The Open for Vintage Industry Insider series invites leading voices within the fashion, sustainability and vintage industries to share their insights and thoughts, as part of our mission to grow the conversation around choosing vintage in 2020.
This month, we invited stylist and Contributing Fashion Editor of Harpers Bazaar UK, Florrie Thomas, to tell us more about how she uses vintage to tap into fashion's latest trends.
I fell in love with vintage shopping as a teenager when I first felt the rush of excitement at discovering a piece of pre-loved treasure. Whilst now the sustainability side of buying second-hand when there are so many amazing pieces that already exist in the world is rightly at the forefront of my mind, back then, I’ll admit, vintage shopping was simply a means to find totally original pieces that stood apart from the ubiquitous high street offerings available to me. The sense of thrill at discovering something unique, which has had a whole life before my purchase of it, definitely still lives on in me these days, and it’s why I so often look to buy pre-loved pieces, whether shopping for a floral summer dress or a like-new designer bag.
Within the luxury market the idea of ‘newness’, whether that’s the new ‘it-bag’ or the new- season must-have shoes, has long prevailed. Although we seem to be moving away from the phrase ‘that’s SO last season’ being derogatory, each season women are still photographed at fashion week or on Instagram dripping in pieces by the hottest designer of the moment. This is fashion of course: new collections and new trends. But while the new collections can be tempting, I’ve always believed you can tap into the sartorial ‘feel of the times’ just as easily (and definitely less expensively) by being a savvy vintage shopper as you can by buying right into it, and it’s often so much more rewarding!
As luxury brands increasingly look back into their archives to inspire their new collections, a little look on luxury vintage websites like Open for Vintage means you can buy the original piece, or close to it, often for half the price.
Take Christian Dior, for example. When Maria Grazia Chiuri brought back the Saddle bag – one of the ‘it bags’ of the early noughties – in Summer 2018, the limited-edition vintage versions that filled pre-loved websites seemed even more unique, particularly when every influencer on Instagram was carrying the same new version.
While Gucci’s newly-launched 1955 bag is beautiful, and is the result of designer Alessandro Michele’s look back into the archives from six decades ago, bags like this beautiful navy monogrammed one give just as much of a preppy retro feel.
Recently Prada went one step further when they directly reissued some of their 2005 nylon bags, satisfying the current craving for all things Nineties and Noughties. Their nylon bags have always had a place in their collections, much like the Fendi Baguette bag, which they continue to reinvent, and thus thousands of beautiful past-season and pre-loved versions of these bags sit waiting to start their new lives on Open for Vintage.
So instead of rushing out to buy the latest ‘it-bag’, take a pause and a look online. There could be an even more unique version waiting there - the ‘you-bag’, if you will.
