RESIDENTS JOUrNAL

The time warp

Jennifer Mason meets Mel Ellis, owner of unique boutique Mela Mela Vintage in Teddington

Mel Ellis

aking pride of place on Teddington High Street is the stylish storefront of Mela Mela Vintage, a friendly boutique selling clothes and accessories made (and made fashionable) by ladies of days gone by. The stores owner, Mel Ellis, is a collector of vintage fashion in her personal as well as professional life. I just love beautiful things, she tells me. I love the look and the feel of vintage, I love the excitement of nding something really pretty. I just love it. It was a personal connection that initially sparked her interest. My mum was very stylish and beautiful; she made all her own clothes. She had
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a wonderful collection of hats and ball gowns a trunk full of clothes that I always thought I would inherit, Mel remembers. But the trunk disappeared when she moved house, and just like that everything was gone. So, I started buying bits, trying to recreate what I remembered being in that precious collection, and it sort of got out of hand. When it took over three rooms, my husband said perhaps it was time to open a shop, and so I did. The ethos behind Mela Mela was to create an upmarket boutique to stock one-off pieces, as opposed to your average vintage shop. A lot of so-called vintage places are actually just retro, Mel explains. They look like vintage, but they are really copies. Vintage has its own history; the fabrics of those years are fabulous. These days you just dont get the glazed cotton or the silk chiffon in couture maybe, but not in everyday fashion. The pieces on offer at Mela Mela Vintage are certainly one-off, as is the atmosphere. We play music from

1920s

RESIDENTS JOUrNAL

1930s

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1980s

Mela Mela Vintage, 74 High Street, Teddington TW11 8JD, 020 8943 2432 (melamela.co.uk)
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Illustrations by Joanna Gilbert

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different eras on shufe for a more entertaining experience, she says, smiling. Its certainly an effective tool; walking into the boutique feels a little like stepping back in time, in the best possible way. The boutique stocks clothing, jewellery and accessories from the 1920s to the 1980s everything from summer dresses to winter coats. We have a couple of Victorian bits and a few dresses from 1910, but we mostly start from the 20s and 30s, says Mel. As a rule, Ive stopped buying so many dresses from those periods, because people dont really want to spend that kind of money. We have got a collection of scrumptious 20s things that were about to restore though I cant wait for those to go into the shop. Although the majority of Mels stock is day-to-day wear, Mela Mela does carry an exquisite line of vintage wedding dresses. We have some Edwardian ones at the moment, she enthuses, they are stunning. Ive always been an admirer of vintage and think it looks amazing when people are dedicated to the look, but Ive never thought I could make it work in the real world. However, after spending just a few minutes with Mel in her beautiful store I nd myself modelling 1970s sun hats, trying to pull off pointybreasted bathing suits, drooling over handmade 1950s petticoats, and even considering changing my name to Evelyn. I ask Mel what her advice would be to a vintage rookie like myself. Come in to the shop and talk to the girls, she recommends. You just need to try on one thing, and from that we can gauge what will suit you, what size youll need and what colour looks best. There are different sizes and cuts for each era, so sizing can be difcult. You can have two people the same modern size but different shapes, and a dress will look amazing on one, and hideous on the other. Exploring the store, Im dubious that Ill ever squeeze into the tiny-waisted 1950s dresses. Seeing my worried look, Mel laughs. We do have friendly sizes too. She points out a few options more likely to t my size 12 gure. A lot of vintage clothing is quite small because women were generally smaller in those days, but thats not true across the board. I heave a sigh of relief and head immediately for the changing room. Looking at the calibre of Mels collection, its not surprising that her stock is in demand from wardrobe outtters of stage and screen. We rarely get credited for providing costumes, she says, but its amazing to see our things out there. The English National Opera has just bought a lot of stuff for its new production of Cos Fan Tutte which is being set in the 1950s. Weve featured in TV series like Downton Abbey and Foyles War I even provided some hideous shirts for The Inbetweeners and weve also dressed people for the BAFTAs and the Oscars over the years. Do period dramas help people understand vintage, I ask. Some people still dont really

understand what we are and how vintage works, says Mel. Im still gobsmacked by some of the things people ask for example, if we have things in different sizes, or colours. Well, no! Everything we sell is a one-off. Buying vintage is like buying couture, she tells me. Its the fabrics that make it, the style, the cut, the attention to detail, in the necklines, pin tucks, the waist; its the little nishes. I nd it all very exciting, even now. Preparing to wrap up our chat (so I can spend more time browsing), I ask Mel about her ambitions for the store. My goal is to try and get people to wear a bit of vintage every day, she says, with passion. I think these days were a a throwaway society: we buy cheap, and then when it falls apart, we throw it away and replace it. I think in the future there will be a struggle for everyday vintage wear, like we sell here at Mela Mela. The couture of today might end up in vintage shops of the future, but Im not sure how much contemporary high-street fashion is worth saving. Considering what Ive seen in the boutique this afternoon, I think its a shame that future generations may not have the same experience. I mentally search through my own wardrobe and realise that there are few things that would be worth handing down to my daughters or granddaughters. Im beginning to understand the lure of vintage; the need to preserve something irreplaceable but given this, I still cant gure out why boutiques like Mels are not more popular. People often disregard vintage as being merely second-hand, Mel explains. They shouldnt. They need to look further; vintage is part of our history, part of our heritage. Its a way for us to leave something beautiful behind long after were gone. n

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1970s