Vintage fashion remains in high demand – with people wanting a slice of history as much as reducing the need for additional landfill. And while some valuable designer items can be discovered by chance in the odd secondhand or vintage store, buyers in the know readily pay hefty prices for clothes and accessories designed by Yohji Yamamoto, Comme des Garcons, Junya Watanabe and others.

In Japan, from where this writer has just returned, the mission was in part to discover great archival vintage fashion. There was a one-hour train trip from Osaka to La Grande Leu. Up some dodgy stairs in a grimy warehouse, the showroom opened to racks of Yohji Yamamoto clothes from the 1990s to the........

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