A woman obsessed with vintage fashion has a "time capsule wardrobe" with clothes from the 1930s to the 70s. <br /><br />Louise Gather, 37, has gone through a style evolution - swapping dungarees for a-line dresses, capes for cords, and pin curls for psychedelic sweaters. <br /><br />She loves expressing herself through period clothing and her statement bright orange hair - but gets lots of stares and comments while out and about. <br /><br />But Louise doesn’t let it discourage her and says it's never too late to express yourself through style. <br /><br />Louise, a wedding celebrant, from Derby, said: “People just used to dress up a lot more in certain eras.<br /><br />"A lot of older people tell me they wish I had the courage to dress like I do.<br /><br />“But I want to say to them 'you could still'. <br /><br />“I never wear casual clothes really - I’m all about cords, not jeans, when I dress down. <br /><br />“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.”<br /><br />Louise was first inspired to wear vintage outfits after she joined a 1930s style band in 2019. <br /><br />They used to perform at V-Day parties, retro events and pensioners’ 90th birthdays. <br /><br />She began scouring charity shops, reproductive vintage stores and Vinted for wartime clothing.<br /><br />“I was all tea dresses and victory rolls at that time,” she said. <br /><br />“It came from singing in a vintage trio. <br /><br />“I loved the music so much, it made me want to start dressing in that style.”<br /><br />But when the pandemic hit, and the trio was forced to disband, Louise was stuck on what to wear. <br /><br />Throughout lockdown, she got into ‘Mad Men’ and ‘The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel’ - both shows set in the 1950s. <br /><br />The glamour of the decade inspired Louise to fill her wardrobe with capes, dinner suits, satin and a-line dresses. <br /><br />She also started home-dyeing her hair red from a natural dark brunette colour - while salons were shut. <br /><br />But Louise decided to treat herself to a vibrant new hairdo once she was allowed to get it done professionally again. <br /><br />She said: “I’d had my hair red for years - it was box-dyed, mostly. <br /><br />“During the pandemic, you couldn’t get to a hairdresser - so I got sick of dyeing it myself. <br /><br />“I knew I wanted to treat myself when the hairdresser opened again. <br /><br />“I thought ‘I might as well do something I can’t do at home.’<br /><br />“I was scrolling through Pinterest, and I saw a picture of a singer in a band, who had bright orange hair.<br /><br />“I decided this was the look I wanted for myself.”<br /><br />In summer 2021, Louise went to a salon and got her hair dyed bright orange and hasn’t looked back since. <br /><br />But the change prompted her to throw out all her 1950s clothing and evolve her style once again. <br /><br />“In the last couple of years, it’s all been about the 1960s and 1970s,” she said. <br /><br />“I feel like that colour palette of psychedelic pinks, yellows and greens didn’t match my old hair. <br /><br />“My fifties wardrobe no longer suited me having orange hair - so I sold a load of stuff.
