The Vintage ‘Vantage
The secret to a chic and timeless wardrobe can be found in your local vintage shop.
“It’s vintage”, is the disappointing response you’ll get 90% of the time when you ask me where I got something I’m wearing, and can be translated in as many words as, “Thank you, yes I know it IS amazing, and unfortunately you will never find another one like it”– a statement that, like most things here in NYC, is equal parts pretentious and true.
You know those teen movie scenes where two girls who hate each other show up to something wearing the same dress, and are utterly mortified? The odds of that happening with vintage are so low that when it does happen, friendships are formed. When you spot another person with the same vintage item as you, it feels like you’re both members of a secret society, except with less culty vibes and more novelty telephone purses and printed textiles. When I met my best friend in highschool, I pointed out that we were frequently at the same punk shows and she responded “That means you have good taste”. Yeah, it’s like that.
There are more benefits to incorporating vintage into your closet than just the abject unique-ity that comes with wearing things as old as your mom out to places you’d never bring your actual mom to. Vintage has made it possible for me to sport a designer-level wardrobe on what’s frequently been a K-Mart budget, which is how I spent much of my twenties dressed like a late 1960’s trophy wife while standing in line at the dollar store to purchase discount household items, which is a mood I will hold forever in my heart.
Considering that dressing like a grandma has become all the rage in the past year, the old fear that vintage clothing can make a person look outdated or dowdy has become fairly irrelevant. With current trends taking direct inspo from the 1970’s and ‘80s, the right time to hit up your favorite online vintage shops has been now, and will continue to be forever.
Vintage has long since been the secret sauce in nearly every single bomb look I’ve ever sported. Why can’t I quit turning to these old-ass clothes in my hunger for new outfit ideas? Below are my top reasons why adding vintage into your shopping repertoire will have you killing it at the cool closet game.
Quality
Once upon a time, everyday clothes didn’t come with a warning label that said “keep away from fire”. In fact, it wasn’t until around the 1920’s that synthetic materials were introduced into commercial textiles. It was around the 1930’s and 1940’s when common synthetics of today (think nylon and polyester) had only just begun to creep into the closets of common folk. Early synthetics fabrics like dacron (an outdated word for polyester) became common by the late 1960’s, but with clothing industry still located within the country of origin, the quality standards were higher allowing the clothing from these eras to withstand time, which is why there are so many well-loved vintage pieces from the past century still in circulation today. What does this mean? Vintage pieces have lasted this long already, and with proper care and storage, they’ll continue to stick around making for less textile waste and more unique ensembles. Winner winner [sustainably harvested] chicken dinner.
Craftsmanship
My biggest style secret has always been that buying vintage is the closest one can get to designer clothing without having to pay the price. Back in the day, even the minimum standards of clothing design included details like lining, pockets, buttons, and embellishments. Items like pants and skirts were often made with excess fabric at the hem (psst– that’s the bottom edge of the garment). This made the pieces easy to tailor to fit the person wearing them– a formality back when most women were brought up with sewing skills (something we should all know how to do regardless of gender, amirite). When shopping vintage, go for lush and unique textiles, and look for details like functional pockets or decorative elements to take your look into expensive territory.
Price
Surprising as it might be to hear, I actually don’t think that vintage should be sold cheap. In my experience, we seldom care for things we deem of little value, which means teenage Stella ruined multiple cool vintage items back in the day with botched customization ideas, and a healthy dose of sweaty punk shows. I guess what I’m trying to say is, most vintage available in the world is going for prices that are still lower than what it might be worth if it were new today. Vintage is not fast fashion after all, which makes paying between $30 and $300 for a range of lovely and quality pieces a pretty sweet deal. You can build an impressive vintage wardrobe without maxing out your credit card if you know where to look: Etsy, vintage sellers on instagram, and right here are all good places to start.
Uniqueness
I said it before and I’ll say it again– vintage clothing is the way to go if you want to stand out from the crowd. I love to mix modern trends in with vintage statement pieces because I know that nobody else will be able to replicate the look. If anything, it will only inspire further ideas about how to pair items in our closets and encourage people to have more fun with getting dressed, which if you haven’t yet gathered, is kind of what I’m all about.
Inspiration
Finally, wearing vintage doesn’t always mean you need to look old fashioned. Trends exist on a cycle, and designers recycle old ideas each season calling upon past decades to drum up fresh concepts for collar cuts, pant styles, and shoe designs . Instead of lamenting over not being able to afford the gorgeous separates that lines like Prada and Gucci are sending down the runway, try sweeping the vintage section of Ebay for the styles you’re seeing like “puff sleeve”, “pleated skirt”, or “square toe shoe”. You’ll not only find something that no one else has, you’ll likely end up with something much nicer than whatever you could have picked up from H&M.
What piece of vintage has become a favorite in your closet? Describe it below and tell us why it’s special. Got a friend who could use a few vintage shopping pointers? Share this article via the links below.
