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What happens when the vintage clothing craze goes mainstream? Antique fashion becomes the next frontier, it seems. Designer Daniel Roseberry incorporated ribbons he found in a Paris antique shop into Schiaparelli’s spring 2025 couture collection, while for fall 2025, Valentino and Simone Rocha each alluded to decadent decades past, namely the Victorian era and the Renaissance. Now the most devoted fashion collectors are scouring antique malls, and their digital counterparts, for old jewelry—and even older clothing.
When Anna Sui was dreaming up her fall 2025 collection, the designer and serious antique collector was inspired by madcap heiresses Barbara Hutton, Doris Duke, and Peggy Guggenheim and their affinity for dramatic jewelry. Think Hutton’s famous Cartier jadeite, ruby, and diamond necklace, which sold for over $27.4 million at auction, or Duke’s emerald earrings. “They ended up spending all their money on men and jewelry,” Sui says. She has been building an archive of museum-worthy fashion for decades and often goes to Portobello Road Market in London to look for Victorian snake rings or huge Bakelite necklaces. This season, she worked with jeweler Karen Erickson to create antique-inspired brooches and glimmering necklaces in mostly faux versions of jade, coral, and emeralds, which she paired with ’30s-inspired tartans, tweeds, jodhpurs, campy leopard prints, and dramatic caftans.
Designers aren’t the only ones craving the tactile, one-of-a-kind nature of 100-plus-year-old style statements. Take Cora Violet Walters, who has built an Instagram following for her whimsically dark aesthetic that pulls from the ancient world. She grew up thrifting with her grandmother and started her own auction house with her husband in 2016. Her bygone wardrobe staple of choice? A pair of 24-karat gold Roman earrings circa 200 AD. “They go with basically everything, from a simple white T-shirt and jeans to a ’30s lingerie dress,” she says. She also regularly wears antique bodices, circa-1890s corsets, a 1910 Edwardian lace gown, a mourning ring from 1887, and a pair of circa-1730s Iberian gold drop earrings with citrines. She pairs her old-world clothes with contemporary skirts and Maison Margiela Tabis or Simone Rocha Lucite heels. “To me, a shoe completes the look and makes it feel more contemporary without coming off as costumey,” she says.
For millennials and Gen Zers who love vintage, antiquing is the advanced level. Influencer and designer María Bernad wears 19th- and 20th-century crochet and lace and incorporates antique tapestries and other textiles into her upcycled brand Les Fleurs Studio. She collects Victorian Gothic pieces and wears them alongside her Vivienne Westwood corsets and early-2000s Jean Paul Gaultier grails. “I always say that antique pieces hold history, and the first thing is learning the story behind it: what year it’s from, how it was made, and the period or connection with the art movement at the time it was created,” she says. Likewise, the New York–based stylist Chloë Felopulos mixes late-1800s pieces—a Victorian blouse, a chain mail glove, or her great-grandmother’s gold chain mail purse—with her early-2000s Dolce & Gabbana zebra-print miniskirt. “If I could pair every outfit with a family heirloom, I absolutely would,” she says. “Whether I’m on a weekend trip, visiting family, or just passing through to get to my next destination, one of the first things I’ll search is ‘Antique stores near me.’ ”
In an increasingly digital world, there’s something wildly refreshing about wearing fashion that has existed for more than 100 years. Imagine how many lives that item has lived. “I appreciate historical fashion beyond just its aesthetic value; I see its cultural and psychological implications,” Walters says. “It forces a confrontation with history while subverting expectations—something I find intellectually and emotionally stimulating.” She adds, “I’m not just collecting historical fashion and vintage. I’d like to think I’m curating a narrative of power, elegance, and defiance through what I wear—the opposite of mainstream or fast fashion.” Plus, you’re almost guaranteed to be the only one in the room wearing a 300-year-old ring or 100-year-old piano shawl.
A version of this story appears in the Summer 2025 issue of ELLE.
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