California Apparel News

As showrooms opened their doors and looked ahead to what the public will wear come Fall 2010, a handful of fashion and vintage experts dialed back the clock and examined vintage clothing. On March 19, the first day of the Los Angeles Fashion Market, the California Market Center and trend forecaster WGSN hosted a panel discussion titled “110 Years of Fashion: How Vintage Inspires 21st Century Trends.”

California Apparel News Executive Editor Alison A. Nieder moderated a panel of guests that included Gloria Brandes, founder of young contemporary line BB Dakota; Sue Wong, the designer most known for her ornately beaded eveningwear; Doris Raymond, owner of The Way We Wore vintage boutique and inspiration space; and WGSN editor Sally Lohan.

Each panelist discussed her own definition of vintage. Doris Raymond defined vintage clothing as “a generation or older,” encompassing decades up to the 1980s. Sue Wong added that the word vintage also denotes a high level of craftsmanship. Vintage “has a lot of soul” and is “recognizable and classic,” Wong said.

Inspiration suppliers Lohan and Raymond explained how their respective vintage libraries are organized. Designers typically provide Raymond with a theme, personality, artistic reference or buzzwords, and Raymond will pull 200 to 400 items from the store and inspiration library for the designers to browse.

“The fun part is seeing the light go on in a person’s eyes, and you know you hit it,” Raymond said. Her inspiration library includes fabric swatch books from the 1800s and items catalogued by groups such as surface design, beading, sequins, shoe silhouettes and purse silhouettes. “Whatever you think is wearable, I have it,” Raymond said.

In the case of WGSN, Lohan and her team organize vintage resources based on the three predicted trend directions that the forecaster develops for the season. The vintage photo library is a compilation of print swatches, fashion-designer exhibits, and photos of vintage pieces and details. To illustrate, Lohan gave the example of a vintage ball-sports library that was influenced by Alexander Wang’s athletic football-inspired collection. “We took that idea [of football], looked at it further, looked at different vintage ball sports and saw where we can translate that into new and innovative ideas for womenswear and menswear,” Lohan said.

On the design side, Wong said that her vintage research is not necessarily trend-driven. “It’s really just beauty-driven,” said Wong of designing eveningwear, where customers want a dress that won’t look dated in a special-occasion photograph. “If something is classically beautiful today, it will be gorgeous 10 years later hellip; it’s not just defined by [American] decades. What I’m wearing is repurposed from an antique sari.”

Wong continued that the inspiration was not limited to silhouette. “The way you color something can give it a vintage feeling,” Wong said.

For the BB Dakota line, Brandes said, the design team picks and chooses specific moments in vintage trends to reinterpret. For example, “ditsy prints for the ’90s, military, shoulder pads and leggings from ’80s, and dress silhouettes from ’50s.”

The audience wanted to know the distinction between copying vintage designs versus using vintage as inspiration. Lohan said WGSN’s trend reports are intended to be a springboard for creativity. “I don’t find [copying] very inspiring. It’s always about ’How do you make it new? How do you make it different?’”

Wong drove the point home. “There’s really no soul quality in copying. You have to give something of yourself,” Wong said.—Rhea Cortado