Vintage Skirt, found at a car boot £20.

I don’t ever have a clue what trends are in or out, or what the latest catwalk trend is. Fashion isn’t about following trends, it’s simply about expressing yourself.

So where do you get your clothes from? I tend to steer clear of high street stores, they are unoriginal and well lets face it, bland. I get most of my clothes second hand – charity stores, swapping them, jumble sales, car boot sales and vintage stores. This way I find fantastic bargains that are completely unique.

Sequin Vintage Top, found in a flea market in America $3.

I also do a lot of DIY (cheap and eco friendly!). If I try to do at least 1 DIY per week. I get almost all my DIY inspiration from Outsapop. This is a fantastic blog filled to the brim with fashion and DIY inspiration.

Another fantastic fashion insperation website is Popgloss. It may not look like much, but it has pages and pages of unique fashion finds. On this site I have found some of the coolest tops, tights, rings – you name it!

But the ultimate fashion insperation site, has to be Lookbook.nu. I myself have a Lookbook account which you can see here. This site is a must if you are looking for fashion inspiration.

The past few months have been spent improving the trading capabilities and increasing the social interactive functionality on CovertCandy!

All CovertCandy lovers can now enjoy:

1. Full scale trading!

The community will be open for you guys to trade anything you like! The new categories will be:-

Clothes & Accessories
Books
Sports & Outdoors
Movies, Music & Games
Toys, Kids & Baby
Electronics
Health & Beauty
Home & Garden

2. A Great new Look!

We have a cool new re-design and logo to compliment the new easier navigation.

3. More Social Interaction:

You can now chat and shared with fellow traders and friends with complete ease.

Fancy earning some extra credits!?

Silly question really, but it is really quick and easy. If you would like to earn yourself some bonus CovertCandy credits issued straight into your personal CovertCandy Bank, then simply tell your friends. For every successful referral you make this week, we will give you and your friends 3 credits!

Refer your friends here

As we are feeling rather excited this week, for every item you upload during the launch week, you will receive 1 credit straight into your CovertCandy Bank!

Finally, if you would like to be an honorary CovertCandy team member as an official Guest Blogger, please get in touch with us!

Sky’s the limit at CovertCandy. We have so much more to come over the next 2 months, so keep your eyes and ears open. We aim do everything we can to make your experience the best we possibly can. In saying this, we welcome any feedback you may have about the new site and are always open to hearing what you guys want, so drop us an email: admin@covertcandy.co.uk

Have a great day…Happy Trading!

The CovertCandy Team

Here is some behind the scenes footage of the latest CovertCandy shoot:

CovertCandy Shoot from CovertCandy on Vimeo.

Please bare with us whilst we pimp out the site. Its business as usual in the CovertCandy community but it will take 1 or 2 days until the vintage  shop is fully operational again.

Please help us out if you find any problems with the site and we’ll be sure to fix things up pronto.

http://www.vogue.co.uk/blogs/the-vogue-blog/articles/090803-pixie-geldof.aspx

The 80s style of leather jacket is similar to the traditional suit jacket I described in an earlier post. The shoulders are generally more pronounced with sleeves wide at the shoulder tapering to the wrist (a tudor-sleeve). Designers at this time experimented a lot with detailing so many vintage 80s jackets are studded or tassled, come in a variety of garish colours or distressed leather. To be honest they also come in varying degrees of hideousness too, but then, thats the wonderful nature of fashion isn’t it. Whats cool one day, is god-awful the next, and vintage the day after that.

For similar jackets to those worn by Pixie for Vogue, check out Covert Candy for some one-of-a-kind goodies.

This relationship between brands and young people has radically changed the speed of fashion cycles. Previously, youth-instigated trends like Teddy Boys, Mods, Hippies, Punks and Grunge all developed over a number of years, becoming fully fledged sub-cultures. Now trends are snapped up by brands and remarketed for the mainstream in a very short period of time. Thus, rendering them no longer ‘cool’, and the whole process starts again.

The residing appeal of collecting vintage clothes is that it is still the most effective way to create a totally independent, unique look. Although the high-street provides much in the way of bland mock-vintage fashion, it’s still possible to source original clothes in charity shops for half the price. High-street brands haven’t quite achieved the monopoly on that front just yet. Infact, better still, the ability to swap clothes as promoted by Covert Candy, sidesteps the capitalist nature of high-street fashion altogether.

