The 4 most sought-after vintage brands online

That vintage and secondhand had exploded in the past three years was no mystery, quite the contrary. In fact, as we wrote in a recent article, it was precisely in 2022 that the market for secondhand fashion had grown exponentially enough to suggest that the typical buying patterns of fast fashion had become applicable to pre-loved fashion. But in the same report from The Real Real that provided us with that data, there was other interesting news such as that, for example, that «vintage continues to be coveted, but demand for collectible clothing from the archives now outpaces every other vintage category up 439% year over year». The catwalks of fashion capitals inspire the search for items such as geometric bags, Mary Jane shoes and miniskirts-but there are also four brands that turn out to be much more sought-after than others on the platform-here are what they are.

Mary McFadden

Although she is not talked about much today, Mary McFadden lived a dream life: heiress to a cotton empire in Tennessee, Sorbonne graduate, top socialite of 1960s New York, PR manager for Dior and then special project editor for Vogue in the days of the legendary Diana Vreeland, McFadden began designing clothes for herself by being extremely specific in her choice of fabrics and silhouettes. Inspired as much by the Japanese technique known as Marii as by the works of Mariano Fortuny, she patented a pleating technique for dresses in 1975 that employed a type of polyester and satin called charmeuse that came from Australia, was dyed in Japan and pleated in the United States. Dresses composed of this fabric never lost their pleats and were also embellished with hand-painting, embroidery and all sorts of handmade embellishments. The ability not to warp made the dresses popular among the very wealthy Americans always traveling around the world, and when the business expanded came a series of lucrative licenses. The relative and apparent simplicity of the dresses, then, made them timeless and resistant to changing trends-which is why they are still so sought after today. McFadden closed his brand in 2002, but apparently not for financial reasons, simply to devote himself to new projects.

Bob Mackie

Mackie had a comeback in popularity this year thanks to Kim Kardashian who, at the Met Gala 2022, wore the dress the designer created for Marilyn Monroe. But Marilyn is not the only legendary star Mackie has dressed: Cher's outfit at the 1986 Oscars remains in history plus dresses worn by Beyoncé, Marlene Dietrich, Diana Ross, Liza Minnelli and RuPaul just to name a few. His legend is so great that when Alexander Michele met him at the Met Gala he was moved and even shed a few tears. A favorite tailor for Hollywood and Broadway, Mackie has defined the aesthetics of celebrity and the red carpet in satin, feather, and sequined strokes over a career spanning more than 60 years. Today his archival creations populate museum display cases and, according to The Real Real, even the closets of some very lucky collectors.

Roberto Cavalli

Before the Y2K era, before discos and leopard prints, Roberto Cavalli was a great experimenter: he worked on garment dyeing by developing new techniques, invented new ways of dyeing and working leather, applied leather patchwork to jeans for his first show at the Palazzo Pitti, but above all he attracted the interest of legendary figures such as the Hermès brothers and Emilio Pucci. After his first Milan show, where a profusion of animal prints, provocative dresses and opulent furs exploded, even Franca Sozzani was impressed. The brand expanded and branched out enormously throughout the 1990s, but it was in the early 2000s that its vibe became excessive and provocative-an explosion of hedonism and unruliness that encapsulated the spirit of its era like nothing else in those years. Over time, the brand's success waned, following much the same fate as those labels that had too widely dispersed their output into different lines of distribution. After its acquisition in 2019 by Vision Investments, a Dubai-based investment fund, Fausto Puglisi became the creative director of the brand, now called just Cavalli, and restored it to its former glory.

Thierry Mugler

Sadly passing away last year, Mugler had a long and successful life: considered one of the greatest living couturiers even after taking a leave of absence from the scene in 2002, his clothes are sought after by celebrity stylists as if they were gold, and even years later. Lady Gaga and Kim Kardashian are just two of the most famous examples of celebrities who have worn the French designer's creations. Today, even after the abandonment of the Couture collections, the brand is finding new impetus on the French catwalks under the creative direction of American Casey Cadwallader, who recently made a trilogy of fashion movies to present his collections and brought the spotlight back on the brand.