This season, the most fashionable looks come from the archives.&nbsp;

Just 10 years ago, wearing anything from a past season was considered a fashion faux pas worthy of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/politics-culture/how-social-media-became-the-new-tabloid-magazine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">tabloid</a> fodder and immediate relegation to &ldquo;Worst Dressed&rdquo; lists. Today, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/thierry-mugler-most-iconic-archival-styles-fashion-paris-museum" target="_blank" rel="noopener">archival</a> fashion seems to be having its moment on the red carpet, from <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/bella-hadid-birthday-age-fashion-outfit-inspiration-street-style" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Bella Hadid</a>&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/every-look-tom-ford-spring-summer-2023-runway-nyfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Tom Ford</a>&ndash;era <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/history-gucci-jackie-1961-bag-fashion-archival-kennedy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gucci</a> dress at the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/red-carpet-look-star-cannes-festival-2022" target="_blank" rel="noopener">2022 Cannes Film Festival</a> to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/beauty/zendaya-best-red-carpet-beauty-makeup" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zendaya</a>&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/valentino-spring-summer-2023-haute-couture-show-collection-runway" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Valentino</a> moment at the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-fashion-moments-from-euphoria-season-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Euphoria</a> premiere. While many refer to the &ldquo;sudden&rdquo; rise in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-celebrity-red-carpet-vintage-fashion-moments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vintage on the red carpet</a> as a trend, some would argue that it&rsquo;s here to stay.
Johnny Valencia, owner of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/pechuga_vintage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pechuga Vintage</a> in <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celine-fall-winter-2023-collection-every-looks-photos-los-angeles" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Los Angeles</a>, has been supplying fashion lovers with <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/angelina-jolie-eternals-marvel-disney-photoshoot-valentino" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vintage</a> styles for years. With a front-row seat to this phenomenon, he sees the rise of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-trench-coat-vintage-celebrity-style-inspiration" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vintage</a> on the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/cynthia-erivo-best-red-carpet-fashion-singer-actress-wicked" target="_blank" rel="noopener">red carpet</a> as a reflection of the everyday. &ldquo;In order to really delve into any trend that occurs, we have to look first at what the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/why-are-tiktokers-hating-on-streetwear" target="_blank" rel="noopener">streets</a> are doing,&rdquo; he says.

Left: Alexa Demie at the Moët & Chandon Holiday Season Celebration. Photo by Gotham/FilmMagic; Right: Model wearing Alaïa in a 1992 issue of L’OFFICIEL.

Outside of the celebrity bubble, the conversation surrounding <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/shopping/sustainable-knitwear-fashion-shopping-cashmere-wool" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sustainability</a> in fashion has been brewing for years. While many designers and fashion houses have pivoted to incorporating <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/shopping/sustainable-bags-luxury-shopping" target="_blank" rel="noopener">sustainable</a> fabrics and techniques into their design processes, eco-conscious consumers have steadily been moving towards resale. <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/best-fashion-resale-platforms-online-vintage-sellers" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Vestiaire Collective</a>&rsquo;s 2022 Impact Report revealed that more than 33 million people bought their first secondhand clothing item in 2020, and the resale industry is projected to grow 11 times faster than traditional new clothing.
<a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/young-celebrity-stylists-gen-z" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Mimi Cuttrell</a>, the stylist behind starlets like <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/gigi-hadid-best-street-style-moments" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Gigi Hadid</a>, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/maude-apatow-style-fashion-instagram-euphoria" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Maude Apatow</a>, and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/film-tv/madelyn-cline-outer-banks-season-2-netflix-knives-out-2" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Madelyn Cline</a>, has always kept vintage at the heart of her process. For her, this shift is &ldquo;a reflection of the industry as a whole becoming more environmentally conscious,&rdquo; and represents &ldquo;a collaboration between clients and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/celebrity-stylists-to-follow-on-instagram" target="_blank" rel="noopener">stylists</a> to move into a more sustainable way of dressing.&rdquo;&nbsp;
As Valencia explains, the cultural shift came along with consumer habit shifts. &ldquo;The older it is now, the better. That&rsquo;s the paradox with vintage: really old is good and really new is bad.&rdquo; Consumer demand created a space where &ldquo;old&rdquo; clothes are normalized and even celebrated. But while sustainability may have sparked the flame, the singularity of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/vintage-sunglasses-summer-accessories-trend" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vintage</a> set the world ablaze.

