I was lying on a Ligurian beach a few weeks ago when I received an email that made me almost fall off of my towel… it was from one of the most one of a kind events in the world, the Vintage Workshop®. Not only was I kindly invited to attend the event to be held in Milan from September 11th through the 13th, but I was given the exclusivity to photograph and get a behind the scenes look of one of the most private events of the vintage scene!
My adored Angela Eupani, from Sculptures to Wear, is the beautiful mind behind the event which takes place twice a year in Milan. Just a few weeks before the crowds arrive for the “Intertex Milano,” “Ready to Show” and “MIFF” (Milan International Fast Fashion) Fashion catwalks to be held in the same location (the beautiful Palazzo delle Stelline in Milan), Angela masterfully sets the atmosphere with Fashion’s classic, unique and most treasured vintage pieces. The idea of the Vintage Workshop® is to offer to the fashion professional, as well as private vintage lovers, the possibility to find the best selection of quality and luxury vintage mostly coming from private collectors and vintage hunters and from everywhere in the world! The pieces I found there are incredibly rare and one of a kind: I couldn’t stop staring at some incredible boots and handbags that I completely fell in love with.
The concept is simple: vintage amateurs can buy or rent the pieces for private use (like I did with this wonderful tan leather handbag!), designers may use it as inspiration for the new collections… solidifying the “extracted truth” that fashion doesn’t create anymore- but recycles what’s already been created from the most intensely creative years of fashion (namely ’60s, ’70s and ’80s).
This explains, in my opinion, why vintage purists don’t accept ’90s era fashion as vintage: their overall consensus is creative experimentation became an endangered species after the Chicxulub Impact of ’80s fashion. After that decade, everything has been a continuous recreation from the past eras, and the recapitulation prevails to this day. I don’t agree 100% with this dismal characterization, but I accept part of it: if it is true that most of what is created in fashion nowadays takes inspiration from the past, it is also true that the effort to create something different, even if with retro inspiration, is still very high and the results are really remarkable- especially with French couturiers.
As a vintage lover, I felt like I was in paradise in the midst of the most beautiful clothing and accessories from the ’20s to the ’80s. And Angela’s incredible knowledge of the history of those pieces left me completely stunned. It was a sort of journey through the history of unique pieces, like this amazing Yves Saint suit or Moschino ensemble, or this wonderful Roberta di Camerino dress and belt.
I fell in love with most of the shoes and bags featured there and I took the occasion to take some pictures with my favorite pieces (at least those that I could take pictures of!).
I felt like Alice in Wonderland for an afternoon and I’m very humbled, honored and excited to share all this great exclusive with you, Lovebugs!
The Vintage Workshop® for luxury fashion will return on the 8th and 9th of October in Bologna. It will be a special event focusing on vintage leather accessories with a special fashion exhibition and show for the 2014-2015 collection. Don’t miss it out!
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