Fall Trends at Avant Gaudy Modern Vintage

One of the things I missed the most when I was abroad was easy access to vintage clothing. I missed some of my local shops, and online, well many of the ones I love are located stateside (though not all!) When I came to Chicago, honestly, there’s not been much time to visit shops, we’re looking for a place to live, and me, I’m looking for work… but luckily enough, we got in touch with Chicago-based online vintage retailer, Avant Gaudy. Founded by Deb Umunnabuike (pictured on the left) in 2005, Avant Gaudy started out from a love for vintage, for integrating found pieces and wearing them in modern ways. this has translated into her shop philosophy:

“modern vintage” clothing: garments with some history that represent the best of today’s fashion and trends. Our fashion philosophy is all-encompassing: anyone can look good, and looking good does not equate spending a lot of money nor a lot of time in a shopping mall.’

Behind the scenes the shop has grown, with two buyers searching high and low for great pieces, they pool their resources together to create ‘collections’  based on runway trends, magazines, and style blogs like Hel Looks and The Sartorialist and fashion news sites like WWD to find inspiration. One of the advantages of going to Avant Gaudy’s is to see the ways they interpret vintage and relate it to the most recent of today’s trends… and for pretty cheap too, most pieces run about the $25-$50 range which for edited vintage pieces is quite a steal!

Crushed Velvet: Here the lovely Shawne Holloway is wearing a vintage crushed velvet backless dress  (did you have one of those? I did!), when put on backwards, it’s created a deep V, perfect for layering with some more revealing pieces, in this case a ‘material girl‘ bra. Paired up with a cropped red jacket and lots and lots of chains…

Sheer Blazer… this acquisition was inspired by seeing a lot of sheers on the runway. Nicole Hawkins is wearing a sheer cardigan over a vintage Betsy Johnson dress, vintage belt and modern necklaces mixed with a vintage cameo locket… and really cool fringe boots (in my size $45… eek!)

Gossip girl… Ok, ok… I know… but how can you be talking about ‘09 trends and not include Gossip Girl? I have only seen one episode.. but am not immune to it! Here Shawne is wearing a plaid empire waisted mini dress with a shrunken blazer.

And can we not forget the boys? Here Jeff Campbell (coincidence?) is wearing a very feathery hat, with animal print vest. My favorite part is the tee.. which says Man running with Woman against Reagan. I know Reagan’s dead, but I’d still run against him.

And here… a little twist on the sport jacket… pair it with neon!

Last but not least, I got to see the shoot the fall editorial, in a gallery… here’s a sneek peek!

Coveted Readers… you can get a 30% off Avant Gaudy’s Vintage Collection with code: COVET_2009