Loading ...Erin Easterbrook
Vintage clothing has been doing very well in this economy
The 25th annual Ottawa Vintage Sale was a day of “full-body contact shopping.”
That’s how Jill Guertin describes the event which took place Nov. 15 in the Chateau Laurier Hotel.
Although numbers have yet to be confirmed, many vintage vendors say they thought the sale seemed busier than last year.
“This business is crazy. You can’t count on anything. So you don’t really know why there are more people for sure,” says Guertin, who co-owns Breakaway Antiques in Brighton, Ont. She has been bringing her clothing and jewelry to the sale for six years.
Better advertising could be one of the reasons for the sale’s increase in popularity, Guertin says.
“My second reason would be that perhaps it’s the economy, where people think that buying vintage clothing is not as expensive as maybe going into a regular store.”
The recession may be coming to an end, but many of the Ottawa vintage sale vendors say shoppers were still looking for a bargain.
Coats were among some of the most popular items bought at the sale, says Penelope Whitmore, co-founder and organizer of the vintage clothing sale.
With winter on the way, people were looking for quality coats at bargain prices, she says.
Although some people were shopping at the vintage sale for financial reasons, money isn’t the only reason people buy vintage clothes, she adds.
“There’s a very healthy market here for vintage and that’s a good thing,” says Ian Drummond, a two-time participant in the Ottawa vintage sale.
Kendra Simmons, owner of Chatwood & Simmons in Port Hope, Ont., says she, too, has noticed the Ottawa vintage scene is picking up again. But she has a different theory for its increased popularity.
“More people are money-conscious and they’re also more environmentally-conscious.”
With the surge in popularity, it’s getting harder to find real vintage — a flexible term that is most commonly referred to as quality items from before 1980.
“There isn’t much out there,” Simmons says. “Most of it has gone to landfill sites or it’s already been picked up.”
Simmons said people are more commonly coming across ‘80s clothing, is too recent to be called vintage, she says.
She also says there are fewer vintage stores in Ottawa than there used to be.
With fewer vintage shops in Ottawa, some people wait all year for the Ottawa vintage sale, says Dee Staigh, owner of Satin Doll.
“There’s virtually nothing here compared to Montreal and Toronto,” she says, adding that she hopes the vintage scene will catch up to those cities in the next five years.
Staigh specializes in restoring hats from 1860 to 1960, which she sells for $20 to $300.
Most of her clients are aged 20 to 40, and many of her customers are women who want to make a fashion statement.
“Younger women are starting to enjoy mixing the vintage and the contemporary clothing,” she says. “They now, more than ever, want their own look. They want to personalize their look.”
Events like the Ottawa vintage sale can offer a variety of unique clothing to those people, Whitmore says.
“You can’t go in and expect it’s a Bay situation where you see various sizes in the same outfit, or the same colour — there’s only one. If it fits, hopefully you buy it.”
Loading ...