‘Despair’, by Alex Prager.

When it comes to the vintage, there are a few matters-that-might-matter to explain why people are so fond of this aesthetics, to the point of annoyance. Hipstamatic App, for instance, is dedicated to simulate old, analogical photography (what a sad fact is that a Starbucks coffee decorated as an old jazz bar is more efficient and comfortable, and even more complete in its style, than the real old jazz bar).

As the spelling software is reminding me (and one person pointed out, like the software) “vintage” is an adjective. I take it, here, metonymically as a word that refers to the vintage aesthetics itself — as in Julia Kristeva’s essay about “the abject”, preceded by “the”. I thought it was a bit weird to say “the vintage” all the time, though. But as English is not my mother tongue, I took the advice. 

When it comes to the love of the vintage, one of the reasons I see, and perhaps the most simple one, is the fact that the past is a safe place. Whenever one depicts someone or someplace from the past, it is a memory, a safe, and utterly warm place that was brought to the present time. The fact that “the past is a safe place” is nearly common sense. But I say warm due to the also known fact that memory is nothing but an obsessive behavior: from the immense stream of past memories, a special one was chosen to travel to the present time. More than safe, the old image is strong: as it survived time, we are impacted by its resilience; we may even submit/succumb to it.

Another reason relates to the power relations of the world we live in. Who is ruling the zeitgeist? To step through this thin ice analysis, I place myself in the early 2010s. Why is it that the 70s are, mostly, what we understand and cultivate as “vintage”, now? A possible answer should be that the rulers of this time are, themselves, in their 40s or 50s. The officers, the executives, the CEOs of companies, brands and institutions that so commonly name and brand what is ‘style’. These people (empowered by these institutions) may relate to things from their own times and, thus, create an agenda that celebrate, ultimately, themselves.

Lastly, the young adults (or late youth), that is, those in their 20s and 30s, may experience a coming of age that to an extent conforms to the overall establishment. In this sense, what is celebrated are those who raised them. One is becoming one’s parents, it’s that simple. Finally, the understanding of the forefathers’ decisions, opinions, culture: it is the actualization of an inheritance, being it culture, establishment or counterculture.

Cultural choices find meeting points: after hearing about the Beatles, the Rolling Stones or Bob Dylan, one can grow enough to understand and love them. But that is not the essence of the vintage, though. Mankind may love the Beatles for the next 200,000 years, and what was good may remain always in style (art is supposed to be timeless).

As anything considered trendy, the vintage is like a fever: it comes, it is passion, it goes. In the case of the vintage, the cycle is renewed in every generation. Hence the rising lights being thrown over the 90s, as the X and Z generations step up to rule the consumer sphere (in a few years, they will be ruling the zeitgeist themselves, and the time lapse between one step and another in the ladder of power is, as we can see in the news, getting shorter).

The vintage is the love of what is old: as they become their forefathers, they also experience a degree of decay; the frailty and despair of losing youth. The vintage, in this sense, is the celebration of what seems to be ageless, timeless — it is merely old, but loving it makes it feel that decay and aging is good, elegant or tasteful.

So, in a nutshell, there are here four reasons for the vintage: 1) the past being a safe place; 2) the agenda of CEOs highlighting their golden times; 3) the consumer coming-of-age conforming to previous models; 4) the celebration of what is aged, for the one who celebrates it is also aging.

There might be nothing new about the vintage: it’s always been there, it’s always been in us.