.
But Caroline Brown, 34, is that rare shopper who shuns the modern Swedish monolith along with almost anything new and fashionabl
e in favour of the old and long-cherished.
"I have got a couple of things from Ikea, but they're things that other people have given me," says Caroline, who has managed to furnish her large Victorian terrace home, top to bottom, on less than £300.
"I prefer old. It's a more inspiring way of living. It doesn't matter if some of the furniture is a bit tatty, that just serves to remind you about its history," she says.
Her love of everything vintage, from fashion to furniture and even her favourite food (Tunnock's teacakes) started when she was a little girl in Surrey, when her mother took her hunting for treasures in second-hand shops.
"I've always preferred old things, from classic literature like Dickens and movies starring Cary Grant and Vivien Leigh.
"I've never followed fashion even as a teenager," says Caroline, whose favourite vintage era is the 1950s.
An artist and former arts administrator, she and husband Julian, a health care worker, moved from Brighton to Shipley, near Bradford, 18 months ago with very little baggage.
"Julian's brother lives here and we loved it, which is why decided to move. We were able to rent this house, which is wonderful because it's so full of character. In Brighton we could only afford tiny studio flats, which were furnished.
"That was very frustrating because we couldn't buy anything, even ornaments, because there was nowhere to put them," says Caroline. "When we arrived here, all we had was an ironing board and a lamp."
As a tenant, she can't redecorate, but she has made the house her own with the help of friends and relatives and vintage finds from antique shops and fairs. The Formica kitchen table was donated by her sister-in-law's mother. The bedspread is an old Edwardian tablecloth and the dressmaker's dummy in the bedroom was found in a disused shop.
"I love vintage for lots of reasons. It's not just about nostalgia. It's got character. A lot of things are hand made and well made. And, of course, by buying it you're not only getting something different and
acknowledging the past, you're recycling and moving away from the mass market and consumerism," says Caroline, who has degrees in both accountancy and interior design.
"But decorating like this does take confidence. On the face of it things don't match, but they do somehow go together because you've chosen them and you love them."
Her passion for both vintage and art sparked an idea that has resulted in a new boutique. After winning a local Dragons' Den-style business competition, she opened her shop in Victoria Road, Saltaire selling vintage homeware, fashion and jewellery alongside work from artists and designer makers. She named it The House of Rose and Brown – Rose is her mother's name – in memory of the 1920s fashion house TV drama The House of Eliott.
"It was a whirlwind three months. I was working for the Arts Council in Dewsbury, when I had the idea. The plan was to combine vintage with contemporary art work. It's hard to get people into galleries however informal you try to make them, but the vintage creates a lovely atmosphere," says Caroline, who founded the ConTemporary gallery in Brighton, staging selling exhibitions in empty shops. Her plan was to carry on working and saving up for three years before launching the plan, but after entering and winning Bradford's Enterprise Island Creative Challenge earlier this year, she decided to start business straight away.
"It was like Dragons' Den in that you had to go before a panel of local entrepreneurs. But it was much more friendly than the TV version," she says. "The prize was a workshop and mentoring and that helped give me confidence."
After asking the owner of an empty shop in Saltaire if she could rent the space for two weeks to trial her idea, she was up and running. "The landlord is great and is very sympathetic to the business and he offered to let me stay on. It's been real whirlwind three months, but it's fantastic and we get people of all ages in the shop.
"Vintage appeals to all sorts of people and the definition is 25 years old or over, so amazingly it now includes the 80s. I get young girls in looking for ra ra skirts, graphic prints and chunky earrings."
Caroline's innovative approach has involved her wheeling a vintage tea trolley around Saltaire, playing old 78s on a wind-up gramophone, and she regularly takes the House of Rose and Brown on "trips out.", most recently to the New Briggate Gallery in Leeds.
"I really love what I do. People say the shop is like a treasure trove and it does prompt nostalgia trips. Then there are all the stories you get from vintage pieces. We have some beautiful Italian leather gloves from the 70s that are still perfectly packaged and have never been worn. They came from a single lady whose life was her career and travelling. She loved Italy and she used to buy all these things, but she had so much stuff a lot of it was just put away unopened and unused.
"It's sad in a way, but wonderful to think that those gloves are being bought by people who love them like she did and who will wear them and treasure them.
"The proceeds are going towards spending money for a trip to Italy that her sister is taking in her memory."
n The House of Rose and Brown is at 16 Victoria Road, Saltaire, and is open Wednesday to Sunday 11am to 5.30pm, with afternoon tea served alternate Saturdays. Tel: 07985 181120 www.roseandbrown.co.uk
n During the Saltaire Festival September 6-16 The House of Rose and Brown will feature art work celebrating the village and its surroundings.
