a 0 0 0 9 0 i 26 Thursday, March 25, 2010 // The Fashion Issue Thursday, March 25, 2010// The Fashion Issue EB Immersing yourself in the old at Star Vintage The vintage paradox WANT TO WORK FOR THE DAILY? Go online to michigandailycom/join-us QU unu und SandN Royalea Street si The glit Vintage. store, pa ing, past the rick sign lett need to a basem with wh sensory. There evoking TV living for St. P and fran And the It's ever the floor rescentN es and st In the tuners J Don Am benevole irky clothes and undress. On the floor lies a miniature Coca-Cola cabinet - when opened, Sual jewelry from it reveals delectables like Camp- bell's soup tins, Burtoni high-protein bygone eras go macaroni shells and Reynolds Wrap er round literall doled out in doll-sized proportions. It almost seems like little fairy people used to live here, dining on plastic By JENNIFER XU shells and finishing off their meals DailyArts Writer with a slurp of imaginary Progresso soup. wiched between Espresso Star Vintage feels less like a throw- and Noodles and Co. on State back to a specific era and more like a ts a lone rack of old sweaters. mishmash of everything and anything tery sign above it reads "Star that used to be. The concept behind As you cautiously enter the vintage has always been about paying ast the rack of colorful cloth- homage to history while embracing the graffiti-slashed walls and the ever-evolving trends of the cur- ety old stairs, past the bizarre rent decade. ting you know "There is no "I think a lot of fashion is rehash," be curious kitty," you enter said Tillie Whitt, Star's owner. "I ent room that confronts you think it does repeat itself. The '60s is tat can only be described as a throwback to the Victorian era, the assault. fashion of the '80s is a certain retake are displays everywhere, on a '40s style, with the more geomet- several different eras: a '50s ric lines and squared-off shoulders. I g room,'80s Joan Jett and one think it does continue to reflect parts Patty's Day, half taken down of history with a new spin." ed by twinkling white lights. Known formerly as Primitive Vin- n there's just so much stuff tage, Star Vintage was rechristened ywhere - on the ceiling, on when Whitt bought the store five rs, toppling off stands. Fluo- years ago. wigs, wide-rimmed sunglass- "It's always been that weird base- acks of shoes line the walls. ment shop where no one knows where dressingroom, crooners and it is until you know where it is. That's anet Jackson, Andre Previn, what I've always liked about it; it's eche and Duane Eddy smile made it more mysterious," said Anne ntly down at you as you Coombs, store manager. Perhaps unique to Star is how each of the items in the store is named. on one side, the tag features the era the piece is from and the price; on the other, a sassy name describing it: "Melty Cuteness," "I vant this dress," "Wow! Superfine." "It's just something that I started when I first started the store," Whitt said. "When I first started tagging everything, I thought, 'Wow, this looks like Audrey Hepburn, or this looks like James Dean or Johnny Cash.' And then I just started naming things. And it's been a traditionof ours for five years." Coombs says that the customers tend to flock in, either from far away or in literal flocks. "We'll get big groups of sorority girls that'll just want to try every dress on, just have fun with it. But a lot of people from out of town that come to Ann Arbor and want fun activities to do also find us here," Coombs said. In terms of the store's turnover, clothes come in and out fairly often. Every week, Whitt brings back gar- bage bag-sized drops from places ranging from estate sales to rag hous- es. . "The world is a treasure hunt. I have a house out west in Wyoming, so I'm always shopping (everywhere)," Whitt said. "A big thing with working in a store like this is that there's so much stuff that if you don't rotate and change it, clothing that we feel isn't selling any- more, we just donate it," she added. Coombs, who was just promoted to store manager a few weeks ago, will soon be learning to price the items. "Pricing isn't standardized; it's based on the rarity of each piece and the quality - those are probably the two basic criteria," Whitt said. "I will be spending a lot of time with (Coombs) just really going over the fine-tuned detail of 'how to identify various pieces and relating to their quality and era and rarity. It's a very specific educational process." Although the staff doesn't usually go with Whitt on her famous "trea- sure hunts," they actively participate in designing the store displays and naming the items. "It's a wonderful collaboration of everybody's input, and really always has been: It's really the very fun, unique, expressive representation of the employees," Whitt said. When clothes are fresh on the floor and customers haven't had the chance to see them yet, employees have been known to indulge in a few pieces for themselves. "It's hard to be around the store every day and not buy something," Coombs said. "Especially when I first started working here, I was like, 'I want this and this and this.' All my favorite clothes are from here, defi- nitely." Whitt admits that sometimes she can't help herself. "It's been known to happen. I think one of my original fantasies with having a vintage store was having this massive store where I could just change clothes a hundred different times," she said. "When you end up dealing with it as a business, most of the things that I buy end up going into the store. But there are occasionally those pieces that never make it down there." Whitt is considering making some of the items in her store avail- able online. Purely online vintage stores like ModCloth and Etsy enjoy great success, taking advantage of contemporary society's reliance on technology and interest in obtaining one-of-a-kind items. "There's definitely a section in the back that we are not allowed to touch," Coombs said. "(Whitt) has really amazing, really old stuff back there, which would do a lot better online because it's the easiest way to reach collectors." Still, Star Vintage will not be leav- ing its Ann Arbor