Model wearing Valentino in a 1992 issue of L’OFFICIEL; Zendaya at the Euphoria season 2 premiere in Los Angeles. Photo by Jeff Kravitz

&ldquo;Rather than wear the latest gown inspired by a collection from 30 years ago, why not wear the original?&rdquo;

In 2011, Julie Ann Clauss founded <a href="https://www.instagram.com/thedigitalarchivist/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Wardrobe</a>, a facility where clients like Tom Ford privately store and preserve their archival clothing under <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/fashion-museums-exhibits-2022-lexicon-of-fashion-harry-styles-dior" target="_blank" rel="noopener">museum</a>-quality conditions. As a purveyor of archival collections for over a decade, she sees the sartorial practicality in vintage. &ldquo;Stores all over the world carry the same inventory nowadays, so vintage is one of the only ways to stand out and be unique,&rdquo; she says.
&ldquo;There are only so many options out there from a new collection, whereas if you dive deep within the archives, there are just decades and decades of amazing pieces,&rdquo; says LA-based <a href="https://www.instagram.com/aralda.vintage/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Aralda Vintage</a> owner Brynn Jones. &ldquo;I think once that door opened, people realized that the newest doesn&rsquo;t necessarily mean the best.&rdquo;

It&rsquo;s this striving for uniqueness&mdash;one that Valencia, Jones, and Clauss all say has been enabled and encouraged by the internet and social media, whether through accessibility to <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/black-models-fashion-history" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fashion history</a> or fear of fashion critics in the comments section&mdash;that has given vintage a new life, especially, as Clauss notes, since new collections have become &ldquo;fairly self-referential&rdquo; over the past 50 years or so. Valencia mirrors that statement, asking, &ldquo;It already exists, so why complicate our lives?&rdquo; Wearing <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/vintage-intermezzo-2018" target="_blank" rel="noopener">vintage</a> provides not only an opportunity to stand out but also to show off your appreciation for and knowledge of fashion history&mdash;as Valencia calls it, your &ldquo;fashion chops.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Rather than wear the latest gown inspired by a collection from 30 years ago, which is in turn inspired by a designer from 25 years before that, why not wear the original? It&rsquo;s a question that supposes that this shift toward vintage fashion is not just a trend, but rather a genuine, lasting change in consumer behavior. While there&rsquo;s certainly data to support that hypothesis, Clauss is not as sure. &ldquo;The pendulum always shifts, and I am sure that at some point people will be interested in wearing what is &lsquo;new&rsquo; and &lsquo;now&rsquo;&mdash;but I think the fashion to spark that will need to be novel, and tied to a unique moment in time,&rdquo; she says, referencing the <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/retrofuturism-fashion-history-technology-virtual-space-age-fashion-pierre-cardin-courreges" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&lsquo;60s Space Age</a> style of <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion-week/courreges-spring-summer-2022-collection-pfw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Courr&egrave;ges</a>, <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/paco-rabanne-futuristic-unwearable-fashion-chainmail" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Paco Rabanne</a>, and <a href="https://www.lofficielusa.com/fashion/pierre-cardin-60s-fashion-influence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Pierre Cardin</a>.
However, vintage sellers Valencia and Jones are more optimistic. The &ldquo;slow burn&rdquo; in vintage&rsquo;s popularity tells Jones that &ldquo;it&rsquo;s here to stay.&rdquo; But for Valencia, it&rsquo;s not just that it&rsquo;s not a trend; it shouldn&rsquo;t be. &ldquo;This transcends just what you and I wear, or who we&rsquo;re paying attention to. This is a community effort that starts at the top, goes to the bottom, and vice versa.&rdquo;&nbsp;

L'OFFICIEL USA Spring 2023 is now available to order online&nbsp;<a href="https://store.emags.com/lofficiel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">here</a>.&nbsp;

Left: Model wearing Gucci in a 1996 issue of L’OFFICIEL; Right: Bella Hadid at the 75th Annual Cannes Film Festival. Photo by Marc Piasecki .

Celebrity Vintage Retailers Talk the Rise in Archival Fashion on Red Carpets

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