About

Fashion is my passion. My mother told me later that as a child I only drew girls in clothing.

My parents are Italian, from Puglia, and I grew up in rural Australia. Style, fashion and image were always strong issues in our family. It’s in our blood. My mum sewed all my outfits. My aunties and my mum would bring back the latest gold from Italy, and we would wear it at school. And then there were the Italian weddings. I called them the cousin catwalk competition.

Today I write about opulent lifestyle for gracieopulanza.com, and I am an editor at menstylefashion.com, which I started in 2012. Both are online magazines. This one is different. Vintage Style Clothing is personal. It is where I talk about vintage clothing, and antiques too.

Why vintage

Why would you buy something another person has already owned? For me, it is all about the hunt. It is hard work, going through second-hand shops and markets to find the pieces that belong to me. But it is that hunt that brings the reward.

I once came across a boutique in Italy where all the clothes were made in the 1980s and 1990s. The owner was 85. She noticed that I knew quality wool, and came up to ask me how I could tell. I sorted through endless wool skirts, unworn, still priced in lira. I kept the labels and tags on mine, as a reminder of the fashion of the past.

Clothes do that for my soul: wearing items that no one else in the world may have.

How I choose

I go by the fabric. I will rarely wear anything that is not leather, silk or wool, and finding wool that feels like wool is part of the joy. Then I put it on. If I feel great in it, it belongs to me.

I don’t buy in seasons. I am never in vogue. I am always ahead of it, or most of the time behind it.

And I don’t buy the label. I once found a pair of Prada shoes in a charity shop. I wore them twice, lost them, and cried. You know what? It was the best thing that ever happened. Don’t ever think that a luxury brand states who you are.

Where I hunt

I live in a 400-year-old farmhouse near Arezzo, in Tuscany, with about 10,000 olive trees around it. Arezzo has its antique market on the last weekend of every month, and Lucca has its vintage market. I hunt in both.

When I am not at the markets, I hunt online at Vestiaire Collective, where I am a Fashion Activist. See what I am selling there.

What I find, I write about here: how to tell that a piece is real, what to check before you pay, and how I wear it. If you want to ask me about a piece, write to me.

Don’t bury your gold. Wear it.

Fashion ActivistGracie Opulanza on Vestiaire Collective