Look to vintage for a refreshing take on classic monochrome looks with an old-world elegance, writes DEIRDRE McQUILLAN.
FORMER MODEL Jocelyn Grant, who styled this shoot, which was photographed on Killiney beach in December, makes occasional raids on her mother Millie’s wardrobe for inspiration. For this, the idea was to create a new take on old-world elegance, using monochrome vintage pieces. Vintage originally meant high-quality, as in a good year for a grape harvest or a classic car, but fashion has now hijacked the term indiscriminately to describe not only clothes of another era, but, more controversially, recent decades such as the 1970s and 1980s.
It was a white lace skirt from the 1980s, belonging to Millie (who was also a model), that gave Grant the notion of using the image of a girl at sea – in every sense – dressed in black and white. The white skirt was dyed grey, worn with a white vest and a long black lace knit, and various other outfits followed their wake on the same theme.
For her, vintage means an item that has a past but retains a modern sensibility and application. “I was never a fan of vintage until I went to New York last November with a friend for a vintage fair,” she says. “My eyes were opened – the stuff was so inspiring.” For the shoot, she sought out old pieces to make them “look interesting”, such as black lace skirts with cobweb knit coats, worn with short-sleeved tops – a sort of undone Victorian look.
It’s a style that’s easy to copy, she says. Just take a black lace skirt, pair it with something modern such as a short-sleeved polo neck in black or white, drape a long scarf over the shoulders, anchor it at the waist with a belt, adding chunky boots to give the whole appearance a harder edge. Ruched gauntlet gloves do the rest. The key final item is a blazer or a tuxedo, buttoned and trimmed with a thin belt to exaggerate the silhouette. The effect is theatrical and moody, dark yet feminine, dangly earrings imparting a bit of gypsy joie de vivre.
JOCELYN GRANT'S RECOMMENDED WEBSITES FOR SOURCING VINTAGE CLOTHING:
www.ebay.com(good for vintage clothing and jewellery, especially the US sellers).
www.clothes-junkie.com(specialises in vintage Biba).
www.antiquefairsireland.com(lists upcoming Irish events where vintage clothing can be found for good prices, if you are willing to root around).
www.vintagecityclothing.com/topsites(lists the top 100 vintage clothing sites on the web, according to themselves).