Here endeth the long and ramblesome history lesson I’ve doled out over the last few posts. Hopefully thats provided some insight into the development of certain trends over the last fifty years and the current vintage trend.

The term Generation X, although previously alluding to those born after WWII, came to represent the 80s generation of young people who consumed with a sense of ‘ironic detachment’. For independently minded young people, it had got to a point where it was no longer possible to defy mainstream consumerism the way previous generations like the Teddy Boys, Mods and Hippies had done. Those sub-cultures grew from a desire for independence and self-created style. Now however, every new youth movement was picked up, remarketed and sold back to the consumer by major corporate brands. So instead, perhaps as the only method of defiance, young people began consuming with abandon but doing it ‘ironically’.

“…The tentacles of branding [reach] into every crevice of youth culture, leaching brand-image content not only out of street styles like hip-hop but psychological attitudes like ironic detachment…” (No Logo, 2000)

When Grunge came around in the 90s, the young followers were far more reticent, choosing to adopt vintage clothes and thrift store finds as a means to evade contemporary fashion and consumerism. Their blasé disregard for branding and advertising meant that from a brands perspective, they were an incredibly difficult audience to target.

In Britain, the Football Casuals favoured Armani, Burberry and Ralph Lauren sportswear (later, those wearing knock-off versions would be disdainfully known as Chavs).

In America, Hip- Hop continued to support very specific brands; high-end labels like Louis Vuitton and Rolex that declared the wearers wealth and style. The Hip-Hop endorsement could have a huge impact on the success of a brand. Adidas, Tommy Hilfiger, Mercedes-Benz, Krug, Dom Perignon and Cristal champagnes and several other brands all benefited from an association with Hip-Hop culture.

Lil Kim famously photographed by David La Chappelle for Rolling Stone magazine covered in ‘LV’ Louis Vuitton logos, 1999.

Such brands were patronised often without prompting. As an article from USAToday says, “Mercedes-Benz — the most-mentioned brand in last year’s top songs — says the car’s popularity in hip-hop circles certainly didn’t hurt sales growth over the last dozen years…Bentley Motors and Louis Vuitton — also among the most name-checked brands in music — were more reticent on the subject. While some companies may shy away from being associated with a culture often marked by misogyny and violence, it is undeniable that hip-hop wields immeasurable power and influence in business”

(USAToday, April 2006).

Even in times of economic downturn it seemed, teenagers and college students were still armed with pocket money and were spending freely. For major brands, the obvious solution was to change tactics and concentrate their advertising power on this previously ignored demographic. However, as Klein says, “it was not going to be sufficient for companies simply to market their same products to a younger demographic; they needed to fashion brand identities that resonated with this new culture” (No Logo, 2000). Advertisers did this by ingratiating themselves with young people, discovering what they considered ‘cool’ and then attempting to mold new brand identities around this.

At that time, the coolest new trend amongst young people, was Hip-Hop. As Hal Espen confirms in an article for the New York Times, “Rap didn’t merely offer a useful line of demarcation for kids eager to set themselves apart from their parents. It was the expression of a genuine, undiluted, unmediated subculture; it really did come from the streets” (1999). The look included brightly coloured tracksuits, leather bomber jackets, caps and trainers and a strong penchant for brands like Kangol, Adidas and Reebok. Like The Teddy Boys before them, Hip-Hop kids were re-appropriating elements from otherwise incongruous sources to create their own look.

Nike, for example, a straightforward sportswear label at the time, unwittingly found a rising popularity amongst the Hip-Hop tribe. Nike carefully altered its brand identity to resonate with this group, and gain more ‘cool’ credentials. As I’ve mentioned, an important Hip-Hop characteristic was a loyalty and overt display of particular brand labels, signifying the wearers’ accomplished wealth and taste. Thus, the Nike ‘swoosh’ logo began to appear on all garments and trainers, becoming a staple Hip-Hop emblem. In 1988, Nike employed the advertising company Wieden+Kennedy to create the now infamous slogan, “Just Do It” (www.wk.com). Like the logo, this mantra was emblazoned across t-shirts as another visual signifier of the brand. Klein quotes Nike designer Aaron Cooper, who witnessed the power of branding at this time, “having kids tell you Nike is the number one thing in their lives – number two is their girlfriend” (No Logo, 2000).

