Viva vintage

Fashion’s always had a way of looking backwards for its inspiration. But why wear copycat designs when you can get the real deal?

Never before has vintage clothing been in such demand. With style icons such as Alexa Chung, Zooey Deschanel, Dita Von Teese and Kate Moss rocking vintage looks, and a rich abundance of original clothing available, no self-respecting wardrobe is complete without at least a few vintage pieces mixed in amongst your high street favourites.

But what is it that people love so much about vintage? Is it the sense of history that comes with wearing clothes from decades ago? The character? The originality?

Anna Dunstan of vintage clothing company Retro Collective believes that it’s the individuality; an individuality that can’t be found in high street or designer fashions.

“Everyone wants to look different,” she says. “Nobody wants to look the same as everyone else.”

A bar designer by trade, Anna completed her degree in Interior Design at Manchester Metropolitan University but then fell into fashion when she began making handbags as a hobby with a friend.

“I’d been doing handbags as a hobby for five years, but then I got put on a three day week at work earlier this year. I thought ‘this is the only time I’m ever going to get the chance to do it properly’. So I got onto the fashion market with the bags. Then I realised that clothes would be a good idea, so I started embellishing t-shirts and dresses. And then the vintage clothing has gone from there. I’m into fashion, so it’s just evolved really.”

So where do the unique items that Anna sells through Retro Collective come from?

“I find lots on eBay. And then car boot sales, second hand shops…I travel all over the country with work so if I see something I’ll just stop off.

“This one I got from eBay,” she says, holding up a beige-coloured 1970s floral print frock. “It’s pretty frumpy at the moment but I saw something in it, so I’ll alter it and make it a bit shorter.”

To aid her alterations, Anna enrolled on a dressmaking course, through which she learned how to turn 'frumpy' clothes into funky, on-trend pieces. “Some of them are really awful,” she says, talking about the sourced clothing in its original state. “You see some right sights. I’ll find a dress with a really funky print, but it’s a really bad shape or a funny length. So I stitch them, or sometimes dye them.”

As well as an extensive range of women’s clothing, Anna also sells men’s vintage – onto which she puts her own twist by printing funky images designed by her partner Mark. “Looking around vintage markets I just noticed that there was loads of women’s stuff but not much for men,” she explains. “And loads of my mates have asked if I’m doing any blokes’ stuff, so I think there’s definitely a demand there.”

Anna works from home in Manchester. The spare bedroom of her city centre flat is devoted to rails of retro clothes, accessories and beautiful vintage fabrics.

“I also have loads of leather jackets,” she says, pointing to a rack full of leathers from the past few decades. “Some of them are really great but on some of them the leather’s good but the cut’s awful, so I just need to adapt them.”

By sourcing and reworking vintage clothing, Anna becomes part of the clothing’s story – a story that in most cases spans a quarter or half a century.

And while we might not know who wore the beige floral print dress over thirty years ago, we do know that thanks to Anna, the reworked item’s future will now lie amongst the style conscious streets of Manchester.

The Vintage Fashion Market takes place in Piccadilly Gardens on the third Saturday of each month.