Woman spends £40,000 to live like she’s in the 1960s by Ellen Scott of The Metro

 

Ever wished you could live in a different era? Gina Guearnieri has, and she decided to stop wishing and start doing. The 57-year-old has spent £40,000 making every part of her life feel like the 1960s, from her sixties outfits to her furniture. Even her mode of transport is sixties themed, as Gina, who calls herself a ‘mid-century magpie’, has four scooters, – three Vespas and a Lambretta – a 1966 Triumph Herald Convertible, and a 1959 Bedford CA Porthole Campervan.

She lives in a tiny bungalow full of 60s appliances and memorabilia, including crockery, a Dansette record player, and furnishings, with her long-term partner. Gina, who lives in Worthing, West Sussex, became obsessed with the decade in the early 80s in her teens after buying a classic scooter and becoming a backing singer in an RnB band. She never stopped loving the decade.

Gina said: ‘Living in the ’60s gives me so much more than a hobby. ‘I won’t use a modern high-fi, for instance. I think my favourite ’60s item would have to be my Dansette record player. ‘I love live music and often travel around the country and abroad to gigs. ‘Being able to have a weekend away for a gig and spend the daytime scouring the flea markets looking for more 60s jewels, while being able to wear my favourite cape and vintage boots, gives me the greatest pleasure. I really can’t imagine my life without being immersed in the sixties.

‘Often people visiting my home who don’t know me will comment that it’s like a museum, and that’s what makes me tick. I love stories, and most of my pieces have a history and occasionally carry battle scars. ‘As a 16 year old, I became fully submerged in London’s revival Mod culture and bought my first scooter in 1981 with birthday money from my mum. Over the subsequent years, I always had a scooter or classic car, and favoured 60s styling over any other.’ Gina never liked the late 70s and early 80s fashion in her teens and, after watching Franc Roddam hit film Quadrophenia, fell in love with the ’60s. Gina, a publications editor for RSPCA, said: ‘It [Quadrophenia] showed me a way of life that I wanted to be ‘me’.

‘During the ’70s, I didn’t like the clothes and homewares that were in vogue then. ‘I joined a ’60s R’n’B band. I was out six nights a week, often only going home to get changed and then go back out again. Although it was the early 1980s, it felt to us like we were living in the ’60s – we had the times of our lives.

Read more: https://metro.co.uk/2020/10/23/woman-spends-40000-to-live-like-shes-in-the-1960s-13470601/?ito=cbshare