don't stop the music

화요일, 8월 23, 2005

fact: vintage shopping is love.

this epiphany hit me as i was sifting through the racks yesterday at one of my favourite places to shop in hk, (name withheld). the stuff there is bona fide vintage, to be had for a fraction of the price that you'll find on the catwalk or even in high street stores. this whole vintage schtick hit me years before designers all went ga-ga over the trend, and come to think of it, i've been dressing vintage for years now. that sounds a bit paradoxical, but no matter. :)

some people can turn up their noses and say "why would anyone in their right minds want to buy old, secondhand clothes?" can happily chew their best sunday hats because the fact is that right here right now, old, secondhand stuff is what people want instead of trippy, mass-produced department store stuff. so far, so wrong for all those who haven't discovered the joys of vintage yet.

sure, there are lots of vintage knock-offs on the market. come to think of it, most designers now have a vintage(-like) collection, which is sort of a dramatic role reversal there. but then, thinks i, why pay through your nose for something that looks like the real thing, but isn't? i'd rather expend a little more effort to unearth my treasures than buy them in a shiny, glitzy store, especially if it's everyday stuff that the average person would get tired of anyway.

i think the thing about vintage is the thrill of the hunt. the sweet reward of locating a find and eventually getting it into your shopping cart is a whole art altogether, attempted by many but mastered by few. i have acquired a stash of beaded, metallic vintage bags that i loaned my pals for the most recent ball we went to, and they were guaranteed conversational pieces which were even more lasting than your average department store tack-together. i mean, places like the Gap and RL are great for basics, but at the end of the day, when your heart is longing for a fifties, paisley-print sundress, why go to the boutique when you can pick out something that's all your own from the vintage store? and plus, it's something that you can be sure no one else will be wearing, hence avoiding those "omg! she's wearing the same thing as me!" fiascos. (which, trust me, really are full-scale dramas in their own right. i've seen it happen way too many times at important functions and it is Not Pretty.)

so for the average schmuck, i guess sometimes it might just be more convenient to buy department store. not that i slate that. in fact, i'm a fan of shopping supermarket sometimes (i hear the jeans at a certain supermarket rhyming with 'basda' are the best value in all the land), but when it comes to the crunch, i can't resist vintage. it's a piece of yesteryear from decades gone by-to which i don't mean eighties- which are individual and really are quite versatile. but i have to add that not everyone can carry off a vintage dress with tights and cherry button heels. at the end of the day it's not what you wear, it's how you wear it.

but i stress again: every girl has got to shop vintage at some point of time in her life, and why later when it can be sooner? every trip is an experience, and it allows even the plainest of proverbial janes to indulge her inner goddess, at any decade in history. ;)