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April's
Articles for Giftware News:
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Why Vintage Is Never
Old
I am a true believer in the past seeding the future. I believe
in one thought building another in experience, creating expertise—I
enjoy learning from people of similar mind, even if from a different
time.
Last week I did one of my favorite things—I picked through
old and beautiful textiles, looking for new ideas. An antique
textile dealer that I know brought her wares to me, and I spent
a pleasant (a.k.a. very exciting!) morning looking through piles
of beautiful, old things. I happily rummaged through a designer's
mind of a century ago looking at collars and buttons, plaquets
and clasps, and seeing color combinations of somebody else's time,
of somebody else's mind. I reveled in the details—in the
opportunities, in the beauty—waiting for a second chance.
There were scraps of velvets, worn silks, embroidered raffias,
homemade collars, tiny baby gloves, embroidered card cases, patchwork
blankets and vintage cocktail dresses with unusual necklines.
There was a plethora of interesting ideas—old and precious
in their remains—I was just rubbing my hands with delight.
I love that we carry the beauty of yesteryear into today, and
change it for tomorrow. I hope one day when I am dead and gone,
some designer will have the pleasure I am having in decoding my
dresses, my collars and my metered corners, pinching a bit of
my time to add to hers.
I remember the very first antique blouse that I brought to India
to develop—it was an antique Victorian bed jacket, found
on Canal Street in New York. It was a small fortune for me at
the time, but it expressed everything that I love about clothes—romance
and cotton, softness and hand work. It was somebody's old blouse—but
for me it was a beginning.
This week the Brimfield Show in Brimfield, Massachusetts, will
draw antique lovers and dealers from near and far, and at least
a couple of them will be designers of today with a penchant for
the past.
Burlington, Vermont
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