The idea of vintage clothing developed in the late Sixties and early Seventies. At the end of World War II in 1945, clothes started to be mass-produced the same way it is done today. Off-the-rack clothes became the norm. Those who did not want to look like everybody else but did not want to spend a fortune on custom-made outfits scoured thrift shops and yard sales. In the 1960s, a fashion revolution started – designs were more varied and styles from different eras were more widely accepted. Soon, vintage clothing stores began opening in the Seventies.
Celebrities have long caught on the trend. In a 1997 article of the New York Times entitled "Couture Shock", Barbra Streisand was mentioned to be the first world-famous person to wear and perform in vintage clothing. Winona Rider attended a few Oscars in vintage. In the 1994 awards night, she wore a 1959 fringy, beaded white Edward Sebesta dress. Sebesta, once a big-time Hollywood evening-wear designer who dressed the likes of Natalie Wood, never mass-produced his fabulous creations, which is precisely the source of its glamour. Last year, it was a stunning vintage couture Pauline Trigere. Trigere wore the gown when she received her first Contractor of the Year design award. "It’s a dress with a lot of history. It’s been in a lot of museum exhibits," explains Rita Watnick, owner of the vintage boutique Lily et Cie in Beverly Hills. Demi Moore has been a regular client for 20 years. Moore was one of the first to bring vintage couture to the Oscars when she wore a gorgeous 1940s silver gown from Lily to the 1992 awards. While Naomi Campbell has been a store devotee since she was 14. Sharon Stone collects vintage cashmere sweaters. Nontraditional beauty Chloë Sevigny has a way of mixing the old with the new. With this knack for putting things together, she was given an award for best celebrity style last October in VH1/Vogue Fashion Awards. Other celebrities from Cameron Diaz, Madonna, Courtney Love, Gina Gershon, Sophia Coppola, Drew Barrymore, Kelly Lynch, Annette Bening, Molly Ringwald, Deborah Messing, Lauryn Hill, Sheryl Crow, Suzanne Vega, Jennifer Tilly to models Stephanie Seymour, Stella Tennant, Trish Goff, Helena Christensen and other fashion It girls like Visionaire’s Cecilia Dean and French Vogue’s Carine Roitfeld all have second-hand and vintage pieces in their wardrobes. Kate Moss, one of the best dressed off the catwalk, has often been spotted with vintage finds. She did the Cannes Film Festival of 1998 in one of Madame Gres’ classic columns. Nicole Kidman has also been frequently seen in vintage. During the premiere of Eyes Wide Shut in London, she wore a Giorgio Di S’ant Angelo found in Steinberg and Tolkien on London’s King’s road. Then she appeared in a vintage Loris Azzaro for Moulin Rouge’s opening night. This year’s best actress Julia Roberts received her prize Oscar in an Eighties Valentino. While Reneé Zellweger wore a canary-yellow Jean Dessès, worth (are you sitting down?) $15,000! To think most of the stars have a number of gowns specially made for them from different couture houses to choose from — for free! Vintage has become a way for celebrities to purchase unique items that set them apart from the rest. They appreciate the scarcity of vintage and the wide range of styles it offers.
Even designers shop like crazy for special pieces to use as reference for their collections. John Galliano rummages through stores to buy back his designs. Vera Wang is also an avid collector. Alexander McQueen, Karl Lagerfeld Donna Karan, Ralph Lauren, Dolce & Gabbana, Tom Ford and Stella McCartney frequently shop for inspiration. The past seasons have been inspired by a mix of the past decades from the Forties, Fifties and even the Eighties. What better way to follow the trend than with the real thing? Also trend-setting television shows like Sex and the City regularly uses vintage pieces to add flair to the designer wardrobes of the characters.
We remember the lives of cult figures like Princess Diana, Marilyn Monroe, Audrey Hepburn and the Duchess of Windsor, to name a few, through their clothes. Some have had auctions for their special clothes, thus have made them collector’s items. A special Costume Institute exhibition called Jacqueline Kennedy: The White House Years is running at the New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art. The Costume Institute’s retrospective forms a biography in cloth, which covers the rise of Jackie’s fame and style. During Kennedy’s campaign trail, she stood by her husband wearing Chanel, Balenciaga and Givenchy. Democratic strategists worried that this would be a standing block to her husband’s job. As first lady, she called for the services of American designer Oleg Cassini so she could be fashionable and patriotic at the same time. Soon, she won the hearts of the American public. To this day, she remains an icon not only to women of her generation but also among the youth. To further establish the vintage trend, Reneé Zellweger paid homage to Oleg Cassini by wearing one of his creations to the exhibit opening.
With all this reference to the past, it is the best time to add a few unique finds to your own wardrobe. "It’s not just about vintage, but creating your own style," says Tiffany Dubin, co-author of Vintage Style: Buying and Wearing Vintage Clothing. As the former founder and director of Sotheby’s fashion department, Dubin was one of the first people to craft the buying and selling of vintage clothing into a viable industry. She says she started with the idea that haute couture as a temporary art form was disappearing and thought Sotheby’s could begin selling haute couture. "So I went around Paris to women who were still buying haute couture and got them to donate their dresses, with the proceeds from the sale going to charity," says Dubin. "It was the most exciting thing in the whole world that my shopping ability could be used as a career."
The idea caught on and soon Sotheby’s was creating sponsorship catalogues and having regular auctions for vintage clothing. EBay, an on-line auction, has created a democratic approach to the business and has changed the way people are buying vintage clothing. Auctions are no longer confined to the rich and famous. Now nearly all collectors buying and selling do it on-line, which has created demand and naturally a boost in prices. Even mainstream stores like Henri Bendel’s and Barney’s in New York have a section dedicated to vintage clothing.
Tracy Tolkien of high-profile vintage emporium Steinberg and Tolkien also wrote an informative book, Vintage: The Art of Dressing Up. "Vintage looks so individual. That’s the main difference – you can be very fashionable without looking like a fashion victim," Tolkien says. Her four "Golden Rules" of assessing vintage clothing: Is it a good design? Is it made from a quality fabric? Is it beautifully made? Is it a good example of a particular era? To help a new collector know the various decades of the twentieth century, she goes from the wartime years of the Forties to the Nineties grunge. In each era, she shows and tells what was happening and what was being worn from Christian Dior’s New Look in the Forties to Pucci prints in the Sixties and Yves St. Laurent’s Power Suits in the Eighties. Other notable collectibles Norman Norell, Gucci, Balenciaga, Givenchy, Courrèges, Halston, Galanos, S’ant Angelo, Madame Grès, Pierre Cardin, Bonnie Cashin and Stephen Sprouse. And who doesn’t know the Chanel suit? Tomorrow, expect a demand for today’s latest must-haves. So, hold on to your Fendi Baguettes, Blahnik shoes, Chloé aviators with rhinestones, the newest Yohji, Comme des Garcons, Marc Jacobs or Prada. You might make a fortune in a few years.
How do you make the old relevant and new? To achieve a modern and distinctive look, the trick is to wear them with edgy designs from Martin Margiela, Nicholas Ghesquiere or Veronique Branquinho. "Retro isn’t about any particular period — everything is mixed up," says Marc Jacobs. The essence is to make it look like your own — to be unique. Now more than ever, the eclectic mix of modern and vintage reigns.