Fiona Stuart is one of the three co-owners of Rellik, the temple of vintage clothing in London and one of the most important vintage shops in the world. This month it's the tenth anniversary of the boutique and they friendly enough gave me an interview. Not only they have amazing vintage pieces but the whole shop, with its different clothing styles, it's a treat for the eyes of those who love fashion and are looking for perfection.
Atelier- How did you decide to open your own shop?
Fiona- We all had shops at Portobello Market and we all had been there about five years, about the same time, and we were doing really well, and it seemed that the next stage was to take on a shop, because the thing about the market is that you are getting press on the national papers, but then it was very difficult for the people to find the store, and also the hours, you are only open two days a week and if it is raining you may not have many customers, so it was better for us, it was like an inspiration, it felt like the right idea. I think I had been looking for a shop about a year, and I remembered this one and I thought, "oh, what about that shop?", I knew that it had been vacant for like a year. It was a different kind of shop, the decoration was quite mixed up and we had to re-do the whole shop, it took six months. We'd been all in the market together, we got on well, and it made sense to have this kind of shop on this location in a group, because then you are not alone.
A- How did you come up with the name?
F- It was actually my ex-hunband that came up with the idea. Because of the Rellik tower, and what we did was taking the phrase from there, and also rellik in terms of object of history, something aged, vintage.
A-When it comes to buy the clothes, is it difficult to agree with your partners?
F- The three of us, we buy separately, we choose what we want to buy individually, we just share the cost of the shop and the running of the shop. I'd say that a lot of times you do have the same taste because if something it's fabulous, we're all going to enjoy it, but sometimes one of us buy something that we haven't thought about, it's always three minds coming together, to buy, it's good because it's three approaches, and also one might be more grown-up, one might be more avant-garde, but we influence each other aswell, we were probably more different at the beginning, and now we are probably more the same after 10 years. We all have a stand each, and we can put our personality and the style and do what we want.
A- Where do you buy the clothes?
F- It's our big secret. Another people just sell to us, and that's usually one of the best ways to buy clothes, because people understand what we like in the shop and even in Portobello Market you might find something or from somewhere like that, we are always looking for clothes.
A- Is it difficult to check that they are real designers clothes?
F- You can tell, I can tell who made a garment even without a label, you know the fabrics and the designs, it's a knowledge you get over the years, you can tell, it's like you can feel a real Chanel bag from a fake Chanel bag, obviously because of the quality.
A-Since when can you start saying a garment is vintage?
F- When we started whe probably didn't have anything that was later than 1988-1989, now we have many things that are quite recent, because a lot of it has to do with the customers, sometimes customers don't want to buy real vintage, they want things that are maybe one or two seasons old and that they cannot find anymore. The nature of fashion has changed, when I started doing vintage clothing people wanted a Sixties coat, a Seventies dress, now is less fancy dress in a way, it's more fashion, so I think vintage has become synonymous with fashion. You might wear a second hand coat or a vintage coat, but in a way with vintage you might feel that it's more special.
A-What's the charm of vintage?
F- Again the quality, and the up-to-date, you might have something that it's 20 years old, and you love, and you still wear, and maybe something that it's 2 years old and you never wear. They have a beauty, and they do have a charm that makes you to buy it.
A-When do you think that buying vintage become fashionable?
F- There has always been people that buy old clothes, in the Seventies there was a real trend of going to the market and buying clothes, that's why when you see the Seventies style you can see Forties influences. Sixties is quite original and Eighties too, but they all go back to past references. I think that probably the Internet speed it up, the accessibility, people now can see this. We see a lot of our clothes in magazines, so people can see vintage clothing in a fashion shoot that they might want.
A-Can you buy something here with a student budget?
F- Yes, we have a range that goes from 15 pounds to maybe 700 pounds. But the very special pieces students are not going to want it because they are mostly for a special occasion.
A-Is it difficult to cope with the special needs of your celebrity customers?
F- We treat all our customers the same, there is no special hours, the shop is open to everybody even if there is a celebrity here. We treat everybody the same and I think we treat everybody as we'd like to be treated. And in terms of the clothes, again is a mix, people find the clothes in the shop, we don't store them especially, we want everyone to have access to the clothes.
A-Which are the treasures of Rellik?
F- When we get something that we really love we buy it and we have it in the shop, so the things that we have at the moment in the shop are our treasures. Steven has some Vivienne Westwood's garments and the only reason why he hasn't them out in the shop is because it's a special market and only people who really know about it know what they want, they can ask him and he can find it.
A- The most expensive and the cheapest garment you have bought for the shop?
F- Probably Ossie Clark dresses or maybe an Herm�s or Chanel bag and the cheapest probably some jewellery for fifiteen pounds. Vintage kind of has a level where people expect to sell something at a price, but then people also expect not to pay too much for something.
A- Do you think it's worth to invest on designer pieces?
F- I think you have to invest on what you love, because you are going to wear it and you are going to enjoy it. The thing about vintage now is that it's pretty much the market values where is worth, if you buy a pair of designer shoes for 500 pounds and then you sell them, you might not sell them for 500 pounds because it's only from the shop that people would pay 500, it looses value, it's like when you buy a new car, but then if you buy an Ossie Clark jacket for 500 pounds it's worth 500, and then you can put it on the internet and you might sell it again for the same money.
A-Do you think it's necessary to wear designer pieces to be stylish?
