A.N.G.E.L.O. A Vintage Fashion Story

Angelo Caroli, its founder, from a very young age, was a Fashion Lover, who gave tips and suggestions of trends and styling, on a radio program. His passion for fashion early made him wake up to a journey that would take him to this day.

Around the 70s, Angelo started collecting vintage pieces, these would have to be epic, unconventional, different, or innovative, basic requirements to capture his attention. Interested in the various styles that arrived in Italy from the United States, he had the sensitivity of knowing how to select the pieces that would make the biggest furor, and at the time there were denim pieces, a novelty, pieces inspired by the military trend, or Hawaiian t-shirts, nothing common in Italy at that time. Can you imagine what all these new things would mean for Angelo?

Being able to foresee what would be more appealing, he kept his findings, and his collection grew until he opened his first A.N.G.E.L.O. store in 1978 in the city of Lugo in Italy.

Driven not only by fashion itself but by what his collection could contribute to represent the history of fashion, Angelo was collecting clothes and accessories for women, men, and children from different parts of the world. The careful selection included designer pieces, which characterized a period and which became iconic. And Angelo would immortalize these whenever it was possible for him to acquire them.

But Angelo, as a true visionary, would begin to apply the innovative concepts of recovering and recycling in some of his pieces, widening the spectrum of his collection. He contributed from an early age to what is now beginning to spread more widely, the principles of sustainable fashion and conscious consumption.

Today buying vintage is in fashion, not only is it a more sustainable practice, but it is the opportunity to revisit pieces that marked an era. Each of them guides our aesthetic and beauty sense through the decades of the last century, which count on the greatest creative movement, the development of fashion and its techniques, by the hands of the most important fashion creators, who influenced and still influence designers or creative directors of today.

We can easily find these inspirations in the recent collections of Balmain, for example, with the revival of the 80s, or Chanel, who through the hand of Virginie Viard, fashion designer and the creative director, finds in Coco Chanel, Chanel´s founder, the root of her inspiration, as well as Karl Lagerfeld did it during the long period he spent in this “Maison”.

Angelo continued, prospered and in addition to his collection for sale, he founded ANGELO Archive, a kind of repository, with specially selected pieces that invoke each of the decades of the last century and that are on display for exhibition, research or photo sessions, in a building that Angelo chose to rename from ANGELO Vintage Palace. A contribution that all who are passionate about Fashion and live it daily can thank and appreciate.

Currently, we can find A.N.G.E.L.O Vintage Palace in Lugo and A.N.G.E.L.O Vintage Lab in Faenza, both in Italy.

For anyone and everyone who, however, may have fallen in love with the brand and want to check out some clothes from the Vintage Cult collection, you can find them online on the FARFETCH website.

I am unable to not love this brand, not only because it is vintage or because it is sustainable, but also because of its history and the way it was created. The passion of someone who saw beyond what was possible at the time, who pursued his idea and who made it an example and inspiration for other brands. In addition to the legacy it leaves for the history of Fashion, which is one of the most recognized in all of Europe.

Bravo Angelo!

I know I said it over and over, but even vintage, you should buy it only if necessary.

#buyonlyifnecessary

K,

Vera