It’s not just during #SecondhandSeptember that the team at Who What Wear finds inspiration in thrifting and trends of the past. There’s at least two of us on the team—myself and Joy Montgomery—who are self-confessed vintage fanatics, and a great deal of our communication includes sharing great Etsy finds for each other or new Instagram dealers to bookmark. Joy has a monthly column dedicated to secondhand shopping, we extol the virtues of rewearing anything and everything as much as possible, and every time a new-season rolls around we try our very best to dig around for the trends that might already exist in your wardrobe or can be easily bought pre-loved. Autumn 2021 is looking particularly retro, which is fantastic news for those of us who like to look back and give a vintage spin to our modern wardrobes.
Yes, Y2K and the ’90s continues to inspire many a brand and well-dressed person out there, but I’m talking about properly retro trends here: The type that were kickstarted in the ’60s or ’70s and still look cool now, many decades later. Look to the designer collections—Gucci, Max Mara, Nina Ricci, Stella McCartney—and you’ll see plenty of references to the era of psychedelic prints, sharp-collared suits, platforms and prairie dresses. Move on over to social media and you’ll find that even before these looks filtered into stores, the idea is translating IRL. I’ve been spotting girls trying out knee-high boots with bare legs, a return to flared jeans and much more. Some retro autumn trends are more classic than others, and have the potential to be pulled out time and again—they’re all charted below.
