In their own words: Objects of obsession from a group of young collectors at the forefront of a new collecting culture.
Vintage Gold Dress
On my way back home after writing in the woods for three weeks, I stopped at a stranger’s house to pick up a dress I had found online. Putting aside my slight hesitations about entering the apartment of a man unknown to me, I rolled my suitcase through the lobby and into his elevator. The promise of acquiring a golden vintage dress propelled me right into his kitchen. Selling vintage treasures was his passion, and he lovingly showed me each piece of his collection, which inhabited a corner of his apartment. As we navigated his overflowing racks, we dreamt about who these glamorous women could have been.
I knew I had to have the dress the moment I laid eyes on it, as I had never seen anything quite like it in all my years of collecting vintage and antique fashion. My beliefs of its singularity were confirmed when we couldn’t find any signs of a tag lining its seams. This led me to believe that the dress had either been an abandoned sample, homemade, or the least exciting option: the tag had simply fallen out one day. While I had initially thought she was from the late 1960s due to the cheerful rounded flowers lining her drop-waist, it’s hard to place precisely when the dress was created, as many designers have referenced previous eras.
I’m particularly fond of Victor Costa dresses from the 1980s, which often took inspiration from silhouettes of past decades, and I momentarily thought it could have been one of his designs.
While I still don’t know during which era she was born, like a chic woman of a certain age, not knowing adds to the fun of her mysterious golden aura.
JENNY WALTON is an artist and writer well-known for her collection of vintage and second-hand fashion. She writes a monthly vintage shopping column for Vogue.
