Archival fashion is here to stay – just don’t call it vintage: Miley Cyrus, Kylie Jenner and Lady Gaga all wore looks from recent history for 2024 awards season – now TikTok is on the sustainable trend
- Julia Roberts, Oprah, Elle Fanning, Claire Danes, Chloë Sevigny and Gwyneth Paltrow all turned heads in highlight pieces from recent-past collections – read on for tips on looking after such pieces
- Archival fashion moments have included looks from Thierry Mugler, Valentino, Bob Mackie, Pierre Balmain, Hanae Mori, Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen – but how should you best store preloved treasures?
By the time the Grammys rolled around, other stars were digging into their own archives – Oprah chose a black sequin shirtdress by Valentino Couture from the early noughties, while winner Miley Cyrus took to the stage in a bling-worthy Bob Mackie silver-fringed number to perform her hit song, “Flowers”.
Archive fashion – which experts say is different to vintage – will no doubt continue to trend at May’s Met Gala, where the “Sleeping Beauties: Reawakening Fashion” exhibition will pay homage to 400 years of fashion history and never-seen-before masterpieces.
“I would describe clothing from the 20th century as vintage while more recent designs of note are appropriately called archival,” explains Cameron Silver, founder of Los Angeles-based vintage couture boutique Decades, which boasts an ever-growing list of celebrity clients including Chloë Sevigny, Julia Roberts, Gwyneth Paltrow and Lady Gaga.
“Initially the vintage client and archival client were separate as more recent designer fashion didn’t have the same cache as it does today. The ‘rebranding’ of preloved, more recent luxury as archival has elevated the category,” he says.
While vintage fashion has been spotted on the red carpet plenty of times, archival fashion’s popularity is being driven by a younger generation of celebrities who, like their TikTok counterparts – #archivefashion has been trending for months now – are looking to make a fresh statement.
Fashion is so mainstream and everything has been done before to some degree. When your job is to break the internet more than the next celebrity, wearing something that not everyone else has, with a story, makes a big difference
For one it gives them the opportunity to wear something that showcases their fashion credibility and know-how without having to commit to a single brand.
“Fashion is so mainstream and everything has been done before to some degree. When your job is to break the internet more than the next celebrity, wearing something that not everyone else has, with a story, makes a big difference,” says Gill Linton, founder of online boutique Byronesque, which goes beyond vintage to offer reissues and contemporary and future vintage pieces by the likes of Comme des Garçons, Yohji Yamamoto, Jean Paul Gaultier and Alexander McQueen.