The Affordable Anti Fast Fashion Scarf - Vintage Japanese Indigo

September 07, 2017

The Affordable Anti Fast Fashion Scarf - Vintage Japanese Indigo

Wintertime usually calls for your warmest woolen scarf, but on the cooler days of spring and fall a lighter weight fabric like cotton feels just right. Admittedly, most of the cotton scarves I've picked up over the years I got from mall-brand stores and fast fashion retailers. They do the job just fine, to be fair. It's hard to find too much fault with a piece of non-patterned cotton, really - there's only so much screwing up you can do to it. I've never been willing to pay a lot for a plain piece of fabric either, which is why I've been reluctant in the past to commit a ton of money to one. So something I've started doing is repurposing vintage Japanese fabric for the job. A few months ago I went looking for some and found a few great sources for affordable two-season scarves.

Vintage Japanese fabrics can be stunningly beautiful, but they can also be extremely expensive, with costs varying generally on the level of boro/patchwork repair and remake (more extensive repair = more expensive). The Put This On store has some basic Japanese boro silk scarves on sale, and you can also find some nice examples through some indigo-centric shops in both old and new "in-the-style-of" condition. Those, however, cost a bit more than I want to spend. My own tastes tend to lean toward the simpler pieces anyways, and fortunately those also tend to be the cheaper ones. After scouring the web, I found some nice sources of vintage Japanese fabrics through Etsy and eBay I think are well worth looking at - if for no other reason than you can buy yourself a vintage scarf with a lot more character than you'll find at the Gap - and at similar prices.

Wantiques eBay Store

One online merchant, Wantiques, specializes in selling vintage Japanese fabrics and garments in various shapes, sizes, and states of repair. Most standard scarves you'll come across at the mall have dimensions around 60-70 inches long x 10-20 inches wide, and if you look through the listings you'll usually find a few that fit the bill. On Etsy, their prices for most run around $30 with free shipping, but on their eBay store many pieces start as low as $0.99 + approximately $5 shipping to the US. I've been following these for a few months, and winning bids can and do actually end that low, but the more desirable cloths generally end around $15-30. I've bought two now over the course of a few months, and they were both ~$20 shipped. Another shop on Etsy, Ohayashiya, also sells nice vintage fabrics of similar price and variety.

Ohayashiya Etsy Store

As you may have guessed, stock runs through in a cyclical fashion and you never really know what you're going to find. Wantiques will usually post two or three hundred items at a time and sell through those before photographing and posting new ones, so I'd check back periodically if you don't see something you like at first glance.

Here are the two scarves I purchased. The fabric on the first is a finely striped indigo cotton with its subtle pattern coming from white thread woven through the cloth in a slightly imperfect, almost slubby-appearing manner. The lighter blue edges lend a bit of contrast and give the borders of the silhouette some definition when draped around the neck. The second piece has a bolder stripe and a little more repair work than the first. A couple more loose threads, different patterns, and overall a little more funky vibe, if you will.

To compare, here's an indigo cotton scarf from J. Crew somewhat in the same vein that was sold this summer for $29.99 on sale. During a ubiquitous J. Crew "extra 30% off" sale, it would run you around $21 + $5 shipping for something that just seems a bit soulless and artificial in contrast.

As rewarding as it can be having the things we own age with us, there's also something undeniably special about clothes that tell their own story - beat up leather jackets, faded jeans, shoes with well-worn patina. These vintage fabrics might just be a few tiny pieces of cloth, but they speak to the same sentiment, and it's gratifying to be able to bring new life to something some might see as old trash. What could be less fast fashion than that?