'Archive' / The most abused word in fashion

Exploring the blurred lines between vintage and archive in fashion, from the streets to academia, uncovering the allure of rare pieces and the obsession with fashion history. Welcome to the world of archival fashion, where exclusivity meets cultural significance with Amelie Stanescu. She talks about clothes because she can’t make them. She sees Margiela references everywhere she looks. Eats and breathes between Berlin and Paris. Hates online and offline shopping. She’s been on the internet for too many years. Her job is selling the fashion dream while trying not to buy it herself.

Lift store – Plein sud pre ss 2014 leather hooded jacket

Let’s dive in. Nowadays, archive is the most abused word in fashion. Well, there’s also ‘vogue’ and ‘iconic’ but if you’re into secondhand fashion as I am, you’ve been consuming ‘archive’ more and more, it’s just sexier than ‘vintage’: spending time and energy in researching and buying archival, makes me feel like a real fashion mf. I started to wonder why and what am I really paying for, what’s the real definition of archive and vintage fashion and how are they different, if they are. So I asked my sources.

My instagram community: the answers were similar to the one from chatgpt but I still managed to collect two new important pieces to add to my ‘vintage vs. archive’ puzzle. According to my archivists (the core community of my broadcast channel ‘the fashion archives’) archive is rare and vintage it’s not; in addition, they say that vintage is at least 20+ years old, meanwhile archive is basically any piece of clothing from a designer’s past work.

chatgpt: to the question ‘what is the real meaning of archival clothing’, the robots gave a thorough definition – archive fashion means vintage, a fancier label for ‘old’. The industry standard uses the label ‘vintage’ for clothes that are twenty years old at least. ‘Archive’ is a specific type of old clothing though: it’s a label used for statement pieces that reflect the era they represent but they still have an influence on today’s fashion – a clean definition but kinda generic.

“This column will be exploring different aspects of archival fashion, from the anti-fashion & avant-garde designs that defined the 90s scene, mostly in the shape of Rick Owens, Ann D and underground or upcoming designers very few have heard of. I’ll also be diving into stuff about the industry, some career things and whatever else I’ll be getting inspired by along the way.”

Vintage

The industry insiders: I talked to two extremes of the fashion archive world, one comes from the streets, the other one comes from academia. The first one is an archivist of Helmut Lang who turned his obsession into a full time job: Michael Kardamakis aka endyma archive is the owner of what today is considered to be the biggest Helmut Lang archive in the world, made of over 3000 highly curated pieces. His whole business is based mostly on renting out archive pieces to designers (from fashion students to established creative directors like Daniel Lee in his Bottega Veneta era) so they can study the techniques and fabrics put in place by Helmut Lang in his creations. He even worked with the house’s team in the past, in particular on their re-edition collection. The second one is Valentina Cognini, a fashion archivist (as in part of my online community but also as in this is her real job) who has worked in different archives; at the moment she’s at the one of Roger Vivier in Paris. Part of her work as a fashion conservator is the organisation, identification, and digitisation of different materials, such as photos, press clippings, sketches, technical drawings, fabric samples, supplier lists. “Conserving the past is crucial for the future of fashion”, she says.

“Conserving the past is crucial for the future of fashion”

jacket and boots in dripped rubber by Carol Christian Poell

According to Michael, an archive piece has this connotation of collectability and research, it’s not any old clothing but it’s more an art piece rather than a garment. He doesn’t like to use this word because it’s just very trendy and buzzy nowadays. ‘People are labelling pieces as archive that is not really archive’, he says. Nonetheless he also noticed that new generations of fashionistas are becoming more and more interested in learning about fashion history and investing in
pieces that mean something – they’re not shopping anymore to feel stylish but to feel part of the community of the designer they are wearing.

According to Valentina, vintage is seen adaptable to contemporary trends, while pieces in a fashion archive undergo a process of ‘musealization’, transforming them into objects with the status of exhibition artefacts. A fashion archive is not only made of clothes but also tons of other objects such as designer notes, photo and video material, to help, whoever consults it, through their fashion journey (that’s exactly the definition that inspired the name of my column, my podcast and my broadcast). An archivist is also someone obsessed with the anti fashion movement, desperately trying to source hidden gems from the 90s, specifically the ones designed by the Belgians —Martin Margiela, Antwerp 6, Raf Simons — the Londoners — Galliano, Vivienne Westwood, Mcqueen — the Japanese — Comme, Yohji Yamamoto — and the (adopted) Newyorker Helmut
Lang.

An archivist’s lifelong enemy is the hypebeast: this one is the one who is saving on the calendar that special sneaker collab-of-the-year drop, to be able to be the first to buy limited edition collections and set the trend. On the other hand, the archivist sets the trend by embracing the waiting game and buying unique old things. Like all enemies, they’re more similar than they think they are. Even if they are shopping different things, they both have the goal of being trendsetters using the same currency: exclusivity.

An archivist has at least once searched, studied, looked for the following pieces:

/ Helmut Lang’s bullet proof vest is the first one to mention. This piece has marked the industry for its innovation, it’s a piece that marks the era of fashion being combined with the practicality of workwear. It’s not only a symbol of Lang’s minimalist and sleek design but it also reflects the cultural and political concerns about safety and security rising in the 90s. This design helped open the way for fashion designers to incorporate utilitarian and protective elements into their designs. Also, it was not mass produced so its limited availability increased its desirability. The bullet proof vest is not only a 20yrs old vintage piece but is also an archive one, for its innovation, design excellence, cultural relevance and, most of all, because it continues to influence fashion today.

/ the riot bomber designed by Raf Simons for his AW2001 collection, because it is considered a real symbol of rebellion: a clear example of how certain pieces
transcend the realm of mere clothing and become a cultural artifact that some fashion mf ends up buying for 47.000€ breaking the selling records on Grailed
(probably the fact that Kanye, Drake and Riri were seen wearing it gave a little push to its resell value)

/ the seditionaries T-shirt designed by Vivienne Westwood in the 70s: it’s a symbol of the punk rock scene of the time, it challenged the norms of society and was a form of protest in fashion: its design includes the anarchy stamp and the iconic image of Queen Elizabeth II with a safety pin through her lip. It’s also giving diy, a vibe that was fundamental to the punk aesthetics because it embraces individuality.

If, at least once, you felt like I was describing you, you’ve come to the right place: this column will be exploring different aspects of archival fashion, from the anti fashion + avant-garde designs that defined the 90s scene to stuff that’s more contemporary, mostly in the shape of Rick Owens, Ann D and underground upcoming designers very few have heard of. I’ll also be diving into stuff about the industry, some career things and whatever else I’ll be getting inspired by along the way.