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Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Youtube: How to Tell if It's Vintage

Let's talk about dating clothes! It can be daunting to try and thrift for vintage or shop for vintage online when you are just starting out. Here are some things you can look for when shopping for vintage.

4 comments:

  1. Great tips and tricks for telling vintage! I recently bought a 30s dress and honestly wasn't paying that much attention to it when I first received it (got distracted) and when I went to really look at it, I noticed a bunch of serged edges, I'm sure it was 90's. Oh well, I'm sure many of us have fallen for this. It was kind of too late to return as it had been a few weeks. I have no idea why I let this one slip through the cracks:) But, it did teach me to really look at a garment when I very first get it. BTW, I love your little birdy chirping in the background:)
    You know one thing I quite like about old vintage dresses/suits is when they do the "x" stitch around the labels. What is the oldest garment you own? I'd love to see you talk about the detailed work on this. I'm so interested in the inner construction of these vintage garments.
    I had no idea rayon came from bamboo, really interesting.

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    1. I do have a 1930s dress and what I believe is a 1920s evening coat so maybe I'll have to do some more show and tell.:)

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  2. Great video! One of the best I have seen so far. It is hard to really cover everything to look out for, there are so many exceptions.

    A few extra notes for people who are interested: They started putting care labels in because of all the new fibers, it was getting hard for people to know how to care for their garments. Before that, care instructions where often given, but on the sales tags or in a little folder. Serging was around since the late 1800s, but mostly only used on things that frayed heavily or got a lot of friction from the body like (knit) swimsuits (I have a late 20s swimsuit that is fully serged). The serging will look slightly different though, pre-60s the stitches are usually smaller than today. Also, zippers are often replaced, so having a plastic zipper in what you think might be a 40s garment is possible, you will usually be able to see whether a zipper is original to the dress.

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  3. Really wonderful tips and video, honey. I think that just about anyone on earth, even those with an incredible degree of knowledge when it comes to dating clothing, could be duped/mistaken (about an item's age) on rare occasions - especially if you're buying online and can't see/hold the piece in person first.

    There have been a couple of times over the years when I saw a garment listed (for example) as being from the 50s, but I clearly knew it was from the 80s, but because the price was so reasonable, I bought it. And vice versa, I've had the flip side happen. I knew a garment was older than the seller thought and got a great deal on it because they weren't aware of the true age of a piece.

    ♥ Jessica

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