The fashion for thrift

by Alison Hird

Article published on the 2009-07-19 Latest update 2009-07-20 13:08 TU

Fashionistas at the Viensdansmondressing event
(Photo: Paul Heng)

French haute couture is experiencing tough times: Christian Lacroix's fashion house is on the verge of bankruptcy and others are struggling to make ends meet. But it's not all bad news. Strapped for cash fashionistas are turning into recessionistas - embracing thrift and coming up with inventive ways of satisfying their thirst for frocks.

“It started off as parties between girlfriends”, 39-year-old events organiser and clothes-lover Nathalie Crosz tells me. “Women working mainly in media and fashion: stylists, press attachés, PR...they all get access to cut-price designer clothes”.

They’d meet at modern day Tupperware parties and exchange or sell clothes between themselves. It was fun and allowed them to regularly freshen up their wardrobes.

The Viensdansmondressing event
(Photo: Paul Heng)

Then the recession hit and these fashionistas realised they could make money by opening up their closets and selling the designer clothes they no longer wanted, or needed, to the general public.
 
Nathalie Crosz went on to launch Viensdansmondressing (Come into my closet), a fashion and music event. Held 4 times a year in hip rented venues in Paris, some 1,500 people flood through over the course of a weekend.

They can choose between new clothes from previous collections and vintage designer clothes, all for a fraction of their original price.

Crosz explains that in the beginning it was 80 per cent young fashion designers and 20 per cent fashionistas selling their own designer clothes. Since the recession hit, the ratio is more or less the opposite.

“I now get more demand from women wanting to sell their own clothes,” admits Crosz. The female clients who flock to the event are increasingly asking for that too.

She believes events like Viensdansmondressing represent a new shopping attitude - cheaper than department stores, more interactive than online shopping.

The Viensdansmondressing event
(Photo: Paul Heng)

“Women are bored with sites like eBay,” she says, “You can’t be sure of the quality and the auction system means you can end up spending far more than the article is really worth.”

Second-hand shops also have their limits: owners take a hefty 50 per cent commission, whether the clothes smell of mothballs or not.

Crosz says her clients are looking for something more personal and interactive than alternative internet solutions - such as online sites or blogs. Not only can people try the clothes on at events like Viensdansmondressing, it’s an altogether more sociable event.

“Girls come with their mothers, there’s music. We also offer advice and we'll direct people to stands where they might find something that fits their style.”

But not all fashionistas are exploring such alternative methods of shopping. Sandra Stuhlen who runs an online store selling vintage dresses says that whatever their budget, women are choosing to spend less on a dress.

“Women are increasingly aware they’re being sold the same things at high prices made abroad by people paid peanuts. They’re no longer willing to pay full price.”

These recessionary times are therefore helping to change attitudes to the notion of what fashion is. Spending, or at least to be seen to be spending huge amounts, is becoming vulgar.

On recent Paris catwalks, the designer logos were more discrete, less bling-bling. An attitude that seems to have developed from the street.

Stuhlen feels that buying vintage or second-hand is also in tune with the times, “all this talk of saving the planet is making women more aware of recycling, avoiding waste”.

However for her many customers in Belgium and Switzerland, as well as France, there’s no question of buying a 1930's wedding dress if the seams are creaking and the zip sticks.

Whatever their epoque, Stuhlen’s dresses have to be in perfect condition.

She also provides the true measurements, not sizes. Vital when you’re buying a 1950’s wasp-waisted dress.

Like it or not, girls, we’ve got bigger...as well as wiser!