Many friends and people i meet often ask me 'what is vintage?' which got me thinking of how i define what is and isn't vintage, so here's a few of my thoughts.
In general, many people would say anything between 20 and 100 years old is vintage, anything older than 100 years then becomes 'Antique'. Antique items of clothing are mainly collectors items and the delicate and aged fabrics would not survive if worn. There is also debate as to whether clothes in the 90's are classed as vintage, and for the majority i'd say are borderline. However some early 90's puffy dresses (which are now 30 years old!) look fantastic and men's flannel shirts from the early 90's grunge scenes look great with today's re found love for skinny jeans. Over 8 decades of fashion gives you so many styles to inspire you from 50's circle skirts to 70's bold prints!
But what distinguishes something from being just old clothes from something vintage? Some may say designer labels, for some anything goes. In my opinion vintage fashion is anything that was iconic enough for people to deem worthy of being resurrected and worn with pride! Style is, in my mind, quite a personal thing as what is one persons individual style is not necessarily anothers so who can really 'pigeon hole' what is vintage fashion and what is not? because as they say..... beauty is in the eye of the beholder!
Kate
