Vogue online recently paid tribute to arguably one of the most stylish women who ever lived.
In her heyday, Elizabeth Taylor was often referred to as the Body Image role model. She embraced her curves and dressed in a way that complimented her figure, always managing to show off her tiny waist.
Following her death earlier this year, the loss of this fashion legend was mourned world wide.
She referred to herself as tragic and fragile. A person who cut off her long dark hair and bleached it blonde and silver as a response to a distressing incident in her life.
In the 1960’s she acted in many of Andy Warhol’s short films which gave her the image of a ‘Factory Girl’. Vogue called her a Youthquaker as she violently stirred the street scene of American fashion, while models like Twiggy and Jean Shrimpton were doing the same in London. She would go out in the street wearing nothing but tights with a leotard and a fantastic fur coat. Vogue loved it.
Sadly, years of drug abuse destroyed her body and she was eventually left looking like a skeletal child. Throughout her life, her tortured soul turned to drugs as a coping mechanism. She died when she was just 28 years old.
Words are hardly necessary to describe the beauty of Audrey. Her style was chic, classic and black. She dressed in a way that was modest, despite living through the height of Hollywood glamour when her contemporaries, Elizabeth Taylor and Marilyn Monroe were never shy about their sex appeal.
She was totally effortless and had a style which resonated Coco Chanel.
I have read Vogue since I was 14 years old. I remember buying my first copy with my school friend, Beth. I went into WHSmith, handed over my pocket money and bought it. Vogue was THE magazine. It was, and still is, the legendary bible for fashion. Eight years on and I am stashing Vogues in my bedroom which come from all over the world. Vogues from Japan, Russia, Greece, Italy, Paris and more, sit on my little, glass, bedside table. Regretfully, I do not speak any of those languages, but I’m not deterred from collecting. The fashion magazine is more than the written word and when I open a foreign magazine, the photography, the sheer iconography, grabs my attention in such a way that the Babel which initially traps me, as I stare at these alien words, does not even matter. It would seem the beauty, the ugliness, the smell, the stench, of these pages, is enough…
This is my copy of the Vogue which came out the month and year I was born. I was given it as a gift on my 18th birthday by my wonderful sister Rachel. I couldn’t believe it when I opened it. It is such an immense pleasure to read. I must have read it a hundred times.
It is interesting to compare the above Vogue against ones we see today:
This is an old issue, from 2009. I adore the bubblegum pink text falling across model, Natalia Vodianova’s body, set upon a grey platform. In the words of my good friend Keiligh: Massive babe.
For anyone who is interested in seeing the inner workings of Vogue, how the brand works and what the fashion industry looks like at a glance, I recommend watching The September Issue, directed by R.J. Cutler. It focuses on Anna Wintour, editor of US Vogue; the woman who is famed for changing the face of Vogue forever, by being the first editor to put a celebrity on its front cover.
I think Vogue is always doing the unexpected. Look at British Vogue today. No longer are stick thing models making the front page, but curvy women like singer, Adele.
I look forward to seeing what Vogue has to offer in 2012.
Deborah Good has spent her life working with textiles. It began as making clothes. As a teenager, Debs would make her own clothes alongside buying items from high street brands such as Chelsea Girl (now know as River Island) and Laura Ashley, among others. She then moved into soft furnishings like curtains, blinds, loose covers and cushions. With the fabric left over from these products she started to make bags, cushions, home accessories and gifts to sell at craft markets. Increasingly, she began to source and use vintage and recycled fabrics to make these items.
An example of just some of the items Debs makes is the bag above: Made with 1950’s floral barkcloth, leather handles, magnetic catch and trimmed with a vintage button and ribbon frill.
I asked Debs how she felt clothes differed between her youth and today:
The garments I bought would have been mass produced, but not in their hundreds of thousands in Asia or the Far East as they are today. Probably most of the clothes I bought were made in Britain then, and the fabrics too, were woven and printed here.
Towards the end of the Seventies I worked for the clothing industry as a sample machinist for the fashion house, Clobber. The show room was in Cleveland Street, just off Oxford Street, London. There were two in-house designers, two sample machinists and a house model. Buyers from Top Shop, Clockhouse, Harrods, Way-in and Miss Selfridge would come to the show room each season to see the new designs. Once orders were placed, the patterns were cut just down the road, fabrics ordered from warehouses nearby and garments were made up in clothing factories in the East End.
