{"id":98118,"date":"2024-12-13T11:36:06","date_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:36:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=98118"},"modified":"2024-12-13T11:36:06","modified_gmt":"2024-12-13T11:36:06","slug":"dead-again-fashion-grazia-usa-winter-2024","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/dead-again-fashion-grazia-usa-winter-2024\/","title":{"rendered":"Dead Again: Vintage Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Camilla
Photo Credits (L-R): House of Holland Fall\/Winter 2008; Todd Oldham Fall\/Winter 1992; Marc by Marc Jacobs Fall\/Winter 2005<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Words by Faran Krentcil<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

When Camilla Morton can\u2019t sleep, she searches on Google for pants. \u201cNot just any pants,\u201d says the London-based author and fashion consultant. \u201cDaryl K low-rise black leather pants from 1995. I am obsessed with finding the perfect pair. But of course, you can\u2019t just pop \u2018round to Barneys anymore to purchase them. That label doesn\u2019t really exist anymore. And, of course,\u201d she sighs, \u201cneither does Barneys.\u201d<\/p>\n

Morton is one of the \u201ccan you believe it?\u201d British cool guard whose closet is crammed with archival Dior and Givenchy, all cribbed from her years as John Galliano\u2019s official assistant and unofficial inner-beast wrangler. She remains BFFs \u2014 best fashion friends \u2014 with French luxury executives, Los Angeles movie stars, and members of the U.K. royal family. In other words, Morton does not need more designer clothes (\u201cYes, fine, I have too many already!\u201d she admits with a small hoot) but the Daryl K pants remain lodged in her mind, a Roman Empire of soft black lambskin and a super-tight tush. \u201cI could never find them in London, and this was before online shopping,\u201d she explains. \u201cThey\u2019re like a ghost of what I always wanted to wear.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Camilla
Naomi Campbell models a pink dress for British designer Matthew Williamson, on the catwalk for London Fashion Week. (Photo by Stefan Rousseau – PA Images\/PA Images via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But ghosts are fully dead. The Daryl K pants in question are more like zombies \u2014 deceased from the runways and buried from retail racks, but still living on eBay, albeit for $600. They join a line of coveted clothes from long-defunct labels like Christopher Kane, Isaac Mizrahi, Imitation of Christ, Luella, and Todd Oldham that continue to have life even after their brands have died. \u201cYou used to have to buy everything up when a label closed,\u201d says Morton. \u201cBut now, it\u2019s like anytime my Gen X friends and I have a vivid memory of an item of clothing, we can go buy it straightaway.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Camilla
LONDON – SEPTEMBER 18: (UK OUT) A model walks the runway at the Ashish Show at the Topshop Space in Holland Park on September 18, 2006 in London, England.. (Photo by Chris Moore\/Catwalking\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cZombie fashion brands are definitely a thing,\u201d says Liana Satenstein, the vintage expert and shopping writer. Satenstein\u2019s celebrity closet sales and YouTube segments on fashion history have brought pieces from long-dormant brands like Opening Ceremony and Todd Oldham back into the spotlight, thanks to style icons like Chlo\u00eb Sevigny. The rising demand for zombie fashion brands speaks to dual shopping trends: Y2K nostalgia fueled by both Gen X wistfulness and Gen Z TikTok content, along with a growing interest in sustainable fashion and its emphasis on secondhand shopping. Because of these movements, savvy shoppers are increasingly seeing old clothes as in-the-know collectibles instead of over-and-done outfits from the past. And since the early 2000s were the first time digital photography helped anybody \u2014 and everybody \u2014 take pictures at a fashion show, there\u2019s more searchable, shareable content for these clothes, which makes them even more in demand once they hit social media.<\/p>\n

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Model Angela Lindvall walks in the Daryl K Spring 1998 Ready to Wear Runway Show on November 7, 1997, in New York City. (Photo by John Aquino\/Penske Media via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNine out of 10 times, when you see a Sienna Miller picture from the early 2000s, she\u2019s wearing something from Matthew Williamson,\u201d says Irish writer Freya Drohan. \u201cBut I was still a school kid when that happened. I couldn\u2019t afford them then. I can now, and the old dresses are seared into my brain!\u201d Today, Drohan finds those boho-flounce gowns on eBay and the RealReal for under $100 and wears them on the New York City gala circuit. \u201cThey\u2019re a hit,\u201d she confirms.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Model on the catwalk (Photo by Rodin Banica\/WWD\/Penske Media via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Of course, not all zombie fashion brands can be scored for 90% off. After the buzzy vintage boutique James Veloria hosted a Todd Oldham pop-up shop in their Chinatown HQ in 2021, the brand\u2019s Google searches spiked\u2026 and so did prices. Oldham famously shuttered his namesake line in 1999 after a decade of gasp-worthy pieces like mosaic-print trench coats and beaded skirt sets that mimic the pattern of tie-dye.\u00a0 <\/span>A year later, Oldham\u2019s runway finds go for $300 to $5,000 on resale sites like eBay and 1st Dibs, where cataloging pieces from the \u201990s design phenom alongside antique furniture and Sotheby\u2019s-worthy modern art helps position the clothes as historically significant instead of just old.<\/p>\n

