Why I would choose vintage jewellery every time

There is definitely something about owning vintage clothes and jewellery that feels special. It’s not just that vintage styles are very much back in fashion this year, or that a lot of the time the clothes are of a better quality and fit than those you can buy in high street stores today. What makes old things so lovely are the personal stories behind them, the fact that it’s not just an old dress or a pair of pearl earrings, but that once upon a time it really meant something to someone.

It’s why people are willing to pay such large amounts for things that have been owned by celebrities or important people, even when the actual item might not be worth much itself. Just look at the success of the Marilyn Monroe sale at Christies in 1999, where the actress’s personal belongings were auctioned off for unprecedented huge sums of money – a piece of her famous pearl jewellery fetched $40,250 and someone even paid $5,175 for a plastic cup from her kitchen.

Often jewellery is one of the most personal things people own, and will usually have a story surrounding it, if you only knew how to discover it. A brooch might not look like it’s worth much, but if it’s one of my grandma’s pearl brooches, given to her during the war by my granddad who I never met, then to me it’s priceless. Even when you have no idea what the history of a piece is, it’s nice to imagine what sort of person might have once owned it and what part it might have played in their lives – was it a birthday or engagement present, or did it symbolise to them an important moment in their life? It’s like the feeling you get moving in to an old house, when you wish that you could find out who has lived there before you, who was there when it was built and what sort of lives they had there. It’s my opinion that whether the vintage look stays fashionable or whether it doesn’t, people will never stop loving old things.