BUT the one thing about vintage is that no one else can show up at an award show or on the red carpet in the same dress that you already wore.
When I spotted Eva Green attending the LA premiere of her latest movie ‘Dark Shadows’ at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre in Hollywood in this amazing Fall 2011 Tom Ford dress my first thought was
"wow that looks a lot like the sequin dress I have in the shop"
and my second was
"wow haven't I seen that dress before?"
Don't get me wrong — I will be the first to admit that on the scale of which one is the most fabulous dress Mr. Ford's is superior to my little vintage version — hands down. That dress is low production, most likely almost entirely hand made and he is doing a damn good job of producing what I like to think of as demi-couture pieces. My 1970s Saks labelled dress is also amazing but was never, even when first made, a piece made at that level. It is just a very well made, fabulous vintage dress. Mr Ford's is at least two levels up if you compared the actual construction of materials. Where mine might have costs hundreds back in the day originally — making it maybe the equivalent of the low thousands if retailed now — his is a gown that would currently retail for many, many thousands — probably the kind of price that makes your jaw go slack for a minute as your mind struggles to catch up to the number you just heard.
That being said it still a pretty damn close match for a lot less money.
And then there is that one teeny weeny little fact — my thought number two above was dead on — this is a dress that I have seen before. This is one of the infamous pieces that Rachel Zoe styled Anne Hathaway in for her debut at hosting the Oscars in February of 2011. And then the gorgeous Elle McPherson wore it to the 2012 National Television awards. Both looked amazing in the dress but when you get to girl three it's a little hard not to
a) start to become one of those icky people that do that whole who looked better in it thingand b) have that been there done that feeling and just move on to some other fabulous gown to gawk at
Vintage girls — vintage. It's the only answer.
Pics of Anne from Stylite, of Elle from Justina-George, pic of Eva unknown as it was sent to meShop the 1970s vintage version here