A 100-acre property in rural Ontario is an unlikely place to find racks of precious, pristine vintage dresses. But "a big old house" in Rockwood, near Toronto, is where vintage clothing enthusiast and dealer Cherie Federau photographs, tweets, blogs and generally enthuses about bygone garments for her online vintage boutique Shrimpton Couture ( shrimptoncouture.com).The shop has garnered a major following among vintage hounds by having an excellent eye for pristine but totally wearable original vintage pieces (Rebecca Romjin is a client), as modern looking now as in their heyday. To these Federau adds independent designer labels like RSVP, Glamourai and re: couture who rework and upcycle antique finds, textiles and garments. HOW I WEAR IT
I love Tamara Mellon or Rachel Zoe's take on vintage. I always have something vintage on, one statement item. That's what I'm always looking for -- that "wow" piece. For day, I wear a lot of anonymous pieces and at night I either like a flowy goddess Ossie Clark or the really fitted 1940s wiggle dress.
VINTAGE PHILOSOPHY
Personally, I am still having a bit of trouble saying the '80s is vintage! Technically, I think the definition is anything over 25 years so I guess it is. But I deal in vintage from the 1930s to the 1970s, and the occasional "future vintage" piece.
IT'S BETTER VALUE
The workmanship and fabrics blow away anything current. I always say good vintage is like shopping on the second floor of Holt's -- at a quarter of the price. It's the construction. Most vintage pieces before 1960 were either handmade and tailored for one woman or mass-produced (in those days not millions but thousands) and usually finished by hand.
FAVOURITE UNDERRATED LABEL
Suzy Perette was one of the first "mass-produced" American labels. There wasn't actually a Suzy; they were basically a knock-off company so their designs were the Paris designs of the times -- they'd buy the rights and reproduce them on a wider scale. A good Suzy Perette piece is the equivalent of buying couture now. They're so underrated. And their sister label Gigi Young, manufactured by the same company, is another below-the-radar label.
REWORKED VINTAGE IS NOT SACRILEGIOUS
I hand-select all of my independent designers. They love vintage as much as I do and have a very healthy respect for it so they would never alter a piece that was restorable unless it was very damaged, like the fabric of a dress that's falling apart. In fact, some of their pieces are more of a restoration than a full-out alter.
FALL TREND THAT TRANSLATES TO VINTAGE
There's a lot of that embellished homespun and DIY look, which translates well with my designer lines RSVP and re:couture. Every year fall fashion goes back a little more into that fitted silhouette and things seem to be getting very simple and sleek again -- with one really fabulous detail. A lot of vintage has that same philosophy -- clothes were made to last, with a great cut.
ON MY WISH LIST
I'm a little addicted to Halston. And I love Ossie Clarke. And Thea Porter ...