But look at the labels today, even those more up-market clothes, such as Laura Ashley, Jaeger, Viyella, state they are made in countries other than Britain.
Thoughts on throw away fashion?
I think there are some lovely, quality fabrics around now like the man made fabrics that replicate natural ones and even leather and suede. However you do pay for these! Fabrics used for the sort of garments that are made in their thousands and sold in outlets like Primark are inferior and cheap, definitely designed for mass production and cheap enough to be bought and worn for one season only. Today we see lots of cheap acrylics for knitwear, polyesters to look like silk, leather, suede, cotton, fur, etc.
Handmade Liberty Tana lawn and recycled linen gingham bundle of three lavender cushions.
Old V New?
Vintage fabrics are made mostly of natural fibres, like cotton, wool, silk and linen, especially those pre-50’s. I prefer the feel of natural fabrics, and the ‘homespun’ weaves that were used such as ‘barkcloth’ and ‘feedsack’. I love the prints too, mostly 30’s, 40’s and 50’s, especially the florals. Washed linens are beautiful to sew, and are a lovely natural colour, for example old grain sacks and cart covers from Eastern Europe and embroidered linens from the 20’s – 50’s. Nobody embroiders like it now, so it is lovely to re-fashion them into something that will be used.
How do you make your own clothes?
I recently got back into making my own clothes. I had stopped because there was a lack of fashionable fabrics and patterns available. Now though, due to the resurgence of craft, and in particular sewing and knitting, there are new patterns available and a host of new fabric designer and manufacturers. More shops are opening on the high streets, selling fabric, haberdashery and sewing accessories.
Where do you source?
I source the vintage fabrics for my ‘Pretty Goods’ items in various ways. From charity shops – old curtains, tablecloths and embroidered linens mostly, together with the odd garment that I might cut up and use, even Liberty print blouses and shirts and tweed skirts and men’s jackets. I will also go to antique, vintage fairs and the odd auction. Ebay is good and so are the specialist vintage sites such as Donna Flower , The Vintage Home, Sal’s Snippets Vintage Fabrics.
However, due to the popularity of all things Vintage, fabrics and trimmings are becoming very costly, even in Charity shops and especially on Ebay! Too pricey at times for me to purchase and reuse, I would find it hard to make a return on my outlay.
Louise wears a faux fur grey hat from high street shop, Arc.
Her brown wool and cotton mix coat is from last year’s Topshop. Underneath the coat she wears a cream shirt from Zara with a beige knitted scarf thrown on top, from last year’s winter collection at New Look.
To finish her outfit she puts on terracota brown boots from Topshop.
An outfit which shows how to put together high street fashion in an original way.
There is no denying the electrifying effects vintage clothing has had on the world of fashion. As the British fashion designer Bruce Oldfield once said: “Fashion is more usually a gentle progression of revisited ideas.” Ideas were taken from past looks as people subtly tweaked current trends because they admired what had come before. This nature of revisiting is how the underground scene of vintage dressing has become so popular today.
A Vintage Affair in Morgan Arcade, Cardiff, is one of the three boutiques in the city which specialises in vintage clothing. Here are some of the highlights:
Walking through Cardiff City Centre one may begin to question what decade we are actually living in. The streets have become a playground for the experimentation of styles. The winter weather has encouraged women to don vintage furs, while nightclubs act as a stage for women to dress in outfits which may once have been considered fancy dress. South Wales is living through a time in fashion where absolutely anything goes. By just looking at women’s street style in Cardiff it is clear a sub-culture exists for those who do not believe in religiously following current trends. If a woman sees something she likes from a different era she can wear it and stand out from the crowd: be it a 1926 classic Art Deco flapper dress, or a 1970’s wide legged trouser suit; it is socially acceptable to dress vintage.
Sisters from Clydach, South Wales embrace the 1920's for a night out.
