Ever wondered how to best throw a smashing chic party at your house with a bit of fine finish? Why not take the popular old-school route and make your next party a little bit vintage?
Enter-time-ment
Resurrect 1950s board game Cluedo by throwing a murder-mystery party. Keep your friends entertained as they arrive with music on a gramophone or old record player and end the night with an old black-and-white flick, such as Gone With the Wind or Rebecca. If chuckles are what you desire, set up a Charleston dancing comp for your buddies too.
Archaic approach
If you want to be effortlessly modish, you could employ a butler to whack a gong and announce (in his poshest voice) "dinner is served". When it comes to polite conversation, try to steer the chat away from taboo subjects such as politics, religion and sex.
Tra-dish-ional
Serve delicious foods from epochs past. A few suggestions include cheese fondue, vichyssoise soup, beef olives, prawn cocktail, jelly or steak diane.
Dated décor
Do what your mother or grandmother would have done in years gone by and decorate your front room with jam jars overflowing with roses. Lay old-style books out on a coffee table lined with a lacy tablecloth and fill birdcages with candles as table decorations. You could even make guests feel nostalgic by pinning vintage Schweppes posters on the walls.
Historic chic
Which decade will you revive at your vintage dinner party? Honour Mad Men with '60s fashions such as prom dresses, psychedelic prints and tailored suits. Don shoulder pads, Chanel No.5 and finger waves swept off the face to pay homage to the fashionable '40s, or go for flawless flapper style with '20s short sleek hair, low waistlines and Mary Janes.
Arche-tipple
Dig up some old-school cocktails to serve at your home gathering. How about a nod to a classic car with a pink Cadillac? A modern version of '20s favourite the mint julep? Or use one of Schweppes' vintage bottles to mix up a traditional gin and tonic or brandy and ginger.
Antique treats
Get all 1940s and bake up some delicious, pink-iced cupcakes, served on a quaint stand complete with 1980s doilies.
Accessor-eras
Revert back to childhood and play dress-ups! Provide your guests with funky, vintage accessories such as cigarette holders, monocles, beads, feathers for their hair, paisley-patterned scarves and costume vintage jewellery.
