Vintage fashion site touts mixing-n-matching styles

Vanessa Lundy, founder of vintage fashion site VanaVainVintage.com, aims to help women create a variety of outfits with clothing they already have in their closets.

As a child, Boston resident Vanessa Lundy had a fascination with her mom’s clothing. She would go in to her mother’s closet and try on jackets, skirts and high heels. But as she grew up that fascination became more teasing with her and her sister sometimes laughing at her mother’s choice in outfits.

Once Lundy could fit into some of the items she loved and ridiculed, she started to develop a love for vintage pieces like the high-waisted black leather skirt her mother passed down to her when Lundy was in high school.

Today, Lundy runs her own vintage blog site, VanaVainVintage.com, where she shares her personal style and fashion advice and sells some pieces from her ever-growing vintage collection.

Lundy’s main goal with vanavainvintage.com is to give the everyday woman insight into how to create a variety of outfits out of the clothing already in her closet.

Lundy often mixes vintage pieces with clothing from the customer’s usual clothing store and repeats items to show women that styles can be created without making heavy purchases or needing a lot of clothes.

“A lot of time I repeat a lot pieces and it’s not something that is a bad thing to me. It’s showing that you can have your clothes and wear it many different ways,” Lundy said. “I think a lot of times we think it’s having a lot of clothing that makes you have personal style.”

Aside from showing off her own fashion sense, Lundy gives her audience a chance to dabble with vintage by providing them an opportunity to make purchases from her site.

As vanavainvintage.com moves into its second year, Lundy is making some changes to the website to include the option to shop — which is unavailable now.

Lundy is readying the selection with spring items from the ‘40s, ‘60s and ‘80s, and hopes to have it launched in March.

For Lundy, vintage clothing isn’t “old” clothing, but instead it has history making it more significant to her than the purchase of a brand new item.

“I consider [the vintage pieces] to be the originators of fashion because everything comes back,” Lundy said. “If you look at a lot of today’s fashion, it’s similar to the vintage clothing with a little twist. To me it’s really not old and it feels good to have the original piece.”

Lundy is also drawn to vintage clothing because she believes the pieces could tell a story that can inspire an ensemble.

“Before us somebody else had this. Whether it’s been worn or not, there’s still a story to it.” Lundy said. “There was an era. There was a time when people wore it specifically. When I see a piece I think of who wore it, where’d they wear it.

“It just puts me in a better mood and I’ll wear that piece whenever I’m feeling similar, going out or just want to put it on and add my own twist to it.”

Lundy also plans to move beyond the computer screen to offer in-person styling tips to models and everyday woman, she said.

Services will include styling for events and appearances and a closet analysis during which Lundy will provide advice on how to wear specific items in multiple ways.

“If I can inspire someone to wear a black dress two different ways, to me that’s fulfilling,” Lundy said.

Information about styling will also be included on the new website.