What is neo-vintage?
With a show-not-tell approach, this is the question that Jimmy Vargas and Lady Medusa’s book, Vilioti Vintage (2022), seeks to answer via interviews with twenty luminaries from the retro and vintage scenes. Per Vargas’ introduction, Vilioti Vintage is not a retrospective but instead a look to the contemporaries of vintage who seek to recreate it through different means. In its representation of neo-vintage, Vilioti Vintage casts a wide net, not just across occupations (artists, designers, musicians, photographers, pinups, publishers, et al.) but geographically (United States, Australia, England, Germany, Indonesia, and others), for its featured subjects. The end result is a resource that hits upon all the different avenues regardless of approach to the neo-vintage subculture.
The interviews begin with Scotty Morris, lead vocalist for American swing revival band Big Bad Voodoo Daddy. Morris shares his thoughts about some of the songs in the BBVD canon and talks about the importance of the movie Swingers(1996) in catapulting them (and by extension the retro scene) into greater visibility. However, with nearly three decades of being part of the music-business, it feels like Morris is reserved, or rehearsed in his answers.
The second interview is with Vegas-based burlesque performer Hazel Honeysuckle who is overt in naming her sources of inspiration. She is much more candid than Morris, talking in depth about her origins and even relating some fun anecdotes, such as when she was a guest on the Netflix series House of Cards (2013-2018).
Tom Ingram, the creator of the Viva Las Vegas festival, holds no punches and brings a candidness to his interview. While other interviewees in Vilioti Vintage name drop the folks who inspire them, Ingram takes the opposite approach of speaking about dubious business partners and other obstacles he has faced over the years. He comes across as weathered and weary of the corporate aspect of running an iconic festival, but he has definitely seen it all and exhibits his learned wisdom.
Filmmaker Chris Magee, who takes on a John Peel-esque role of presenting Americana music on his Bopflix YouTube channel, is not afraid to speak his mind on political issues. While folks in the retro and pinup scenes espouse mottos such as “vintage aesthetics not vintage values,” Magee follows through with these promises, illustrated when he talks about his drawing the line in the sand and saying a firm “no” to displaying confederate flags in music videos.
The fifth interview is with Jason Croft, founder of Bachelor Pad magazine. Croft’s observations of the retro revival happening during the 90s coincides with Morris’ recollections in one of the many displays of networkedness showcased in Vilioti Vintage. Croft’s answers come across with extreme enthusiasm and really dives into the history of Bachelor Pad. Though Vilioti Vintage mostly focuses on the noir to atomic age of vintage and retroism, Croft’s description of running a cheesecake website during the halcyon web 1.0 days adds a small element of vaporwave retroism to the book.
Croft’s interview is followed by artist Nathalie Rattner who talks in great detail about the technical aspects of creating pinup art. An interesting aspect about Rattner’s interview is her embracement of the corporatization of vintage. While Vilioti Vintage seems to take the angle that businesses swoop in on the newest trend, capitalize and cannibalize it, then move onto the next thing, (a sentiment certainly echoed with other interviewees in the publication), Rattner speaks freely of her art appearing on merchandise and advertisements and the associated boon it brings.
The next interview is with Don Spiro of Zelda Magazine, who brings in a contrasting perspective to the world of publishing when compare to Croft. While Croft’s rag seems on the up and up, Spiro talks of the death of his business partner, having to scale back Zelda to an annual publication, and how demand for his portrait work has dwindled due to the shift in models using selfies for self promotion instead of commissioning a professional.
Rockabilly musician Wes Pudsey, who has performed at Ingram’s Viva Las Vegas, brings in an Australian perspective of Americana, relating fun stories of being on tour, such as when his vehicle got stuck in a low clearance situation while in Germany.
