In the recent event photos of female celebrities, the "old skirts" of more than ten years ago have been frequently surprised, what kind of skirts have defeated a number of new couture models in the season and become the hot "popular flowers" on the red carpet this year?
As one of the earliest domestic female stars who began to try antique dresses, Zhong Chuxi's bright Hong Kong style beauty label is also indispensable to the blessing of antique dresses.
The fashion circle has long predicted the popularity of antique clothes, and the late designer Virgil once said: "Streetwear is gone die, I'm gonna go into my archive." (Streetwear is dead, and the next step will be the archive era.) ）
What exactly is Archive in Virgil's mouth?
Archive literally translates to brand archives, and we now see a lot of inspiration for brands releasing their latest collections, many of which come from the archives that have accumulated since the establishment of the brand. For buyers, the Archive values coherence and seriality more than what we often call Vintage pieces, whether it's a collection from a designer's tenure or a collection of a brand's pieces.
Today we invited the director of the antique clothing shop The MajorArchive to talk with us about the red carpet upstart - the charm of antique dresses.
TheMajorArchive
BAZAAR：
What is the most beautiful female celebrity antique dress look in your mind?
TMA：
Julia Roberts wore valentino's Fall/Winter 1992 haute couture dress at the 2001 Oscar.
At that time, she won best actress for the film Erin Brockovich. It was a black fishtail dress decorated with white lines, with an extended V-shaped piping at the neckline. The skirt alone may not feel too stunning, but when Roberts wore it to take over the little golden man, the skirt fit so gracefully on her: like the fit that Valentino took in 1992 on a time machine to 2001 for Roberts...
I felt that this was a historic moment on the red carpet.
What is the source of celebrity antique dresses in general?
The vast majority of archival dresses are the result of a tripartite collaboration between celebrities, stylists and brands, such as the replica "Ma Griffe" antique dress that Yang Caiyu wore when she attended the event.
Of course, there are also many super celebrities who do not have contracts with super brands, and their stylists will buy or rent some styles from some well-known antique fashion stores in Hollywood. Dresses like my own shop sometimes offer some celebrity loans.
When antique clothes are reinterpreted by stars, they will be modified according to the needs of the stars' style on the day, what do you think of this secondary design?
I think antique clothes are not just a concept of "wearing" or "reproducing" today, everyone is talking about "upcycle", so stylists need to make the overall styling of stars coherent and in line with the current fashion context, so the star's antique clothes are very necessary to "upgrade".
For example, Zendaya's recent Roberto Cavalli spine gown, which is actually an "upgraded version" of the brand's original Fall/Winter 2000. Cavalli's creative director Fausto Puglisi specially improved the color of the silk thread connecting the spines in the back for Zendaya, and also added diamonds to the bone joints to make the dress more visually impactful on the red carpet.
However, the "upgrade" I am talking about is not limited to the transformation of the antique skirt itself, it can also be an external upgrade: through the makeup and hair or the overall matching upgrade, an antique dress is separated from the original style stereotype, showing a different fashion aura.
Why do you think more and more celebrities are willing to try on antique clothes at events or on the red carpet?
Sustainability is an important issue in today's fashion, and celebrities wearing past styles is a silent and tangible sustainable practice of fashion – keeping up with the current context. At the same time, a pair of collector's dresses/jewelry worn on the right star can easily create a classic "red carpet moment" (like Julia Roberts, which I mentioned at the beginning). Compared with blindly chasing "the world's first wear" and "putting on the next season in advance", the fashion perspective of antique dresses has a wider dimension.
As a buyer, do you have some of your own small requirements when choosing antique items or borrowing them for auction?
I personally am quite opposed to pure nostalgia collocation, and the past styles must have some new things in the present to project and upgrade their value. This is also the difference between fashion and cosplay and costume, which of course can completely reproduce the clothing of a certain period, but this is not fashion.
When I borrow myself, I will pick people, who shoots, who will shoot, who will shape me. In addition, I have a hard requirement that the borrowed past models must be matched with the new models of the season, and cannot be made into pure retro fashion films.
Do you think there are any brands that are suitable for presenting vintage dresses on today's red carpet?
Most of Dior's past dresses (haute couture) can support a "dress moment" today. Vera Wang's dress collection from the 1990s to the early 2000s is a bit like a microcosm of the red carpet era, with clean lines that can easily fit into the needs of today's evening wear.
The Director of The MajorArchive used a clever metaphor to describe Archive's influence on current fashion:
It's a bit like the process of making a clip-and-paste picture book: first set a new theme, then go back to the brand's historical archives to find materials, cut a little here, cut a little bit there, put them together, incorporate the elements related to the theme, and then use the current brushstrokes to re-outline and portray the details, and a new series is derived.
The constant fusion and sublimation between Vintage and new models is the development and evolution of fashion.
When all ors become and, we can greedily own all of fashion, and do not have to cling to the choice between new and old, retro and trend, because fashion is fluid.
Under the fashion language of the new era, Vintage culture has spawned a kind of impact between new and old. The passage of time has not affected the beauty of clothes in the slightest, and no matter how long it has been, the stitches of geniuses can still break the shackles of time and be praised by the world.
Beauty is not useless, fashion never dies.
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Producer: Ning Lee Sherry
Editor-in-charge: Gin
Special thanks: The MajorArchive