More info here

John Galliano has consistently produced incredible couture collections since taking over as head of design at Dior in 1997, a move that coincided with the labels 50th anniversary.

Back in 1948, Christian Dior famously produced the ‘New Look’ collection in Paris, revolutionising the way women approached fashion. His beautiful clothes were far more feminine and elegant than the heavier, practical fashion of the decade. “The New Look rapidly became a postwar cultural symbol for what Dior himself described as “Youth, hope, and the future.” fashionencyclopedia.com

Galliano has clearly taken much inspiration from Dior’s iconic 1948 collection, channeling that elegance and feminity. The clean tailoring and smart accessories are classic staples of that era. However, Galliano has also updated and redifined the look with a punchy 80s punk aesthetic. The bold colours, exposed bras and hold-ups and frizzy hair are pure 1980s Madonna.

In terms of shopping for vintage clothes, it is always worth mixing and matching different decades (as I mentioned previously). Conversely it seems, as so many 80s clothes are themselves vintage reinterpretations of 40s classics, the combination of the two actually creates a very modern look. A structured suit jacket in a dense fabric like wool combined with a lacey crop top or bra top gives a subtle nod to both these eras whilst remaining very ‘on-trend’ (as fashion folk would say). Check out some of the cool examples available from Covert Candy’s online vintage shop, like this very 80s broad-shouldered jacket.

During that era, fashion was far more utilitarian. Given that war dominated half the decade and women were encouraged to make-do-and-mend, its easy to see how fashion reflected the sobriety of the time. Materials were heavy and durable, colours were muted and tailoring was formal and practical. By comparison, the 80s was a decade of excess and prosperity (followed by sudden recession, like 2009) – the palette was loud, brash and clashing, materials were far more expensive and luxurious and ‘power-dressing’ meant that women could flaunt their sexuality and confidence.

However, despite the seemingly different concerns of the time, much of 80s fashion was inspired by the 40s. For example, the 80s broad-shouldered/cinched-waist jackets I talked about in my previous post, were first made fashionable during the 40s.

These images taken from a 1982 edition of Vogue Italia show how that original 1940s trend was adapted and reinvented.

Make-up in the 1940s was kept quite simple, heavy and dark, accentuating the eyebrows and lips. 1980s fashion adopted a very similar look but again, took it to a far more lavish and colourful extreme.

Liz Taylor, rocking some classic, simple 1940s make up.

The 80s updated version. Yikes.

Marc Jacobs 2009 show make-up, channeling the 1980s, in turn channeling the 1940s.

All the recent Autumn/Winter shows were inevitably very 80s inspired. Marc Jacobs A/W 09 show in New York was a deluge of 80s bright colours, bouffant quiffs (also a 1940s reappropriation) and vivid, costume make-up. Likewise Alexander Wang continued his favouritism of 80s clothes with black leather crop-tops and high-waist leggings. Louis Vuitton rolled with the same 80s vibe at their Paris A/W 09 show, albeit via more New Romantic 80s than power suits, and of course, Balmain is still riding the crest of Balmania, having started this whole 80s revision in the first place!

Check out Vogue.com for all the shows I’ve mentioned

However, on closer inspection, many of the collections previewed alongside Jacobs, Wang and Balmain, channeled a subtler 1940s look. Lovely Lanvin (GOD I love Alber Elbaz) had just as much cinched-waists, pencil skirts and broad shoulders on display but the cuts were more classic and colours more subdued, “with a sober 1940s influence” as Elle says.

More lovely Lanvin here

The principle here I think is that while 80s clothes are having a serious comeback, it is always worthwhile investigating other vintage trends. Looking a little deeper at current trends, it becomes possible to understand how they are developed by reappropriating elements of the past. Though it may not appear that a certain era is in fashion, vintage pieces from any decade still remain precient and significant. Fashion is built on a sense of constant reinvention, so keep that 1940s dress to hand.

(Thanks for the image Trevira, original image here.)

