IT’S VINTAGE Age is just a number when it comes to second-hand
From these stylish women's vantage point, age is just a number when it comes to wearing vintage.
Fashion Quarterly
WORDS FIONA RALPH
Maiko wears a 1930s silk haori jacket, vintage black silk dress, 1940s handwoven silk belt, 1960s wooden sandals, and kauri gingko leaf hairpin and koi bone carving by her partner Brendan van den Bemd.
MAIKO MIYAZAKI, 39 @OTHERWAYSIDE
Maiko Miyazaki combines vintage and new pieces from Japan and New Zealand. The owner of Otherwayside, an online shop selling Japanese homeware and vintage garments, says that wearing vintage ensures “I can be who I am without following trends”.
Vintage selling runs in the family for Maiko, who moved to New Zealand as a teenager: her parents had market stalls selling clothing and collectables in Japan, and now, her mother helps Maiko source in between her visits back home.
The Tauranga local has loved secondhand clothing since she was a teen. “I used to love wearing my mother’s clothing and after arriving in Aotearoa I discovered vintage stores and op shops.”
Now she is passing this passion onto her daughter. “I always dressed her in vintage clothes since she was very young. Now she says they are more special than new clothes.”
Passing on the cultural significance of the kimono, haori, yukata and juban is important to Maiko too.
“I’ve been obsessed with Japanese vintage textiles for many years and selling them has been the perfect way to connect with people and share my culture, art and history,” she says. “Even though it’s not from your culture, you can always own and wear items if you love and respect them.”
She sells her garments to a diverse range of ages, sizes and genders. “Because the garments are vintage, they all fit slightly differently. There aren’t really ‘sizes’ but some are short, long, wide and narrow,” she says. “I also have many older males and females buy kimonos from me and I see myself wearing them in the future too.
“I think vintage fashion is ageless, especially when it comes to traditional authentic garments. Women and men of any age appreciate the wear and technique of the textiles.”
