When two savvy fashion folk and a former investment banker-turned-serious-financial-director get together and think they have got something to shout about, it's wise to listen. Lucille Lewin, after all, is the woman who with her husband Rick founded and ran the fashion chain Whistles (bought by Baugur); Belinda Morris is a respected fashion journalist; and I had only to see a picture of the financial director, Clare Nicholls, looking divine in a 1960s vintage pink-beaded Yves Saint Laurent evening dress to know that here was somebody who knew about quality.

What they've done between them is to sense that there is a mood to shop and dress differently - and to come up with a plan to help us do it. They've realised, like the rest of us, that the day of the £1,000 must-have handbag is over. So too, if we're not in our teens, is the day of the cheap, cheerful, throwaway little number (why bother?). What they sense is that women not only want to buy different things - pieces that have meaning, that come with a history, that were made with love, skill and care and have an inherent quality - but also want to shop in other ways.

That's why they have come up with an online vintage shop-cum-networking-cum-information-sharing website. It's called Vintage Academe (www.vintageacademe.com) and while it officially launches on Monday you can get a good preview of what it's all about by logging on today.

It all started when Clare Nicholls came upon that Yves Saint Laurent dress at one of Kerry Taylor's “Passion for Fashion” auctions (www.kerrytaylorauctions.com) and bought it, in an admittedly bedraggled state, for just £360. She loved the dress for its “vibrant beadwork, eye-popping colour, beautiful construction and unquestionable heritage”. She had it restored (by Janie Lightfoot, a specialist textile restorer: 020-8963 1532) and so began her love affair with couture and the first stirrings of the idea for Vintage Academe.

Vintage Academe sells mostly vintage couture by the big grand names (Yves Saint Laurent, Christian Dior, Balenciaga, Lanvin) but it has some things that are old yet with a more humble provenance - for instance, a ravishing little 1980s black silk taffeta dress from Designing Woman, of Oxford, for £250. It also has vintage jewellery (anyone after a 1930s Schiaparelli blue Lucite set of necklace, bracelet, brooch and earrings for £800?) and accessories such as crocodile handbags, some Chinese silk shawls or anything else that takes the fabulous eye of Lucille or Clare. Most of the clothes are not cheap. The piece that I'm lusting after is a fabulous body-con Thierry Mugler black gabardine dress for £850. These clothes have already stood the test of time and if they're still desirable today, they won't lose their charm overnight. In particular the site is a fantastic source of that wonderfully useful garment - the opera or evening coat. There are some seriously glamorous ones for sale. Remember: you'll only ever need one; just make sure that it's perfect and it'll last you all your life. Look into the details - things such as the buttonholes, the seamings, the linings - and you will begin to understand the charm of real couture.

All these things Vintage Academe wants to celebrate, preserve - and sell on. Most of the clothes come in British size 8 to 14. The website makes the buying of vintage couture easy, which is why prices aren't rock bottom. If you have got the energy you could go to auctions and buy more cheaply yourself. You can also trawl the vintage shops up and down the country, but remember, as always, that just because its couture it doesn't necessarily mean it will flatter you. Choose carefully, and if in doubt Vintage Academe can arrange for you to see things in the cloth, so to speak, and to try them on first.

Though Belinda and Clare first hatched the idea over tea at Claridge's (Earl Grey for Belinda, mint for Clare), they recruited Lucille Lewin, a former creative director of Liberty, for her vast retail experience and she's now “eye in chief” and chairman. Their ideas chimed with everything that she had been feeling - a sense that it was hard to find real craftsmanship in modern clothing. “Quality and value had been lost but that these things could still be found in vintage couture,” Lucille says. But more than simply selling, she says, the website is also about that new sense many women have of “wanting not just to shop but to network, to share their discoveries with each other, to become excited again about wonderful workmanship and quality and to rescue, restore and recycle”. Social networking websites are the way lots of women want to shop these days. It all tied together.

According to Clare, Vintage Academe sees itself as a rallying point. “It's for those who appreciate the art of couture and for whom the process of discovery and individuality is as important as the label.‘Academes' or salons will be held at stylish venues on a regular basis to allow clients to view and try on the pieces, preview new ‘finds' and meet the people involved. Eminent personalities in their own fields will speak on luxurious and enticing topics.”

There's a nice, slightly jokey, witty tone to the writing on the site. “Fashion, after all,” Clare says, “is a fun, light-hearted subject.” And there is some fabulous advice on caring for clothes as well as a corner that sells everything you need to keep the moths at bay (liners or sachets for drawers, cashmere storage bags, anti-moth candles).

If you want to be part of it you'll have to keep tabs on the website - watch out for the first big “salon”. Plans are for it to be held in Paris next year just when Christie's holds its huge sale of Yves Saint Laurent's belongings - a sale that is already obsessing tout Paris.

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