
Gucci distressed logo t-shirt, Levi's vintage cropped jeans, Loewe patent stretch boots, Chanel denim "2.55" bag (Photo: YOYOKULALA.com)

Vintage sweater, Joseph sweatpants, Balenciaga patent slanted heel boots (Photo: Nabile Quenum/The Cut)

Ray Ban sunglasses, Zara blouse, Louis Vuitton monogram vest and bag, Off-White reworked jeans with exposed zip (Photo: Vogue Italia)

Acne Studios oval sunglasses, Vetements reversible hoodie and platform boots, Comme Des Garcons bag, Vintage reworked jeans (Photo: YOYOKULALA.com)




It’s Official – Old Is The New…New?
The season's MVPs are part old, part new, technically vintage but also not. Confused? Don't be. Here, we dissect this new-slash-old Gucci t-shirt.
| November 22, 2016At Gucci’s Cruise 2017 show, Alessandro Michele sent down sweatshirts and t-shirts featuring a vintagesque Gucci logo down the runway. It happened again at the menswear show that followed a few weeks after, and yet again at the recent womenswear show at Milan Fashion Week. Needless to say, people freaked out, took multiple Instagrams and subsequently made frantic calls to the stores about said sweatshirts and t-shirts.
Was the logo vintage? Well, in a way, yes. Our research isn’t complete, but as far as we know, the particular print arose in the 1990s and was mass produced by a then-popular streetwear label, not Gucci itself exactly. That red sweatshirt that Yoyo wore to Paris Fashion Week belonged to this batch from the 1990s. (If you want to get your hands on one, eBay is a good place to start. Don’t say we don’t share!)
Now, let’s go back to the Cruise 2017 version of the t-shirt. Is the shirt itself vintage? No, but with its slightly destroyed neckline and seasoned appearance, it certainly looks like it could be. The only things telling us otherwise are the floral embroidery on the back of the t-shirt – a Michele signature – and the shiny new Gucci tag. In other words, it looks vintage but it isn’t vintage…but it actually kind of is? It is a different kind of borrowing from the past. It is vintage-ception. Bam.
Of course, Michele isn’t alone in this whole old-is-the-new-new thing. Acne Studios brought Kurt Cobain’s signature oval-sunglasses back to life last year, though the original favoured by the grunge legend was by Christian Roth. Off-White’s Virgil Abloh has a thing for repurposing and reworking old Levi’s jeans. Vetements collaborated with Levi’s to produce vintage-looking jeans and denim jackets for Spring/Summer 2017. Hell, Levi’s itself has taken to reproducing its own designs from the archives, from the cult-favourite 501s to, most recently, the 505s.
The way we see it, all these are technically vintage, though they’re kind of not…but they kind of are? We can go on forever with this. (And yes, we know some of you are wondering – that Gucci t-shirt is available in stores now. We highly suggest that you call, run or camp outside the doors if you must, because they won’t be around for long. You can also get it here. Good luck, friends.)