WIN £150 of The Rock Boutique Goodies!!

If you're here reading this, chances are you have heard about how amazing The Rock Boutique customised sweats and denim line is - and this is your chance to win an RB starter wardrobe!

Yep, this merry bundle is worth a whopping £150 and includes:


Super hot Vintage Customised Denim Shorts!
Soft and yummy Vintage Sweater in Grey!
Pink Pin Up RB Tee!
Cute White Swallows Tee!
One Off Bleach Summer Sundae Tee!
Essential RB One Off Vest in Grey!
Essential RB One Off Vest in Navy Blue!


And YOU could be the lucky winner! So how do you enter!?


You can get up to 3 entries in the random draw -

1 - Firstly, you need to FOLLOW the blog (hit the FOLLOW button in the right sidebar) and comment on this post! You must at least do this or any other entries you make via Twitter or Facebook won't be counted!

2 - For an extra entry, follow us on Twitter (click to open new window) and tweet the following:

I'm following @Jackrb83 and www.rockboutiquethoughts.blogspot.com to win this haul http://bit.ly/ke1Oyy!

You can tweet as much as you want but only the first will count :)

3 - For an extra entry, follow us on Facebook (click to open new window) and just say hi on the wall!

Contest will close on Sunday 10th July at 8pm so you have 2 weeks to enter!
Open worldwide. Draw will be totally random and will include all valid and verified entries.

Good luck!

Festival Chic part 2 (please read part 1 below)

)The fashion wasn’t done and the outfits kept coming. The girls in the tent next door opted for matching ‘your tent or mine’ red t-shirts all with denim shorts and wellies and they all looked stunning, The Bournmouth girls rocked Glastonbury chic in flowery maxis and big shades and the young ladies from Southampton went for jean shorts and cut tees, one wearing a stunning vintage iron maidon tee!! Amy pulled all the stops out for day 2 with Cheryle Cole eyelashes, urban outfitters fluorescent bikini top under a burnt out white tee.

Burnt out tee and hunters, a festival must have!!

The lads didn’t let us down either, Dean emerged from his tent about 12, cracked open a beer and proudly announced ‘think its gonna be a stripey day today’ with that he disappeared and popped back out 20 mins later wearing blue and white horizontal striped tee, blue and white striped shorts, denim shirt and converse. Steve went for his favourite ‘Rock out with your cock out’ tee. Stevie a Zara t-shirt, denim shorts, converse and a straw hat and I went for flowery tee (as seen on Joey Essex) chino shorts and espadrilles. Naturally Mott wore exactly the same as Dean but in red. they both looked very fashion forward but did unfortunately clash with all the people dressed as wares wally!

Stripy day!!

The next day fashion was forced to take a back seat. It rained, and I mean it rained. It rained so much we had to make a bee-line for the army surplus store. 50 quid and half hour later we left kitted out with hooded waterproof coats and wellies, although they didn’t stay waterproof for long. We stood watching that main stage for hours pretending we didn’t care we were soaked through. Then Beadey Eye put in a Stirling performance with front man Liam shamelessly plugging his brand in a Pretty Green Union Jack parka. Kasabian headlined and made every second of rain worth it, I didn’t care about the freezing cold as they smashed there way through Shoot The Runner, LSF and Clubfoot. Flares went up as Tom Meighan started singing I’m on Fire and the air became thick with bright pink smoke, Serge looked the most stylish man alive thrashing at his guitar and the crowd went completely mad.

Denim shorts and boat shoes, classic! Strongbow Robot Hat optional.

Deano, Me (Joey Essex Tee) Steve, Mott and Steve!

Me pretendinmg I can still pull off vest and espadrills, only at a festival!

This little return to my youth was well worth it, I met some lovely people (you know who you are) and had a brilliant time. A few lessons have of course been learnt. Skittles Vodka, beware! Kings of Leon and Foo Fighters, Good. Kasabian, better than good. Anything goes with festival fashion as long as your working it. It is possible to look stylish while completely drenched and freezing cold and there is such a thing as ‘a stripey day’!!

