There’s virtually no industry on earth that has not been transformed by the internet, and the fashion industry is certainly a good example. The level of access has increased incredibly, not just in being able to find coverage of runways shows and backstage insights, but in the ability to purchase almost anything from anywhere. While there is something awesome about the fact that you don’t have to live in or near a major fashion hub to buy into it, the fact that anybody can get anything is also sort of depressing, devaluing the special-ness of objects. We all talk a lot about buying locally, but beyond the economic arguments I have really romantic ideas about doing so, and feel like using the internet betrays the connection you have to the character of a place, and that taken to the logical extreme, internet shopping will eventually rob all places of their character as manifested in local dress. Anyhow, the impetus for this rambling is the news that Topshop has started a selling high end vintage pieces from some of London’s most iconic designers, called Archive, which just launched today: Mary Quaint, Biba, etc. Obviously for a lot of people this is great news, especially people who have no vintage-shopping-in-London plans in their forseeable future (that includes me), but it really just makes me feel sorry for all the London girls who won’t get to discover those pieces for themselves when they’re out hitting estate sales on a Sunday afternoon. I guess that makes me old fashioned?

A ’70s Jean Varon dress from Archive.