From Red Carpet to Museums: The Rise of Vintage Fashion Among Celebrities

It’s difficult to pinpoint exactly when the old became the new—well, new. However, as more celebrities prefer to wear vintage, the iconic red carpet has begun to resemble a museum hallway.

Miley Cyrus, Laverne Cox, and Olivia Rodrigo wore vintage Bob Mackie, Comme des Garcons, and Versace to the Grammys in February. “Big stars in old clothes was the trend of the night,” observed Vanessa Friedman, a fashion writer for the New York Times. The March Oscars event featured an abundance of second-hand clothing. At the Vanity Fair after party, Cardi B donned a black embroidered lace Versace gown from Spring-Summer 2003, while Margot Robbie and Jennifer Lawrence chose Mugler and Givenchy from 1996.

Cardi B wore Mugler’s 1996 “Venus” shell dress at the 2019 Grammys, while Kim Kardashian wore Marilyn Monroe’s “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” gown at the Met in 2022.

Emily Ratajkowski wore a 2001 haute couture Versace nude dress to the Met Gala’s “The Garden of Time” themed carpet. Partway through the evening, Zendaya changed into a black taffeta Givenchy gown from the year she was born. But Kendall Jenner made the biggest statement of the night, becoming the first person to wear her vintage 1999 Givenchy outfit in public, according to the brand.

Red Carpet: The Future Of Fashion’

In actuality, A-listers have been delving into fashion businesses’ archives for more than 20 years. Renée Zellweger wore a canary yellow 1950s Jean Dessès gown at the 2001 Oscars ceremony. Julia Roberts, who was about to accept her Academy Award for “Erin Brockovich,” wore a black velvet Valentino dress with white piping from 1992. Even industry insiders believe the current demand for archival styles signals a shift in the fashion ecology.

Erin Walsh, celebrity stylist to clients like Anne Hathaway, Selena Gomez, and Sarah Jessica Parker, remarked, “At the (2024) Oscars, I think we probably saw more people wear archival vintage than ever before.” “It became the future.”

One label in particular has led the archive movement. Mugler is the elite French design label who dressed Zendaya in a full metal robot outfit weighing 30 kilograms back in 1995. The look, created for the London premiere of “Dune: Part Two,” went beyond fashion, generating headlines throughout the internet. The experiment, planned over a year, resulted in a $152 million media effect for the company, according to WWD.

That was the fundamental question,” stated Marion Bourdée, Mugler’s head of archives. Anything more than a little expansion of the legs was off the table; it would either work or not. “It hadn’t been worn in years, and Zendaya’s dimensions differed significantly from the original model. But after the initial fitting, we were all quite moved since it fit like a glove.

Inside The Archive

Before being resurrected, the look spent years in Mugler’s archives, a secret location in the heart of France that stores over 6,000 valuable pieces. “It’s very hidden, you wouldn’t imagine from the outside that it’s there,” stated Bourdée. “Nobody has access to that location. “Just Adrian and I.” The suit was stored in a special box, with the inside molded to the shape of each segment, similar to a pistol case. “It floats there basically, in this coffin box,” Corsin explained.

Although famous clients are showing an increasing interest in antique fashion, not everyone is physically capable of handling these pieces. In a video chat, Julie Ann Clauss, owner of The Wardrobe, a private LA-based storage service for companies and people, addressed a common misconception about what a fashion archivist is. “A lot of people use the term very broadly.” I have a museum studies degree, as do all professional archivists.

Clauss, who also works as an archivist for Tom Ford, stated that in order to qualify for her position, she had to complete college-level chemistry and learn a second language. “You need to understand what may happen if fabrics or glass beads are maintained poorly. There are numerous things that occur as a natural result of chemical reactions between the piece and the environment, or the way it is handled.”

