The truth is, it IS incredibly overwhelming and if you are anything like me who gets butterflies in her stomach at the sight of anything polka dotted, chiffon, or lacey... your mind just goes all a whirl and you don't know where to begin.
You really have to go to these things with a game plan. This is the 4th convention I've been to and I still haven't gotten down a system, I just spend hours wandering around, touching things, holding dresses against me, squealing with delight when I see sparkly baubles or embroidered clutches... it's like a giant vintage playroom except everything is really (and sometimes REALLY) expensive and sometimes you get "you shouldn't touch that" looks from the sellers.
You're always bound to run into some fashionista whether it be an indie chick or a modern day style icon. The latter was the case for me. I was in the same booth as Alexa Chung and we were both trying to peek at ourselves in the mirror. She had slipped on a 1930s black polka dotted dress with a seafoam green bow on the front, very cute. I had made a friendly exchange with her and told her that I really admired her personal style...and to my greatest sadness, my compliments were met with a barely audible "thanks" and when I resumed to compliment her on her vintage dress choice, she WALKED AWAY. Well, pish posh, how extremely rude!
I was a bit annoyed and we happened to be in the same booth again and the seller clearly knew who she was and had asked her if she gets photographed in the dress to tag them on Facebook or Twitter and her friendly attempts were met with...Silence.
My heart was crushed. I've always admired Alexa Chung's style so much, her dress choices always seem so whimsical, sweet, cute... I thought she herself would also be the same. Maybe she was having a bad day? Oh well, I'll probably still admire her fashion choices, but now I won't be as enamored since her lack of friendliness really just put me off.
But back to vintage clothing... the massive amounts of it present at the Vintage Expo... I actually ended up not purchasing anything. It was really crowded (although in my photographs there aren't people present, aren't I clever?) and I was met with so much snobbery that day. From sellers, from other buyers... when did vintage get so elitist? It was really quite tragic!
