OLD LOVE

There was once a time when vintage stores – with a charmingly disorderly treasure-trove feel and a hint of musty cloakroom – and the gleaming beacons of luxury that are high-fashion boutiques, were worlds apart. Thumbing through a jumble of nubbly homespun cardigans and plucking a solitary featherweight heel from a Rem Koolhaasdesigned shelf to try on were incomparable. The person who went to one didn’t seem to have a place in the other.

But a seismic rethink has happened. What was once the preserve of thrifty bowerbirds, vintage’s presence is being keenly felt in the upper realms of luxury fashion and it goes beyond the stuffed chesterfields and