F-No. I think the most stylish people are the people who put things together in a kind of imaginative way.
A-Would you say that the Haute Couture is art?
F- It definitely is, because of the level of work and time that people have to put to create a garment, it is a piece of art and it is amazing what they create. It is a shame that not more people can have access to it
A-Who is your favourite designer?
F- The way I am, I am always discovering new people and I am kind of excited by new things all the time that I have found out about. I think someone like Galliano was very original at the beginning, I love Issey Miyake, I think Karl Lagerfeld is a style genious, he made Chanel cool again, now it's like the most desirable brand.
A- How did you come up with the name?
F- It was actually my ex-hunband that came up with the idea. Because of the Rellik tower, and what we did was taking the phrase from there, and also rellik in terms of object of history, something aged, vintage.
A-When it comes to buy the clothes, is it difficult to agree with your partners?
F- The three of us, we buy separately, we choose what we want to buy individually, we just share the cost of the shop and the running of the shop. I'd say that a lot of times you do have the same taste because if something it's fabulous, we're all going to enjoy it, but sometimes one of us buy something that we haven't thought about, it's always three minds coming together, to buy, it's good because it's three approaches, and also one might be more grown-up, one might be more avant-garde, but we influence each other aswell, we were probably more different at the beginning, and now we are probably more the same after 10 years. We all have a stand each, and we can put our personality and the style and do what we want.
A- Where do you buy the clothes?
F- It's our big secret. Another people just sell to us, and that's usually one of the best ways to buy clothes, because people understand what we like in the shop and even in Portobello Market you might find something or from somewhere like that, we are always looking for clothes.
A- Is it difficult to check that they are real designers clothes?
F- You can tell, I can tell who made a garment even without a label, you know the fabrics and the designs, it's a knowledge you get over the years, you can tell, it's like you can feel a real Chanel bag from a fake Chanel bag, obviously because of the quality.
A-Since when can you start saying a garment is vintage?
F- When we started whe probably didn't have anything that was later than 1988-1989, now we have many things that are quite recent, because a lot of it has to do with the customers, sometimes customers don't want to buy real vintage, they want things that are maybe one or two seasons old and that they cannot find anymore. The nature of fashion has changed, when I started doing vintage clothing people wanted a Sixties coat, a Seventies dress, now is less fancy dress in a way, it's more fashion, so I think vintage has become synonymous with fashion. You might wear a second hand coat or a vintage coat, but in a way with vintage you might feel that it's more special.
A-What's the charm of vintage?
F- Again the quality, and the up-to-date, you might have something that it's 20 years old, and you love, and you still wear, and maybe something that it's 2 years old and you never wear. They have a beauty, and they do have a charm that makes you to buy it.
A-When do you think that buying vintage become fashionable?
F- There has always been people that buy old clothes, in the Seventies there was a real trend of going to the market and buying clothes, that's why when you see the Seventies style you can see Forties influences. Sixties is quite original and Eighties too, but they all go back to past references. I think that probably the Internet speed it up, the accessibility, people now can see this. We see a lot of our clothes in magazines, so people can see vintage clothing in a fashion shoot that they might want.
A-Can you buy something here with a student budget?
F- Yes, we have a range that goes from 15 pounds to maybe 700 pounds. But the very special pieces students are not going to want it because they are mostly for a special occasion.
A-Is it difficult to cope with the special needs of your celebrity customers?
F- We treat all our customers the same, there is no special hours, the shop is open to everybody even if there is a celebrity here. We treat everybody the same and I think we treat everybody as we'd like to be treated. And in terms of the clothes, again is a mix, people find the clothes in the shop, we don't store them especially, we want everyone to have access to the clothes.
A-Which are the treasures of Rellik?
F- When we get something that we really love we buy it and we have it in the shop, so the things that we have at the moment in the shop are our treasures. Steven has some Vivienne Westwood's garments and the only reason why he hasn't them out in the shop is because it's a special market and only people who really know about it know what they want, they can ask him and he can find it.
A- The most expensive and the cheapest garment you have bought for the shop?
F- Probably Ossie Clark dresses or maybe an Herm�s or Chanel bag and the cheapest probably some jewellery for fifiteen pounds. Vintage kind of has a level where people expect to sell something at a price, but then people also expect not to pay too much for something.
A- Do you think it's worth to invest on designer pieces?
F- I think you have to invest on what you love, because you are going to wear it and you are going to enjoy it. The thing about vintage now is that it's pretty much the market values where is worth, if you buy a pair of designer shoes for 500 pounds and then you sell them, you might not sell them for 500 pounds because it's only from the shop that people would pay 500, it looses value, it's like when you buy a new car, but then if you buy an Ossie Clark jacket for 500 pounds it's worth 500, and then you can put it on the internet and you might sell it again for the same money.
A-Do you think it's necessary to wear designer pieces to be stylish?
F-No. I think the most stylish people are the people who put things together in a kind of imaginative way.
A-Would you say that the Haute Couture is art?
F- It definitely is, because of the level of work and time that people have to put to create a garment, it is a piece of art and it is amazing what they create. It is a shame that not more people can have access to it
A-Who is your favourite designer?
F- The way I am, I am always discovering new people and I am kind of excited by new things all the time that I have found out about. I think someone like Galliano was very original at the beginning, I love Issey Miyake, I think Karl Lagerfeld is a style genious, he made Chanel cool again, now it's like the most desirable brand.
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