Friday, December 21, 2012

How to find your perfect vintage item

By Sisi Tsoi


Vintage buying has grown to become a journey: from its plain and simple beginnings, with teenagers buying second-hand clothes because they could not afford the highstreet price, to now, where it has became a multi-million dollar enterprise, which both feeds off and motivates the general direction of the fashion industry.

For starters, precisely how have this develop? Whenever was it that we created to look after smelly outdated outfits so sincerely, and why is a 50's dress with little holes in now worthy of over $100? The answer sits in the considerable changes in fashion within the last fifteen years, along with a widely accepted feeling of 'seen all of it before' that been around towards the end of the last Millenium. High end fashion designers began to get influenced by the Great Era of Hollywood, contributing to a revival in designer brands like Prada and Gucci, with strong and revolutionary new designers reviving the 60's mod look as well as the 50's housewife style. Vintage in fact took off when Julia Roberts wore a vintage Oscar gown, and so now all sorts of things have began to make a click. The reason why would we put on all the fashion designers garments at any time is that there are plenty of deserted masterpieces from the time honored era to buy, and we can all appear original and completely new? The remaining is history, from the Olsen twins, to Reese Witherspoon, with lots of ladies of all various figure, size, background and style just about all falling over backwards for Vintage.

1. Know yourself. Firstly, for people out there who are interested, or dedicated in the hunt for vintage clothing, a piece of advice: know yourself. Know your size, measurements, and what is available, your own dislikes and what is going to be an error! Yes, so you know you are a sizing 8 in the UK, do not be misled by the antique label, because the ladies back in the old days were distinctly smaller than us. You have to know your measurements. The most important for a dress would be your bust size; for example, if you are 34C, then you should go for something that is 36 inches in bust. The reason why you should decide on something 1-2 inches larger is that clothing before the 70s had no stretch. The material called Lycra had not been invented then, so everything that you would buy in the high street, their sizes would not comply to vintage. If you are buying a vintage jumper, you have got to make certain that you measure your shoulder length, and measure your arm holes. Okay, now you have the courage to really understand and center on your figure, now lets find out what are your assets. Is your bust your best asset? Go with 50s dresses to show off your shape. Do you have a pair of remarkable pins? Search with something 60s in mind. Be ruthless, vintage can be very alluring, the thought that you potentially would own something just for yourself is very tempting indeed. But that does not mean that you can work that dress into your wardrobe easily. You have to see what kind of modern essential elements you have, and be clear about what are you looking for. Don't push yourself to bring a dead animal's coat back just because it is 'on trend'.

2. Where would you go? If you are that sort of girl who loves browsing, as well as the feeling of a chase, areas like Portobello Market and Camden Market in London are amazing for vintage. Or you might actually search for a Vintage Fair around the country.

They usually happen a couple of times a year, you can get lots of awesome finds. You can also find an amazing and unique dress that somebody has left behind in consignment retailers, mainly because often there is someone out there needing fast cash, so the discounts are available to have. Last but not least, the charity shop around the corner might just have the merchandise that you certainly might not imagine there, and precisely what a thrilling prospect to find an original Karl Lagerfeld suit in a charity shop! I had an amazing encounter finding two pairs of Manolo Blahnik shoes for 5 pounds each in a a thrift shop! That was a very good day for me, in fact, even though they may be two sizes too large, I would never toss them away.

3. Ebay hunt. I am a self confessed Ebay addict, in fact, I consider myself something of an Ebay expert! Do take your time, know your size and have a cool head. I used to buy a lot of my vintage clothing from the US, but in the UK, there are just as many goodies to find. Do not be like Reese Witherspoon back in 2006, wearing a polyester or satin looking dress from Chanel, having been told it's vintage, only to find out someone else wore it only a few years back! Do your research; for instance, if someone is saying something from the 20s is stretchy, it just would not happen as there is nothing made in the 20s with stretch in it!




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