Is vintage getting old?

I recently caught an episode of Channel 4’s acclaimed This is England ’86. I think I’ve seen more convincingly dressed skin heads hanging out outside ECA canteen. Either Channel 4’s executive’s are losing it, or are students here just really good at working 80’s vintage? Either way, isn’t it a bit worrying?

When I see dirty blonde crops and tartan trousers I'm completely unfazed. Vintage has long been considered a statement in style. For generations, youth culture has championed ‘old-school’ as cool with hippies, mods, punks and all manner of subcultures following suit. But even in 2011, is it honestly still cool to wear your Granny’s jumper when even she kind of hated it? Is it still hip to champion what’s gone before especially when that ever fine line between chic and God-awful is increasingly tenuous?

Scrolling through an online slide show of Alexa Chung’s new clothes line, a friend of mine assures me she’d literally (yes, LITERALLY) give an arm and a leg to look half as cool as her. Truly exquisite, there’s no doubt Alexa’s working those looks but frankly, her line for Madewell would look questionable on anyone without endless legs and a bone jutting frame. Her famous ‘Tennessee Velvet Dress’ (apart from setting you back £120) could make you resemble a horrifying Victorian Doll, while her ‘Silk Margot Skirt’ at an even steeper price will encourage some bemused looks as you rock what could only be described as ‘Orthodox Jewish School girl meets Little House on the Prairie’.

OK, so you’re only young once and having been a student for a few years I'm now perfectly accustomed to the regular statement: "As the youth of today it's our job to push boundaries never pushed before." But that’s all a bit confusing when you can consider we’re still trying to resurrect what our parents (with good reason) rejected 25 years ago. What happened to ‘been there, done that’? Why are we all still wearing the t-shirt to prove it?

In the certain circles I have been subjected to what can only be described as the enviously (and perhaps even achingly) hip. But some of the time some people just look plain stupid. It’s fair to say there’s a precarious border between fashion and faux pas, and vintage looks can often play a leading role. Having observed students around the city, I am inclined to make my way down to Armstrongs and pick up an over-priced, ill fitting item of apparel that smells a bit like death. As I rake through the rails I wonder how I can make this electric blue mid-80’s jumpsuit look half acceptable. Perhaps a tube of glitter glue? Or the addition of a giant jumper to the ensemble, to draw attention further to the already ambiguous whereabouts of my crotch?Questions need to be asked; is all this meant to be ironic or just a hilarious joke?

When I was six, my Grandad wore a pair of giant plastic rimmed reading glasses complete with tortoise shell design that made him look like an owl. Browsing in Urban Outfitters last week I noticed this particular design of glasses were still for sale. As far as ridiculously awful fads go, these take the biscuit. Hanging in and around Topman I notice countless young males sporting these colossally framed ‘fashion glasses’, clear framed for all your partially sighted posing needs. Surely they must question their motivation as they slip them on each day? This really is fancy dress now. All the more absurd when I consider the lengths visually sighted people of my acquaintance go in order to avoid glasses altogether. We were all a bit confused (at times a little embarrassed) by Grandad’s specs- how can it now be socially acceptable to look this awful? There is no such thing as 'awesomely bad’.

Beehives, fur coats, pop socks, and Madonna body-suits circa 1983 are all bold, but hey, what else is new? Apparently nothing. And maybe that's just the problem. As students many of us are trying hard to do something new but are the noughties just going to be an amalgamation of bygone eras? What is defining our culture in 2010? Adorning our walls with vintage snaps, taken on our old cameras for that aged aesthetic, carrying around some old leather bound suitcase (picked up at a jumble sale for half of this month’s loan) to live our very own, personal Mad Men fantasy?

In the struggle to find something new, are we all merely rummaging around in the past? Of course we must first look back before we can look forward, but has it all gone a bit far? There’s no denying Marlene Dietrich, Edie Sedgwick, Billy Idol and Don Draper did and still do look sensational, but I’ve always been under the impression that the whole fascination with the good old days is all a bit borderline creepy. Shake it up guys. Vintage is the trend du jour of the noughties, but what happens next?