An Endangered Vintage

We were perusing the racks of vintage women’s clothing at American Rag the other day, and noticed that the amount of old stuff had dwindled considerably. Has the trend in retro duds gotten that out of hand?

We talked to assistant manager Vanessa Ramsey and found that stylish second-hand clothing is indeed edging onto the endangered-species list.

“It’s definitely getting harder to find, especially in perfect or even OK condition,” Ramsey explained.

“Some (of the studios) are hoarding a lot of the clothes, and designers are buying up some of them and reproducing them. . . . Plus, the Japanese are buying it in volume, and a lot of it is sent to England and Australia. Everybody wants vintage clothing. And a lot more people in the States are getting into it.

“It used to be that people who were a little bit eccentric would wear second-hand clothes, but now it’s more acceptable. And the styles fit in (with new clothes) that sell for top dollar.”

So if you see trendoids showing up at coffee houses wearing polyester slacks and Hush Puppies, you’ll know they’ve reached their last resort.

A Valuable Family

Confidential to Dan Quayle: When Social Climes ran into drag queen Chi Chi LaRue, singer for the Johnny Depp Clones, at a recent party, we asked him, “What do family values mean to you?”

LaRue replied: “It means my parents know that I’m gay, my parents know that I direct porno movies, my parents know that I’m a drag queen. When I go home for Christmas, we all hug and kiss and exchange presents and we all love each other. That’s family values.”

A Wide Gap

At the myriad baby showers Social Climes has been attending lately we’ve noticed that there are always boxes from Baby Gap, which is producing some of the hippest baby looks these days.

But designers of the line may want to know this: When the tiny togs are held up for viewing, invariably women exclaim, “That’s so cute! I wish they had something like that in my size!”