Annes Kommode is proud to be featured on Clerkenwell Vintage Fashion Fair's Facebook page. So I deceided to translate one of my blogposts, and hopefully it will reach some new english readers.
We often see discussions in the newspapers on our overconsumption of cheap, mass-produced clothes. This consumption has consequences, both for the environment and for the people in developing countries far away, who struggle to make these cheap clothes for us. Historically, clothes were investments with prospects of a long life. Now, we produce them to last a few months - until they are out of fashion and no longer catch our interest. I think this is a sad development, with negative consequences for people and the environment.
In my own closet,
I prefer keeping only a small collection of clothes, organized neatly side by
side. A couple of blouses, some skirts, a few jackets and a coat. They
represent a few carefully selected garments and I know the history behind each
one of them. Some of them are old, vintage, either bought from vintage stores
or fairs, or inherited from my fashionable mother. Some of them I have bought
on my travels abroad, some are gifts and some are investments made to last for
a lifetime. They all tell their stories and remind me of happenings or people
in my life. My daughters can inherit them, use them or even sell them.
I look at
the little suit jacket made in the sixties by British designers Marion Foale
and Sally Tuffin. My mother bought it here in Bergen to wear for my brother’s christening
in 1968. The jacket tells a story about
British design in «the swinging sixties». For my mother, it brings back
memories of a milestone family event. I have had it since my young student
days, and worn it for work and for parties. Now it rests in my closet most of
the time, but sometimes it is still put to use and is every bit as appealing as
it was 48 years ago.
Beside this
jacket hangs the Ossie Clark crepe dress that my mother bought in the seventies. Ossie Clark was - like Foale and Tuffin - part
of the young, British designer school in the sixties and the seventies, when
London took Paris`s place as the leading fashion metropolis. Clark made clothes
for celebrities like Mick and Bianca Jagger, Marianne Faithful and Twiggy, and
he was known as the «master of cut» because of his artistry with cutting fabric. This dress – stowed
away in my parents’ attic since the late seventies - is now on its way to the renowned
vintage store Resurrection Vintage in LA. The dress is valued around 2200 USD.
Over the course a few decades it has multiplied in value, since most of Ossie
Clark’s design from the sixties and the seventies are now gone.
Beside my
other silk blouses, I see the one I bought on my first trip to London a couple
of years ago. It is a beautiful silk blouse in lovely colours from Yves Saint
Laurent. The thought of how it was stuck in between countless other vintage garments
in The Rellik of Portobello makes me smile. A cluttered and overloaded, yet
charming vintage store with an energetic owner who is deeply committed to old
clothes and fashion history. Now the blouse is here in my closet, forever
connected with memories of my first trip to London and of the other occasions when
I have used it since.
In a drawer
lies the handbag that I bought from a lady living in Paris, who sells lovely
vintage bags on a Norwegian online marketplace. The bag is from the French
brand Cèline, an old fashion house that make sought after handbags also today.
This one is from the seventies, in box shape and made of beige canvas and with
brown leather details. It was found in an attic in Paris, wrapped in silk paper
and in a newspaper dating back to 1970. It was neatly packed away when the lady
who owned it didn`t use it any longer. I can see before my eyes how this French
madam maybe searched all over Paris for the perfect handbag, and eventually
decided on this beautiful one from Cèline. I don`t think that she could ever imagine
that the handbag would end up here, in freezing cold Norway 40 years later. Now
it is here in my closet, beautiful as a shining pearl.
Unfortunately,
it is not very likely that the cheap, mass produced clothes that fills our
closets today will still be here in 40 years. This is a shame, because clothes
can be so much more than just clothes. They speak of the development of society,
they tell us something about people’s identity, and they bring memories. Memories
of travels, of happenings, of a child’s Christening or of a wedding. Something
that makes it worthwhile to invest in a few, but sustainable clothes that in
the future can tell stories from the days gone by.
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| A 40s blouse and a 20s evening bag bought at the Clerkenwell vintage fair in February 2015. |
