This great website went on hiatus for a while – not sure why – but I am pleased to see it back. I think there is space for a Big Beast alongside the plethora of blogs that make the vintage/fashion sector so vibrant.

This is a piece they wrote about Hep when we were still Spybaby back in the day! Maybe its time they updated it?

The Catwalk Vision

How I Will Look When I Try It

A Twitter buddy flagged up this article titled “Is Vintage Clothing Passé?” in today’s Guardian. 

Here’s my response:

“Fascinating to me that this debate has now reached this forum, as i have been talking & writing about this in my corner of the vintage world for a couple of years now.

What we are seeing I think is the cresting of the “Vintage” wave (as we have no other word I’ll just have to capitalise it) driven by mainstream fashion marketing for about five-ish years. Vintage clothing originated as the preserve of the chronically groovy – Hendrix in his military jacket, Courteney Love in her satin nighties, Kate Moss in a 1920′s beaded thing. Trawling the old school vintage shops was a luxury reserved for arty farties/the fashion confident/people who had the time.

It is no coincidence that the Vintage trend has risen alongside the growing cult of the Stylist, which in itself comes from the shift towards exposing the workings of pop culture. Pop stars used to dress themselves. Then it got slick & they had help. Then the help became stars themselves – Exhibit A: Gok. Then there’s the “Street Style/What i Wore Today” blogs: Sartorialist, Susie Bubble etc, who have made fashion inspiration accessible. And the professionalising (word?) of the charity retail sector, which has made second hand shopping desirable to people who would not have entertained the musty rummage fests of my teens, has also had its influence imho.

I could go on. Old/vintage garments/accessories have always been used in fashion. They just got commoditised.

Enter the High Street Retailers.

Under the guiding hand of brilliant marketeers – Top Shop et al I’m looking at you – the idea “Vintage” became a high street trend; a mix of the “bunting & cupcakes” aesthetic (yawn) and a look festishising Festival wear. The zenith of the madness for me came when West Quay shopping centre here in Southampton held a Vintage Weekend promotion I wrote about it here. John Lewis, Marks & Spencer, H&M, East; not a second hand garment to be seen.

The nature of the fashion business – every business – is change or die. So “Vintage” as an idea was bound to get boring. It is a necessary moment if consumers are going to be tempted into rejecting one trend in order to adopt the next. To spend.

But here in my world – where vintage is simply a definition of age & not any particular style, we will continue to use our nouse & flair to identify beauty in old garments and offer them back to a new generation to wear in new ways. And we will be fine. We may need to find a new word for it though – any ideas?

Oh, and Is it only me that sees the influence of 1960s “Confessions of a Window Cleaner” pastel nylon nightwear in this season’s couture collections?”

We hosted a visit by the students to the shop some weeks ago* and have loaned vintage garments & accessories from our collection for them to create Looks inspired by vehicles through the decades. There is an event to show the photographs that have resulted at Beaulieu on Saturday which – if I can get cover for the shop (Soph is booked on a shoot in Birmingham) – I really want to get to.

*being under 18, I wasn’t allowed to take photos for publication as I didn’t have parental permission. You’ll just have to believe me!

What wouldn't I give to hop on a plane to NY and join The Metropolitan Museum of Art's  "Fashion in Art" tour tomorrow?

I was reminded of their beast of a collection when I revisited this capsule on the ever wonderful Retronaut website. The prototype shoes and accompanying sketches are the only record of the designs of Stephen Arpad which is preserved at The Met.

They make me want to think hard on the following question:

What might Fashion look like today if World War 2 had not happened?

Shoe design has taken decades to get back to the place Stephen was investigating 70 years ago. Yes, I know war gives rise to technologies which show themselves in fashion design as much as anywhere else. But there is a futuristic freshness to these shapes that feels like it got stifled at birth.

Start at The Retronaut, but if you have time, do go and look at the full collection of Arpad's work known to exist - beautifully presented in fab detail - on the Met's site.

BTW the perspex supports are an addition by the Met to present the shoes. Many of the Arpad designs do have heels if you check it out - and humdingers they are too.

I needed some quick pics of “Ball Gowns” to send to a client, and Emily took a break from revising to gallavant around Bedford Place in the cold for half an hour to help me out. Thanks Em! I put these together in a collage and you can see the complete – very hasty! – shoot on Flickr.

Design Process

• Cocoon Alien Body (standard mannequin distorted with padding) withpaper
• Draw seam lines onto paper
• Cut paper along seam lines to create a two dimensional pattern, unrecognisable as a human contoured form
• Manufacture an Alien shell in specifically chosen fabric for its interesting properties
• Evaluate Alien shell on a conventional size 12 female mannequin to explore the voids created by the removal of the Alien Body
• Develop the principles established to achieve an original outcome

It will be interesting to see the garments that come out this project at the ever interesting Sheffield Art School. The exhibition starts next week and I’ll post the images that (I hope) they will reveal then.

I took the panorama shots using an app on my iphone called Pano. They’re cool.

I was given a bottle of rose wine as a thank you which  I clumsily broke on the floor of the loo! How very embarrassing. In my defence – the lights had gone out and it was pitch black.

Fantastic time. Fantastic and talented people.