Creator Mina Le on Vintage Clothing and the Importance of Sustainability in Fashion
In an exclusive interview with L’Officiel Singapore, Mina Le chats about vintage fashion and the effects of the popularisation of fashion amongst Gen Zs.
Known for her fashion video essays on her YouTube channel, fashion creator Mina Le uses her platform as a means to discuss vintage fashion and its influence on pop culture. From Disney films to costume reviews, her informative, long-form videos touch on trending aesthetics and their effects on society at large.
Amassing over a million subscribers on YouTube and 228k followers on Instagram, her perspective on sustainable fashion has reached a new generation of Gen Zs trying to do better through fashion.
Below, we speak to Mina regarding her thoughts on vintage fashion permeating the modern fashion landscape, and her hopes for the industry.
Tell us a bit about your personal style.
I would say my personal style is pretty eclectic in the sense that I collect a lot of different vintage pieces from all different types of eras and I like to mix and match them. I do wear some new pieces as well that I also like to mix and match. In general, I would describe my style to be romantic. I like a lot of lace, tulle and floral patterns. Plus, white colours, dresses and skirts, and corsets too.
What about vintage fashion do you love so much?
I love the hunt. Honestly, I love that you never know what you're going to find when you go into a vintage store and you can end up walking away with the coolest piece you've ever seen. It's a very unique shopping experience and I feel a lot of clothes back then were tailored better. And that's a really important thing for me because I want to rewear my clothes and have my clothes last as long as possible. I've noticed the quality of clothing that's made these days, particularly with fast fashion, tends to be very low. Clothes were made better then, which is also why I love vintage fashion.
In addition to your current style, which modern aesthetic or style would you adopt?
I don't really like to follow aesthetics, which sounds like I’m a "pick me" girl, trying to be unlike other girls. But the times when I have been interested in an aesthetic, I also get out of it very quickly. With aesthetics, there's always going to be something that I like and something that I don't. I have to change myself so much to fit into this one style and buy all these different types of new clothes. Then after two months, I realise that this is not me. So then I disengage from that. But I do enjoy elements of certain aesthetics. I have a soft spot for balletcore, regencycore and cottagecore because those are romantic styles and because my personal style gears more towards that. Those styles are more in line with what I have, but I try not to be so into them that I can't branch out and explore other things if my heart so desires. As for designers, I love Simone Rocha. I also like Vivienne Westwood, particularly vintage Vivienne Westwood, and Molly Goddard as well.
How do you think vintage fashion imbues itself into modern-day fashion and culture?
Trends are always cyclical. Right now, I would say we're going through a '60s or '70s revival and we see a lot of different kinds of mod silhouettes coming back such as platform shoes. They're not, of course, copy-paste from the '70s but they're definitely inspired. And I think what's really great about the internet now is that Gen Zs and millennials, in particular, can look on Pinterest at what people wore in the '70s. You can, in a way, get more inspiration for something that is on-trend. Many designers take inspiration from vintage fashion too. There's a lot of inspiration in history so I think vintage has always been an important part all throughout the 20th and 21st centuries. Now, it has become more accessible for average people like you and me, to go and do the research ourselves and to get a better understanding of fashion, rather than having that information be gatekept by elitists.
There's also less of a stigma now. For a while in the 20th century, if you shopped vintage, it was signalling that you didn’t have money because you had to buy past seasons' clothing. But now it's definitely trendier to be more sustainable and to give life to older clothes, rather than have those old clothes be shipped off to a landfill somewhere. Attitudes towards wearing vintage clothes have actually changed a lot. The only downside of that is that I've noticed vintage clothing has gotten a lot more expensive because demand is higher. There are many more people who realise that it is a profitable business and so they're all raising their prices together because demand is increasing. So that's my only negative takeaway from the comeback of vintage.
Your videos on YouTube, especially in the past couple of months, have been more focused on "Aesthetic Breakdowns". Can you talk us through your fascination with spotting trends?
