Check out part of this interview by Hannah Elliott, a Lifestyle Reporter at Forbes, a must read for all us vintage girlies.. .Â
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I recently spoke with vintage couture expert Kerry Taylor, a former Sotheby’s head who now leads her own auction house in London, Kerry Taylor Auctions.
Taylor and I discussed the state of the fashion industry, why celebrities love to wear vintage clothing, and how designers use old goods to inspire new collections. We also talked about the dearth of books on the market suitable for learning about how to buy, wear, collect or sell vintage clothing.
You can read the full interview here. In the meantime, Taylor recommends these books for aspiring vintage connoisseurs:
The Golden Age of Couture: Paris and London 1947-1957, by Claire Wilcox.
The Couture Accessory, by Caroline Rennolds Milbank.
The In Vogue series.
Here’s an exert from our conversation:
Hannah Elliott: Why are some people so fascinated with vintage clothing?
Kerry Taylor: It shows something about the individual. It shows that they’ve got taste as an individual. Most of the stuff that you see in the shops is the same. It’s very samey. Even when they’re trying not to be samey, they’re very very very samey. I know looking around Harvey Nic’s and Selfridges and places like this, where they have the prêt-a-porter by all the major designers, and it does not make my heart sing. It really doesn’t. And I think that what is on offer to the ordinary woman is really bland. It’s really really bland, all tasteless.
And if you buy vintage…it makes you feel special and it costs a fraction of what one of these nasty modern things at Selfridges.
HE: The market for it is incredibly strong right now. What is driving sales?
KT: I think there are two main reasons that the market has begun spiraling upward. The first one is that all of the museums internationally have woken up to the fact that if you have a major fashion exhibition you get footfall. You get footfall like you will get for no other exhibition. It will be wild. The museums will have people in your shops, people will be buying tickets. It’s the most popular subject in terms of creating interest and getting people through the doors. So they realize that. They also realize that there is a finite supply of these things, as I am very aware. And that actually if you miss this particular lot this year, you may never find another one.
We also have new fashion museums opening. I understand we have one opening up in Moscow and another in Latvia, for goodness sake. We have this amazing museum in Santiago, Chile. And we also have new buyers from China and Korea that we never used to have, so they have a big effect.
The other main thing is that women realize that to buy something vintage, you’re getting something superbly well made. At auction–I cannot speak for the retailers, because I do know that their prices are way way higher than mine–but at auction certainly it really is excellent value for the money. You can buy something really beautiful for a couple of hundred pounds. Really beautiful. A little beaded dress or an evening cape. It’s not all super fortunes.
HE: What can you say about the books about vintage couture in bookstores today?
KT: The books that are coming out now, most of them are not very good. Most are just collectors guides to blah. Ew. Anything that says collector’s guide….
HE: Have you ever considered writing a book of your own?
KT: I’ve been asked to write a book a few times. It’s just finding time. I would like to because some of the books are absolutely dreadful. They are! They’re read by people who have read other people’s books and then sort of slammed them all together and put “collector’s guide” at the front, and there you have it. It’s somebody who’s probably spent no time in the business at all, usually.
I am tempted because I have been asked, but it’s really a lot. I work such long hours as it is. I’d love to. I think at some point if they say “Well all right, we won’t be on your back all the time,” well that might be an idea. But we’ll see.
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