location in favor of online sales. Meanwhile, the store's consensus about large chain stores like Urban Outfitters is generally not favorable. "The prices are not OK with me. I think it's overpriced and was probably made in sweatshops. That place has no soul," Coombs said. "This place - I feel like it has a history to it. It's all different and it's unique and you won't find two of the same thing." "If you're buying the repro (repro- duced) stuff knocked off in China, you're not going to have an original See STAR, Page 8B How looking backward makes you fashion forward By ARIELLLE SPECINER Daily Arts Writer In the 1950s, Coco Chanel intro- duced the revolutionary "Chanel Suit," which allowed women to express what many saw as a new- found social freedom. Then, in the 1960s, the mini-skirt was introduced, paving the way for the ultra mini-skirt we see today. In the following decade, wide-legged disco pants were all the rage for boogieing to "Saturday Night Fever." The '80s transformed the way we wear spandex, and the 1990s took us down a looser path by introducing the world to the grunge era (thanks for that, 1991... I guess?). What do the 2000s bring us? Well, it's difficult to categorize the 2000s into one trend. The 2Ks have shown us a conglomerate of all five decades of fashion, and even includes some ear- lier ones. And we call it: vintage. Vintage style is made up of pre- viously worn apparel from bygone decades (or even just years). These pieces from the past only grow bet- ter with age. An older designer dud (say, a vintage Valentino gown from the 1960s, for example) can be worth double, even triple the amount of a new garment of the same type. But what propels this seemingly paradoxical movement? Designers are looking backward in order to move forward, and new customers are quite literally buying into it. So, to ask it bluntly, what is it about vintage cloth- ing that allows these fashion "innova- tors" to get away with recycling of this kind? Uniqueness, rarity, the sense of owning something that, most likely, not too many people possess anymore. It's possible that this appeal alone is enough to push a new fashion fad for- ward. After all, fashion is about defin- ing yourself as a unique individual. So despite the fact that the vintage trend barelyincorporates newlooks intothe fashion world, it might be credible to call it a "new" fashion advancement. And present designers seem to agree. In the Fall 2010 Louis Vuitton col- lection (which debuted during Paris Fashion Week), LV's creative direc- tor, Marc Jacobs, brought audiences back to a time when voluminous, high-wasted, knee-length skirts were donned with feminine blouses, remi- niscent of the '50s sock-hop days. Also duringthat Fashion Week, designer Miuccia Prada for M iM hincorpo- rated a '60s theme into her designs, presenting short go-go mini-dresses that looked as if Twiggy would have been destined to wear them. However, the question is whether the vintage fad shows a lack of cre- ativity and originality in the designers and the consumers. Have the sarto- rial minds of the once innovative and visionary fashion houses led us astray with just remnants of the past to dwell on? The answer is really a matter of opinion: Some may see the vintage trend as a waste of time, while others see it as a creative way of moving for- ward. But even those in the anti-vin- tage camp should admit that vintage is anything but lazy. Pulling together the perfect pieces from the fashion pinnacles of former decades is not an easy task. In fact, it can be even more difficult than tradi- tional innovation. Vintage-influenced designers must foresee tomorrow's fashions and do extensive research on past trends, then find an impeccable balance between the two. Erring even the slightest bit too much toward past or future could result in the complete failure of a look. A dowdy pair of wide- legged jeans from the '70s can seem quite obsolete if paired with another piece of'70s flair. But if one decides to balance it with a tight-fitting tank top tucked in to the denim, a great look can be created. This new generation of old looks on the runway converts to not only a shift back in time for retail establishments, but also a boost in sales for many sec- ondhand stores, which has far-reach- ing benefits. Buying clothing from thrift stores is now considered "cool" because thrift stores are among the only places to buy authentic vintage garb. And even though many shoppers may not have this in mind, buyingsec- ondhand has a real, positive environ- mental impact. Buying used means less demand for fabrics and other materials whose gathering or production have a nega- tive ecological effect. Also, as fewer new garments are being produced to meet the smaller demand, less dyeing is performed. (The dyeing of clothes has among the greatest pollutant effects of any aspect of the fashion industry) Some might protest the recycling of old looks, saying there's nothing cool about living in the past. But, like it or not, the vintage craze is here to stay, and there's more skill involved in it than one may expect. Successful fash- ion is always reincarnated in some form - it's just more blatant now than it has been before. Fashion is always reinventing itself, and this trend is no different. St's just that this time around, fashion has cho- sen to reinvent itself with, well, itself. people won't see it, they just won't know it's there," Coombs said. SOM U "And if there's a certain amount of Today's Career Tip: Want to ask for a promotion? Remember: Attitude matters as much as aptitude. Text "UMStudents" to 41411 to win great prizes and get daily career tips. ALUMNIASSOCIATION UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN MIDWEST REGIONAL MARCH 27-28 ALLEN COUNTY WAR MEMORIAL COLISEUM * 2010 ICE HOCKEY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION I " FORT WAYNE, INDIANA ROAD TRIP THIS WEEKEND? It's only 154 miles from downtown Ann Arbor to the Memorial Coliseum in Fort Wayne! Follow the Wolverines to the NCAA Men's Frozen Four. Get your tickets now! NCA A.com/f rozenfour NCAA is a trademark of the National Collegiate Athletic Association.