For fashion history, the thing that I love the most is not even necessarily the design and the artistry behind the clothes that were made. But the cultural meanings for why people liked this particular silhouette or why this designer rose to prominence. I think that's always very interesting. Aesthetics are, for better or for worse, what is dominating fashion culture at the moment. I know many people have a distaste for aesthetic categorisation. I do, too, feel that it's an unsustainable framework to get into fashion because it's all very trendy. You have to, again, buy completely new closets if you really want to commit to an aesthetic. So I don't think it's the most ethical framework. But I do think that people tend to brush off aesthetics just as the new big thing. I'm always interested in the “why”. We don't just exist in a vacuum, trends don't just pop up for no reason. There are certain movements in society that propel one aesthetic to rise above the others. I'm interested in that. And I'm hoping that people come to learn why fashion is so tied to cultural movements and our social movements.
You spoke of learning about social and cultural movements, and your videos on YouTube are often grounded in academic fashion literature. How do you think that sets you apart from other YouTubers?
I try not to think about what differentiates me from other people, because virtually since I started on YouTube, I've gotten so much love and support from other YouTubers in the fashion community. I really got my start because Tessa, from ModernGurlz on YouTube, promoted my first video on her channel. That was back in 2020, and the video was discussing the costume design in the film 'Atonement', which was so niche. She had been following me on Instagram, and when she saw that I made a YouTube video, she promoted it. That was just really sweet of her. Similarly, with everyone else in the fashion community on YouTube, I think it's a very collaborative atmosphere. It's not very competitive at all. We all just want each other to succeed. So I try not to think, “I need to offer something so different because I have to be the best.” By virtue of being who I am, I'm offering something that is innately different from other people. Just like how Tessa's offering is innately her, and how what Luke, who runs HauteLeMode, is doing is innately him. We've all done an 'Emily in Paris' fashion review. We all have our different takes on it, just because we're all different people and we all have different backgrounds regarding how we got into fashion, and our own perspectives. I think YouTube is a lovely space where long-form really champions individuality that you might not necessarily get on Instagram from a static post, for instance. And that's why I love YouTube.
As evidenced by the popularity of your videos and other fashion creators on YouTube, the interest in fashion has been growing exponentially. How do you think the mounting popularisation of fashion will change the field?
From what I've noticed, fashion commentary has been definitely growing. I'm hoping that with the rise of fashion commentary, it's going to see the rise of sustainability and not just people buying things because they want to buy whatever is trendiest. Hopefully, people will actually take the time to understand why they might like something, and why something that is on-trend is not always going to be something you like and that's totally okay. You don't have to wear something you don't like. You don’t have to try to wear wide-leg jeans if you know you love skinny jeans.
Also, with the way that vintage is operating, it's allowing for this breakdown of trends where people can say, “I'm not cheugy, I'm just 2014-core.” I think fashion has become more diversified in that sense where there are clear trends, but people are leaning towards what they want for themselves or things that are not necessarily the dominant, mainstream fashion style. I think that's really important not just for a sustainability front, but also for feeling like yourself and not just following what companies want you to.
What do you hope to see more of from the fashion community on YouTube and the fashion field in general?
For the fashion industry, sustainability is always going to be my number one issue. The amount of waste that companies produce is abysmal and climate change is, unfortunately, a big problem. I’ve come to this position where I do think individuals do need to care, but at the end of the day, it's companies that need to pull their weight because they pollute substantially more than US consumers do in a year. I'm hoping that sustainability will continue to be a conversation – that instead of greenwashing, as many companies do, they'll actually get on it and try to make a difference. I do also think there are avenues for change. One of my friends, her name is Jazmine, runs this Instagram account called ThatCurlyTop. She calls herself a climate optimist and she's all about trying to bring sustainability into fashion. She went to Copenhagen recently for a sustainability conference. So I do think there are people out there doing the work, but it comes down to governments caring and compelling companies to abide by laws that are in the favor of everyone, for the environment.
So is that what you hope to achieve with your YouTube channel – focusing more on sustainability?
In the long run, that's where I want my own activism to take me. But I'm always cautious to talk too much about sustainability because I don't feel I'm the most knowledgeable about it, and I don't want to spread any kind of misinformation. But I definitely want to emphasise sustainability and cautious consumerism continuously in my videos.
