The retailer partners with Where I Was From for a vintage-inspired collection.
By Leah Melby Clinton, Sweet
Is the perfect vintage
t-shirt/dress/pair of jeans ever really found? In theory, yes, but
actually hunting down the piece can be a bit of headache (if not feel
downright impossible).
[post_ads]And that's why connoisseurs and collectors like Where I Was From
exist. Their sole purpose is rounding up all those scores, cleaning
them up if necessary, and selling them to those who aren't willing to do
the tough work of unearthing them initially. Now, inconjuction with
Madewell, the duo have teamed up for a collaboration inspired by some
favorite vintage finds.
"I
love taking pieces from the past that have their own history and mixing
them with the modern pieces I have in order to create a new story,"
Joyce Lee, Madewell's Head of Design, told ELLE.com.
Along with Where I Was From founders Claire Lampert and Stacy Daily,
Lee based the new range on a "shared love for perfectly worn-in denim.
We gathered our favorite vintage finds and referenced some pieces for
fabric, others for the perfect ripped knee holes or a special color. To
compliment the denim, we recreated perfect vintage t-shirts using the
right fabrics and silhouettes which would make them feel like the ones
that are usually rare and hard to come by."
The romance of vintage—who knows what adventures and great loves this piece has seen before?—is
at the core of the collab. It's about "always wearing a souvenir with
something modern," Lampert said. For the founder that means often
rocking today's trendy Gucci loafers with the vintage pieces she wears.
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The
entire range, including tees, jeans, shorts, and more, was inspired by
the great western expanse. "We found the farm on a drive north last
year," Daily said of Albuquerque's Los Poblanos farmstead. "The feeling
borrows from [its] stucco interiors, tile work, gardens, and landscape
architecture. Our stay there lent to the unkempt sophistication of the
collection, with broken-in twills and soft handed jersey fabrics."
