Is the internet ruining archive fashion?
Archive fashion, otherwise known as the cultivation of items for a kind of wearable fashion capsule that receives admiration from others for what it represents, be that a time in history or the knowledge of a designer and their brand. Amongst some of the most sought after items right now, are brands like COMME des GARÇONS, Yohji Yamamoto, Thierry Mugler and Maison Margiela.
Over time, archive fashion has become more than just chatting about old designer clothes. It has become an elitist club, where the world of the archive fashion-head seems to have become obsessive, competitive and downright snobbish. If you aren’t slipping on your ‘06 Rick geobaskets and grabbing the quilted Craig Green worker bomber on your way out, you aren’t invited. There are arguments over how accessible the archive fashion industry has become, but it feels as if that world is becoming an increasingly iykyk club; the archivists sitting in their untouchable fortress built of steel-toe boots and trench jackets.
As of now, many archivists are taking to Youtube, TikTok, Instagram and even discord channels to share their knowledge, and form their own groups of archive obsessives. It provides a space where fans of fashion can remember integral figureheads in the industry, and celebrate the life attached to clothing. The clothing brings a sense of belonging to something bigger, an industry of passionate and likeminded creatives, which now, the archival community has brought forth for itself.
It is those fresh-faced to fashion that want to immerse themselves in archive, and flex their items whilst withholding what they actually mean, potentially grunting in pretentiousness at those who stare blank-faced at a black cross the body bag. You can almost hear in their laugh how much they want to say ‘It’s late 90s Prada Sport, the lack of branding is reminiscent of when Miuccia ushered in athleisure before athleisure was even a thing’.
Bringing the information online also brings with it a relentless hatred, as the gatekeepers of fashion so rigidly aim to protect the rare items. The internet is, after all, a place where opinion and free hate take reign. To enter the world of archive fashion, you must go beyond proving your love for an item – ultimate knowledge is everything. It is unlike the hypebeast culture of collecting sneakers, which can be done via the purchase of roughly 50 pairs of Nike, or say, collecting stamps, where you can stumble across a nice rarity to add to your book of royal heads. Archive fashion, god forbid, requires effort, time, money and knowledge to cultivate.
Many buyers don’t want to spill their secrets, including refusing to talk to HUNGER about their insider knowledge. We can understand the need to protect the archival secrets, and how some feel sort of a Margiela-draped King Arthur to their designer sword in stone when unlocking their collectors items. With this in mind, HUNGER speaks to some experts in archive fashion who don’t necessarily buy, but prefer to discuss the items and brands in the digital realms. They decode how reactions, especially online, can form a snobbish picket fence around the community, and how they feel it can be inclusive again with a different approach.
In the online archive-sphere, ‘@understitch,’, as they go by on Instagram, know everything there is to know about getting into archive fashion. But for them, the name itself comes with predisposed judgments, as they say, “the term ‘archive fashion’ is created with a little pretension. It is a reimagining of the word ‘vintage’; effectively, it’s a way to add value to older designer pieces, perhaps from smaller brands, that may have lost value over time.”
After their first foray into the archive trade, diving into SS11 JW Anderson, ‘understitch,’ says that they “met with other people to trade things. I bought from eBay and consignment stores whenever something really special came up. Eventually, this became a whole movement and I loved seeing what people were able to dig up, it was so exciting to relive those moments through clothes.”
Essentially, that is truly where the love for archive lies, within the moments and times that these garments once held. Forming a love for archives around the likes of brands that aren’t yet big on the resale market, like Christopher Raeburn, Lou Dalton or Christopher Shannon, they find that the dedication to understanding the brand history is what truly sets the fashion lover and the archive obsessive apart. “It’s really important to know the brand history. For example if this is early in the brand history it may have been made from blanks, like early KidSuper, or by the designer themselves, or by tailors, like in the case of Hood By Air.”
For the already established market, they look to “the designer designers.” However, this is “almost frustratingly surface level. Though these designers are the best we have ever had, to me, archiving fashion needs to be a more personal collection for the clothes to retain value. If you genuinely like the items and you’re going to keep them and love them forever; that to me has more value, regardless of whether you choose to wear them or not.”
