With throw-away fashion as it is today and new trends each season, there are many reasons to love vintage.

It’s classic and stylish, never goes away, you make your own style and if you care about the environment then vintage is the answer to cheaply made clothes that wind up on a landfill site.

There are many different types of vintage clothes that attract; you may have a penchant for bags, shoes or dresses.

You may enjoy collecting hats or jackets. Maybe you like collecting custom made pieces that have a particular look that defined an era in terms of fashion, like the 1970s maxi dresses, or the flirty fifties.

Perhaps you collect haute couture. Now that is a very different animal.

Haute couture was made to measure to suit the person’s body measurements, haute is “high” from the French and couture is dressmaking or needlework thus “high fashion.”

Unlike custom made garments then, they were usually made by hand and were painstakingly put together by careful hand sewing and stitching. If an outfit had beads or sequins then they would be hand stitched too, perhaps amounting to thousands of tiny beads that would take hours to complete.

Haute couture started in the 19th century and the list of designers who started out is like a who’s who of famous designers, such as Elsa Shiaparelli, Coco Chanel, Jeanne Lanvin and Paul Poiret.

As you can imagine it’s the high end of vintage fashion and it’s not cheap. If you want a piece of haute couture then prepare to spend.

This is a financial investment of course. If you decide to sell in the future you may be able to get more than you originally paid, so it pays to take care of your covetable piece of haute couture once you get it home.

Most of all however, enjoy your piece, you’ve probably had to search high and low for that perfect gown, properly taken care of, it can go on to give you years of pleasure.

n Join us tonight at the shop from 6pm onwards for cocktails, cupcakes and discounted shopping. Bring a friend too! My Vintage, 2 The Circus, Darwen, BB3 1BT. Call 01254 774701 if you need more details – see you there!