SERIES by Bodega: Repurposed

WHY VINTAGE? – What are you going to do with some old rags that someone else threw away?

Rationally speaking, there are few reasons why an old sweatshirt with a quarter century’s worth of closet must should inspire covetous impulses and longing glances, or why the same printed graphic would be considered a holy grail on one t-shirt, and a dime a dozen, disposable fodder on another, based solely on the shirt’s age. In fact, to a lot of outside observers, it looks a lot like an unhealthy obsession with old junk. Basically, the question is why vintage?

One of the side effects of the internet age is that everything is present and available, but often devoid of context. To put it in a harsher light, you could say that having everything just kind of floating in space online has stripped formerly significant cultural signifiers of all meaning. Trends and movements are willed into existence, seemingly out of thin air. All you need to do is stick a cut up Cradle of Filth shirt and a tropical, wide brimmed straw hat on a model, and the next thing you know, Volcano-Goth is trending on all the fashion blogs. Sure, culture evolves, and things will be experienced differently than when they originally appeared, but to have the original context swept away entirely by a wave of insta-consumption constitutes a very real loss.

The word most commonly thrown around the broad appeal of vintage product is authenticity, but that gives the complex range of emotions between the individual and vintage pieces something of a short shrift. Make no mistake about it; the vein that vintage taps into is definitely an emotional one, which occurs on an individual, piece by piece basis.

On one level is the deeply personal, nostalgic connection that exists between person and object. Take a couple of the most common pieces of 90s pop culture, a Chicago Bulls hat and an nWo shirt. You can still get a Bulls hat anywhere, and you can get a retro reprint of the iconic New World Order design, but it isn’t the same thing as actually having the stuff from a time in your life when Michael Jordan was actually a superhero, and Kevin Nash and Scott Hall too sweeting three of their fingers together was the coolest thing on earth. Having that specific vintage piece allows you to tap into that feeling. You can’t relive the past entirely, but you can hold in your hands for a little while.

On another level, the right vintage piece rises to the level of object d’art. Instead of an emotional reaction to pop culture, specific production methods, like chain stitching, or reverse weave, are lovingly pored over.

The common thread between the personal reaction and craftsmanship appreciation is that notion of clothes having a deeper meaning than simple commoditization. What makes an old t-shirt special compared to a recreation is that it comes from a time when you were crazy about that thing, and wearing the shirt was an expression of that genuine enthusiasm, not because some sort of secondhand coolness had been bestowed upon it by a third party influencer. Similarly, when the construction of a vintage Champion hoodie or military jacket is being admired, there is a distinct air of “they don’t make ‘em like they used to,” about it, because those vintage garments were made to perform a specific function, and not merely part of a lifestyle, marketing aesthetic that reproduces the look but not the quality.