How on-trend is Vintage?

The fashion industry isn’t the only one that goes in ‘cycles’. Interior design trends are just as fluid as haute couture, and fashions in décor come and go almost as quickly as hemlines rise and fall. However, as the saying goes, ‘good style never goes out of fashion’ and over the past few years vintage has established itself not as a fleeting fad or passing trend, but as something with its own, unique style. That is what makes it so endearing and far more resilient to change than other, less established trends.

What is Vintage?
Vintage can be difficult to define, as effectively it’s anything that harks back to an earlier age. Vintage can be taken from the 1950s or the 1850s, depending on your taste. And that is another big plus point in its favour – it’s far more susceptible to personal choice than other, more rigidly defined fashions.

Most commonly, inspiration for vintage designs, especially on the more unusual home accessories, tends to be drawn from the Victorian and Edwardian eras. So you’ll find plenty of super-feminine styles and elegant designs incorporated into everything from furniture and fixings through to trinket boxes and crockery.

Vintage can mean anything from decorating your house with subtle, shabby chic home accessories, or going all out and doing a full Victorian work-up in the bedroom, complete with four-poster bed and wash stand! Vintage home accessories work well in every room in the house, from the bedroom through to the bathroom and even out into the garden. Subtle vintage touches can add an air of homeliness without being too over the top.

There’s an elegance and a sophistication to vintage – it reminds us of an era when the value of something wasn’t purely monetary, but also in how it represented us as a person. Vintage is distinctive and individualistic – there’s nothing ‘run of the mill’ about a vintage look. It can also be personalised to suit the tastes of the individual, reflecting their likes, their dislikes and even their aspirations. The result is a fusion of ideas and designs that, if it were used in any other context, might not work. However, with vintage the whole point is to fuse ideas and design concepts together to create an unique look.

Affordable chic
Another great aspect of vintage is that it is affordable, even if you’re on a tight budget. You can start small, with a few trinkets that can come in at under a fiver! Vintage chic can be ‘developed’ over time, so you’re constantly adding to the overall look. Vintage doesn’t come flat-packed or straight out of a box; there has to be a strong personal involvement with its creation. That’s what makes it so unique, so personal and ultimately, so popular. It’s an opportunity to express oneself without adhering to set style rules and regulations.

And ultimately, isn’t that what ‘style’ is supposed to be – a unique expression of your own individualism? Vintage fits that criteria perfectly, which is why it is not just on-trend at the moment, but will continue to be so for years to come.

About the Author – Kirsten Cross is a freelance blogger with a particular interest in interior design. She contributes regularly to a wide range of lifestyle sites including Clemmente.