‘Wearing a Piece of History’: Vintage Clothing Stores Find a Growing Market, #Wear #Piece #History #Old Years #Clothing #Stores #Find #Growth #Market Welcome to OLASMEDIA TV NEWSThis is what we have for you today:
The Australian Letter is a weekly newsletter from our Australian bureau. sign up to get it by email. This week’s issue was written by Manan Luthraan intern at the Australian Bureau.
Until recently, I never realized how dull my wardrobe is. I do a bit of acting in my spare time and was booked for a project that required me to get my own outfit. I did not think too much about the request – low-budget films often ask actors to wear what they have – but the task of finding something “bright, colorful and unbranded” was difficult.
When I looked through my closet, I realized that most of my stuff was monochromatic, faded, or decorated with a logo. I could not find anything suitable that I like in the shops near me. In an act of semi-desperation, I decided that what I needed was not something new. It was something old.
And so I traveled to Newtown, a suburb of Sydney known for its quaint retail stores and abundance of thrift stores, in search of vibrant, brand-free and vintage fashion.
In Newtown, there are too many clothing stores to count. The suburb’s highway is dominated by an abundance of wink-and-you-will-miss-them-vintage-fashion stores. Those outlets sell just about everything, from 1960s-era military jackets to spiked cowboy boots to dusty Mexican ponchos. Offbeat stores have been part of Newtown’s cultural identity for decades, so I knew I could find the outfit I was looking for there.
When I walked into the first store I saw, Fabrique Vintage, I was overwhelmed. The single storey space was small, but every conceivable surface had an item for sale. Customers are effectively packed by the colorful pants and T-shirts on each shelf, the off-white shoes on the store’s floor and the flamboyant jackets hanging on the walls.
I asked some of the other buyers in Fabrique why vintage fashion appeals to them. Some said they shop for vintage because they liked to learn about a garment’s history. Others liked that an item was rare, or they appreciated nostalgia. Many simply said that they like older clothes “because they look good”.
While “up-and-coming” shops selling gift or charity goods have existed in Australia for decades, vintage shops dedicated to vintage goods only became popular about 10 years ago, mainly in the cultural centers of state capitals. Vintage stores initially catered for older European expatriates, but today the stores sell to a much more diverse customer base.
Most of the clothes come from outside Australia. Ruth Hannan, who co-founded Sydney-based vintage wholesaler French Fripe with her husband Jon Orblin, said they had acquired their stock from Eureka Fripe, a partner company in Normandy, France. Eureka Fripe in turn gets her clothes from suppliers around the world who receive pants, shirts and other items as charitable donations.
“We regularly receive up to 600 kilograms of stock, which we repair, clean and price before shipping to our customers,” Hannan said. “A lot of work is done to produce something salable. Only about 10 to 15 percent of what we obtain are those items of good quality, hard to find.
“We are still selling the rest of the stock, but it may need to be transformed,” she said. “For example, a tall sweater with holes at the bottom can easily become a crop top.”
Hannan and Orblin also operate two vintage retail stores in Newtown, with plans to open two more in Melbourne later this year.
“Since 2012, our operations have grown between 25 and 50 percent each year,” Hannan said. “Overall, we now do at least 50 times more business than we did 10 years ago.”
Demand continued during the pandemic, she said, on both the retail and wholesale side. “When we reopened our doors after closing, the number of people who wanted to buy something when they entered one of our stores was double the number of pre-locks.”
Australia’s vintage fashion scene is driven by two factors: what can be obtained from wholesalers from other markets, and what is currently trending in Australian fashion. Hannan said that branded clothing – especially Nike and Adidas jackets and shirts with a Harley-Davidson logo – has always sold strongly in Australia, unlike in much of Europe, where specific brands are quickly in and out the fashion goes.
Melody Zeng, area manager for Hannan’s retail stores, believes the charm of vintage fashion lies in its sustainability and history.
“Environmental awareness has certainly played a role in the appeal of vintage clothing,” Zeng said. “People are now asking themselves why they spend money on harmful and cheap-quality fast fashion, especially when other better-quality options exist.
“It is also about carrying a piece of history. It is not difficult to find out when a certain item was manufactured, or the general area where it came from. When you add that kind of soul to something, it becomes alive. ”
Australia’s vintage market is too young and niche to still have its own look or identity, Hannan and Zeng said, but they said jackets are the trend. That guidance was enough for me.
When I saw a purple and blue tracksuit jacket – the kind of thing a 90s NBA star or a “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” era Will Smith would have worn – I recognized the “soul” that Zeng was talking about . The jacket is badly wrinkled and has some well-disguised stains, but it attracts attention. You know it has a story to tell.
Even though the movie I was supposed to wear it for was abandoned after it lost money, it led me to a jacket and an interesting story to tell. I look forward to giving it a proper debut for friends and family.
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