OLD FASHIONS Vintage clothing means high style at lower prices

Savvy women covet dated but unique, unusual items
WASHINGTON POST
Flaunting the banner "vintage," secondhand clothes and accessories are being gobbled up at antique shows, upscale boutiques, resale shops and not surprisingly, eBay and other Web sites, by sophisticated, chic and savvy women of all ages and sizes. Tired of seeing their party dress on someone else's back, they covet the unique, unusual and one-of-a-kind, despite its second incarnation and often, not at bargain basement prices.
"It's really outrageous, and the most unbelievable scarf I own," says Elle Ronis of the $300 hand-woven item that once belonged to controversial Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. The 50-year-old Stamford, Conn., woman discovered the 12-foot, multicolored find a couple of years ago at a Manhattan antiques show and wears it "when I really want to feel powerful," she says.
"The scarf looks like her," adds Ronis. "If you see the movie ('Frida,' the 2002 biographical film about Kahlo), it's really her."
Ronis, whose husband, Michael, owns several Manhattan eateries including the landmark Carmine's, loves to visit his restaurants dressed in vintage. Her large collection includes evening clothes, hats, gloves, scarves and parasols, ranging in price from a $30 accessory to a $3,000 opera coat. "I'm a New Yorker," she says. "It gives me the license to be a little exotic."
While the part-time Manhattanite can find any number of city shops specializing in vintage, for her, nirvana resides at Sophia's Great Dames in Greenwich, Conn. The charming antiques, costume and vintage boutique oozes with treasures from antique Chinese silk shawls, '60s black beaded evening dresses and estate and costume jewelry to authentic Pucci classics and rare furs. Many of the items are consigned. The seller pockets two-thirds of the selling price; shop owner Sophia Scarpelli gets the rest. Vintage clothes and accessories, which date from the 1860s through the 1970s, must be clean and in good condition.
Money is no object
"You won't believe the people who buy vintage -- multimillionaires, famous people, people who could well afford to go into Saks and pay $800 for a little top," says the bubbly Scarpelli.
"The old stuff is just amazing. Back then, the quality came with the product," she says, showing as an example a '60s black beaded sweater in mint condition, priced at $65. "Not one bead missing after all those years," she says.
New beading, she explains, is done on a chain stitch. "It's cheaper to do it that way, even though you might pay a high price for it." But get it caught on your friend's piece of furniture, says Scarpelli, and the whole row of beads is gone.
We move on to a '40s silk dress embellished with beaded flowers and leaves, all sewn by hand. "Look at the work on that," she says. "This one is $195. Forget it, today it would be in the thousands."
Greenwich resident Jennifer Goodkind, 41, started buying vintage togs in the late '80s. Says the former assistant editor at Vogue, who also worked for designer Adrienne Vittadini in New York, "I felt that by buying vintage, it gave me the ability to put my own personal stamp" on clothing. Especially, she adds, on evening attire, where typically, "there's a prescribed uniform of dress."
Among Goodkind's acquisitions are a couple of original Pucci dresses whose belts are ornamented with Austrian crystal. The circa late '60s dresses cost her $450 each, she says, noting that lesser Pucci items, such as tops, currently go for about $800.
Name dropper
"Both dresses were purchased in Italy from the original Pucci ... that to me is just so cool," Goodkind says. "Those two dresses have significance beyond just a mundane purchase. They came right from the House of Pucci in Florence."
While some go for Pucci, Jeanne Cavadini, who runs the Internet store leopardladylounge.com, says many of her customers crave vintage Hawaiian shirts and '40s through '60s rayon bowling shirts with names embroidered on the back. "The crazier the name, the better," she says, adding that those with "outrageous" designs and names can go for about $75 on eBay, where she also markets her wares.
As for her personal favorites, Cavadini collects handbags, particularly handmade box purses from the '50s through '70s. While she prefers not going above $65 when buying one for herself, she has seen carved Lucite purses sell for $300-plus on eBay.