"I have a time capsule wardrobe - every year it evolves by a decade"

A woman obsessed with vintage fashion has a "time capsule wardrobe" with clothes from the 1930s to the 70s.

Louise Gather, 37, has gone through a style evolution - swapping dungarees for a-line dresses, capes for cords, and pin curls for psychedelic sweaters.

She loves expressing herself through period clothing and her statement bright orange hair - but gets lots of stares and comments while out and about.

But Louise doesn’t let it discourage her and says it's never too late to express yourself through style.

Louise, a wedding celebrant, from Derby, said: “People just used to dress up a lot more in certain eras.

"A lot of older people tell me they wish I had the courage to dress like I do.

“But I want to say to them 'you could still'.

“I never wear casual clothes really - I’m all about cords, not jeans, when I dress down.

“Even when I’m not really dressy, it reminds people that there was an era where people used to be dressed up all the time.”

Louise was first inspired to wear vintage outfits after she joined a 1930s style band in 2019.

They used to perform at V-Day parties, retro events and pensioners’ 90th birthdays.

She began scouring charity shops, reproductive vintage stores and Vinted for wartime clothing.

“I was all tea dresses and victory rolls at that time,” she said.

“It came from singing in a vintage trio.

“I loved the music so much, it made me want to start dressing in that style.”

But when the pandemic hit, and the trio was forced to disband, Louise was stuck on what to wear.

Throughout lockdown, she got into ‘Mad Men’ and ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ - both shows set in the 1950s.

The glamour of the decade inspired Louise to fill her wardrobe with capes, dinner suits, satin and a-line dresses.

She also started home-dyeing her hair red from a natural dark brunette colour - while salons were shut.

But Louise decided to treat herself to a vibrant new hairdo once she was allowed to get it done professionally again.

She said: “I’d had my hair red for years - it was box-dyed, mostly.

“During the pandemic, you couldn’t get to a hairdresser - so I got sick of dyeing it myself.

“I knew I wanted to treat myself when the hairdresser opened again.

“I thought ‘I might as well do something I can’t do at home.’

“I was scrolling through Pinterest, and I saw a picture of a singer in a band, who had bright orange hair.

“I decided this was the look I wanted for myself.”

In summer 2021, Louise went to a salon and got her hair dyed bright orange and hasn’t looked back since.

But the change prompted her to throw out all her 1950s clothing and evolve her style once again.

“In the last couple of years, it’s all been about the 1960s and 1970s,” she said.

“I feel like that colour palette of psychedelic pinks, yellows and greens didn’t match my old hair.

“My fifties wardrobe no longer suited me having orange hair - so I sold a load of stuff.