(See what we did there? Like the love child of ‘Got milk’ and ‘You’ve been tangoed’)
Laura Reynolds looks at the hype surrounding the collaboration.
Just a week to go until the man in red arrives...
Many of you may be ‘culture vultures’, seeking out plays, shows and music held highly in our society. Yes, I would like to think of myself as a bit of a ‘culture vulture’ but must admit that presently, there is no escaping my becoming what I call a ‘Vintage Vulture’. That is, having an irresistible attraction to vintage design and no, I can’t get enough of it.
There’s a lot of vintage design out there. You might find original pieces in charity shops as well as specialist vintage caverns and boutiques. The trick, though, is not only finding something unique but making sure it fits well. Sure, that’s asking a lot, but it does make a successful find feel all the more victorious!
The charity shops in York will be very hit-and-miss. You'll need to be strict and don your ‘fashionista flatcap’ to sift through the clothes that are just dated rather than desirable.
Visit Expressions on Walmgate if you’d like a nice rummage through a variety of decades worth of both vintage and new (vintage style) clothes. If you’d prefer a calmer experience a little more like a boutique try out Purple Haze a couple of shops down. It hasn’t been open for long, but my heartbeat begins to race when I step in the door.
These shops are great for both male and female clothes, though the latter has more variety. Regular high street shops do sometimes imitate vintage styles if designers choose to reminisce. I’d try out Topman and Topshop concessions first, unless you fancy a trip to the genuine vintage bottom floor of the Topshop/Topman in London. My grandma used to work on clothes for them years ago, so I like to think a couple of garments she made might be rooting around.
I happened to have bought an amazing '60s dress. The perfect event to wear it came along the following week and I even attempted a back-combed beehive hairstyle to match. My problem came, however, when I got to the makeup. I had in mind very '60s, Mary Quant-esque bold and angular eye-makeup, yet once I had applied my day-to-day ‘natural’ face of makeup, I didn’t know quite where to start. I imagined that a distinct, triangular point would sit in place of the occasional ‘wings’ of black eyeliner, often used to accentuate the lashes while continuing a defined (eye-linered) eye. I found myself suddenly thrown outside of my comfort zone. I ended up with thick white winged eyeliner outlined with black liquid eyeliner. My point here is that if you are unfamiliar with a style, practice it. Look up archived magazine issues online or stick to nipped in waists and guys, make sure trousers fit properly.
The best thing about this lifestyle is that when trying on vintage clothes they are often sized differently, so you needn’t feel bad about whether they do or don’t fit depending on what you expect, and you can be even more daring with styles you wouldn’t usually experiment with. My orange '60s dress is sized as 158 (cm), which is an optimistic 5’3”in height.
So, the golden rule of Vintage Vulturing is to step out of your comfort zone and to shop around.
There's a great vintage place on Gillygate too, I forget the name though - perhaps 'Blue Ballroom'?
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