Revival of the fittest!
Sunday, August 30th, 2009
From 18th - 20th September the Revival Meeting takes place at Goodwood. A celebration of vintage cars, airplanes and clothes, all resonating with the theme of calling back to years gone by.
As the fashion world goes through its cyclical stages once more, ‘vintage’ is a word that seems increasingly popular, covering anything within the time span of 20 - 80 years old.
Near my studio in Spitalfields there are a number of outlets that specialise in vintage clothing. Absolute Vintage is one such example. Over time, these garments have had many a good outing as well as changes in ownership and some will benefit from a ‘tune up’. One of my clients purchased a crepe dress from Love Saves the Day (New York City) to wear both for her daughter’s wedding in Knightsbridge and a gala opening at the Victoria and Albert Museum. In order to bring it back into its prime it required a certain amount of dying, shaping and re-beading, but the result was striking and original, with no danger of anyone else turning up wearing something even remotely similar. (Check our post about ‘the A word‘)
Alternatively one could have something made specially that embraces this trend towards nostalgia. In a 
recent post I mentioned a couture piece we made that reflected the designs of André Courrèges. We have recently extended this to similar garments from a range of different fabrics.
Working with vintage clothing also bings considerable benefits when it comes to training new talent. Some of the older techniques used are seldom to be seen on the high street where mass marketing loses much of the subtlety in construction.
So why not embrace a little bit of history…there is still many a good tune played on an old fiddle.
Photo: thanks to Victoria & Albert Museum
