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Our grand and great grandmas became fashion queens without even knowing it. Bohemians travel around the world trying to find something reminding of Dior's young days. Top models seem as if arisen from Vogue pages of the mid of past century. We always look ahead with hindsight and no trend of "must have" class seems lovelier than gorgeous Marlene's gowns.
Longstanding Fashion
Vintage is in fashion. Fashion as such
is vintage and its new interpretation put together. One of the main
meanings of the word "vintage" is "ripe wine" that gets more exquisite
and expensive over the years. All the rage of long-forgotten years
becomes today's smash-hit so much marveled at not because of its good
cut and famous master hand but because of some past century mystery and
a slight note of sadness. This is the easiest way to turn into an
enigmatic woman in a matter of seconds: put on a dress which is much
older than you and it will surely share its wisdom with you. Everything
well-worn is new again. Vintage seems despairingly outmoded and
timeless at the same time. It doesn't fit in with traditional ideas of
fashion. Take a file of any glossies and you'll see: vintage is as
popular as about 18 years ago.
Vintage VS second-hand
Our
women are dead sure that all dusty second-hand bazaars are vintage, and
shabby rags offered by shaggy old dames at a flea market are also
vintage, first class, in fact. Since this nice word, you want so much
to pronounce with French accent, came into modern lexicon all that
fossil stuff has acquired an original name. Vintage. It's high time to
rip away the mask of style off nameless threadbare second-hand clothes!
Vintage is not merely old and very old dresses. These things send us to
a particular era noted for its distinct prints and cuts. Vintage things
have their own history, they can tell you about fashion better than any
thick glossy magazine. An opulent gown with open-work collar and
frilled sleeves is vintage. Suchlike you can see on children in French
cards of the first decade of the XX century. A brightly coloured tunic
with knitted bag over the shoulder is vintage. It can make you reread
Keruak, make home in a trailer and travel through the length and
breadth of the American province. Motley blouses in the style of 50-s,
a gown with typical of 60-s geometric padding, and naive coats of
Audrey Hepburn's days; all these are vintage. The tacky things
associated with no time with telltale holes and frazzles are
second-hand, exhibits from the garbage heap of history.
Vintage is
worth to be collected
It's not so easy to dress in vintage style. You
have to tessellate the items of past century of which not a trace has
left but dust and memories. First of all, you should decide which time
you want to find yourself in. It may be severe elegance of Coco Chanel,
Dior's New Look, "flower children", "disco" or the Soviet 70-s.
"Granny's lace", Victorians and Golden Age of Hollywood are also here.
The capital error of vintage fashionmongers is era blending. It is like
"poverty game": looks ridiculous and tasteless. Eclecticism can have no
place here. If you make for vintage, your style should be chiseled and
fine-tuned for bygone days: Only in this case you get a neat image out
of a set of worn-out things. What does the vintage style include?
Firstly, it implies only good quality antique things; secondly, it can
feature a stylized design. The style deepest-dyed fans ("vintage
victims" called so by foreign pressmen) think of any stylization as a
falsehood and are ready to encompass the globe to find true new dress
still well on in life. The doom and gloom never go down when you have
your gown fitting to your favorite epoch made by a tailor.
The third
part and parcel of the style is neo-vintage, the fancies which top
models sport at modern fashion parades. This is fashion with a
flashback. Today, for example, dresses of Victorian gilded youth style
are in fashion: tall collars, girdles, puffed sleeves and other
bourgeois delights. Like Chekhov's heroine, Nicole Richie sedately
wears a white lacy blouse with polo neck made of wide frills.
The forth
component is accessories. As is known, no image is full without them.
You have to spend at least one month to find the appropriate
retro-elements. This, by the way, requires fastidiousness and perfect
knowledge of the era you want to live in. Files of old magazines
(remember your last time you were in the library?), documentary
chronicle, feature films and your own taste can be very helpful:
sometimes a black lacy shawl wins a reputation as stylish instead of a
fussy collection brooch.
The fifth component is perfumery and make-up.
The make-up is not likely to cause problems. Every season the trends
that were popular long time ago come into fashion again. Today we use
the make-up of Hollywood divas of twenties, tomorrow designers may want
to rehabilitate Jene Shrimpton's false eyelashes and Audrey Hepburn's
"fawn's glance". Women's magazines offer step-by-step instructions on
how to actualize the look. As for perfumery you have to either search
for it (you can get Chanel " 5", "Cuir de Russie", Guerlain "L" at an
auction eBay) or choose the right notes in bottles of new scents.
And
finally, the sixth component is behavior. Real transformation is
possible only if manner and matter go hand in hand. If you a modest
lady getting tired of noisy parties, hippie style turns into escape
from reality and a wild discord. Your clothes, though vintage ones,
should speak your voice. You should feel comfortable in the chosen past
time and your behavior should be in chime with the costume or the
brilliant idea is going to become a masquerade.
Shopping-tour around
ragmen shops
Traditionally, people look for vintage at second-hand
shops and flea markets. Certainly, you have to possess your soul and
hold on if you fall short of expectations. Unfortunately, beside
offensive smells these institutions have another essential fault:
valuables are a rare occurrence there and heard of at second hand, as a
rule. There are alternatives for both those who correctly suggest that
antiquities can't and don't have to be cheap and those who is sure that
wearing clothes from the nearest flea market they look extravagantly at
most. Good vintage is like a designer's exclusive have to be chased.
There are many vintage stores in France. French department store Bon
Marche (22, rue de Sevres, metro Sevres-Babylone) has the whole story
devoted to vintage. There are lots of small vintage shops in le Marais
area. But the world biggest flea market is in London - Portobello Road
Market (Landbroke Grove Metro). Witnesses say that it's a real paradise
for true vintage devotees. Really unique things can be found in
Antropologie stores on Manhattan. "Filth Mart" of New York (Inc. 531.
East 13th Street) mainly specializes in clothes of the 60-s and 70-s.
"Play It Again Sam" stores in Helsinki (Rauhankatu, 2), "Eila Noir"
(Fredrikinkatu, 41) are more affordable for Russians. Vintage clothes,
bags and accessories can be traditionally bought at auctions - it is
the place where Europeans exhibit their fancy grandmother's costumes.
Just there you can find Pierre Cardin of 60-s. The biggest
internet-auction is eBay. Have a good shopping.
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