Vintage Shmintage

Nowhere does vintage like London. Celebrities such as Kate Moss, Alexa Chung and Fearne Cotton are great advocators for this style which is still going strong. Brussels is starting to catch onto this trend but it is rare to see people walking around the capital in head to toe vintage, unlike here, in hip and happening Hackney. To tell you the truth, the whole vintage thing isn’t really my cup of tea. Vintage conjures up images of my grandmothers cast offs, and of pokey second hand shops selling moth attacked corduroy trousers and dull, worn turtle necks and cardies, which smell like old peoples homes, and dare I say, death.

Being so close to Brick Lane, THE place for vintage shops, I decided to challenge my prejudices. The atmosphere and the feel of these shops was the first thing that struck me. The Beatles and The Beach Boys blasted out, and for second I felt as if I had been transported back in time. I was surprised how costly many of the items were, but I was informed by one of the shoppers that was because each item had been hand picked unlike in charity shops. I met three lovely students who had come all the way from Bristol in order to feed their vintage addiction. According to them vintage is a big ‘craze’ in Bristol. They had spent a good hour routing through racks and boxes of old clothes searching for that special item. I asked them why they loved this ‘craze’ so much. They replied that every item was totally unique and you would never be caught in that awkward situation where you and someone else are both wearing the same outfit to the same event, which is a high probability if you buy clothes from the high street. I did like their original style but because so many people are ‘doing’ vintage, is it really that different?

The other shoppers I asked brought up a really good argument in favour of this style exclaiming that purchasing vintage clothes was an eco friendly way of shopping. This is a good enough reason for me to start looking around vintage shops. You have to be a certain type of person to commit yourself to the vintage style. The cliché that if you wear vintage, you are a young, creative, artsy type was true in my minor experience of Brick Lane. In my opinion vintage really isn’t for the fashion faint-hearted but if you can pull it off you will have that smug feeling that no one else will be wearing the same outfit as you and you can help save the environment at the same time.

Images: own