Vintage Flashback
29 April 2026
Flashback, but also relevant to April’s editorial: The Year of The Horse Jacket.
Footage filmed in Suva, Fiji, July 16, 2022 when my Husband and I lived in Fiji for a few months. I had already posted a montage clip back then and this is the revised caption.
It was our first time visiting this particular recycled clothing shop in Suva, a dopamine den for thrift-shopping junkies! I found a fantastic Sass and Bide bodysuit called ‘New Hope’ (Star Wars freak alert); a basic cotton salwaar (pants) that I wear as pedalpushers; and a stunning magenta Tangzhuang jacket to add to my collection of vintage Tangzhuang and Cheongsam coats.
Stv Ep 6: The Year of The Horse… Jacket. A history and a fashion show. HERE.
Longterm readers know I am an op-shopping veteran. This wasn’t out of necessity, which I feel is an essential point. I have been lucky enough to not opshop for economic reasons, I choose to, for ethical reasons. Okay, okay, and for the rush.
This rush is a privilege, which is why I very rarely state how much something costs unless it’s an insane bargain.
In the 90s when I still lived in Fiji I used to visit the true vintage* shops in Sydney and Melbourne but only discovered the joy of opshopping** (thrift shopping) when I moved to Sydney in 1999. I was looking for an opera cape and a friend recommended I try “a Vinnies“.
I didn’t find the cape but I found plenty of other things, including an addiction to the THRILL of finding a bargain, which can become a daily weekly thing. Like Linda Perry did, I realised quickly when I knew I should…. that the addiction to opshopping is still consumerism and worse, ADDS to the disposable mindset of modern society.
“Linear Economy” shoppers, particularly fast fashion champions view the Circular Economy as a loophole. For me the latter is a time machine. – SN
NOTES:
* vintage is NOT the same as recycled. This Vogue article is educational.
**the term “op-shopping” as in opportunity shopping, was coined by Lady Millie Tallis in 1925 to destigmatize secondhand shopping, a stigma created by capitalism. I share more information in the EP 2 LIVE.