Vintage for me is an era of glamour, romance and a reminder of a bye gone days. Of a time when a party dress would be worn season after season and one pair of shoes went with all. These quintessential English images of the past are smattered with visions of sequins, which were the height of glamour and when tea was served in a cup and saucer. With vintage you can’t help but wonder what stories each item could tell. Where has it been? What has it seen? Or how the person wearing it felt. Vintage for me has character, style and a uniqueness that cannot be met by any other style. It exudes a richness and pizzazz that can’t be recreated or repeated and this, at least to me, is something special. To be able to access a part of the past, reinvent it, make it your own and take inspiration from it is something rare in our world of, what can be, mass produced cookie cutter fashion. Vintage couture is a labour of love, from hunting down the perfect item, customising it, lovingly repairing it and finally the sweet reward of being able to actually wear it, safe in the knowledge there will be no awkward moment when someone arrives in the same outfit as you!
This weekend saw my heart sore and credit card flinch as The Vintage Fair was in town! For anyone who has never ventured to one (shame on you!), it is an experience not to be missed. Stalls heaving with bright fabrics waiting to be rummaged through, jewellery glistening in the light, war time songs being played softly in the back ground and the gentle hum of the ever enticing and diet defying tea room. The gentle bustle of people, murmur of chatter and occasional peals of laughter in excitement can be heard from the venues steps outside. Making my escape from the biting cold November air, my heart skipped a beat as I climbed the grand stair case in to vintage heaven.
But for many, vintage isn’t a style they would consider. The perception of something being old and used puts us off, yet we are happy to buy other recycled products on a daily basis. At a time when we, as a nation, are faced with many ecologic crisis, we waste more food as a country than the third world receives, our landfills are over flowing and our seas are polluted with what have thrown away, we have to ask ourselves, where does this stop? Most of us quite happily separate our rubbish, remember each week what colour bin goes out and reuse newspapers but why do we draw the line at clothes and furniture? What stops us picking up even the occasional piece of vintage? Be it furniture, clothing or jewellery that one item won’t have been made in sweat shop, it has already paid its carbon foot print, maybe several times over and its effectively being recycled by you buying it. At time when it is so easy to be part of the crowd, wearing the mass produced, sweat shop low viscosity rayon and stocking up on flat packs finest we have to question where our ethics lie. If we can accept responsibility for the impact our rubbish and house hold waste has had on the world and make attempts to rectify that by house hold recycling, is it not time take that next step forward and look critically where and how we buy our clothes and furniture.
So next you are shopping, be it for this seasons must have, a one off key piece to update your wardrobe with or just a little pick me up, spare a thought for vintage and how just one piece could add style to you outfit and escape the landfill. A unique scarf, a sparkling pendent or unusual clutch can add a touch of glamour to any outfit, uniting the past with the present and helping to preserve the future. Maybe in the right vintage piece, and a small adjustment to our attitude about vintage we could tackle some of the world’s ecological issues with some style.
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