The Village Squire, 1981-05, Page 5Old Clothes are Diri-
by Alice Gibb
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The Forties look - antique lace - or even the peacock colours of punk rock; you can find—
them
indthem all at Puttin' On The Ritz, a recycled clothing on Tablot Street. London. Here
Cathy Pilgrim models a 1940's party outfit put together from the store's stock.
[Photo by Gibb]
wide -shouldered tuxedos, and negligees
to be worn as daring gowns - cheap.
Gradually the idea of buying someone
else's leftovers lost its slightly disrupt -
able tinge, and used become "chic".
Today you can buy everything from
designer originals with pricetags that can
still make you pale, to elegant antique
gowns in shops specializing in recycled
In the not too hazy past, people visited
used clothing stores only out of dire
economic need or when they were
slumming it - looking for something
outrageous to wear to thc next party. But
in the 60 s, students discovered Goodwill,
Sally Ann shops and church rummage
sales were great places to pick up
anything from furniture to old fur coats,
clothing. If there's a "rags to riches"
story in the fashion industry today, it
might be that suddenly "used" is in. As
one London shopkeeper suggests, why
pay a fortune for the Forties -look in a
retail dress shop, when you can buy the
real things in her store?
Puttin' On The Ritz, 393 Talbot Street,
London, specializes in clothes from a
bygone cra - from lacy tea gowns to the
Fifties style fashions adopted by New
Wave musicians and their friends. The
dapper Mr. Astaire, whose movie inspir-
ed the shop's name, really wouldn't look
out of place here in his top hat, tails and
dancing shoes.
Sandy Thompson, thc store's owner,
was always interested in older clothing
styles. When a friend opened a Toronto
shop specializing in period and antique
clothing, Thompson decided there might
be a market locally for the same thing.
The atmosphere in Puttin' On The Ritz
is pure vaudeville - the walls are
decorated with old sheet music and satin
theatre cloaks, and there are big, old
travellers' trunks spilling over with an
assortment of scarves, hats and ties.
Shoppers can find just about anything on
the racks - from gaily coloured Hawaiian
shirts, to embroidered kimonos, dainty
pink bedjackets and handknit fisher-
men's sweaters.
You can't help but wonder where
Sandy Thompson finds the quantity of
unusual clothes displayed in her store.
The answer is easy - most come from an
American supplier. She believes the
supplier in turn gets them from factories
which buy used clothing in great quantity
for shredding into rags. Other antique
clothing in the shop comes from estate
sales, homes where someone has lovingly
packed away clothes as they went out of
fashion.
When Thompson opened the shop two
years ago, her main customers were
students and people looking for some-
thing different. Now she's much more
likely to get a cross-section of the
population - someone hunting for an
inexpensive blouse to complement a new
suit or treasure hunters looking for
something unique. Sandy defines
"unique" things as beaded blouses,
baseball or hockey shirts and the "lovely
VILLAGE SQUIRE/MAY 1981 PG. 3