A month ago, I had the opportunity to go to London for a long weekend. Impulsive, you might say, but that wasn’t an experience I wanted to pass up. For years, I had dreamed of visiting London solely to spend at least one whole day exploring all the vintage shops. As a self-proclaimed vintage enthusiast, frolicking on the Brick Lane Vintage market in London was the highlight of my year.
The Brick Lane Vintage Market is an underground market full of the most brilliant designers and true vintage pieces. The second we walked down the stairs, my eyes were met with every notable clothing item on my wishlist. Small vintage owners like Lovalo, Elisha’s Closet, and Kosh Archive, to name a few, had the most outstanding display of vintage pieces I have ever seen.
Image via Lila Kline of Kosh Archives Display
Image via Lila Kline of Elisha’s Closet (Still thinking about the Galliano top featured in the middle… really wish I bought that)
Image via Lila Kline of Lovalo (most stunning Roberto Cavalli dress I’ve ever seen, featured in the picture on the left)
This experience, and, frankly, how thrilled it made me feel, led me to wonder why people like me get so excited about pieces made twenty to fifty years ago. How do vintage pieces impact contemporary fashion houses and designers?
Vintage fashion and archival collections have become the blueprint to contemporary design. Archival pieces offer designers the opportunity to blend nostalgia and sustainability and build their creative identity. By referencing past iconic silhouettes, notable brand archives, and historical designs, modern fashion designers create collections that feel new yet build on the brand’s legacy. Referencing archival looks reinforces the rising value of vintage garments in the luxury fashion industry.
Why do people buy vintage?
“Vintage has become its own luxury status symbol,” says Samina Virk, CEO of Vestiaire Collective, a global marketplace for pre-owned designer fashion. “It’s not always about what’s new anymore. Sometimes it’s about what’s old and hard to find.” (interview via BBC)
1. Sustainable efforts
Fashion is one of the most significant sources of waste. Vintage shopping can be used as a form of recycling. Ethical and environmental motivations shape consumer behavior. Designers then respond to this consumer behavior by upcycling and reworking their past collections in new designs.
2. Nostalgia
The fascination with vintage shopping often comes from a longing desire to reconnect with the past. There is a prominent desire for familiarity in the fast-paced, technologically driven society we live in today. Advancements in technology, such as AI, lead people to feel nostalgic for “simpler times.” Vintage clothing has the power to transport individuals back to cherished memories, whether it’s seeing a childhood favorite brand at a vintage store twenty years later, or wearing your mom’s fancy heels she bought thirty years ago and saved for you all those years.
3. Desire to “Shop their Closet”
Younger generations become more interested in vintage shopping and buying second-hand. While they may be motivated by sustainability or the uncertainty of the future, what are younger generations most influenced by? Celebrities. Dating back to the early 2000s, when you walked into any store, you were met with tons of headlines about what was the latest with celebrities. This fascination with celebrities, particularly what they’re wearing, has remained a prevalent theme in pop culture over the past two to three decades. Some of the younger generation during the 2000s went so far as to raid the closets of many of the most notable celebrities of the time in a thieving spree, now known as the Bling Ring scandal. In today’s digital age, after any notable award show or event featuring celebrities in looks from the world’s best fashion designers, our social media feeds are filled with headlines about who they are wearing. Typically, on red carpets, celebrities wear either new custom looks, fresh-off-the-runway pieces, or archival garments. Even on their everyday looks, with just a few minutes of research, you can get links to exactly what your favorite celebrities are wearing. This curiosity about celebrities’ closets has led current younger generations to want to wear what they wear. Vintage reselling apps like Vestiaire Collective and The Real Real let you shop archival pieces and the closets of celebrities.
How Designers Actively Use Vintage and Archival Pieces Today
Today’s most notable luxury fashion houses, like Prada, Gucci, and Maison Margiela, to name a few, actively draw on vintage fashion for new collections. Many designers study old magazines, runway collections, advertisements, lookbooks, and museum exhibitions when conceptualizing a new collection. They often rework patterns, silhouettes, fabrics, and textiles from the brand’s archives.
