Thanks for the memories

Lena | July 27, 2009 | 0 Comments

hat When my aunt left Paris, she took the skirt with her. And a few years later, when my mother discovered the skirt in my aunt’s wardrobe, she made off with it, too. ‘So in fact, it’s been loved by three different people,’ my mother told me, laughing. Theft aside, I desired the skirt originally because of its cute appeal – teamed with a white T shirt and some white pumps, it’d look just like something that Baby would have worn in Dirty Dancing. But the memories it harbours make it even more irresistible.I can see why they both pinched it.

And so, for me, the enjoyment of vintage clothing comes from the combination of these two worlds – my love of fashion, and my love of memories. We keep old photographs of good times, placing them in frames to remind us of places and people. It should be the same with clothes, they shouldn’t remain at the back of the wardrobe when they have so much value and history attached to them.

I’ve held on to the little vest top from Tammy that I wore on the eve of the Millennium. It’s made from the worst quality viscose, stretchy black with diagonal silver stripes, but the fact that I was wearing it as we entered the 21st century means that it has too much sentimental value to throw away. And the same goes for my white shorts that I’ve worn on so many good nights out. Although they’re battered and covered in stains from various spilt alcoholic beverages, I intend to keep them stashed in my wardrobe so one day I can pull them out, marvel at how small my waist was and escape back to my days at university.

Vintage clothing, like so many photographs – from the ones of my grandparents on their honeymoon right down to the one of me with my mother’s shoes hanging off my feet – hold hundreds of memories and stories and it is this appeal alone which means that they’ll never go out of style.