Dever took her turn posing at the Women in Hollywood luncheon wearing a sweet pale silk Christan Dior by Marc Bohan couture dress with sequined bodice and hand-dipped feather hem. She followed up her ’60s frou-frou with a black velvet Pierre Balmain couture gown flecked with crystals, dating back to the late ’40s, for the Academy Awards after-party. Shrimpton Couture founder Cherie Balch’s inbox flooded with support for Dever’s fresh take on Old Hollywood style, and its underlying message that fashion should live longer than a specific season, because quality clothing holds its value.
“The great thing about being a young actress is you don’t have to be nailed to one look or style,” Welch told British Vogue earlier this year. “You can have a lot of fun on the red carpet.” Welch has worked with Balch, a former corporate employee with a knack for sourcing rare fashion, for several years. “Most stylists only want to see vintage that does not look like ‘vintage’,” Balch tells us. “Karla has the foresight to see how something classic can still look modern with the right styling. She puts a client in the best look regardless of who it is by, or when it was made.”
Balch, who tries to only work with like-minded creatives with an appreciation of vintage, says that the rise in archive fashion looks on the red carpet hasn’t come without its logistical hurdles. “A vintage dress has to fit straight off the rack and every detail must work,” she explains. “For celebrities with access to any looks in the world – including pieces not even produced commercially yet – the thought of few alterations can be off-putting.” Seeing Dever, as well as Tracee Ellis Ross, Rosie Huntington-Whitely and Rihanna, wear Shrimpton Couture pieces for public-facing events feels like “a mini miracle has happened”, every time.
This awards season has afforded Shrimpton Couture the most visibility yet, but Balch says she has had a consistent stream of interest since quitting her desk job and turning her archive into an e-tailer in 2008. The difference is, Hollywood is waking up to the role it can play in promoting a “buy less, wear more” message. “More celebrities than ever are committed to saying, ‘enough’ to the ridiculous idea that a woman can only ever be seen in public wearing something once,” says Balch. “Clients used to request vintage because it guaranteed no one else would be wearing the look. Now, they just want to normalise the process of making better fashion choices.”
The name of Balch’s e-store– which typically holds 600 to 1,000 pieces, with thrice that amount meticulously catalogued and stored in a temperature-controlled unit – also transcends the fashion cycle. “I love the timeless style of Jean Shrimpton and the free spirit of the ’60s,” she says. “I used to get called ‘little Jean Shrimpton’ for wearing vintage to the office, so I took the negative teasing and turned it into a positive by adding ‘couture’ to the shop name.”
In comparison to other collectors, Balch is extremely selective of her edit – “I only buy the things that really take my breath away” – because scrolling down a webpage doesn’t encapsulate the true feel of a vintage piece. It can be a tougher sell than trawling through a warehouse for unexpected gems. “I will literally go anywhere for the right pieces,” she enthuses. Luckily she has a network of global buyers she has “wooed” to help her truffle out looks. “The hunt is not so much about where, but how I can find the places that vintage might possibly be hiding!” she smiles.
The “golden moment of securing a piece that makes [her] heart soar”, and then matching it with the perfect owner, is what Balch lives for, not profit. “When you wear vintage you are not only making a great choice for the planet, it gives people a glimpse into who you are and what you are really about,” she explains of the moral thrill. “When you fall in love with something no one else has, it says as much about you as it does about the dress. Wearing vintage in the spotlight makes a statement, which is exactly what the red carpet is supposed to be all about.” At the Oscars 2021, Dever will be joined by many other actors swayed by the storied power of vintage.
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