Jacks done. xx

Festival Chic, Skittles Vodka, Sunburn and Evian Showers!!

The Rock Boutique has been working very hard lately, with our latest collection dropping in USC and all our independent stockists selling well, we decided it was time for a much needed break. Isle Of White Festival here we come.

I would love to give you the standard ‘what we wore’ blogg post but being a lad makes it a little tricky, So I figure, what the hell, ill give you the lads eye view (fashion style) of the Isle Of White Festival 2011!! Fashions not just for girls you know!!

The last festival I went to was quite a few years ago and since then I had decided that I am definitely far too old for all that and I should probably leave it to the youngans. Well, then IOW announced the line up: Kasabian, Kings Of Leon, Foo Fighters, Seasick Steve, Pixie Lott ect etc. and that was it, I dusted off my Hunters and my straw trillby and off to the south coast we went!!

From left: Mott, Me, Steve, Stevie, Amy

I went with 5 of the best lads you’ll ever meet and Steve G even bought his missus (well I think we actually interrupted a romantic weekend, but she was good as gold). All being very fashion conscious modern men (if I do say so myself) the next few days featured some brilliant festival outfits, some classic lad styling and a heck of a lot of jokes!! The characters in this adventure are easy to introduce, Stevie, my good friend for years, famed for owning just about everything Allsaints have ever made, Dean Stevie’s little brother, Motty, Deans best pal (think Mark and Arg, Croydon style) and Steve G my good pal and Stevies workmate. And of course the token lady and very stylish laddette, girlfriend of Steve G for almost 9 years, Amy.

Looking at it from a bloggers point of view id hit the jackpot, Dean and Mott are the youngest of the group, both 21, they are completely hilarious in a Joey and Chandler way, with there right up to date preppy/Essex style, classic dry wit and constant girl chasing, not only did they remind me of me about 8 years ago they had me in stitches doing things I just haven’t got the energy for any more. Between them I think they had packed half of Topman, Zara and Asos, a tiny useless tent bought from Tesco the day before and not a drop of food, water, sun cream, warm clothes or headache pills The two Steves, Amy and me on the other hand were a bit of a different story. Older and wiser you might say. Steve had everything from cooking pots to wellies to his famous festival jacket, I had a state of the art self assembling tent, arctic ready sleeping bag, battery phone charger and Stevie had got more lager than Fosters Xmas party and more food than my mums weekly shop (and naturally he had packed more than enough Allsaints t-shirts) Day one was spent recovering from the ‘quiet night out’ in Cowes, just around the corner from the festival. Although as it turns out it wasn’t that quiet and I’m pretty sure were not welcome in the sleepy village of Cowes again.

Steve and Amy

I woke up in our B and B and the sun was shining, what to wear was obvious, Aviators were a must (they also turned out to be a must for all of the other lads) Simple Topman T-shirt, ripped denim shorts and timberland boat shoes. Perfect camping/hangover clothing. Stevie went for much the same as me and Dean and Mott were wearing the same clothes as the day before. Don’t panic after breakfast they found a second wind, showered, changed and crawled out to the car wearing navy chinos, low v-neck t-shirts and Toms, and of course the classic Ray Bans. We met Steve and amy in town, looking every bit the stylish couple in buttoned up shirt and deck shoes and Amy in loose fit tee, skinny jeans and gladiators.

My state of the art tent was up in seconds, leaving me and Stevie plenty of time or a few cans and to help all the girls nearby with their tents, by the time we were done playing ‘me real man, build tent, help pretty lady’ Dean and Mott had just about finished arguing over putting up the Tesco postage stamp they were using as a tent and I think Steve had already cooked a 3 course meal on his camping stove.

Skittles Vodka and Allsaints!!

