What is vintage?

Here at The Air Ambulance Service, we pride ourselves on being at the cutting edge of what we do - and we apply this to our ever expanding retail department. From our Air Ambulance coffee shop, Landing Pad, to our Air Ambulance couture store in Solihull, we pride ourselves on offering people fantastic quality products at a low price - and all while helping to raise money to save lives. Excitingly for you fashionistas out there, we're now also expanding into vintage. For those not so up with fashion, one of our volunteers has kindly written a blog piece about vintage fashion, enjoy!

Vintage fashion is huge. More and more vintage shops are popping up all over the high street to meet the demands of people wanting clothing that is different from the mainstream but without a hefty price tag.

Vintage is all about reliving the fabulous trends of the past but updating them so they still fit in with contemporary fashion. Some garments may seem ugly to one person but be treasure to someone else – that’s just how fashion is sometimes.

It’s not all about old fashioned clothes. Take florals for example: vintage is full of ditsy little flowers right up to big bold blooms. In any high street shop, almost any season, florals will be the main prints on show. They’re nearly always at the height of fashion so vintage can offer a wide range of floral items as an alternative to the high street.

Vintage also offers a range of classic items such as fur coats. Brand new fur coats can cost loads of money so having the choice of buying the more affordable vintage fur coats is great.

Fashion trends are always being revived too. Moschino’s spring summer 2013 collection was heavily inspired by the 60s: the collection featured simple block designs in striking contrast colours. Original 60s vintage sales will have increased because of the revival of this trend so it’s always worth keeping vintage items from different decades as chances are they’ll be back in fashion again soon.

Think of vintage as having the individual exclusivity of designer clothing but without the substantial price tag – this is probably the main reason why it’s become such a massive industry. People are beginning to break out of the conformity shell and are looking for ways to express their individuality through clothing. Vintage has well and truly stepped up and will hopefully continue to be awesome for a long time to come.
If you have an eye for vintage and an interest in fashion, why not become one of our volunteers? We're always on the look out for people to join our team so get in touch now.