Vintage: the revival is set to run and run
The red carpet is so commercialised these days, says William Banks-Blaney. “You often see a celebrity wearing a press sample or a dress that has a big marketing campaign behind it.”
The owner-founder of WilliamVintage, a London vintage emporium frequented by A-listers and their savvy stylists, sells mint-condition couture and prêt-a-porter. His clothes offer credibility with fashion insiders and they telegraph an interest in style that goes beyond the label.
Just look at Kate Upton treading red in an LBD from 1955 by New York designer Ceil Chapman, or Gillian Anderson in 40’s Balmain at last year’s BAFTAs.
“We don’t gift dresses. If a celebrity is wearing WilliamVintage, it’s usually happened very organically because she is already a customer. She comes to us for clothes she wants to wear on a daily basis and asks for suggestions for upcoming events.”
He still gets a buzz every time a WilliamVintage piece tops contemporary designs on a best-dressed list.
Banks-Blaney is a fashion savant with an eye for clothes that stand the test of time. Originally an interior designer, the vintage fashion he unearthed on buying trips sparked such demand from friends that he went into clothing full-time.
The success of pop-up concessions pre-empted his setting up shop in Marylebone in 2011. An e-commerce store opened in 2013, though most stock flies out of the store faster than he can photograph it for online sale.
His new book, 25 Dresses: Iconic Moments in Twentieth Century Fashion, showcases the encyclopaedic knowledge of style that informs his buying choices. He puts his own designer finds in historical context and highlights the modern trends. His writing is entertaining and quite pacy.
The book is certainly very easy to dip into when you want to research a style you are mulling over. Major players like Lanvin get just as much space as oft-overlooked talents like Jean Dessès and Mariano Fortuny.
All are celebrated with biographies that include quotes from their original show reviews and contemporary newspaper profiles. More recent compliments, such as Tom Ford’s praise of Roy Halston, enhance the central thesis that these great couturiers contribute to the current “language of fashion.”
Banks-Blaney draws on his own enviable cache of fashion books and magazines, which includes every issue of British Vogue since January 1947 (mutually affectionate, Vogue writers have called him “The King of Vintage” for four years now). He considers them part of the company archive.
“The first thing I do when I get a piece is date it and then I go back through books and magazines looking for images of it when it was styled for the time. That’s how a lot of the original photography for the book was discovered.”
Sumptuous colour images of debutantes in Dior and style icons like Grace Kelly and Veruschka make the book a gorgeous coffee table accessory. The Givenchy chapter boasts lesser-seen images of Grace, Jackie and Audrey. His examination of Thierry Mugler is a back story to much of Beyoncé’s 2009 I Am... tour wardrobe.
He saves his most glowing descriptions for Cristóbal Balenciaga, whose designs many will recognise as instructive for Givenchy and de la Renta, fewer as the starting point for Gareth Pugh’s mirrored latex warrior garb. “In addition to each dress being a fantastic piece for now, I wanted to expose part of its past so you can see it as it looked at the time, as it looks today and what it went on to inspire.”
Judging the book by its cover, one could be forgiven for thinking it treads well-covered ground but it actually makes a stronger case for the relevance of vintage fashion than much of its genre.
“A big part of [the decision to do the book] was my noticing that books on vintage fashion are polarised between rose-tinted, fun titles that are full of pictures of 60’s go-go girls and 50’s bombshells, on one hand, and very academic museum texts on the other.
“I couldn’t find a book that showed every side of vintage, giving an explanation of how dresses came to life alongside seeing the designer’s legacy.”
His work is neither tutorial nor too focused on the past. You can read about the violent protests against Christian Dior’s “New Look” in 1947 and see modern catwalk versions in the same chapter.
Unsurprisingly, his stock attracts and inspires fashion students and muse-starved designers, including staff from international luxury brands. Museums buy from and sell to WilliamVintage. The store also sources clothes from private donors who’ve been bequeathed couture or had it commissioned.
Banks-Blaney is keen to reassure customers of his clothes’ contemporary relevance.“Lots of women love the idea of vintage but aren’t sure how to execute it and are scared to death of looking like they’re playing dress-up.Part of my ‘buying eye’ is to select pieces that have a great history but that you don’t immediately look at and think ‘oh,
that’s vintage,’ rather ‘oh, that’s a fantastic dress’ and ‘where’s it from?’ ”
All of the titular dresses have been sold, but the author encourages readers to get in touch if a piece or designer is of particular interest. “We always ask people to drop us an e-mail or give us a call, tell us what you’re looking for or what you need because we have hundreds and hundreds of pieces to choose from.”
Most WilliamVintage clients are not famous and all are aged “between 17 and 75”. Banks-Blaney thinks celebrity and private customers share the same motivation for vintage shopping.
“The emotion is the same. They all want to find a dress that speaks to them. The fact that it might be a one-off or have a fantastic history is a bonus. First and foremost the clothes make them feel good about themselves.”
WilliamVintage does not advertise but certainly benefits from its owner’s personal charm and matinée idol good looks. Banks-Blaney hosts annual London Fashion Week dinners and sometimes acts as an elegant red-carpet companion to clients like Gillian Anderson.
His friendships with super-connected stylists like Katie Grand and Rachel Zoe gets the brand name-checked in international fashion titles. A UK Vogue spread last autumn made WilliamVintage dresses look indistinguishable from modern fashions.
Banks-Blaney has a vintage soulmate in Dawn O’ Porter, who wore WilliamVintage at her wedding to Chris O’ Dowd and regularly chooses pieces from the store for red carpet appearances. He is also a firm believer in good old-fashioned retail etiquette, telling O’ Porter in a recent London Evening Standard interview that an encounter with a rude French shop assistant bolstered his resolve to open a store.
The book’s penultimate chapter is dedicated to Alexander McQueen, an especially timely entry given the recent opening of Savage Beauty, a retrospective of the late designer’s work, at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.
“WilliamVintage’s cut-off point is the mid-1970s but we make an exception for Alexander McQueen. I had expected him to be around for another 40 years and for us to be speaking of him then the way we do Saint Laurent. To have lost him so early is a tragedy on so many levels.”
The store has lots of early McQueen pieces including a pair of original “bumster” trousers but the author chose to use one of his first Givenchy couture dresses in the book.
“It marks his transition from an amazing designer and tailor to real couturier.”
As with most WillamVintage stock, the demand for these pieces will only increase.
25 Dresses: Iconic Moments in Twentieth-Century Fashion by William Banks-Blaney, Quadrille, €44.99, is available now.
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