\"Camilla
Runway Model during Heatherette Fashion Show at The Lot @ The Standard Hotel Downtown in Los Angeles, CA, United States. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz\/FilmMagic, Inc)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That pedigree of \u201ccool girl history\u201d is a driving force behind TikTok\u2019s embrace of vintage fashion hauls, and Gen Z\u2019s hunt-it-down obsession with long lost labels. On a recent Friday morning in Manhattan, 22-year-old interior design intern Jane Lewis scrolled through the RealReal searching for Marc by Marc Jacobs, the LVMH-backed diffusion line that operated from 2001 through 2015 and helped float Jacobs\u2019s quirk-fueled aesthetic from rarified runways into streets and wealthy suburban school hallways. \u201cI still look at old runway photos of that stuff,\u201d said Lewis. \u201cIt feels like it\u2019s from another time in New York that I\u2019ll never know.\u201d When Marc by Marc Jacobs first hit the tiny Bleecker Street boutique that became a downtown hangout, Lewis wasn\u2019t born yet. (I\u2019ll give you a minute to recover before continuing your read\u2026)\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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A model walks in the Betsey Johnson Fall 1997 Ready to Wear Runway Show on April 7, 1997, in New York City. (Photo by Thomas Iannaccone\/Penske Media via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Today, the Parsons School of Design senior and her friends often search for the brand\u2019s pieces online. \u201cBut we\u2019re most interested in the ones that say \u2018Marc Jacobs\u2019 with the \u2018Jacobs\u2019 in gray on the label, instead of the ones that say \u2018Marc by Marc Jacobs.\u2019\u201d The earliest pieces, says Lewis, are \u201ccooler\u201d than the later items because fewer pieces were produced, and they were done so \u201cwith Marc Jacobs himself right there.\u201d Other zombie fashion brands getting scooped up by college kids? \u201cAnything from Sex and the City<\/i>, because it\u2019s on Netflix right now, so we\u2019re all watching it,\u201d said Chloe Plasse, 19, a student from Los Angeles who recently discovered Tracy Feith\u2019s fluttery bias-cut skirts, thanks to Carrie Bradshaw\u2019s date night looks circa 2001. \u201cAnd I look for Brock Collection all the time on eBay. I know running a fashion brand is hard, but it\u2019s like why did that have to shut down? It was so cute.\u2019\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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NEW YORK, USA – FEBRUARY 09: Carman Kass walks the runway during the Imitation of Christ Ready to Wear Fall\/Winter 2002-2003 fashion show as part of the New York Fashion Week on February 9, 2002 in New York. (Photo by Victor VIRGILE\/Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Both Plasse and Morton say they\u2019ve seen friends hunting for old pieces from Topshop Unique, the fast fashion brand of the early aughts that counted Kate Moss, Christopher Kane, and J.W. Anderson as collaborators. \u201cThe blazers are still so good!\u201d exclaims Drohan. And though high-quality design is one way to ensure \u201czombie\u201d brands achieve longevity, the cheaper synthetic materials used by brands like Topshop have actually helped with durability. Polyester, after all, never really fades.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Camilla
NEW YORK – SEPTEMBER 10: A model walks the runway at the Luella Bartley Spring 2007 fashion show at Sony Music Studios during Olympus Fashion Week September 10, 2006 in New York City. (Photo by Scott Gries\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For designers themselves, the feeling of seeing their old stuff walking through the world anew remains fun but also surreal. \u201cI\u2019m excited to know people still think about them,\u201d says Daryl Kerrigan, the Irish-born, Brooklyn-based designer who created the Daryl K pants that Morton still tries to hunt down on sleepless nights. \u201cSeeing the pants in the wild is always funny, though, because so many people tried to copy what we did. Knowing nothing compares to the original makes me glad I still kept a few of the old pairs. You know, for fashion emergencies.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read GRAZIA USA\u2019<\/em>s Winter Issue<\/a> featuring cover star Natasha Lyonne<\/a>:<\/strong><\/h4>\n