18 » pink weddings magazine
Vintage Fashion
THREE YEARS AGO
if you
wanted a vintage wedding
dress your options were
limited. Boutiques fell into two
categories – those charging top
dollar and those who had a
‘private collection’ that it was very hard to prize a dress away
from. Otherwise it was a case of trawling generic vintage
clothes shops or braving the vagaries of the online auction.
Why choose vintage? Interest in the past is a strong
theme that runs through many vintage wedding dress
purchases – whether it be ’50s rockabilly, ’40s wartime or
’30s elegance – and brides often feel a strong affinity with
a particular era. Vintage gowns are often available in
fabrics (silk, lace and satins) that are either very hard to
find or very expensive indeed on the high street, at prices
that are often below entry-level high street gowns. Also,
these dresses have long ago paid off their carbon debt
from manufacture – such as it might have been in 1935!
Couple all this with a desire to be neither strapless nor
showing acres of skin, then a demure, elegant and
luxuriantly made vintage dress seems not only an option
but an obvious choice.
Recently a small but dedicated band has sprung up, selling a
range of vintage wedding dresses, most often from a
converted part of their home and offering a very high level of
service. The major players have inexorably moved towards
‘vintage style’ collections, and the private collectors have been
left to their collecting. These young businesses are serving a
market that has grown from a love of the elegance and style
of bygone decades, and also the economic imperative of our
current age. Fashionable it undoubtedly is, but there is little
debate about it being stylish too – and as we know, style does
not go out of fashion.
What should you expect and what should you look for if
you would like to wear an original vintage frock on your
wedding day?
The perfect vintage
With vintage fashion all the rage, vintage wedding dress
expert
Abigail Haughton
gives a guide to choosing a
stylish frock from a bygone era