52. It's Vintage Darling

15th February 2014, Spitalfields, London

I have a confession to make; although I live in the very heart of Shoreditch which is basically vintage heaven and literally next door to Beyond Retro - I really don't particularly like vintage clothing.

There are several reasons for this:

1. People were really tiny back when. Hence the clothes were tiny. Queue anxiety attack in a badly lit changing room, that isn't really a changing room but a broom cupboard in the old button factory that the cool kids of East London have converted into another hot spot in vintage mecca.
2. Vintage shopping is just damn inconvenient. There's no organisation, no structure, nothing is available in another colour or another size (up).
3. The smell. Sorry, but vintage shops smell like other people's old clothes. There's a reason for that. Same reason why I'm not buying it.
4. The hype that has evolved over vintage clothing is completely and utterly ridiculous. Suddenly every piece of fabric with someone else's sweat on is not used, not handed down, not second hand - it's vintage. Sorry, but I won't pay 50 pounds for an already worn H&M top from two seasons ago.

Spitalfields Pop Up Vintage Market is, in spite of my disliking of vintage clothing, one of the London essentials I have so far missed. Primarily due to being massively hungover on most Saturday mornings. 
And even if I'm against the clothes, I am open to vintage bags and shoes. As long as they aren't too smelly.

My vintage market date was my very favourite Floridian - one of few people I know who can actually fit her teeny tiny little waist into 40's dresses. Which was actually the aim of our vintage shopping trip - Floridian was off to a blitz party, as you often are, and her wardrobe full of 50's style attire just wasn't going to cut it.

If I thought the Spitalfields Vintage Market was going to be my vintage epiphany, I was wrong.
Half of it was new stuff made to look old. If you're going to tell people it's a unique post war piece, at least hide the other identical and unique post war pieces readily wrapped up in boxes behind the stall. 
The other half was new stuff, now more expensive than before someone else wore it. And I can almost guarantee that the someone else was not famous and therefore cranking up the prices. If it's a piece Betty Page once wore - I could kind of almost get it.

This is why I have to ask again, what is with this vintage hype?

After a tour of the market, observing tourists getting ripped off on their not so unique vintage pieces, neither me nor Floridian were impressed. And no Pearl Harbour inspired dress had been sourced. At this stage, we just gave up and went for lobster.

To sum it up - I'll continue to buy my clothes unused.