However for many, the desire to cultivate a collection of archived brands can be met with animosity, especially online. ‘understitch,’ refers to the notorious elitism in the archival community, stating “it’s just something that cannot go away completely, lest the appeal be lost. But there’s a lot of nice creators out there who do want to share their knowledge and share a love of fashion with the community, you just have to find them. Personally I really enjoy @fashionroadman, @ideservecouture, @jansen_garside, @ryanyipfashion and @mark_boutilier. There’s also big names like @hautelemode and @loicprigent.”
And as the online community widens, so do the opinions on archival fashion. Ayo, a recommended expert on the trade, known as Fashion Roadman to his followers, has amassed over 98.4k subscribers on his channel, and ultimately released his own magazine, The Fashion Archive Mag, along with his deep-dive videos into the history of brands, designers, runways, collabs, and sparks debates amongst fashion lovers worldwide. If there was ever anyone to turn to for an insight to the world of archival fashion obsessives, it’s safe to say Fashion Roadman knows his stuff.
“Personally I think the reason I don’t really get any negative kickback is because at this point I have hundreds of videos explaining the history of brands,” he says. “So another thing about the archive community is that some of them aren’t even fans of the brand; it’s like a modern way of flexing. In fact, it’s a very elitist way of flexing. ‘I’m not wearing logo brands, I’m wearing stuff that’s sort of like iykyk, and if you do then you know it’s really expensive’. Helmut Lang painter jeans or Raf Simons Riot Riot bomber jackets, or the old Undercover collections, or the Craig Green parachute jacket for example.”
“You can get into archival fashion without feeling like you need to monetarily participate in it. You can respect the work of designers and understand fashion without feeling the need to buy it. You shouldn’t go in with the pressure of needing to buy stuff. Chances are you won’t be able to afford it, most people can’t… I can’t.”
Turning to how the elitist club has gained traction amongst the masses, Fashion Roadman explains that “because of social media, especially TikTok, it’s been popularised in a way. So before if you wanted to get into archive fashion and you really wanted to get into a brand, like Helmut Lang, or Raf Simons or Undercover, you found online forums. So, extremely niche. One of the forums was called StyleZeitgeist run by a guy called Eugene Rabkin and he is one of the pioneers of having those archival forums.”
For archivists now, he credits the communities elitism to, in fact, being all about money. “Whether it’s what you know or who you know, to be honest, I think it’s really down to how much money you have,” he says. “Now the information is democratised you can learn about it on TikTok and Youtube. It’s really an affordability thing. When Drake wore the Raf Simons Riot Riot Riot! bomber jacket with some tracksuit and people were mad because this is a jacket that you have to buy for £30,000 or more. There’s people that have way more information, like people know that Drake didn’t know about that jacket. It was his stylist but they can’t afford the jacket, it’s only Drake who can buy it. I think the biggest value to entry is genuinely, money.”
The gatekeepers can only be explained by those who have truly encountered them. Hence why, Fashion Roadman relays how “anytime you have something expensive you’re going to have people saying like ‘You guys are talking about archival fashion but none of you own this, I own this’. People get really mad when people own something you can’t own. I think it’s just a natural thing to be bitter.” ‘understitch,’ echoes this, stating that “gatekeeping has become a whole thing of its own. For decades it has been common for people to know where the luxury purchases are from but unable to get them themselves, that was part of the appeal. In terms of elitism within the community, I think that’s just a part of fashion, it’s the appeal that drew most of us here.”
So, with a new gen of archivists taking to the digital world to recruit fashion lovers into their community, the gatekeeping archive fashion-head might have to accept defeat. The internet is bypassing money, time and accessibility to this knowledge to form its own community of dedicated archivists who share with each other willingly, and are truly passionate about design, not just the price tag. The whole premise of elitist gatekeepers in archive fashion may be slightly outdated. But then again, isn’t outdated what archivists look for in the first place?
