About Us

Andrea Alexa Vintage is a sustainable fashion company and podcast forum on fashion and health curated and moderated by Andrea Alexa Smith. Andrea identifies genius in fashion design and sources a collection of sustainable fashion which include rare and exceptional new, recent and vintage pieces from runway, editorial, haute couture, archival iconic campaigns and shows. Interested in fashion that can last a lifetime, pieces are hand-picked for timeless design and style, quality, construction, utility, innovation, technology and comfort that are meant to endure. 

Andrea’s podcast, GENIUS DESIGN TRANSCENDS TIME: “Where Fashion and Health Connect” brings together leaders from around the globe in all fields in sports, science, medicine, business, politics, law, music and fashion for a forum on fashion and health. 

Andrea worked in the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Protocol and The Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood services as an intern during her University years and later became Campaign Office Manager, for the Re-elect Mayor Willie Brown campaign. During her years at the Mayor’s office, hosting dignitaries, presidents and V.I.P.’S, Andrea observed and learned how dressing including adornments often communicated a very clear or sometimes subtle deliberate message influencing perception, and often outcomes, especially during the election process. 

This furthered her interest in the impact fashion has on individual health and wellbeing-fashion’s influence on perception, performance, communication and purpose, and its importance in the political and military fields, and its role in individual, community and global health.

Andrea’s philanthropic work included Roots of Peace, a nonprofit aimed at worldwide landmine elimination and sustainable agriculture, founded in honor of the Late Princess Diana. There she identified and facilitated a strategic partnership with Hermes of Paris, one of the largest privately held fashion companies at that time whom shared a great love for the natural world. Andrea was part of the delegation to Washington D.C. with Roots of Peace and Physicians for Human Rights to lobby Congress for a ban and elimination of landmines worldwide. 

Andrea's interest in fashion and health continued when studying her family history. Her grandfather, Col. Ridgway Pancoast Smith Jr., was winner of the 1935 Penthalon Championship at West Point and rescued and raised 2 lions as pets. The protégé of Omar Bradley, he was editor of the Pentagon newspaper Stars and Stripes in Germany. His cousin, General Matthew Bunker Ridgway, was captain of the West Point football team, headed the 82nd Airborne Division, D-DAY, Operation Overlord, jumping with his troops in what turned the tides of our allied nations forever and later Chief of Staff of the US Army, Supreme Allied Commander of Europe, and Korean War strategist. Both lay to rest at Arlington and descend in an almost uninterrupted male line from the Kingdom of Mercia, Lady Godfric (Godiva) and Earl Leofric, she built Coventry, he was Grand Master of the Freemasons and Superintended the construction of Westminster Abbey and the enigmatic Earls Edwin (descended from) and Morcar, whom rode north to protect their sister Ealdgyth, the twice widowed Queen and all of the descendants whose lands were fully restored after the conquest to more recently Sir Thomas Ridgway, Ist Earl of Londonderry, MP, Devon, whom escorted his friend King James VI of Scotland who became King James I of England, carried the effigy of Queen Elizabeth I, was reason for The Form of Apologies and Satisfaction, was Treasurer of Ireland and Treasurer of Wars of Ireland and fought on the house floor against the use of guns on animals.

Their grit, drive, leadership, performance, and military prowess, seeking autonomy and a higher purpose, service to humanity and animals spanned generations as well as physical qualities-long limbs and wing spans, sportsmanship, longevity, often golden hair with a touch or red, inspired countless artists, authors and cinematographers including Lewis Carrol and Walt Disney in the opening scene of Alice and Wonderland, J.R.R. Tolkien (the Midlands), Jane Austen (Hamstall-Ridware, William De Ridware and Lady Cassandra Ridgway and Sir Franics Willoughby whom had Cassandra Willoughby, Duchess of Chandos, for whom Austin’s mother is named), and Christopher Nolan who used Wollaton, as the ancestral home of Bruce Wayne in The Dark Knight Rises. The new book release Faith, Politics and Grand Design, Tor Abbey, by Michael Rhodes, showcases a Ridgway ancestral home and abbey on the English Riviera. The regal, military, and cinematic dress often portrayed in historical accounts such as those by Orderic Vitalis and William de Jumieges, took form in the real world in their behavior, actions and achievements. 

The Pancoast family of medical veterans descend from the Maulverers of Ayton Manor and Allerton Castle, Yorkshire and include Joseph Pancoast, surgeon and author; William Pancoast, the first surgeon to successfully artificially inseminate a woman resulting in a live birth and the surgeon called upon to diagnose Mary Todd Lincoln after the assassination of Abraham Lincoln; and Henry Kunrath Pancoast, the first professor of radiology in the United States. (See: Pancoast Era, University of Pennsylvania)

Susan Rotch Ridgway endowed the first professorship of surgery at University of Pennsylvania, after her husband and orthopedic surgeon Dr. John Rhea Barton. The Lady Frances Ridgway hospital in Sri Lanka is the largest children’s hospital in the world and offers free healthcare for all children under the Ministry of Health. Villa de Ridgway in Pau, France was used as a hospital for WWI relief efforts and Hotel Ridgway, the Ridgway family residence in Paris, France was donated for use as the American Relief Clearing House for WWI relief. 

The Ridgway Library in Pennsylvania was originally built by Dr. James Rush, in honor of his wife Phoebe Ridgway to house and fire-proof medical books. They were laid to rest there with a tribute to their parents Dr. Benjamin Rush, considered to be the father of American Psychiatry and Occupational Therapy and Jacob Ridgway, founder of Ridgway, Pennsylvania. The building is now the Philadelphia High School for the Creative and Performing Arts. (CAPA)

Art and sports flows through the veins of the Ridgway blood.  In 1858 Emily Ridgway, also a patron of the arts, and daughter of John Jacob Ridgway married Etienne De Ganay.  Their son Jean De Ganay took part in the transformation of Longchamp racecourse. Today the Prix de Ridgway and Prix de Ganay are annual races in the south of France.

https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_de_Ganay_(1861-1948)

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10183320/Jean-Louis-de-Ganay.html