THE BEAUTY OF VINTAGE

Vintage as a means to make your outfits unique and to help the growth of sustainability in fashion.

Before starting this article I would like to explain what VINTAGE means. Once I asked my boyfriend if he likes vintage clothes and he replied to me “Yes I like clothes for old people, my grandma has a lot of them, maybe you can ask her if she can give you some!”

Well, let’s say that Vintage doesn’t mean old, not literally. According to the Cambridge Dictionary, the adjective vintage is used:

to describe clothing, jewellery, etc. that is not new, especially when it is a good example of a style from the past

So vintage clothes are those used by people of your age 30 or 40 years ago. I usually pick some pieces from my mother’s wardrobe. My mother was born in 1964, so I have pieces from the ‘70s and ’80s that I literally adore!

Here a little tour of my vintage wardrobe:

This black&white jacket is one of my favorite pieces. It’s from the ’80s and my mum used to wear it when she worked in Milan. I think it’s classy and elegant, and it can bring your outfit an upgrade in terms of quality and class. I usually wear it with white t-shirts or, if it’s really cold outside, with a turtleneck. https://www.instagram.com/_.marti._.treasure._/

Details of this wonderful jacket. https://www.instagram.com/_.marti._.treasure._/

Following this flow, here is another jacket that I love. This pinstripe jacket is from the ’80s too and I use to wear it in the office. It’s a bit big for me, so I usually wear it with a belt on my waist. Vintage jackets are the best to be worn in this way since they’re all waist-tight. https://www.instagram.com/_.marti._.treasure._/

This co-ord set is a masterpiece! It’s an Armani set that I found in my mother’s wardrobe. It’s perfect when you want to be elegant and professional. I usually wear it with a printed t-shirt to not be too serious. Remember, vintage clothes are gold but they need to be mixed with contemporary pieces to be actualized and perfectly integrated with the outfit. https://www.instagram.com/_.marti._.treasure._/

Here you can see this cream linen vintage jacket. As always, I style it with a printed t-shirt and contemporary pieces, such as jeans and DrMartens shoes. https://www.instagram.com/_.marti._.treasure._/

But this linen jacket is perfect also with its linen pants. This set is perfect for summer’s soiree when you want to be unique and have a retro vibe. https://www.instagram.com/_.marti._.treasure._/

If you observe these images, you can notice that most of these vintage pieces resemble the most trendy clothes you see in magazines. This is because the trend is circular, so most of the principal characteristics of elder styles return in a more modern key. Think about the high-rise jeans that we see in every image on Instagram or in magazines. Or, again, think about oversize jackets with shoulder pads: Zara, one of the most important companies of fast fashion, proposes this model of jacket for ages.

Two magical places: Vintage Fairs & Thrift Shops

Besides in your mum’s or grandma’s wardrobe, you can find vintage clothes in fairs or Thrift Shops.

I visited some vintage fairs, the most beautiful to me was NEXT VINTAGE located in the castle of Belgioioso, Piedmont. In the magical and historical atmosphere of this castle, you can make a trip into the eccentric world of vintage. Here you can find not only clothes and shoes, but also furniture and objects from the past: this fair is an occasion to feel the uniqueness of vintage, to feel the magic and the amusement of fashion. Vintage fairs are usually the places where you can find also some niche products, like Chanel bags or Burberry trenches.

If on one hand fairs are the places where you can more easily find some niche pieces, on the other hand in thrift shops you can find more common vintage clothes. Both fairs and thrift shops are perfect to find and buy quality vintage clothes and they’re both a useful means to help the growth of sustainability in fashion. The circularity of trends and the similarities between vintage clothes and contemporary models of clothes suggest that sustainability in fashion is possible.

Sustainability in Fashion

Sustainability is one of the main issues in fashion these last years. Recently, the attention on pollution and earth health puts the highlight on sustainability in fashion: like food, we produce more clothes than those we really use, that’s why vintage is very useful to help the planet. The production of clothes is quite polluting, so if we start using vintage clothes, we can reduce the impact of clothes production on the environment.

A lot of fashion companies are positively approaching this theme, like Zara, H&M, Mango, and so on, following the Greenpeace Detox campaign, focused on the elimination of toxic and polluting substances in their production processes.

Zara Join Life Program

On Zara’s website, you can visit the JOIN LIFE dedicated page, in which you can read the different programs on various themes: Water, Environment, Recycle, Raw Materials, etc. For example, the Recycle program consists of using recycled materials to produce clothes and includes the collection of all those clothes that are no more used by people to give them a second life.

Let’s take care with H&M

This program by H&M is very interesting and unique. Following it, you learn how to take care of your clothes. How many times did we throw damaged trousers away or a dirty t-shirt that we can’t clean? Well, this program is made to teach you how to hem your pants or how to clean your clothes properly and naturally. This reduces the environmental impact and the overblown purchase of clothes.

Committed Mango

For the fashion company Mango, the term COMMITTED explains its desire to change the world and make it a better place step by step. Mango’s campaign includes programs on eco-friendliness, clothes recycle and the production of 100% sustainable packaging.

We, as people, can’t reduce our impact on the environment by editing our production process, or by choosing the substances that can be used to create textiles, but we can follow the recycling programs of these companies to help the fashion industry contribute to the safeguard of the planet, and vintage can help us giving a second life to all those clothes that otherwise are destined to stay closed in a wardrobe.

Remember, Fashion was created to make us happy. Consciousness was created to make the world a better place. Let’s be conscious and happy together!