Archival storage facilities, such as the one that housed the 1995 Mugler robot suit, are more than just large closets packed with racks of garments. Clauss’ museum-standard facility in Los Angeles preserves collections for a diverse spectrum of customers, including Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, and Carolina Herrera, as well as musicians and actresses. “It’s very clean, usually very white,” she stated. “Dust attracts pests.” Moths consume protein, not clothing, which is why they target your sweater. It’s the pieces of your hair, proteinaceous things.”

Everything, from the temperature to the humidity, is meticulously managed to prevent degradation. Even the light needs to be filtered. “We don’t need to have the lights on,” Clauss explained. “Otherwise you’ll get what’s known as light fugitive… where exposure causes fibers to weaken and eventually shatter and rip.”

Fashion’s Rat Race

But, if these one-of-a-kind artifacts are so fragile, and the conservation procedure is so precise, how can celebrities get their hands on them?

“I don’t loan out,” Clauss stated. “However, I frequently receive calls from stylists who believe I do. It’s up to my individual clients. I redirect (the request) to the brand’s press team who will make the decision.”

Who gets to borrow directly from brands is frequently a hierarchical issue. “Requests have increased significantly,” Bourdée stated back at Mugler. “Since Cardi, and especially after Kylie. However, we want archival loans to continue to be special. Jenner, who has been loaned three vintage ensembles by the company, dispatched a crew to snoop around the Brooklyn Museum’s 2022 show “Thierry Mugler: Couturissime” before it even opened to choose her costume selections for the night.

“We allowed her stylists to come to the museum while we were still installing the looks on the mannequins, and they chose pieces that they would want to try on Kylie,” Bourdée explained.

However, not everyone finds this level of accessibility impressive. When Kim Kardashian borrowed Marilyn Monroe’s 1962 gown from Ripley’s Believe It Or Not! In 2022, many social media users claimed it was destroyed, citing photographs of lost crystals and loose threads. (Ripley’s later clarified that the garment was not damaged and was received in its original condition after winning an auction in 2016.)

In the interest of preservation, the International Council of Museums stated that historic objects “should not be worn by anybody, public or private figures.” However, Mugler believes that the risk is worthwhile. “If it’s always stuffed away in boxes, people won’t get to enjoy it,” Corsin remarked. “Even at exhibitions,

Erin Walsh adds that there are additional solutions available for folks who are unable to examine museum-quality archives at leisure. “People make it sound so mysterious to get great vintage,” she stated. “Vintage is quite accessible. Since I began my profession 15 years ago, I have used stores such as Shrimpton Couture, New York Vintage, and Decades.

And, while it’s easy to believe that the recent surge in vintage was just due to a revitalized respect for fashion history, Walsh believes there is a more practical reason why the demand for older items has surged. “There weren’t enough samples (of current designer pieces),” she stated. “It seems like everybody’s in a rat race to finish something very quickly, or there’s not enough that can be made.”

Between awards season and fashion week preparations, Walsh says designers are struggling to keep up with the industry’s rising speed. “The necessity to retrieve archive pieces simply reflects what is happening in the fashion business. There are too many events for people to attend. I don’t think anyone can keep up with what’s going on right now. We have to choose a different solution because there is no other way to meet demand.

The Hollywood Reporter said that fashion showrooms were “wiped clean” in January due to a backlog of press tours, premieres, and events generated by the SAG-AFTRA strike in the previous October. “No one was doing anything, and then all the awards appeared at the same moment. Anyone who was on the award circuit or worked in fashion didn’t have a single weekend off in three months,” Walsh stated.

Whether it was developed out of necessity or not, the cultural recognition that an exclusive archival pull can provide is significant – for both the brand and the wearer. Kendall Jenner’s vintage Givenchy gown at the Met Gala sparked widespread attention online.

“It’s such a special moment,” she told Vogue that night. “I feel extremely honored that they’re allowing me to wear it.” And the more valuable the garment, the more distinguished the suit. Is there anything Mugler would never loan, even to Zendaya or the Jenners? “Never say never,” Corsin stated.”

Even the Chimera, one of the most desired pieces in fashion history of the twentieth century. Everybody in vintage fashions looks awesome. It has created a history: from red carpet to museum.