Next came my introduction to a drink I had not previously sampled, it cant be bought in shops and it actually does taste of the rainbow. It goes by the name of Skittles Vodka. Very simple to make, buy a bottle of vodka and separate into 4 smaller bottles then add skittles to each bottle all in different colours, one bottle red, one green etc.  The Skittles will melt and you have neat Vodka that tastes of skittles in lots of pretty colours, the outcome of this is that you forget you are drinking pure vodka and so glug it down by the gallon. Trust me this is a mistake as I was soon to find out.

The rise and fall of Camden Town

Good Morning Rock Boutique fans and followers!

Its been a while, thought I would get you updated on the goings on here at RB hq. Speaking of RB hq, you may have noticed we have closed the Camden shop. On this note we would love to thank Camden Stables Market for jacking the rent up so high that no one except importers can make a living from the place. I don’t mean to moan, I really don’t but its such a shame that the place I used to pilgrimage to as a kid has lost all its attraction.

Camden used to be the home of vintage chic and edgy cool, as well as being a haven for punks and rockers. It was up there with Carnaby street and the kings road. I can remember getting the train from East Croydon to Camden when I was 15, spending hours hunting round the arches and the lock market. The arches used to be a massive tunnel packed with real original vintage stores and punk clothing, at one end was all the handmade furniture and antique stores, at the other was cute little fashion stalls selling stuff by young designers and students. The whole place had a buzz about it that has simply been stamped out now. You could lose hours of your day just wandering around the place.

It was those trips to North London that made me want to work in fashion in the first place, Camden was so inspirational. Years later I rented a tiny market stall in the Lock market for £30 a day and The rock boutique was born.

Nowadays I’m afraid Camden is a very different story, its so sad that what was once such an inspirational place has been turned into a cheap generic market with the same tat on sale as every other market in the UK. the reason is simple as far as I can tell, the rents have been raised so high that only certain traders can survive, as well as this the vetting system that used to be in place for newcomers has been done away with. When I took my first shop in the Stables I had to join a waiting list, I was prioratised because I designed my own clothing, made everything in England and sold a product completely different to everyone else. At the time I could only afford a tiny shop, but once I was in I built the business up and eventually took a shop 4 times the size. Back then I was one of a few hundred shops, now there is around 600 and a whole other market built by the same people just over the road.

Many a drunken discussion in the pubs around the market has taken place about the demise of camden market and all my good friends and fellow traders agree that’s there is no living to be made from what was once one of Londons main attractions any more.

As always there are a few gems to be found if you know where to look, ill name a few for you to check out when your next in NW1

Possibly the best stocked and most stylish army surplus store is still going strong in Camden stables, Soul-Ja is located in the main part of the stables just before the horse hospital. Then head through the archway straight ahead and you will find a small indoor oasis called the horse hospital. Here you will find stunning vintage furniture stalls, right at the back of the room are 2 shops that should not be missed, tucked away in the very far corner is a cool retro toy shop selling everything from tin robots to yo yos and next to this is Marks antique shop, everything is hand picked by the owner who will be happy to tell you anything you might want to know about the stock. (the Rock Boutique look book was also photographed in this shop)

About 15 doors down from the old RB shop you will find Urban Graffiti, selling hand printed T-shirt designs and well worth a look. For actual, real, authentic Vintage where the staff no what they are talking about and the rails feature quality items get down to What goes around comes around, on the left as you enter the basement. Just above them you will find the best Italian cafe in the world (not including Italy) ask for a jack special and you will not be disappointed with the pannini the girl makes in front of you.

Opposite the old rb store is a massive vintage haven called St Cyre, owned by possibly the most help full girl you will ever meet, Jess. She stocks mainly real vintage dresses and one off pieces as well as fashion books, shoes, furs and leathers!

These few shops and a hand full of others represent what used to be the edgiest place in London, while Camden is still a wicked day out, it is nothing like the fashion mecca it once was, but it is still home to some brilliant characters and lovely people, next time your down there say hi for me.

So long Camden Town, its been emotional