V i n t a g e W i t h a

C a p i t a l

Retro Fashion Splash

FASHION REFINED

The Colours of Vintage

ELEGANCE

V

THE ICONS

of Catherine

Wright

SAMANTHAÕS FAVOURITERETRO PIECE

MAY 2011. £4.80www.elegance.co.uk

2011 S

UM

MER

MUST H

AVES

The idea ofv i n t a g efashion as atrend, devel-oped betweenthe late 1960’sand early

1970’s. People became interested inVintage fashion as a result of mass pro-duction of clothing. The clothes weretoo similar and gave little opportunityto be creative, unique and original. An-other reason that fuelled this trend wasthe low quality of mass produced cloth-ing.

Catherine Wright, 47 of Hep-wrights, has worn vintage clothing allher life. About six years ago, she starteddealing with vintage clothes. She andher friend started by selling retro pieceson EBay. “There’s no doubt that the ideaof vintage with a capital V is having amoment as a trend. We can see theword being used by all the high-streetshops to describe their collection. And

of course these clothes are not old orsecond hand, they are new”. She contin-ues, “Vintage is coming to mean some-thing else, something about a particularstyle or a sort of nostalgic clothing.”.

Catherine Wright’s three icons areall written in the name of her shop. Au-drey Hepburn for her wonderful styleand beauty. Catherine Hepburn, “shewas the woman who wore the kind ofstuff that wasn’t very feminine andlooked fantastic in them” “The thirdHep is the Hepcat of the Jazz Ace” shecontinued.

Samantha Miton 44 went into retrofashion with her friend Mandy in 1992and they own Beatnik Emporium. Herretro icon is Biba. Her first piece ofretro clothing was a pre 70’s purpleflared hipster suit with a tight zippedjacket. “I like the fact it’s different from

what you get in the shops today. Ilove all the classics, looking at

the changes through the eras”“I love the feel and history of

the clothes“, she adds. “Fashion absorbswhat surrounds it at the time” SaysCatherine. It’s all about culture andfashion influencing one another. “Youcould see those kind of weird trippingprince which are all about the LSD thatwas one of the fashionable drugs at thetime” Catherine continued.

Both ladies believe retro fashion isalways 20 years behind but with somegenerational preferences. “I have 50years old customers who look at clothesof the 1980’s and think, oh they are hor-rible, I remember my mother wearingthem, and I hated them”. “My 20 yearsold customers think the shape of theseclothes are fantastic, interesting and dif-ferent” explains Catherine.

According to Catherine, “Main-stream fashion informs vintage, whatTop Shop is putting on their window is

relevant to me and my business.” “I waswatching an advert from Marks andSpencer on the TV last night and thelook was just 1950’s” she adds”.

“The stuff that’s sold on the streetoften doesn’t feel up to scratch” notesSamantha. As Catherine points out “Theidea that something could be washedand washed well, or the idea that gar-ments are expected to be mended is notexpected in a lot of these clothes.Whereas in the past, it was expectedand was made with that in mind.”

“There will always be people whoare interested in what was, what wentbefore, the history”, and a good retrolook is, “to see somebody who is obvi-ously into a certain era but with a mod-ern twist to it” Says Samantha.

Catherine sees her shop as an adop-tion agency. “I love the delight on some-body’s face when I offer her somethingthat maybe surprises her” she says.

Vintage

with a

Capital

VCelebrities such as Barbra Streisand,

Beyonce Knowles, Julia Roberts, Nicole Kid-man and a host of others. Have been seenwearing vintage clothing. This fashiontranscends above age and status. Above allof this, there is vintage and there is vintagewith a capital V

“Vintage is com-ing to meansomething else,something abouta particular styleor a sort of nos-talgic clothing”

“I love the feeland history of theclothes“

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Rachael

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