It probably started when people began to call second-hand clothes 'vintage'. It seeped into popular parlance, cast a shimmering fashionable gloss on the tattiest old moth-balled stuff, and suddenly everything a year or two old qualified for the tag. Cue a combination of violent annoyance and amusement from Shopping Bag as she observed shops who like to think of themselves as representing urban cool trying to sell 'vintage' for as much as new.
On the flip-side, the fondness for second-hand has only been good news for charity shops. And while the high street can never do it quite as authentically as the original little shops that charities like Oxfam run, the latter have had to move with the times daddy-o, to keep up with the new generation of customers.
Hence, one superb idea: Oxfam Boutiques. And if you want to get the most exciting stock, be at the opening of their new store tomorrow at 10am on Shawfield Street, west London.
The second of the Oxfam Boutiques to appear (the first flung its doors open to the public earlier this month on Westbourne Grove), its calling card is 'fashion with a heart'. And with Jane Shepherdson, former fashion director at Topshop, as creative consultant on the enterprise, they've come up with an excellent selection.
As well as designer-only vintage labels, there will be Fairtrade clothes from People Tree, hand-made jewellery, bespoke bags fashioned from leather jackets and lined with men's shirts, and - very exciting - 'remade' clothes, by students at the London College of Fashion. Taking clothes that weren't up to scratch to sell, as well as assortments of fabric and so on (Shopping Bag wouldn't dream of attempting to describe such creative processes), the aspiring designers have come up with a collection of pret-a-porter items. Appealing to your inner snob, I urge to you imagine what an investment it would be if you were to buy something from a young designer who 'made it' in a few years!
Oh I know that's not what it's all about of course; the money you spend in the boutiques goes back into charity. And this is rather fine, and how it should be, and perhaps more fun than other ways of donating, although you'd never admit that in a million years.
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