Ken Holewczynski, publisher of Exotica Moderne and owner of House of Tabu, brings perhaps the most offbeat perspective to Vilioti Vintage. While other interviewees speak of events in their youth that set them on their retroist path, Holewczynski is fairly new to the scene having only gotten into tiki culture a few years ago. His past is with comics and industrial music, which do not tint his glasses when assessing tiki culture. It is probably this idiosyncratic background which has allowed Holewczynski to flourish and publish a high quality magazine and create desirable tiki mugs and glassware where others have faltered.
Italian burlesque star Albadoro Gala brings a continental touch with her philosophical answers. Gala has the most memorable yarn in Vilioti Vintage when she relates the tale of how she got her namesake when a crazy old lady attacked her with a knife.
Ralph Braband, owner of Rhythm Bomb Records in Germany, echoes similar sentiments of Spiro in the difficulties of running a business, starting with great highs but dealing with current world woes. He offers realist answers of how his music business has weathered Covid-19 and the actions he had to take to do so.
Hairstylist Tom Vacher offers up an amusing story from his youth of getting to the car of two strangers – a couple who were into vintage clothing and driving an old school car. He was smitten immediately with their vintage lifestyle. He follows this up with stories of operating in the hair business in both the UK and in Australia.
Marcella of the Puppini Sisters has the most bubbly interview of the lot. Like Morris, she has experienced the whirlwind of a major record label swooping in on her music and then whooshing out. Though her and her singing partners, Kate and Emma, look the pinup part with their old school aesthetic with a modern twist, Marcella is adamant that they are musicians first while style comes second.
After Marcella’s interview, Vilioti Vintage loses a bit of its steam with the next handful of interviews of Harry and Edna (radio hosts from the UK), Maryann Lant (a European rockabilly musician), Aldi_ Hydrant (Indonesian clothing designer), and Tamara Mascara (drag queen) being on generic side. The answers in these interviews are short, and lack many of the personal details that prior subjects exhibited. The folks are interesting none-the-less and offer nuggets of wisdom and insight into their craft, their responses are simply not up to the caliber of prior interviews.
Vilioti Vintage regains its footing with Beck Rustic’s interview. Rustic is the owner of the Swelltune record label in the UK. He dives into an amusing story of how his label was accidentally started when he wanted to print a commemorative vinyl of the festival he hosts only to pounced upon by music acts to become involved. He gives candid responses on the impact of social media and streaming on the music business.
Australian burlesque artist Porcelain Alice showcases the most inspiration in her interview to readers. She offers approachable advice for those who want to get into the business: there’s no qualifications required! One doesn’t need to know how to dance and there is no gatekeeper stopping someone from trying. For outsiders looking in at the retro world who might feel intimidated, Alice helps breaks those intimidating barriers down.
Vilioti Vintage ends with an interview with Natty Adams, an author and clothing designer based in New Orleans. Adams offers detailed and thoughtful answers into how he got started in his line of work and how he taps into a plethora ofhistoric eras for inspiration.
To compliment the subject matter, Vilioti Vintage bookends each interview with a series of high quality photos depicting their interviewees in their most fashionable or glamorous style. With each interview running around ten pages and the book in its entirety clocking in at around one-hundred and eighty pages, Vilioti Vintage aims for both quality and quantity. The end product of Vilioti Vintage looks to carry the torch brought about by the RE/Search publication Swing!: The New Retro Renaissance (1998) (the shout out to RE/Search in Vargas’ acknowledgments lends credibility that this was a desired outcome).
Taking the book as a whole, there is definitely reoccurring themes and observations from each interview which reinforces a complimentary nature. The interviews were conducted during the Covid-19 pandemic, so many subjects address how they operated during the dark times. There’s a philosophy to look to the past in order to deal with modern problems, and Vilioti Vintage, be it by happenstance or by design, reinforces this notion; that there is value to bring forth elements of the past and merge it with the present to create something new that lies in the realm between utility and homage. Vilioti Vintage is an invaluable resource for both appreciating and understanding the neo-vintage subculture.
More info about Vilioti Vintage can be found at its product page at The Lady Medusa & Vilioti Press website.