The costumes for this film were designed by Georgio Armani. For Gere’s character, he made sharply tailored suits with shoulders that exaggerated the silhouette. The ‘Power Suit’ as it came to be know became incredibly popular, inferring masculinity and sophistication, and Armani went on to dominate both mens and womens fashion throughout the decade.

“In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a suit fashioned by the celebrated and influential Italian designer Giorgio Armani (1934–) became the outfit of choice for wealthy, style-conscious males. Armani suits were known for their simple yet elegant design, their striking look, and their comfort. They were custom tailored and were meticulously cut to fit the form of the purchaser. A typical Armani suit generally featured three pieces: a fully-lined, three-button blazer with padded shoulders; a matching vest; and single-pleated trousers that were lined only in front, down to the knees. The suit was black, charcoal gray, or navy blue; it was soft or textured; and it was made of the highest quality wool, cotton, cashmere, silk, or linen”

fashionencyclopedia.com

Similarly Hugo Boss became a household name synonimous with 80s suits, particularly thanks to popular TV show of the time Miami Vice. Actor Don Johnson famously wore the Hugo Boss suit jacket (broad-shouldered and double-breasted like Armani) in various pastel shades, with the sleeves rolled up. Like Gere’s ‘American Gigolo’, this look has come to typify the 1980s.

As a departure from the formal suit, jackets were worn with casual t-shirts or jumpers. The rolled sleeves and pastel colourways also defied typical convention. Women even re-appropriated mens jackets. In an era that saw women far more concerned with business and success than having children or getting married, adopting mens jackets created that same sense of masculinity and power.

Today, the 80s revival has brought the wide shouldered suit jacket back into the mainstream. Highstreet shops now offer things like ‘boyfriend blazers’ with pre-rolled sleeves but really, the best way to achieve this classic look is by sourcing original vintage jackets. Better yet, wearing mens jackets gives an added authenticity and creates a more accentuated silhouette. Fabrics such as wool and tweed (rather than the polyester mixes as found in those highstreet blazers) hang far better on the body, do not crease and last much longer.

Balmain’s acid wash skinny jeans, taking some serious influence from the original 80s penchant for acid washed denim.

Wow. Just wow…

Alexander Wang’s sheer black embroidered dress is a clear homage to 80s cult film ‘Vamp’ starring mental 80s icon, Grace Jones.

This has permeated from high-couture fashion right through to the highstreet. Crop tops, shoulder-pads, double-breasted blazers, rolled up sleeves, acid wash jeans, high waists and lace – all making a definite comeback.

Socially, it seems logical that parallels would be made between 2009 and the decade of excess. The era of yuppies, Thatcher and economic prosperity suddenly gave way to recession in 1987, the largest one-day percentage dive in stock market history. The same could easily be said of the current economic climate.

Another reason for the sudden interest in 80s clothes could be that after twenty years, the 80s can now be ‘officially’ viewed as vintage. I say ‘officially’ because there doesn’t seem to exist a conclusive way of defining  the classification of vintage clothes. I once interviewed Hannah Turner Voakes, who owns a vintage boutique in Shoreditch, and asked her how she classified her stock.

“I would define vintage as anything that is less than a hundred years old but more than 20 – more than a hundred is considered to be antique clothing and I personally believe that 20 years is the right amount of time to help people recognize that you are wearing clothes that you have purposefully chosen, rather than just being out of date fashion wise… I don’t think people need to be anal about classifying vintage-one should wear what one likes whatever its age but for me, the 80’s is definitely the latest decade that I would stock”
(Hannah Turner Voakes, 2009)

Whatever the reason, the rise of this trend has created more interest in original, vintage 80s clothes. Why spend £2,000 on a Balmain jacket (in fantasy land) when you can buy a unique and far more affordable vintage piece? The beauty of vintage shopping and swap sites like Covertcandy, is in purchasing something embued with nostalgia, individualism and credibility. A highstreet ‘copy’ is somehow not quite the same.

My advice is to always opt for the vintage piece. It may be a little harder to hunt down – by its very nature, your not likely to find these things on the highstreet – but it’ll no doubt be cheaper and better value (the quality of workmanship has decreased in recent yeasr but thats another blog post for another time…). So, happy shopping vintage magpies. Get yourselves an original 80s denim shirt, rip off the sleeves and bask in the glory of your fashionability.

Comments, suggestions, thoughts and theories always welcome.