Prada Re-Edition nylon bag revival
Image via Prada
Prada’s Re-Nylon project is a vital example of the house reworking historic nylon fabrics using contemporary recycled nylon. This project exemplifies Prada’s commitment to utilizing archival silhouettes in modern ways by reworking the fabric’s design to refocus on sustainability.
“The Prada Re-Nylon collection is crafted entirely from regenerated nylon derived from the recycling and purification of plastic collected from oceans, fishing nets, landfills, and textile fiber waste worldwide. Through depolymerization, purification, and the transformation of the new polymers into threads, this material can be made into new nylon fabric.” – Prada.
Gucci: Tom Ford–Era Revival
Image via Gucci
Former creative director of Gucci, Alessandro Michele, makes explicit references to the Tom Ford era in the 100th-anniversary collection titled Aria. The Tom Ford era of Gucci spans 1990-1995, when Tom Ford was the creative director. His designs and direction have had a prominent, lasting impact on the brand to this day. Michele’s collection, Aria, re-used Tom Ford-era signature elements such as velvet tuxedos, dresses with distinct cut-outs, and leather harnesses.
“100 years after the founding of Gucci, Alessandro Michele reflects on his personal vision of House mythology within the new collection, Aria” – Gucci.
This collection was not a direct adaptation of the Tom Ford Gucci era; instead, it was a recontextualization that paid homage to the brand’s most prominent works.
Maison Margiela: 2025 Artisanal collection
The Maison Margiela 2025 Artisanal collection is another example of repurposing vintage materials and trends to incorporate into new designs. This collection highlighted upcycling, repurposing vintage materials, and deconstruction. It exemplified the combination of sustainability and creativity from vintage materials. This collection relied almost entirely on recycled vintage garments, found objects, and reassembled textiles and fabrics.
“The Maison Margiela Artisanal 2025 collection is founded on the architectural structures and silhouettes of Flanders and the Netherlands. Statuesque forms evoke the saintly figures of gothic church façades, where unassuming, repurposed materials are re-appropriated.”
“Found materials, lining fabrics, vintage leather, plastic, paper, and metal—are repurposed into garments and face coverings, reinforcing the Maison’s codes of anonymity and shifting the focus to craft.” – Maison Margiela.
Each piece in this collection was handcrafted and is a one-of-a-kind, making it valuable over time. In 10-2o years, when the pieces from this collection become “vintage,” the one-of-a-kind aspect will increase its value.
The Blueprint
Designers take inspiration from or reference archival looks or collections because they know consumers increasingly buy vintage; hence, younger generations are becoming more interested in purchasing vintage today. Consumers continue to value vintage more when designers highlight specific decades, notable past trends, or silhouettes. For instance, the resurgence of the Y2K aesthetic from the 2000s to 2020. Over time, vintage collections and pieces become a brand’s unofficial source of inspiration and research, shaping its creative direction for years to come.
Archival fashion shapes both consumer desire and the present and future designers’ creative process. Vintage fashion bridges luxury, sustainability, and nostalgia, serving as a foundation for current and future creative processes as designers continue to reference or draw inspiration from archival looks and collections. Vintage clothing, archival fashion pieces, and collections are not just artifacts of the past. They are a blueprint for the future of luxury fashion houses and the groundwork for the creative process across the past, present, and future.
About
Lila is the fashion and beauty editor. She is a sophomore from New York City double majoring in Design and Communications with a minor in SLAM. In addition to writing fashion articles, she is a ballet dancer and enjoys vintage shopping, painting, listening to music, and spending time with her family and friends.
Lila is the fashion and beauty editor. She is a sophomore from New York City double majoring in Design and Communications with a minor in SLAM. In addition to writing fashion articles, she is a ballet dancer and enjoys vintage shopping, painting, listening to music, and spending time with her family and friends.
