Vintage, Archive & Runway: What’s the Difference?

In the world of fashion, it is common to come across words such as vintage, archive, runway and preloved, sometimes used almost interchangeably.

But they do not necessarily mean the same thing.

A piece can be vintage without being an archive piece. An archive piece may not yet be vintage. A piece can belong to a collection presented on the runway, making it a runway piece, connected to a specific fashion show or to the unmistakable language of a creative director, whether it is vintage or not. Preloved, on the other hand, simply means that it has belonged to someone else.

And then there are those pieces that manage to be vintage, archive and runway at the same time, often preloved as well.

What does Vintage mean?

Let’s start with the most familiar term.

Vintage is generally used to describe clothing and accessories belonging to past eras. There is no universal threshold that establishes exactly when an object becomes vintage, but within the industry the term is commonly associated with pieces that are at least twenty years old.

Being vintage, however, does not automatically mean being rare, valuable or collectible.

A pair of shoes from the Nineties, a bag from the early 2000s or a dress from the Eighties can simply be vintage pieces. Their appeal may depend on the silhouette, quality, materials, condition, rarity or the way they perfectly represent the aesthetic of their era.

Vintage is therefore primarily about time.

There is also an aspect of vintage that, for me, goes beyond the history of a piece or its rarity. Choosing vintage also means stepping, at least a little, outside the logic of fast fashion and the need to constantly wear what everyone else is wearing. Searching for vintage is a way to build a less predictable style: mixing eras, proportions and different references instead of ending up, season after season, with the same wardrobe.

Because vintage is great, but maybe not everything that comes out of your grandmother’s wardrobe.

And I don’t believe that a piece necessarily has to be rare, straight from the runway or part of an important archive to have value. Sometimes it is simply the right piece. The one you put on and that makes everything else work.

What does Fashion Archive mean?

With archive the concept changes.

A fashion archive piece, or archive piece, is a garment or accessory that holds a particular relevance within the creative history of a brand, designer or specific collection.

It may represent an important moment in a designer’s career, a particular aesthetic, a collaboration, a technique or a silhouette that helped define an era.

Gucci by Tom Ford, when the archive returns to the present.

And it is important to remember that archive does not necessarily mean vintage. Archive, therefore, is not simply a question of age; it is a question of relevance.

Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2002, the archive piece.

The Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2002 patchwork suede coat is an example of a vintage and fashion archive piece that is not a runway piece. It belongs to a specific collection and perfectly captures its language, but it was not presented on the runway and is extremely rare to find. The construction is highly intricate, with a silk lining made up of many different sections so that the flared silhouette is maintained. It would be unthinkable to produce something like this today without it costing a fortune.

What is a Runway piece?

Runway refers instead to the relationship between a garment or accessory and a fashion show.

A runway piece is an item directly connected to the runway: it can be the specific garment worn during the show, an accessory belonging to a particular look or, in some cases, a sample created for the presentation of the collection.

And this is where a distinction needs to be made.

Collections can include numerous garments and accessories, commercial versions, showroom samples and variations that were never actually presented on the runway.

Prada Resort 2014, the iconic piece that is not runway.

An interesting case is the Prada dress with the Tropical Paradise print from Resort 2014. The print is one of the most recognisable elements of that collection, and on the runway it was presented in a crystal-covered version.

The commercial version retains an iconic and immediately recognisable print, but in a much more wearable, accessible and everyday-friendly form. 

 

When we talk about runway archive, the possibility of tracing a piece back to a specific fashion show or a specific look becomes particularly important. This is why, whenever possible, I like to trace a piece back to its season and look for historical images.

It is not just a question of dating a piece: seeing a garment in the context it was designed for allows you to rediscover the silhouette, styling and imagery of the collection, and to truly understand what you are looking at.

Even a relatively recent runway piece can fall under the definition of Runway archive.

An example is a Sacai dress from Fall/Winter 2016 included in the Archivio Antidoto selection. 2016 does not qualify as vintage, and yet this piece belongs to a past collection and represents a specific moment in the brand’s creative journey.

It does not always have to be an iconic collection, one that everyone remembers. Sometimes it is enough to see a piece again on the runway, in the context it was created for, and recognise an importance that, on its own, among a thousand others, it might never have had.

Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2002: vintage, archive and runway.

The Dolce & Gabbana Fall/Winter 2002 look is instead an example where all three definitions meet. The shirt featuring the famous print of kissing lovers and the suede skirt belong to a specific look presented on the runway, the exit.

They are therefore vintage, archive and runway. And the fact that I found the complete look, rather than a single piece, adds another level of interest because we can reconstruct the exact image they were originally designed as part of.

The most obsessively curatorial part, however, comes first: recognising the right piece among the countless ones that pass in front of my eyes. Then comes the search for the year, season, collection and historical images that allow me to reconstruct its context. It is this process that, for me, turns a simple search into a selection.

Vintage, Archive and Runway: what’s the difference?

We can summarise the difference quite simply.

Vintage mainly indicates the era a piece belongs to.

Archive indicates its relevance within the creative history of a brand, designer or collection, regardless of its age.

Runway indicates its direct connection to a fashion show or to a look presented on the runway.

The three definitions can therefore overlap: a piece can be vintage because it belongs to the early 2000s, archive because it represents a significant moment in the history of a fashion house, and runway because it was actually presented on the runway.

Perhaps it is through the pieces I have selected that these differences become easier to understand. Because vintage, archive and runway are not categories that necessarily coincide: sometimes they overlap, sometimes they don’t.

Archivio Antidoto: the beauty of the search is that you never know where it will take you.

One image leads to another, a fashion show to a shoe, a shoe to an advertising campaign. And when you have finally reconstructed everything: year, season, collection, show, look, one simple question remains:

Would you still buy it today?

If the answer is yes, for me, it can become part of Archivio Antidoto.

The rest are details.
Although, realistically, I will probably still spend another three hours checking them.

- Valentina

Discover the Archivio Antidoto Runway Selection →