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 early noughties.

Dot Comme at Curtin House, Melbourne, is a treasure trove for vintage fashion.

Other stops included visiting the online business Playful, in Tokyo, where a large team prepares designer goods to ship around the world. And there wouldn’t be many stores as difficult to find as the Archive Store in Shibuya, Tokyo, where the basement showcases museum-quality designer clothing, with prices to match. For those willing to invest in collectable vintage fashion, the prices are impressive.

However, those not prepared to travel to Japan to discover these vintage treasures can pop in to Dot Comme at Curtin House in Swanson Street, Melbourne.

Otto La Rosa, who owns Dot Comme on levels three and four, would have to have one of the most valuable and extensive collections – with many pieces not for sale. The business is loosely divided between the more ready-to-wear and the runway pieces, the latter sometimes not going into production and therefore a one-off design.

There’s a bomber jacket with camouflaged-patterned side panels and olive satin sleeves for Comme des Garcon’s Autumn Winter collection of 2017, selling for $540. If you’re prepared to pay more, there’s a black velvet Yohji Yamamoto jacket with a red leather appliqued rose just above the top pocket.

For those looking for an evening dress, there’s Junya Watanabe’s ‘Superimposed Dress’. This black silk crepe and satin pleated dress, priced at $780 (includes GST) and from the Autumn Winter collection of 2019, is, according to La Rosa “about a third of what you’d pay for the same dress when it first appeared in a store.”

La Rosa can’t put an exact number on the clothes and accessories in his vast collection, estimating there are approximately 3500 items. One of his earliest acquisitions is a 1970s brown kimono-style coat with an estimate of between $5000 to $10,000 – although he’s not prepared to sell this one or a number of others from his stash from Belgium designer Walter Van Beirendonck (of which La Rosa has at least 500 pieces alone).