‘THE VEST IS HISTORY’: AN INSTALLATION CURATED BY MINT Friday 16th December 2011

NEW DALSTON SPACE HIGHLIGHTS CONSUMERISM CONSUMING ITSELF
73 STOKE NEWINGTON HIGH STREET, N16 8EL 16TH DEC 2011 – 5TH JAN 2012
mintvintage.co.uk

What’s your take on the loss of cigarette advertising or the demise of Super-8 film…and would anyone turn back time to swap cloud mixes for phonograph records?

A new interactive space takes a tongue-in-cheek look at the pace of change, the impact of technology and mass-production. Does design suffer or, as we age, are we just suffering from resistance and design-sentimentality?

Soon to evolve itself, into the new chapter of MINT – the Seven Dials emporium famous for trend-led and fashion-forward vintage – ‘The Vest is History’ will run from 16th December until 5th January.

Its floor carpeted with the ‘leaves’ of decommissioned books, victims of a dwindling print industry, the Vest is History features design classics for sale such as a Bultaco Sherpa 250 motorbike, as favored by Steve McQueen, and an evolving calendar of fashion, music, film & art events.

Highlights include:

Smoking trolleys: in the near future fag packets will be strictly unbranded and below the counter. But once upon a time, cigarette advertising could be slapped on the supermarket carts. Two limited edition prints showing 70’s prototypes for a John Player Special branded cart, and one dedicated to the more family-shop-friendly Kellog’s, will be available (run of 1 x A0 and run of 10 x A2) priced from £150 – £1,000 per pair.

Gramaphone juke-box: The first device for recording and playing back sound, invented by Edison in 1877. Every Thursday during ‘The Vest is History’ relics from the 1920s art Nouveau era will be wound by local guest DJ’s including Emily Rawson1 (rockthebelles.com) at the 15th Dec launch. Plus BYO 78’s and take over the weekend playlist for The Vest is History.

A homage to the humble string vest: The largest vintage collection of this design classic available in London, including: basket-ball style, 30s & 40s undergarments, cropped roller-girl (an 80’s trend started by Madonna’s ‘Like a Virgin’). All 100% cotton, no two designs are the same – a snip at £8 each while stocks last.

The Super-8 cinema, in collaboration with straight 82 (straight8.net): The Vest is History’s 8-seater screening room will be showing random docu-movies of ordinary life made on 8mm Kodak (the ‘raw’ look predecessor to video, popular between 1965 and 1980). straight 8 feature nights will include their best-of competition entries, as seen at Cannes Film Festival over the years. Plus ‘adult-only’ selections and BYO private screenings.

The ‘key to life’ raffle: an ideas exchange with each £2 donation going to Amnesty International, now celebrating 50 years of the movement. Scribble down what ‘the key to life’ means to you and exchange it for a vintage key bearing someone elses’s statement. The best re-tweeted message wins a pair of limited edition trolley prints from The Vest is History.

The space has been curated by MINT owner James Wright who comments:

‘The Vest is History will reacquaint you with a few lost-classics of the fashion, music, film and art worlds; whether you view change as positive or negative in each of the stories, we are simply trying to say that everything we consume must be considered.’

website: thevestishistory.com facebook: MintVintage twitter: @mint_vintage