Step back in time and you can help youngsters take their first steps forward.

A vintage fair will take place in St Laurence Hall, in Corbets Tey Road, Upminster, on Saturday, May 25. Donations will go to Hornchurch charity First Step, which helps families with severely disabled children.

Attractions will include a hairstylist recreating looks from the 1940s and 1950s, a tea room where visitors can listen to classic songs on vinyl, and stalls with vintage wares.

The fair is organised by Upminster Bridge mum Emma Saunders, 42, who picked First Step as its supporting charity.

“First Step is very dear to my heart,” she said. “My own daughter Evie, who is disabled, attended the playgroup and came on in leaps and bounds.

“The vintage scene is growing and our events are a wonderful way of spreading the word as well as encouraging people to shop locally – where personal service and attention to detail make all the difference, just as it used to be.”

It isn’t just retro-obsessed fashion slaves Emma’s expecting – she hopes to welcome some more mature visitors to show everyone else how it’s done.

“We get a lot of people at vintage events for whom that era was their heyday,” she explained.

“Older ladies and gentlemen come and watch the hairstylist work and say things like ‘I remember how we did victory rolls,’ or ‘my mum used to do this with a piece of scarf’.”

Emma got into the vintage scene after Evie, now 10, was born.

“A friend and I found it impossible to do normal working hours because we needed to work around our children’s care needs, so we started making things to sell at vintage fairs,” she said.

“I just decided it would be a good idea to bring it back nearer home and run my own fair in Upminster.

“I enjoyed that sort of thing from a very young age – we would always have Doris Day playing and my mum dancing in the front room.”

First Step will have a stall at the fair to promote its work. It will also be selling some of the vintage items it’s had donated over the years.

The fair opens at 10 and runs until 4.