Vintage Vibes

Garage Clothing coat (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge)
Le Chateau sweater (c/o) (similar)
Levi’s jeans
Zara belt (similar)
Forever 21 boots (c/o Ivanhoe Cambridge)
APC bag
Anthropologie beret
Calvin Klein gloves
Zara sunglasses (similar)
Location: Empire Arts Centre – Grand Forks, North Dakota

My love of vintage goes back to my teens. There is more shopping in Winnipeg now than there was then, although the city still offers limited options – when I was in high school, our options were limited to Gap, Club Monaco (which was more than I could afford on my babysitting budget) and then new-and-exciting American Eagle. Chances that when you arrived at school in a new top you were excited about, three other girls were also wearing it. The situation was so acute that stores selling prom dresses made lists of which girls from which schools bought what gowns, so no one would show up in the same outfit on the big night.

Those lists weren’t enough for me. I wanted to wear clothes that I knew with absolute certainty no one else would be wearing. A local shop called Star Vintage was my saving grace. I was never a great thrifter, but in a well-curated store, I can always find something to love – or at least enjoy the process of hunting for something I will love. My own prom dress came from Star Vintage, which sadly closed its doors a few years later. It was replaced by a shop that sold dog clothing… Sigh.

My love of vintage continued well into my twenties. When we moved to Vancouver, there was practically not a weekend when I didn’t spend part of my Saturday afternoon at Deluxe Junk on Cordova Street, poring over the racks in search of hidden designer finds. There were some real gems there, including a CHANEL dress that still hangs in my closet. I still regret a pair of CHANEL pearl earrings I left behind in the store. I hope they went home with someone who still loves them.

Vintage stores often close, as enthusiasm for certain styles wax and wane. Deluxe Junk shuts its doors, unable to continue to pay the increasingly high rent in fashionable Gastown. The store was replaced by a Versace home boutique. And strangely, I didn’t mind, at the time. Although I love vintage, and go through phases where I want to buy nothing else, there have also been periods in my life when I’ve found it harder to figure out how old pieces fit in with my new ones. For about three years, from 2015 to 2018, I didn’t buy anything secondhand, never mind darken the doorstep of a vintage shop. And then, last fall, that changed again. A few good vintage stores, all discovered unexpectedly, in Florence reignited my love of all things vintage.

The interesting thing about shopping for anything, including vintage pieces, is that our reasons for doing it evolve along with us. As a teenager, I shopped vintage because I wanted to stand out from the crowds of American Eagle-clad girls who were my peers. In my twenties, vintage shopping gave me access to designer brands that I didn’t otherwise have the budget to buy. Now that I’m in my thirties, I look for vintage pieces that fit my style – but might be higher quality, or simply more unique, than their modern counterparts. And I love pairing the old with the new. The look is a perfect example; the overall effect is vintage – when I first saw the photos, I thought I looked like I was on my way to join The Weather Underground. But in fact, everything I’m wearing apart from the camera is from 2016 or later.

This winter has been too cold for many vintage and thrifting adventures. But our next European holiday is just a few days away now. And like all shopping, the best vintage shopping is in Paris.