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My First Time ... Hearing My Clothes Called ‘Vintage’

A woman’s beautiful ball gowns from years past find an unexpected new admirer

Cindy Chupack,

AARP

Published October 04, 2024

Cindy Chupack smiling, standing in front of a TV promo billboard

Gregg DeGuire/Getty Images

During a closet purge of clothes that, at 54, I wasn’t ever going to be young or thin enough to wear again, I decided to sell some dresses on consignment. As a TV writer, I’d amassed a collection of floor-length designer gowns for various black-tie events. Once a friend who was shopping with me for an Emmy dress asked the saleswoman, “Don’t you have anything fabulous in the back?” — and she reappeared with a couture Christian Lacroix strapless, hand-beaded gown that had only just been delivered to the store. Sold!

That Christian Lacroix and several other silky treasures were in the body-sized bag I unzipped at the consignment shop, expecting the clerk to ooh and aah as my dates had when I had first worn the garments. Instead, she took one quick look and said, “We don’t take vintage.”

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Excuse me? I thought. I bought these new! And not that long ago!

But then I did the math. “Not that long ago” turned out to be about 25 years, back when I worked on the original Sex and the City. (Saying you worked on the “original” anything dates you, I suppose.) I sheepishly took my treasures home and stuck them back in the closet.

Then one day recently, I found my preteen daughter and her friend oohing and aahing and twirling in front of a mirror in two of my gowns, cinched in to fit with hair clamps. I recognized the feeling. In those dresses, I had always felt a little like a princess playing dress-up. But I also realized that those frocks are badges of honor — proof that my work and I were worth splurging on and celebrating. Sure, they may be “vintage,” but the dresses represent pride in a job well done, a pride I was able to share with my child. That kind of opportunity never goes out of style.

Author, producer and director Cindy Chupack has won two Emmys and three Golden Globes. Her work includes such shows as Sex and the City, Modern Family, Everybody Loves Raymond and Fleishman Is in Trouble. Her website is cindychupack.net.