FASHION Every time one of Hollywood's A-list stars wears a vintage gown to an awards ceremony, it makes major celebrity news as if it were some shocking and (sometimes) well-pulled off feat, ike wearing a shirt with no pants, or bringing your pony to the Oscars. The vintage choices of Penelope Cruz and Julia Roberts have been the subject of intense scrutiny, and even, you could say, of wonder. Somehow the journalists, and possibly the public, that follow celebrity outfits like a pack of dogs on a hunt, have not yet connected the dots and figured out that the most beguiling dress- ers are the ones mixing heavy doses of vintage clothes into their wardrabes. Somehow, vintage is stil novel. Wearing vintage first became popular with the style mavens of sixties-era London, when contemporary fashion couldn't keep up with the wild originality of the eccentric Carnaby Street crowd. Since then, i's been an essential part of street style, especially for musicians and artists, and the (much-imitated) stars that love them, like Kate Moss and Chloe Sevigny. What's strange is that vintage is stil treated like some sort of surprising fringe activity, in- credulously talked about like rumored drug use, when everyone is wearing newly manufactured rip-offs of vintage styles, trying to imitate the look and attitude of these more edgy rock and art types. Vintage is definitely a lot more popular today than when fringe kids in London wore the idea into existence, and the audience is expanding thanks in no small part to its now widespread availability online (thank you for my FAB VNTG WINE RED 30s RIDING JACKET *PERFECT, Ebay!). We no longer have to hunt through flea markets for that one amazing piece, although for somebody like me, flea markets are my casinos and there’s no bigger thrill than finding something beautiful, something perfect, something just my size and style, something older than | am, but the internet does make it easy for everyone to get what they want and stil look original. ‘Another facet of wearing vintage is only going to become more important, that being the environmental consumer choice that it represents. It's the perfect choice for those of us who take issue with aspects of the market economy- the vast materials used for production of “throwaway” clothing, the purchase-driven dictates of magazines and fash- jon seasons, the flood of crap available to us instead of items invested with beauty and craftsmanship. Most new items lack the attention to detail that was put into clothes in previous eras, and they tend to massively mimic the ‘major trends of the season without giving us much of a chance to be very expressive in our way of dressing, ‘The throwaway attitude just doesn’t fly anymore, or it soon won't, and as we think more about where our purchases come from and the impact their manufacturing and delivery have on our planet, the low-impact choice of vintage is. an obvious answer. Wearing vintage is one of the easiest ways to recycle, saving clothes from getting dumped and reducing your dependence on newly manufactured items. Designers turn to vintage for inspiration for their new col- lections, but as consumers, we can get the original, be original, and recycle. by Laura Rysman