Crammed with coats, packed with purses, and stocked with shoes, the Shaw Centre hosted an event on Nov. 8 where modern fashion met vintage style.
The Ottawa Vintage Clothing Show is Canada’s largest sale of vintage attire, toting everything from high-end formal attire to streetwear.
Hosting over 60 independent vintage vendors from around the country, each shop was unique in its style and products.
“We have vintage vendors who travel from Toronto, Hamilton, and beyond,” Catherine Knoll, an organizer of the show, explained. “They would not keep doing this if the people in Ottawa didn’t support the show.”
The show also drew in the Fashion History Museum from Cambridge. It was a one-time sale, as they sold some of their excess inventory (there are nearly 10,000 garments in the regular museum collection).
“Ottawa is rabid for vintage clothing,” Knoll said. “I think the show is successful because . . . the public comes, seizes on a rare opportunity to grab some great vintage.”
The public was lined up and ready to purchase tickets before the doors opened at 10 a.m.
“Inside, it was like being a baby lamb looking out on a pride of lionesses that had not eaten in a week,” Knoll said. “The adrenaline was pumping.”
“We come every year,” said Julia Warnock, of Livney’s, a vendor at the show.
“Livney’s is actually from Ottawa on Wellington Street,” she said, as her younger daughter handed out business cards. “She is my little helper today . . . even picked some of the clothes for the mannequins.”
Another vendor pair was adamant to display some of their rare coats from Retrouvez.Biz. Wendy Bray, the owner, said the Ottawa show “combines our passion of vintage clothing with our collection of various retro, vintage, and mid-century modern items.”
Originally from Toronto, Retrouvez.Biz’s collection consisted of many different pieces from a variety of time periods.
One shopper, Brittney Davies, described herself as “born in the ‘30s, but really I am only 23.”
Dressed in a red blouse and calf-length beige skirt, she said she was “just looking for another outfit for another day.”
“I wouldn’t call my style vintage . . . they’re just clothes,” she said. “Gorgeously feminine, and ‘me clothes.’ ”
The vendors themselves are prospective purchasers as well. Each was in search of the “the right shoe that fits,” Bray said.
“We all love unique. We all love cool. We all love authentic,” Knoll said when asked why vintage has made it back into modern style.
“Add a vintage piece to your regular wardrobe to make it pop,” she said. “The juxtaposition is awesome, it’s kind of like having one great antique pine harvest table in your modern stainless steel kitchen.”
“I think when people see the word ‘vintage’ they just think it’s a bunch of small-sized, boring black stuff that granny used to wear,” Knoll said. “It’s not. It’s vibrant and colourful and fabulous and affordable.”
