Not only was Cameron Silver, owner of hip L.A. vintage boutique Decades, sold out of nearly every vintage gown he owned by week's end, he played host to the Emanuel Ungaro haute couture collection at the boutique, and gave trunk shows for both Benjamin Cho and Imitation of Christ.

The Fear Factor

Renée Zellweger chose vintage Dessés for last year's Oscars, and when she isn't doing the red carpet in couture designed for her, Nicole Kidman has frequently gone the vintage route.

In fact,  two looks that continue to receive a lot of play in magazines are the Loris Azarro from the New York premier of "Moulin Rouge," and the red name chinoiserie she later wore at Cannes. Both cam from Decades in Los Angeles. Cameron Silver, owner of the Melrose Avenue shop and its in-store installment at Barneys New York in Manhattan, watched his stock of vintage party dresses well out this week. So many starlets personally turned up at his Melrose Avenue store that, in order to protect their privacy, he had to deny access to members of the media he knew were on the prowl for dish.

"A lot of people who've never considered vintage have purchased it or pulled it this week because they know it will be exclusive to them," said Silver, who also found the label-less black vintage couture Marisa Tomei wore to this year's Globes. "It's especially true with people not going to the Oscars but to the after-parties like Vanity Fair's. There, they're competing with that many more dresses."

With that in mind, he and his team try to keep tabs through conversations with their customers as to whether dresses of a similar color or style might end up at the same event. The best part, incidentally, is that when a dress leaves Silver's store, it's paid for." The smart stars," he noted, "are keeping vintage in their closets in case the loaner dress doesn't work out." There are still others who simply go only a few years back in the chances that the rest of their peers are only obsessed with current or future seasons.