Inner Monologue

As anyone who pays attention to fashion knows, pulling an “archival” look has become the go-to move for about the last five years. You see it sometimes on Instagram from fashion girls in the know, but the most common place is celebrity styling for press tours or red carpets. Whereas custom or off the runway looks used to signal your status as a fashion person, now it’s being able to pull (or really, have your stylist pull) an archival piece; oftentimes, the more obscure the better.

There are a few reasons why this has become a trend:

• It is a more sustainable way to dress at a time when the environmental impacts of fashion are increasingly under scrutiny
• During and coming out of the pandemic, our digital lives and digital presence took on increasing importance and people needed new, fresh things (note the irony) to be photographed in that would catch attention
• Some seasons of new runways looks just aren’t that exciting or don’t translate as well to high drama moments (you can thank thinner commercial margins and sales here)
• People just want a way to flex their fashion knowledge

The last one is really what I want to focus on here. I think when this trend started, you had really smart stylists and/or people with genuine fashion history knowledge pulling amazing pieces from the past. These were people in the industry who (i’m sorry to say) just have better taste and buying vintage is how they just shop generally. Vintage clothes/archive pieces are often better made, have higher quality fabrics, are more dramatic, or at least just look different to what ever other starlet is wearing; it’s a signifier of taste and a differentiator. It was great because it brought life back into older pieces while also showcasing the artistry of designers that may have been forgotten, or at least not given a first forever-life on social media so people aren’t as aware of them.

However, I do think that the trend has reached its saturation point and gone so far as to be rendered a bit meaningless. When everyone is pulling archival pieces, it no longer has the insider-y, fashion cultural cache that it used to carry; it no longer denotes “this is a genuine appreciation for the garment and my deep love of fashion.” In fact, it often seems that now it’s just another way for people to flex access and wealth; the more obscure the pull or reference, the more that people are flaunting that they are an “in the know” person. It the mid-200s, hipster “oh you don’t know this band? I’ve known about them for years” type faux-sobby bullshit. Look, I’m not behind the scenes, maybe all these celebrities have a deep love of fashion…..but I doubt it. Some of them do and you can absolutely tell, but others have just been told “this is what people are doing now” and it feels forced and inauthentic. For example, if you are wearing vintage “insert house here” and you can’t name the specific designer who designed the collection that piece is from? Then archival is not for you, and that’s fine! Get a custom look or pull from the most recent runway if you have that kind of access. You’ll look great!

This is part of a larger conversation on the pros and cons of the democratization of fashion that has occurred in over the last 20 years, I’ll definitely write some pieces exploring other facets of this topic. But for now, let’s be really mindful of how and when we pull archival pieces so that they still retain the same effect and meaning.