Tuesday 26 April 2011

why choose vintage?



Don't you just dread that scenario where you are out at a party, out for the day or out at college...only to see someone else in the exact same outfit...eeek what a faux pas! The high street shops today are all full of identikit styles, fabrics and designs and are so mass produced that you are highly likely to see someone in the same item as you, but when you wear vintage your look will be completely INDIVIDUAL and one of a kind demonstrating your style and helping you stand out from the crowd!
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When you buy a vintage item you are recycling and helping our world, the average westerners clothing purchases account for half the amount of carbon dioxide emitted by a small car...eew! The average cotton t-shirt takes 150grams of pesticides to produce....eew again! Buying new factory made clothes has a negative effect on our environment, not only through these harmful emissions but also through sweatshop labour, vintage is ETHICAL and ENVIRONMENTALLY FRIENDLY!
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The massive amount of waste we all produce these days is totally crazy and the little bits we can do to cut down on landfill the better. The Government say that in the UK alone around 1.5 million tonnes of unwanted clothing and textiles end up in landfill each year!! Fabrics can take years to break down in a landfill site. People today consume way more than they need, cheap high street stores are a huge contributing factor to this by encouraging people to buy lots and lots of cheap clothing...a lot of which will end up in landfill, many times totally unworn or worn just once, choose vintage and treasure it!
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It is a very well known fact that all fashion designers look to fashion history and vintage clothing for ideas and inspiration, all high street designs are in some way inspired by vintage, and of course all the best celebs wear vintage clothing too! By wearing vintage you are wearing the ORIGINAL and not a watered down imitation!
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Each vintage item, whether 30 years old or 100 years old will have a past and a story. It's so magical to pull on a dress or jacket that you know has a history. That dress may have been worn to a girl's first date in the 50's, it may have been worn when the owner had their first kiss, it could have danced in a fine ballroom, hid in a bomb shelter during a raid, been to a wedding, sat in an old Cadillac, witnessed laughter and tears, any small signs of age and wear help tell a unique story and make it all the more precious and charming, by wearing it and bringing it back to life you are continuing the story and becoming part of the history! Vintage clothing is far superior in quality than today's mass produced synthetic clothing, of course you can get great quality today but it comes at a high price! You could find a beautifully hand made 1930's silk dress that would cost a fortune to get someone to spend that amount of time on today. Vintage clothing is beautifully constructed, using quality fabrics, stunning details and they were built to last, chances are if an item has lasted this long it will last for many many more years, not like the disposable fashion of today.
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When you buy a piece of vintage clothing you are buying an investment. Older pieces from the 20's and 30's and 40's are getting rarer and harder to find, they go up in value all the time as does all vintage clothing, buy vintage and look after it and it will always hold its value, you can't say that about many modern clothes!

2 comments:

  1. After reading this post I’ve realised this scenario is pretty much the story of my life! Every time I venture on a night out, there’s one other girl wearing the exact same outfit as me, except she was clever enough to put a belt round the outfit making my interpretation inadequate. Maybe I should start shopping for vintage items. My only problem; Isn’t the term vintage just a way of 'dressing' up second-hand clothing?

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  2. I believe that if you have this problem then vintage would definitely be the way to go. Yes it does seem like a fancy way of saying second-hand clothing but isn't it worth it to not have the same outfit as anyone else? Plus many people do not have to know where you obtained your outfit from or that it is second-hand. This is because many high street stores now cover vintage looking clothing so you could probably get away with it being brand new

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