308 SEPTEMBER 2019 VOGUE.COM
Why is it that so many women who can, frankly, buy
whatever they want suddenly seem desperate to don
a ’90s Tom Ford le smoking, or fritter away an evening in a 2010
McQueen Atlantis frock, or cram their closets with other iconic
vintage pieces from the recent past? Maybe it’s simply exhaustion
with the mountains of product flooding the stores, season after
season. Or maybe it’s a longing for simpler days, a fusion of
nostalgia with a real recognition that once upon a time—even
20 years ago—clothing felt like it was built to last. Maybe it’s a
vital commitment to sustainability, a recognition that because
we all have so much—too much!—we are thinking long and hard
about what we value and why. Maybe it’s a reflection of the larger
political climate—a longing for individuality, a desire for diversity
not just in our social worlds but also in our wardrobes.
FASHION Whatever the reason—and it’s probably all of the above—
any number of important fashion houses are responding. Prada
has announced the Re-Nylon collection, a range of six bags—
including their legendary backpack. (Who doesn’t have one, or
four, of these in her closet? Who doesn’t suddenly crave a fresh
one?) This time around, though, the nylon is reclaimed from
ocean plastics, fishing nets, and textile-fiber waste, with an aim
to use nothing but recycled nylon by 2021.
Marc Jacobs recently got into the game as well, reproducing
his epic “grunge” collection—so controversial back in 1992,
so beloved now—for a generation that grew up mixing Doc
Martens with chiffon frocks. And no less an eminence than
Donatella Versace shocked and delighted the audience at
her spring 2018 show by reprising the house’s
Hit the Repeat
As vintage once again enjoys a resurgence—hello, McQueen,
Balenciaga, and Tom Ford–era Gucci! —the fashion world has
also started looking for the future in its past.
VERSACE
IN FALL 2018,
DONATELLA VERSACE
BUILT ON HER
BROTHER GIANNI’S
HERITAGE, SOMETHING
SHE’D STARTED A
SEASON EARLIER.
FASHION>310
TOM FORD FOR GUCCI
THE CALLING CARD OF TOM FORD’S
GUCCI WAS UNABASHED SEX APPEAL.
SHALOM HARLOW PROVES AS
MUCH IN A SNAKESKIN-PRINTED
HALTER DRESS FROM SPRING 2000.
PHOEBE
PHILO FOR
CÉLINE
OVER HER TEN YEARS
AT CÉLINE’S HELM,
PHILO ESTABLISHED
A FAN BASE THAT STILL
SEEKS OUT HER
THOUGHTFUL PIECES.
McQUEEN
SASHA PIVOVAROVA
SPORTS A SATIN
OPERA COAT FROM
ALEXANDER
McQUEEN’S
MAGISTERIAL FALL
2008 COLLECTION.
VLIFE
GUCCI: STEVEN MEISEL.
VOGUE,
2000. CÉLINE: ANNIE
LEIBOVITZ.
VOGUE,
2009. MCQUEEN: DAVID SIMS.
VOGUE,
2010. VERSACE: JACKIE NICKERSON.
VOGUE,
2018.
