Celebrating 22 Years Of Revival Vintage Clothing

Back in 2003, our founder Helene Fallows, started Revival Vintage Clothing on a humble market stall in West Yorkshire selling true vintage clothing. Twenty-two years later it is a multichannel business, still delighting customers with authentic midcentury vintage clothing and accessories. Together with husband Mark, they now produce replica vintage clothing and accessories under their brands, Socialite and Revival for customers worldwide. Their vintage collections have also featured on stage, film and TV.

Socialite is the premium in-house offering of carefully crafted 1940s and 50s reproduction clothing and accessories, copied from original vintage pieces in our archive. These timeless mid-century women’s clothes are made of easy-wash fabrics and offered in a wide range of sizes.

Revival offerings are quality vintage basics like shirts and dresses that are essential to any vintage lover’s wardrobe.

Whilst never influenced by gimmicky overnight trends, Revival continues to celebrate the very best of the old and new styles they love from the 1940s, 50s and 60s appreciating the classic silhouettes and nostalgic, waste-not approach to fashion.

To celebrate our anniversary, also known as Revival Day, we interviewed owners Helene and Mark about their passion for vintage clothing.

So Helene, twenty-two years of Revival Vintage!

I know twenty-two years have gone so fast...

Could you explain why you started a vintage clothing business?

From a young age, I always loved fashion of all variety and decided to study fashion design straight after school. As a student on a budget, and studying fashion, I always wanted to look a bit quirky, a bit different and used to go around secondhand stores and markets, finding vintage clothing. I just loved the look of vintage styles and it was readily available back then. So I used to shop those looks, the nostalgia of the eras. I used to listen to stories from my mum about how my grandma who used to make all her clothes, for when she used to go to the dances. It was just that whole thing really got me into vintage clothes and fashion

Revival Vintage covers a few clothing eras, what is your favourite era and why?

It’s the 1950s. It was a post-war period, very exciting, with new innovations in fabrics as an advent of the war plus innovations in fashion. It’s characterised by a very feminine aesthetic. I love the silhouette and again, it was the decade of mum's stories, so that nostalgic element as well plus the Hollywood films. I just love everything about it.

What vintage style would you bring back and why?

Well of course it would have to be from the 50s and it would be the day wear. It wouldn’t be particularly the petticoated prom dresses. It would be the fitted knits, the nipped-in waist, the Sunray pleat skirts and the cotton printed border patterns, all those types of things. They are the styles that tend to suit me as well which makes me drawn even more to them.

Do you have these pieces in your wardrobe now?

I have a few but nowadays I’m dressing a little bit more modern and a bit more age appropriate! 

What vintage style do you dislike the most?

Although at the time I probably loved it, because if that was my heyday but 1980s fashion.  I didn’t mind some of the styles of the period, personally in the 80s I dressed in 1950s look clothing, there was a bit of a revival. For example a cotton 50s skirt with a fitted denim jacket and ankle socks & pumps. However, what I really didn’t like was the brassiness of some styes succh as giant shoulder pads, the fuchsia pinks, the bright teals, and the oversized bows, the asymmetric, all that kind of stuff. 

There’s two fabrics in the 80s that I particularly hate and that’s watermarked taffeta and a synthetic velour that had glued glitter patterns. Can not stand them.

What are the biggest changes in the vintage clothing market over the last 22 years?

I think just over time, the older pieces are harder to find. For people younger than we are vintage clothing means 80s, 90s, and early 2000s. So that market has grown and the older decades that we’re known for have become rare. Very few bricks and mortar stores can survive just selling what I normally termed antique vintage clothing.

Is that why you went into replica?

Yes, because sourcing true vintage takes a lot of time and it’s often tiny, therefore not inclusive, size-wise.  Having our range we now cater to a broader size range.

What’s next for Revival Vintage?

You’ll see more of our own brand, particularly on the women’s side, which is evolving at the moment. We’ll have more curated collections. And with the true vintage, you’ll see more of a refined capsule collection rather than trying to be everything to everybody. We moved premises last year and we’re already outgrowing them, so might find us moving to somewhere bigger and possibly more expansion overseas with dedicated hubs. Watch this space!

So now to you Mark, have you been with Revival Vintage from the beginning? 

No I haven’t, I started getting involved in 2005, it was when Helene and I first met.

What brought you to vintage fashion?

Partnering with Helene!

Did you have any interest before?

I wouldn’t say I didn’t have any interest, but it wasn’t on the radar like it is now. Family,  having children at a young age, and working in the Air Force meant personal interests were put on the back burner.  

What is your favourite era and why?

Same as Helene's choice, 50s,  the reason I like it is perhaps childhood through adolescence there was quite a revival for the 50 styles within the 1980s, so liked all of that.

60s I like as well because my dad had a wardrobe full of 60s clothes, so I used to wear some of his things.

But did you have pieces from the 50s in the 80s that you used to wear?

Probably, but I wouldn’t have known it at the time. I wasn’t particularly looking for things like Helene did. It was similar to now and how I buy our products, I see something I like, I buy it.

So out of all the vintage styles, what would you bring back to modern day if you could to get people wearing it?

I don’t think I’ve got anything that I would want to bring back. I do like the fashions that we sell, I like all that. Obviously I’d like that to come back in to a certain point, but maybe not at the same time because then it’d be everywhere, wouldn’t it?

Are there any styles from the past that you don’t like and you’d hate to see come back?

Yeah, I don’t particularly like 70s stuff really, don’t really like flares and big colours and huge dagger collars. It can look great on young people, but if it was to go mainstream, it wouldn't look stylish on everyone, that's all I'm saying.

What changes have you seen over the last 20 years in the vintage clothing market?

Well, if you say to somebody you’re into vintage clothing, they don't think of clothing from 70s, 60s, 50s, it’s moved on now. Most people would think of clothing we wouldn’t consider as vintage, so late 80s, nineties, even the 2000s clothing, that’s if you go into a vintage shop in the high street.

Helene has told me some exciting plans for the future. What do you see next for Revival Vintage?

I’d really like to expand into America, and like Helene said, potentially moving sites and having a separate distribution centre.

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