V for Victory
the victory belles interview
Image Courtesy of Rebecca Tan
For some, vintage is more than just fashion.
For Karen, Liz and Marcia, they live a life from
yesteryear every time they perform as The
Victory Sisters. We caught up with the trio to
learn more about shopping, singing and style
icons...
How did you all meet?
Liz: We all met at the beginning of the year
when Karen and Marcia were both involved
in a musi-cal that I was co-producing with my
friend Marc.
Karen: The three of us hit it off onstage and
off. We quite clearly shared a passion for all
things vintage.
Liz: I had wanted to start a wartime female
trio for a while so I mentioned it to Marcia and
Karen and they were both really excited by
the idea and here we are!
What inspires you about this particular
era?
Liz: I’ve always been interested in the
Second World War; the make do and mend
mentality, but especially the music and how it
could bring a country together. Our biggest
influence has to be The Andrews Sisters.
Their close harmonies are, to me, the sound
of the era. And of course I love Vera Lynn’s
smooth voice, George Formby’s humour and
Gracie Fields’ unique sound and northern
charm (I am a northerner myself). In terms
of style, we all wanted to show our down to
earth na-ture as well as pay tribute to the
women during the war, so our main look
focussed around the Women’s Land Army. It
definitely suits us and how we want to portray
ourselves. We also have a uniform outfit
which was inspired by The Andrews Sisters’
famous outfit.
How did you begin your love affair with
vintage?
Marcia: Mine really started at university - I
had loved to have a rummage in a second
hand shop before then, but had never
really experienced a ‘proper’ vintage shop.
Soon after starting at Exeter I discovered