This experimentation with past eras reflects the independent minds of today which wish to promote their individuality through every medium possible. A person’s style is not something which functions to be aesthetically pleasing. The sartorial discourse speaks volumes about an individual’s personality. Women want to be unique and dress in a way that is a true reflection of their character. Someone who prefers a demure style may have an affiliation with Christian Dior’s New Look of the 1950s, which focused on the feminine ideal women yearned for after the Second World War. Or, perhaps it is the culture behind the clothes and the overall ambience of a period in fashion, which draws a person in. This was the case for Julie Copper.
Julie’s passion for vintage was evident throughout my time talking with her. She highlights how people’s affair with vintage fashion is deeply rooted in their desire to be unique. Or, like Julie, turning back to the past in order to find her style was a means of discovering something she identified with.
Vintage coats at Big Girls Blouse
The queen of burlesque, Dita Von Teese:
“My look and my style is a combination of inspiration from many things, and from decades of my own personal evolution.”
Burlesque and vintage underwear is a big seller at Big Girls Blouse
With only three shops specialising in vintage fashion in Cardiff, it suggests the vintage scene has not fully blossomed in this city as much as it has in other areas of Britain. Nevertheless, it does have a growing presence here. Yet, the popularity of vintage begs the question: What will happen when it runs out? When vintage clothes can no longer be sourced? It is evident that as time goes on vintage has become harder to find. From talking to those in charge of the vintage boutiques in Cardiff, I have learnt that coming by genuine vintage from any time before the 1980s is actually very difficult. Finding pieces from the 1920s and 1930s is practically impossible. The idea that vintage will always be here holds no weight. By the middle of the 21st century, vintage retailers will be looking at clothes from 2010 and considering them of a reasonable age to be classed as vintage. Yet, the way they have been manufactured and produced threatens the foreseeable future for vintage because today’s clothes are not of a durable quality.
Melanie King, A Vintage Affair
I spoke to Melanie, the owner of A Vintage Affair. Her attraction to vintage is somewhat of a love affair, yet she is realistic about the climate of vintage and what she thinks of its future.
Melanie highlights the important issues surrounding the fate of vintage. Listening to an expert voice explaining the difficulties of sourcing vintage from decades ago, hints at the truth which lingers around vintage: it will run out. And how can clothes today be expected to age as vintage items, when they are simply not given the attention and care they were once made with, in order to last?
Melanie shows a few vintage items and discusses their quality.
The gritty reality as to why clothes on the high street have plummeted in quality is because the 21st century is dominated by materialistic, consumerist societies who want products quickly and cheaply. Clothes are no longer made to last like they were during the war years, for example, when textiles were rationed; clothes were made of a high quality which would last, as new dresses could not easily be bought, as is the case today.
Hobos is Cardiff's oldest vintage boutique
Ben Downing has been the manager of Hobos Vintage Clothing for twenty years.
Hobos
Local costumer at Hobos
Ben talked to me about his experience in Vintage and what he thinks the future holds.
The problem is that vintage will run out; today clothes are made in a throw away fashion and as a result are short-lived. Of course there are some timeless pieces of outstanding quality, yet such products are not what the average person buys. The future of vintage is threatened, not just in South Wales, but worldwide.It is unlikely clothes will stop being produced using weak textiles of a low quality; therefore a stable climate for vintage is not being prepared. Perhaps by 2040 vintage will sadly be nothing more than a distant memory.
WITH THANKS TO: A Vintage Affair, Big Girls Blouse and Hobos Vintage Clothing. Music by Pitx on http://dig.ccmixter.org/ . All photographs and videos by Danielle Sheridan
Keiligh wears a mix of vintage and high street items.
She wears a 1970s vintage fur coat from Blue Rinse, Manchester.
She pairs the fur with a black playsuit, originally from Topshop, but actually picked up from a car boot sale in her home town, Abergavenny. (Car boot sales, vintage fairs and charity shops are a great way to find fashionable items at bargain prices.) Playsuit is worn over leggings.
On her feet she wears a pair of ankle boots in mushroom brown, from Asos.
She finishes the outfit with an oversized black and white handbag from Primark.
Keiligh: “When I put my outfit together, I like to put something old with something new. I always mix vintage with high street items.”
http://www.fotopedia.com/items/flickr-90346329 Photo: Katarina W
the street statement 
