What is Vintage?

'Vintage'.......what a marvellous word. It forms the mouth so sexily on the 'cha' ending sound as it passes through one's teeth. It can encompass such a wide range of things. Vintage wine, vintage cars, vintage antiques.....but to me it instantly means vintage clothing. Outfits and items from a bygone era that I feel at ease in.
They may be older than my Nan, true, but they carry with them an energy that is so delicious that I could be sampling a vintage wine, in short they are in a class all of their own.
The word vintage has become a generic term for all second hand clothing - discarded and unwanted they have been given a new lease of life by those who can see their true hidden potential. It's a much nicer, politer term than 'second hand' clothes or 'used items', which of course they are. They have lived their life with one owner, perhaps several before you find them, claim them and give them a new and loving home. Like adopting a wayward pet from a shelter. We clean them, even repair them and set about bringing out the very best in them. Allowing their fibres to once more feel the warmth of the sun and the cool breeze of air waft through them as they hang off our bodies. We have resuscitated them back into life from the forgotten century from whence they came. I make it sound all rather dramatic, but in essence that is exactly what we are doing. They had a life before us. A woman saw them in a shop, fell in love with and bought 'them'. Perhaps wearing 'them' for a romantic anniversary dinner, a late night show, the theatre, an exotic holiday or perhaps her first date....the possibilities are endless. They are like sharing a past love. I shudder to think how many beautiful vintage clothes went to the shredder or rubbish tip because they're old and used or their 'fashion' era had come to an end.

Vintage clothing for me isn't just about the label. I will never buy something for a label alone. I have to love the piece to buy it and more importantly it has to suit my figure and shape. There's no point in wearing a beautiful garment if it does nothing for you and you for it. It's like a wrongly matched love affair - it will always be doomed from the start.
Those of us who hold tightly to the past do so for our own deep rooted feelings. Perhaps they remind us of a cherished loved one, maybe we inherited a wardrobe, or our bodies are simply suited for a shape cut only in the past? For me, I've never felt that I truly belong in this era. I've always claimed since I was three to my parents that - "I was born too late" and didn't belong here with them. Make of that what you will, but I firmly believe that I don't fit in, nor do I belong in this time frame - as much as I dearly love my husband and children in the here and now, and I DO more than anything in life itself,  I just cannot shake the deep feeling that I feel at odds with the twenty first century in more ways than one. Perhaps subconsciously I still cling to a life past and therefore am in explicitly drawn back to the eras I loved and previously felt alive in. Hence my desire to clothe and surround myself with vintage items.
It is only recently that fashion has been seen as vintage. Clothing in a wearable art form.

Fashion and Textiles Museum, London.

A visionary who also believes this is the legendary iconic fashion designer Zandra Rhodes. Founded by her and located in Bermondsey, London, is the Fashion and Textiles Museum is an iconic place to visit if you want to know about the history of fashion and textiles or you wish to be inspired. We are constantly looking to the past for inspiration, what better place to start than here.
Over time Zandra has collected iconic pieces from British designers to memorialize them both in fashion and textiles for her exhibitions. At the moment they've just had an exhibition on Tommy Nutter : Rebel On The Row and are currently closed until the 18th November when their new exhibition Catwalk To Cover will be showing until the 25th of February 2012. Personally I can't wait for their exhibition on POP! Culture and Fashion 1955 - 1976 which starts the 6th July 2012. It's something I am definitely hoping to go up and see.

The Dress.

Today is our eighteenth Wedding Anniversary! In most weddings one of the main things that the day about is the dress! It has become such a huge part of the day, event and memory. When women ask each other about their weddings most will ask "What dress did you have?" and will want to see photos of it. Some people plan their whole wedding around the dress.

The theme of our wedding was 'As poor as church mice'. Simply because we were starting out life together, I was a student, Mud Boy at the start of his career. We were both on the first run of the ladder, so to speak. I made all the invitiations, the bouquets and hundreds and hundreds of paper church bride and groom mice name places, whilst sat in hospital.

To me, my dress had to reflex who I was - I think most brides feel this way. Some will have childhood visions of the whole day, they will have planned it from a little girl. I never did that. Yet I knew that my dress, needed to be a period dress. One not of this time, but a place where I felt I belonged. From the three periods in history I have the most fascination for, I chose the Regency Georgian dress which suited my figure and size the best.
This period of dress has just the tiniest of material bustles, as the fashion was slowly graduating towards the very early Victorian's with added hoops and padding. My dress had no hoops nor padding, it was as this is a material bustle. The only way in which my dress differed from this one is the sleeves. I had a short summer classic regency sleeve instead of a three quarter length, as we married on the hottest day of the year. An August wedding is almost sure to be hot. But the small train, bustle, neckline and straight skirt with lace trimmings is otherwise correct. None of my wedding photos show my whole dress in such a beautiful or elegant profile as this divine photo - which is why I am showing you this one, which is set against a dark background and quite clearly shows it's fine details. If it weren't for the sleeves this could be the very dress that I wore on our Wedding day.
An odd choice some would say, to marry in a dress style over a hundred's out of date, yet to me it just felt right. I saw the dress and knew it was the one before I had even tried it one and when I did it fit like a glove with no alterations needed. It was as if it had been made for me. I do not believe in coincidences. This was the only dress for me.