WHAT is vintage?
Devonshire Quarter clothes wearers were agonising over this important issue last weekend, as around the world the less sartorially adventurous considered the future of western capitalism in their not-overly-vintage pinstripes.

"I'd say it's anything that's over five years old," said Abby Wilson.

"My definition of vintage is anything I don't want, that other people do," said her friend Catherine Hudson.

Louise Glover was more measured: "Vintage is like wine, it comes from ageing in my opinion. So it would be from the 1940s to 1980s. Before that it's antique."

There were doubtless dozens of other definitions of the V word at the Sheffield Vintage Fashion Fair on Saturday where organisers (including Louise Glover and business partner Craig Ithell) estimated that 1,300 eager shoppers picked up bargains from the 30 or more sellers in the DQ night club in Fitzwilliam Street.

Abby, Catherine and their friend Nicole Ip Fung Chun had taken out a stall to test the market, said Nicole.

"We thought we'd come and have a look and see what everyone else was doing. I am thinking about doing this for a business. There's definitely a rise in interest, particularly among people aged from 16 to 30. And there's a revival of vintage on the High Street."

"But that's mass market," said Catherine Hudson. "These are a one-off."

The Wilson Fung Chun Hudson stall certainly included one-offs of all kinds. There were dresses of yore, Dandy annuals, subtly reconstituted jewellery and a slightly sinister mask that Abby had made when she was bored one evening. "It's scaring me a bit now, so I thought I'd bring it here."

She'd also created a retro rubbish bin. "It's a waste paper waste paper bin," she explained.

"I made it from some 1960s newspaper I found in the boiler room of my flat after I'd moved in. I wanted a new bin but they were all a bit expensive so I thought I'd make one instead."

This is perhaps a clue to the ethos behind all this.

Why spend an offensive amount of money on something that everyone else has, when with a bit of effort you can either find or make something unique you're unlikely to see adorning anyone else (or anyone else's flat)?

"The idea is that you can get something that nobody else can get in the High Street," said Louise Glover, who also runs the Bang Bang Vintage store in Westfield Terrace.

"It's about individuality but it's also environmentally friendly because by reusing clothes you're stopping some of the production of new things and you can also make old clothing into new clothing."

Or in the case of the Lovin' Spoonful stall, make old cutlery into new clothing.

"I was finding boxes of old cutlery at car boots when I was on a jewellery course, so I took that Seventies idea from the back end of the hippy movement of making use of what you've got," said Jon Hill.

His idea of making rings and jewellery out of old spoons and forks took off and he now sells to all ages, from 16 to 75-year-olds, he said.

"People appreciate the ones cast in Sheffield, they love it because its part of Sheffield heritage."

The vintage ethos can cover all eras, he added, as there is no single period in fashion nowadays, people make their own choices.

The success of the first Vintage Fair will make it a regular event, said Louise Glover – the next will be on November 29 and December 13.

Louise added that a measure of the street vintage movement's success is that High Street stores sell vintage now, either in the form of reproduction pseudo vintage or even in some cases sections of real old clothing.

But it's unlikely that the Devonshire Quarter enthusiasts would be seen shopping in such a place.

"I like the idea that you can buy a bag and don't know where it comes from but you can imagine," says Nicole Ip Fung Chun. "I like the idea of history."

And the discussions of vintage went on. Yes, it's good to reuse and remake and remodel and not buy junk made in sweatshops, in hard times it's a bit of a coup to get something unique for hardly any money, and for hardened shoppers there is no thrill of the chase like the single-minded vintage thrill of the chase.

But the straight-talking Catherine Hudson lowers her voice and puts it another way.

"Vintage is really just another word for second hand."



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