By Joanna Blythe
Daily Mail
Not so long ago the fastest way to update your wardrobe was, ironically, by throwing in something old and a bit tatty - a 1940s tea dress from your gran's wardrobe, a 1950s cashmere cardigan from a charity shop or a retro brooch you bought for 50p at a car boot sale.
But now vintage is everywhere it's a different story.
As ever in fashion, the cache is in exclusivity. Which is why true fashionistas are becoming obsessed with the "new vintage" - clothes with provenance.
Think: Chanel circa 1925, limited- edition Birkins or Dior designed by Gianfranco Ferre.
The market for luxury vintage pieces with proven heritage or connection to an iconic design house has exploded.
Never has there been so much cachet for a celebrity to sport archive Valentino or Chanel on the red carpet.
Auction houses such as Christie's now regularly host sales of vintage clothing. As a result of this demand, the price of designer vintage has more than quadrupled in the past five years. (or up to ten times if the piece has connections to a classic film, famed actress or rare period.)
There's also a growing clutch of websites devoted to selling authenticated vintage pieces at premium prices.
This week Yoox.com is hosting an exclusive 100-item sale of Chanel vintage clothing (in May this year it launched a similar sale from the Gucci archive).
The sale will include everything from jewellery to cocktail dresses and winter coats, some from as early as the 1950s and others from the mid-1980s when Karl Lagerfeld took the helm.
Meanwhile, luxury auction sites such as Portero.com are now selling qualified vintage and second hand owned accessories including Piaget watches, Tiffany & Co, Hermes bags and Rolex watches.
Upmarket London boutiques are catching on, too. Browns boutique now stocks E2, a label which combines vintage pieces by Pucci and YSL alongside contemporary clothing.
The ultrahip Dover Street Market now includes a concession for Decades - LA's coolest vintage store where Hollywood starlets including Chloe Sevigny and Julia Roberts buy their red carpet gowns.
"It's a consistently good part of the store," says store manager Dickon Bowden. "We have had some incredible pieces that sold the same day we received them."
He reveals that recently a turquoise Chanel haute couture princess dress (designed by Coco Chanel herself) sold within minutes of arriving, although he won't be drawn on the price.
At the same time, small or ontheirway out fashion houses with a prestigious heritage have never been so attractive to investors and luxury conglomerates.
Halston, the 1970s American label synonymous with Studio 54 glamour, is to be relaunched this February by film mogul Harvey Weinstein and shoe expert Tamara Mellon.
The plan? A global luxury brand.
Cult British label Ossie Clark is also scheduled for a revival this February with investment from WGSN (a fashion news service) founder Marc Worth.
It's a sound investment considering the booming designer vintage market. Halston has always been popular with fashion-lovers, but with its relaunch imminent, the price of vintage pieces is set to rocket.
Here the consumer base has expanded from a small niche to everyone from celebrities to fashion lovers and investors.
Reese Witherspoon handpicked her own 2006 Oscar dress - a 1950s Dior number - in a Paris store, Mellon is said to have a host of vintage Halston pieces and auction houses are now attracting as many fashion junkies as they are antique enthusiasts.
Some of the highest-value items are those related to film stars. Last year Christie's grabbed headlines with the sale of the iconic black Givenchy dress worn by Audrey Hepburn in Breakfast At Tiffany's.
The bidding reached a whopping £410,000. In this case, the dress was more than just vintage Givenchy, it was cultural history.
"Having a great story behind a piece always adds to value," says Monica Turcich, vintage expert at Christie's.
"Without the story, that Givenchy piece was just a little black dress; but with the provenance, it's a £410,000 design icon.
"People fall in love with the history behind a piece. We sell pieces with royal connections, like the massive sale of Diana's dresses in 1997 [auctioned a few weeks before her death]. Buyers fall for the romance of owning a piece of that fantasy lifestyle."
For collectors, vintage also has the advantage of being wearable. A 1950s Dior suit can be viewed either as a work of art to be looked at only, or thrown on for a fabulous dinner party.
"We have three real groups of bidders and registered buyers - collectors and museums, dealers and those buying to wear," says Turcich. "The collectors range from national museums to couture houses looking to fill gaps in their archives, or your average girl on the street.
"I'm seeing more of the women who buy-to-wear being increasingly knowledgeable and interested in acquiring an iconic name, so the buy-to-wear girl is fast becoming a collector."
It helps that luxury vintage pieces are now also a credible investment, so people are getting in early.
"People see them as tradeable assets - someone will buy a 1993 Louis Vuitton Murakami bag knowing it will become a collector's item," says Stephanie Phair of Portero.com.
She adds that many savvy insiders now buy pieces by young designers with small runs, aware that their collection will be much coveted in future. Pieces by Chanel, Hermes, Chloe and other brands in good condition regularly retain or increase in value over time - even if you wear them occassionally.
Turcich adds: "Wearing an item can affect the value - it's difficult to wear anything without affecting it in some way.
"That said, most of the best vintage has been worn at some point, so just being worn isn't enough to destroy value. The dress from Breakfast At Tiffany's, for example, was made to be worn by Audrey Hepburn and, therefore, is more valuable than if it had been just a nice black Givenchy dress.
"It depends on why you're buying: if to wear, then it won't matter; if you're buying to collect, you'd probably want to store it as is."
Value is also connected to current trends or events.
For example, the recent sweep of body-conscious trends in designer collections has seen fashion-lovers clamouring for archive Hervè Lèger and Azzedine Alia.
After all, when anyone can walk into Harvey Nichols and snap up a dress from the current collection, but it takes considerably more money and fashion know-how to track down an original from the 1980s heyday.
Why else have Victoria Beckham, Kate Beckinsale, Keira Knightley and Lindsay Lohan all been sporting their "bandage" dresses on the red carpet recently?
"Fashion has become such a disposable industry. If you see three celebrities wearing the same Chloe dress the same day, the designers are totally over-exposed, the same designs are everywhere," concludes Steve Philip, co- owner of Rellik vintage and collector of Vivienne Westwood. "But what isn't everywhere is an old classic."
________________
Labels: designer handbags, designer purses, vintage designer accessories, vintage handbags vintage jewlery
