When in doubt, gift vintage fashion. Bonus points if it’s travel related and there’s a fun story behind it!
In my list of 7 Gift Ideas for the 7 Types of Travel Divas in Your Life, I should have made an honorable mention for the vintage fashion lover in your life… aka ME :)
I was recently visiting my spinster “I-forgot-to-get-married-cos-I-was-too-busy-being-fabuluous-and-traveling-the-world-solo”, a true Tago Diva visionary if there ever was one, Tía, the other day to see how she’s been getting on since the passing of her mother—my querida Abuelita—whom she had spent the last few years with living and taking care of—when out of the blue, she called me out on my life hack of hiding behind a beanie:
“I notice you’ve been wearing that yellow beanie an awful lot. I was cleaning out my closet and I was about to throw out a sweater, but I thought perhaps you might like it instead.”
She then proceeded to present me with a vintage, Lacoste sweater in mustard yellow—the same shade of said beanie.
“Sometime in the late seventies I was skiing in France, near Mont Blanc I believe, when I bought this Lacoste sweater from the après-ski shop at the resort. I figured I would wear it whilst I was there but I never got around to wearing it. It’s been sitting in the back of my drawer, untouched, ever since.”
1. That color. So on point right now.
2. That material. So undeniably polyester, so undeniably ’70s.
3. OMG, not only does it come with it’s own “duster” bag—it’s made out out of vinyl! And look at the detailing.
Knowing what I know about vintage fashion—seriously, I’m a total vintage fashion junkie, eBay and I are fantastic friends—and even more about how hard it can be to authenticate vintage pieces sometimes due to the tricks ’70s gals were up to back in the day when buying fashion abroad to avoid customs—I was squealing on the inside but trying to remain calm—OMG she was going to throw this away but instead she was just handing it over to me?!— I asked mischievously if she had cut the tags out.
After blinking about 87 times, she sheepishly admitted, “but-but-back in the day, everyone used to do it! You have to understand—paying customs/duties was a nightmare. It was much easier to just cut the tags out, wear everything you purchased and say, ‘nothing to declare!’ “
Well I do declare, thanks Tía, this sweater is something I will treasure for many years to come!
