As we know, my weakness for vintage is almost (almost) as kapow as my weakness for shoes - a pretty significant contributor to this borderline obsession has been the beautiful finds of Miss Gurmeet Grewal (otherwise known as Gigi Vintage) based all the way across the world in the UK. What I've been falling for is the quirky, Grannie-eating-sequins type vibe floating about the shop, which I definitely lap up in the way of inspiration and wishlisting! I caught up with Miss Gigi herself about her vintage outlook:
The Beginning:
I’ve always had an extremely strong passion for fashion and my love for vintage clothing and accessories has grown since my days as a young girl raiding my mother’s and grandmother’s wardrobes. Being an avid vintage clothing shopper, both in the UK and around the world, I just felt there wasn’t a vintage boutique that was relevant to young catwalk trends, as well as a stockist of highly sought-after and unique pieces. The ever-increasing success of E-tail meant that there was definitely a gap in the market for a modern style online vintage clothing boutique which is what led me to set up GiGi Vintage (www.gigivintage.co.uk). I gave up my full-time job and scraped some funds together to design the website, travelled the world to handpick every product, photographed and styled the website imagery and worked with PR in time for the launch to place my brand on the fashion map. The website launched about 16 weeks ago and things are only looking up!
The Name:
GiGi Vintage was actually inspired by my own name. My initials are G.G. and (with a penchant for all things French!), I enhanced it by drawing on the French name, 'GiGi'. ‘GiGi Vintage’ had a great ring to it, a certain je ne sais quoi, so I decided it was the perfect name for my new business venture!
The Vibe:
Think electro glam meets punk rock meets catwalk style! All our original vintage pieces are handpicked from around the globe to bring you a covetable collection of hard-to-find pieces that are bang on trend. Not only that, but they are set against the backdrop of a clean-cut, user-friendly and professional website…
The Future:
The GiGi Vintage online boutique has only been live for a short while yet, so it is still in the very early stages. My biggest challenge at the minute is driving the right traffic to the website, so I aim to drastically increase awareness of the brand through the most appropriate and effective channels. I want GiGi Vintage to be the vintage boutique that everyone talks about, so PR is top of my list at present. I hope to branch out to other avenues further down the line, including a wider array of product categories on offer and perhaps even a vintage-style line of new clothing. Watch this space!
The Bloggers:
I love me some blog-reading and the fashion blogosphere is always expanding. It’s great to see the next generation of influential fashion forces making their mark in the world of blogging. As long as they have bags of personality, a keen eye and real panache, I’m hooked!
Thanks Gurmeet! Check out more of Gigi Vintage HERE. S0 many quality finds for both hemispheres! Although will you Fall/Winter-ers leave me some knits for next Winter?
*love*
xx