Rose Jackson: harking back to the Glory Days

***Rachel Khoo would like to thank all the inspiring people who helped make the Khoollect studio a hive of creativity. Although the Khoollect studio’s doors have now closed, you can keep up with Rachel’s newest adventures on RachelKhoo.com and on Rachel’s Instagram and Facebook pages – and, continue to enjoy the Khoollect website’s stories and recipes, which will remain available.***

Khoollector and aficionado of all things vintage, retro, kitsch and nostalgic, Rose Jackson feeds her passion each day as the Creative Director of Glory Days, a New Zealand-born lifestyle magazine that takes its readers on a step back in time. With its latest iteration (Issue 13) featuring our very own Editor-in-Chief Rachel Khoo, the Khoollect team was curious to learn more about what goes on beyond the pages of this beautifully curated magazine.

How was Glory Days born – where did the idea spring from?


The magazine came about purely by chance over three years ago but we like to think of it as kismet. Myself and my friend Claire were hosting a vintage styling workshop in late 2012 and a journalist, Natasha, came along as she was writing a piece on Claire about her vintage lifestyle. We were discussing the lack of quality vintage-focused publications and Natasha made a very flippant comment along the lines of ‘we should start our own magazine!’ Claire and I are the sort of people who jump on ideas and don’t let them go, and that was it! The first magazine came out online in January 2013 (on a wing and a prayer) and we haven’t looked back since (mainly because we haven’t had time to look back!).

What do you love most about your job?

So many things: creative freedom, being my own boss and not having to go into an office everyday are all things very high on the list.

A day in the life

I wake up around 7.00am with all my to-do lists running through my head. I try to not turn my computer on immediately but it’s hard not to as I want to catch all my sleep-aided ideas down on screen before they disappear! Then I get stuck into emails. I’m currently running five email accounts, as my head works best when different projects are divided into different areas (geeky, I know!). I try to take Rhubarb the dog for a walk up Mt Eden before the day gets away on me and then I catch up with more emails. I normally have meetings in the afternoon, so I will cycle into the city, or my boyfriend (who also works on Glory Days) and I, will drive around Auckland catching up with all the clever creative people that we get to collaborate with. Once the business day ends I will try to get to yoga, otherwise we head along to Parnell Baths, our favourite outdoor saltwater pool that was designed in the 1950s, and we will cook dinner together or go to our favourite ramen place up the road. Then it’s generally more emailing catching up on all the ones I fired off in the morning, perhaps watch a little Netflix and finally to bed!

Much like Khoollect, Glory Days is a small start-up built on ‘making the most with what you’ve got’. Tell us a bit about that and how you get by …

We’re an extremely small family to support such a rapidly growing baby! We all had our own vintage-related businesses and so we knew lots of clever creatives in the community doing great things. We decided to start the magazine, all while holding down full time jobs, as we didn’t have the capital to invest in printing and distribution. And thank goodness we did! I look back at our first online editions and cringe! That said, it was a great way to test the market and make sure there was appetite for the magazine. Glory Days came along at the right time in technological history as social media was a great help.

Year Two, we started printing which was such a big process to take on and I look back and think how brave we were! By the end of our second year, we got the business to the point that we could and so we called in an expert to help us through a business mentoring programme. While we still all work on the side part time, we also work full time on the magazine … so over the past few years that has meant we haven’t had much of a social life or seen people we love, but our belief in Glory Days is so strong that we all feel it’s worth the temporary social sacrifice, a lack of sleep and self-employed anxiety.

Have you always had a passion for vintage – tell us a bit about how you got involved in that community?

Since I was a little one I have loved clothing, handmade goods and old things. I was kicking my mum’s hands away at two years old because I was determined to dress myself. I studied garment construction and pattern-making, and I’ve always been a garage-sale browser and op-shopper, so have collected mountains of old stuff over the years. But my lightbulb moment was when I took up swing dancing – I walked into my first class, heard old jazz on the stereo, saw people dancing beautifully together wearing all the clothing that I had always collected but never worn and went ‘A-ha, this is what everything in my life has lead to!’ From there I studied makeup and started running vintage pamper parlours at events around the country, as well as amassing a collection of vintage clothing, which I hire out for period stage and screen productions. 

What interesting projects are you working on right now?

I currently have lots of projects on the go – which include, but are not limited to, working on product extensions such as art deco colouring books, creating vintage town guides, managing vintage fashion shows, booking burlesque performers to be live models for artists, running gin palaces, coordinating a series of speaking events, organising vintage markets and sourcing perfect prizes for our upcoming costume competition. Phew!

Glory Days Magazine

What’s your biggest achievement to date?

Keeping a magazine going for over three years while bigger publications than us were folding left, right and centre, is something I am very proud of. And we’ve just got the magazine into supermarkets, which is an achievement I have been visualising every time I visited one since we started three years ago. So it’s a big thing for me.  

The most inspiring person you’ve featured?

Interviewing Dolly Parton and receiving a signed Glory Days back from her that she featured in was pretty special! I completely admire Dolly’s business ethic and hard-working attitude and it was such an amazing feeling that our magazine produced from the bottom of the world was able to connect with her. How can you top Dolly?

Best Kept Secrets

I khoollect a few …

Vintage patterns, fashion source books, 1950s hats, mannequin heads… I could go on and on!

What’s your favourite item in your khoollection?

My collection of vintage wedding dresses. They are gorgeous and almost all perfect and, as they generally only get worn once, they are in incredible condition. I am going to have to sell them one day but in the meantime I will channel Miss Haversham for a little bit longer.

 

 

 

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WRITTEN BY:
Sonya Gellert

Sonya Gellert is a contributing writer and associate editor for Khoollect. She lives in Sydney....

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Want to get your hands on a copy of Glory Days? You can visit their website to get a copy, here, and follow their vintage adventures on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Photo by Tony McKay Photography