6 minute read
What, this old thing?
from GOODWOOD | ISSUE 23
by Uncommonly
Decluttering your wardrobe? Vintage fashion is now so in demand, writes Alice Newbold, luxury brands are buying back their own archives
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Opening spread: Ganni Repeat (photo: Sarah Stenfeldt Hansen). Below: the launch of Gucci Vault, starring actor and musician Jared Leto. Opposite: sartorial treasures from Gucci Vault
Every year millions of tonnes of clothing are made, worn and thrown away – and with 70 per cent of discarded garments ending up in landfill, shopping vintage isn’t just a growing style trend, it’s a great way to buy better.
Vintage fashion is booming thanks to the success of consignment stores – digital platforms such as Vestiaire Collective, Depop and 1stDibs, where you can buy and sell second-hand clothing, accessories, shoes and more. Industry analysts McKinsey & Company estimate that the resale luxury market will grow by 10-15 per cent annually over the next decade, so it’s no surprise that fashion houses are waking up to the consumer demand for vintage and embracing its commercial potential.
“Brands increasingly realise the importance of heritage in navigating their way to the future,” says Marie Blanchet, a vintage-fashion expert who founded the sourcing service Mon Vintage in 2020. “Heritage is our anchor, and the future of fashion is in the past. That’s the magic of vintage, or what I like to call ‘modern vintage’.”
Labels looking to the past to make a profit include Gucci, which was first out of the blocks in September 2021 with its online Vault collection, an edit of restored pre-loved pieces, in some cases customised by creative director Alessandro Michele. These reworked classics were accompanied by current looks from a raft of new-wave designers, including Bianca Saunders and Priya Ahluwalia. The timing was impeccable – with the arrival in cinemas of House of Gucci, which saw Lady Gaga make headlines in a series of retro logoed outfits, and a string of house classic bag releases, including the Jackie, named after Jackie Kennedy, and the Diana, a nod to the Princess of Wales, everyone wanted a slice of the new/old Gucci.
Valentino’s resale rollout followed in October 2021. Phase one saw the Italian house invite customers to sell their old Valentino clothes in exchange for store credit. For phase two, these reconditioned pieces went on sale during an exclusive two-week window in June at vintage stores in Milan, New York, Los Angeles and Tokyo. Phase three will involve
Below and right: Milan’s Madame Pauline Vintage, home to Valentino Vintage gems like this stunning red dress
Valentino Vintage, described as “a path born from the idea of collecting and giving back”, taking its treasures of the past to fashion schools, “where the newest and most original stories are born”, according to the label.
The modern vintage market was a natural career shift for Jean Paul Gaultier, who officially retired in 2020, but has never gone out of fashion. In May 2021 Vestiaire Collective reported that sales of his label had risen by 300 per cent thanks to Gen Z supermodels fuelling an appetite for his Venus de Milo line. Gaultier Archive started as an edit of 30 pieces, all available to rent, including a Madonna-esque cage-style gown, but it has now become a destination for JPG devotees, both renting and buying.
Next year Ralph Lauren – a brand that has channelled vintage style since its inception – is expected to follow suit with a line of reconditioned vintage pieces. Balenciaga and Alexander McQueen, meanwhile, have collaborated with resale platforms Reflaunt and Vestiaire Collective respectively, while their parent company, Kering, bought a five per cent stake in the latter. Multi-brand etailers such as Farfetch and Net-a-Porter are getting in on the act with dedicated second-hand product pages, while popular Danish brand Ganni has teamed up with Reflaunt to launch a resale and rental service, Ganni Repeat.
Ganni founder Nicolaj Reffstrup described his business’s hybrid model, which prioritises the environment, to Vogue with these words: “The whole point is that we want to
Left: a Charles de Vilmorin flower-print shirt from Gucci Vault
Sustainability is a key driver… the big challenge for brands now is to maintain this growing industry’s green credentials
make anything that pertains to the afterlife of our product so seamless and fluid that the consumer won’t necessarily notice if he or she is buying a new product or a second-hand product, or renting a product,” His partner, Ditte Reffstrup, added: “I do hope sustainability is the force behind it – that people actually want to do better.”
Sustainability is a key driver of the vintage boom, with the waste charity WRAP noting that extending a garment’s life by just nine months can reduce its carbon, waste and water footprints by between 20 and 30 per cent. The big challenge for brands now is to maintain this growing industry’s green credentials. Vestiaire Collective, for example, aims to be carbon-neutral by 2025, but will need to drastically decrease the transportation of its goods, which accounts for 80 per cent of its carbon emissions, by encouraging customers to shop locally and use eco-friendly shipping methods.
In the meantime there is little need for big-budget global advertising campaigns – celebrities, including Rihanna, who wore an array of covetable vintage buys during her first pregnancy, and all of Louis Vuitton’s brand ambassadors, who wore archival house looks to this year’s Met Gala, are doing an excellent job of promoting a second-hand way of dressing up. Going old school, it seems, is the new way to wear it well.
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