Pre-war party in Poirot style

 Add your view

Dapper: Joanna Jepson and her boyfriend get in the swing of things

For some, fancy dress is a doddle. For others, myself included, the mere thought triggers serious
panic. And so I find myself ­getting ready for SS Atlantica, a new vintage-themed party by Bourne & Hollingsworth, organisers of hugely successful roaring Twenties night Prohibition.

SS Atlantica's theme is Thirties ocean liner glamour, inspired by Agatha Christie's Poirot and films including Anything Goes.

“Our parties get mentioned on the vintage blogs, so we get quite a lot of vintage enthusiasts,” Anne Kapranos, one of the organisers, tells me.

Immediately my mind is whirring, what will I wear?
An afternoon rummage in Stoke Newington's charity and vintage shops turns up key accessories — evening gloves, feathery hat, fan and a man's silk
tasselled scarf. Result.

Arriving at St Katharine Docks near Tower Hill, my boyfriend and I join the steady queue of girls in silk dresses and furs and men in tuxedos paying £15 to gain entry to Commodity Quay old trading house. There's a bar at one end, dance floor and stage at the other, tables, chairs, roulette and DJ decks in between and an adjoining room showing silent Charlie Chaplin movies.

Already the atmosphere is buzzing. Clutching our Monopoly money for the gambling tables, we head to the bar and order Screaming Hudson and Gin Fizz (both £6.50) cocktails.

There's a good vibe and a lot of amicable costume appraisal — everyone has made an effort. With many of the partygoers Prohibition veterans, feathered headdresses, satin gloves, pearls and red lippy are carried off with aplomb by the girls, while the guys sport black ties, trilbies, top hats, waistcoats and military uniforms.

Most of the crowd are in their late twenties and thirties with a scattering of older guests who are visiting from a classic yacht rally. Among others, I meet travel and beauty PRs, a graphic designer, a social worker, music students and even the London College of Fashion's Anglican priest.

En route to the dance floor, where a crowd is gathering for the cabaret singers, we stop at the roulette table where some of the yacht club silver foxes are accumulating chips. I look on, excited to lay my first bet, until my boyfriend gets us in trouble by jokingly pinching a chip. The croupier is not impressed.

Undeterred, I knock back the rest of my drink and drag my delinquent other half towards the decks where DJ duo Alex and Yu are playing their favourite jazz tunes. The debonair Alex, dressed in a tweed suit with accompanying monocle, tells me jazz and R&B are his passion and that he loves playing parties like Prohibition and SS Atlantica.
“You're playing for people who are living out a fantasy,” he says. I glance around and see sparkly girls and dapper chaps all looking and feeling a little more fabulous than if they were just having a pint down their local pub. There is a real sense of fun and frivolity in the air.

The night is young and the cabaret is about to commence. Glamorous songstress Nova Skipp sings Gershwin's I Got Rhythm and Cole Porter's I've Got You Under My Skin with such infectious enthusiasm the toe-tapping crowd is growing.

But the dance floor is empty and for a moment it feels like an awkward school ball.

I chat to professional dancer Ryan François, a choreographer for Strictly Come Dancing, who says: “Everyone looks so gorgeous and ready to party, but they're hanging back a bit. They need a little encouragement I think!”

However, he needn't have worried, the banjo-playing Tricity Vogue and her band work their magic with jazzy covers of modern classics like Tainted Love and Video Killed The Radio Star and soon the floor is full.

Flapper-esque antics and Charleston shuffles combine with swaying couples and girls executing coquettish wiggles. An impeccably tuxedo-clad photography lecturer, who found out about the party through men's magazine The Chap, is very impressed by the number of attractive females and raises his eyebrows hopefully when I ask if he's planning to hook up with anyone.

We slip out past the merry revellers and wrapped in my fur stole, walking past the evocative Tower of London, I savour the heady intoxication of having been whisked away to another era for an evening. So, was it worth the effort? In the words of Cole Porter — delightful, delicious and de-lovely!
For future events, see ssatlantica.com or join Facebook group SS: Atlantica

THREE MORE VINTAGE BASHES
Blitz Party: tea dresses, stockings, enigmatic airmen and swing bands. Wartime newsreels give an authentic Forties feel. 17 October, Village Underground, 54 Holywell Lane, EC2, £15, see theblitzparty.com

Zoots, Toots And Champagne Flutes: big band sounds from the Forties and Fifties, presented by American diva Kai Hoffman and her jazz gang. Monthly dress-up theme — no effort, no entry. 20 October, Ronnie Scott's, 47 Frith Street, W1, £5 or £10 with swing class, see ronniescotts.co.uk

Prohibition: gin fizz in teacups and all that jazz. Flappers and gangsters celebrate the Roaring Twenties — and those rebels who ducked the booze ban. November (check website for updates), secret location, see prohibition1920s.com

 

What's on today   What's on tomorrow

Receive our newsletter