:: A Fashion Term I Would Like To Explain

I am neither a fashion master nor a magazine editor. Not a foreigner and definitely not an English expert. But the fact that most of Indonesian people use this word in incorrect way, I think I have to do something about it. It might be not correct, but at least by defining it in my blog, it’ll shooth my soul. Hihi...

So…it is about vintage. Yuppp…it is a very familiar sound kind of word, especially for fashionista. Either in Australia or Jakarta, vintage seems very popular. But what annoys me is the fact that the definition of vintage in both countries is very different.

On one occasion, I went to a garage sale in South Jakarta area with some of my friends. It was quite fascinating, cuz’so many Aussie brands they got but at the end, I went home shopping-bag-less . If there was such a word…. In the garage sale, I found they sold both brand new and second hand clothing in a very reasonable price. Don't even dare to see the second hand ones, because they were really awful. The zips were not longer fixed, some buttons were missing and the worse was some holes I found in some garments. My thought was like, "It's not even close with what I called Vintage!"

Then this friend of mine suddenly screamed at what she found, "Look at this! A vintage skirt. Heaven, it's really beutiful, isn't it?" Then I came to her and have a look at the skirt. "It is beuatiful", I said. "How much is it?" Then we tried to look for the price tag and surprised when I found that the 'real price tag' was still there. "It's not a vintage", I thought. "It's brand new, for god's sake!" And again, this vintage thing was repeated once again. When my friend told me that she bought a "new vintage skirt". I was like...."mmm...okay".

What I had concluded about vintage in Indonesian term, finally, is a kind of clothing or skirts that do look peasant, rumpled, flowery, soft colours, with ribbon or lace. Very distinct with what I have understood for a long time, that if you talked about vintage clothing, it must be second hand ones with a good quality. Usually found in a second hand shop or Salavation Army kinda stores. Sometimes in Melbourne we could find some stores dedicated for real vintage stuffs, and they sell things in high quality ones without obvious damage unless signs of wearing.

According to Miriam Webster Online Dictionary, vintage is always related to age. Vintage means length of existence, which must be related with old made or antiques. And vintage is not always for clothing. We also say vintage for old manufactured things such as old piano, antique book shelves, 1950s Gucci collections or even your grandma's old tea cups! And I think Vintage is not always expensive, even I suspect we can get it cheaper if you could find a real vintage in a right store.

What's suck is that most sellers are not actually selling a real vintage. They put vintage label on whatever they want to sell. Sometimes I found fake ones, which do look like vintage but not one. To buy a good quality vintage needs your very own self experience. And the luckiest person is she or he who could find a real vintage in a bargain price for a very precious old made stuff. Can you imagine how much the price of historical arts would be? Fortune, I think.

Well..well..well...what I've explained here might be not correct. Let's just have you to judge it :)