...is big at the moment, and I do love the look. However, not everything needs to be old to fit this criteria. Nor is the idea new. I was certainly acquiring vintage (we just called them 'junk' or 'second hand') things back in the late '70's to mid '80's before it became distinctly uncool. In the punk era I was buying all my clothes from Oxfam, including shoes. Before that I bought bags, hats, gloves, jewellery, all with a 1930's Art Deco or Victorian/Edwardian flavour, often from a wonderful shop in Oxford called 'Pom Pom', sadly now long gone. I also bought and wore a selection of 1950's dresses and memorabilia back in the early 1980's in Peckham. My home was almost completely furnished with second hand furniture (still is). Beautiful Victorian mahogany dressing tables and full length triptych mirrors (from a shop called Rapscallion in Streatham - now defunct also). Nothing was ever antique in the real sense, my furniture always had imperfections, but I didn't care!
I suppose Thatcherism the 'power' look, padded shoulders and a buoyant economy put an end to it all for a while. It's interesting that the 'vintage and craft' resurgence seems to be inextricably linked to the downturn in our economy. Apart from trying to save money, we seem to feel a need to express ourselves individually when times are tough.
I will find some old photos to show here, but that involves hunting and scanning, so bear with me. Meanwhile, some 'modern vintage'...
Linen is such a fantastic, cool fabric for summer, you just have to learn to live with the creases! I bought these beautiful beads in a vintage shop in Crystal Palace when my girls were about 3 years old, so about 1999. I love them, the teardrop beads, the lustrous pastel shades of lilac, palest blue and ivory. I couldn't resist them, even though they cost only a few pence. I knew that one day I would wear them, but actually bought them for my girls' dressing up basket... they just weren't wearable at the time... 'What goes around, comes around'...
There are, of course, some things I hope never come round again, partly because of being older - I can't see myself in floaty hippie dresses, much as I loved them. Then there are the early 1970's fashions in particular - brightly striped tank tops... hmm? However, I see some dreadful things on the streets now, so maybe it wasn't all so bad.
I used to love lots of 1970's looks. Skinheads with their Ben Sherman shirts (bright, loud checks), braces, very wide ankle swinging turned up jeans, Doc Martens and slick crombie coats. Where I came from, Burnley, Lancashire, the boys wore red hankies and red rose embroidered badges on the breast pocket of the crombie. A few miles away, over the border in Yorkshire, they wore the same insignia in white. All associated with the 'Wars of the Roses'. I'm sure nobody knew a thing about these historical battles, which were basically intermittent civil wars fought by members of the House of Lancaster and the House of York circa 1455-1485. They ended when King Henry Vll, who started the Tudor dynasty, symbolically united the two roses to create the Tudor Rose. But still, I digress...
I wasn't a skinhead. I think my timeline was something like: David Bowie/T Rex/ Tamla Motown/Northern Soul fan, followed by mid '70's hippie (we were a bit behind up North!). I remember hitching to Brittany in the summer of 1976 (the really hot one...) and being bewildered to see all the chic Parisian teenagers dressed in drainpipe jeans! Back in Burnley, we were still in flares with inserts and made patterns on them using coins underneath the denim, which we sanded on the outside with matchboxes to make simple flower designs. We still made dreadful creations such as 'constructing' coats from our grandmothers' beautiful crocheted blankets (I'm ashamed to admit...)
Going to Lanchester Polytechnic in Coventry in September 1976, I found myself immersed in Ska (the Specials came from Coventry, so it was a very cool place to be then) Reggae, Rock Against Racism gigs and demos, 'Pogo on a Nazi' badges, Punk - Sex Pistols, Siouxie and the Banshees, Buzzcocks and Clash concerts. At the same time I embraced Disco/Funk/Soul/Jazz - basically a whole new social scene... The rest, as they say, is history...
(In memory of Matthew McFall, Andy Stephens, and Duncan Green who died, aged 18, on this day in 1976 - the long hot summer... They never progressed beyond mid seventies hippies... RIP)
