Many people who buy vintage couture have been doing it for decades. Adam Reja is one of them. He has collected more than 5,000 pieces, from a 1925 Jean Lanvin robe de style dress (a similar piece is in the Costume Institute’s collection) to shoes from John Galliano’s Egyptian collection for Dior that Elise Crombe wore on the runway. He often pays more than $10,000 for rare couture dresses, but he also finds more affordable pieces for under $5,000. “I love couture because it’s unique,” he says. “When you look inside the garment, you see all its magic: the excellent construction, the stitching details and, above all, the hand-finished seams. The garment is closed in a special way, with hooks and snaps, to ensure a perfect fit. Ready-to-wear doesn’t have these special touches. For me, haute couture is a work of art. Some people collect paintings or sculptures, but I collect fashion. Also, my country, Poland, has a post-war history that has meant that haute couture pieces have never been possible.” For many, nothing can replace the magic of wearing an haute couture piece. “Sometimes wearing an haute couture piece is a bit avant-garde by its very nature, to the point that you need a science degree to wear it,” Krasicki adds.
Needless to say, beyond the cost barrier, these garments require special care: Vanyo stores all of his clothes in special temperature-controlled locations and handles even the most delicate garments with care.
Still, at the end of the day, most people buy this fashion as art and as a way to preserve craft. “We know the seamstresses, and there are the same three seamstresses wherever we are in the world,” Meader says. “This is their life’s work.” Similarly, others see their purchases as future museum exhibits. “There are definitely some things I own that I would love to see in a museum, and I think that’s part of why I do this, because if we don’t support these things, they won’t be around anymore,” Krasicki says.
Many designers would say they don’t think of fashion as art, but when it comes to couture, it’s a completely different blank canvas.
