How to tell if it's vintage
These are the signs I look for - I'm sure all the vintage lovers and sellers out there can chime in with more!
Style
If you love the clothes from a particular decade, you probably spend quite a bit of your spare time researching the different styles and looking at gorgeous images. You can often recognise a vintage piece just by looking at the style of it - and after a while, you'll grow confident enough to trust your instincts.
Fabric
I wish I knew more specific information about these, so that I could give you a definitive list of which fabrics were more common when. I did find this history of textiles, however, which is pretty thorough and extensive, if you want to look up a particular fabric.
I think the best way to become familiar with the sort of fabrics used in your favourite vintage period is to visit vintage stores and have a good look at the garments you love. You will soon get a good idea of the sort of thing for which you should be looking on your thrifting expeditions. I love the brushed cottons, taffetas and tulles of the 50s, but have a pathological hatred for 70s polyester!
Quality
Vintage clothing is generally very well-made, with generous hem allowances - not like the stingy hems and seams of some high street garments today (and can I also just have a little rant about buttons sewn on with one tiny piece of thread that fall off as soon as you sneeze?).
There are also lots of handmade vintage garments out there, as it was more common for people to sew their own clothes back then. I have noticed this particularly in New Zealand and Zimbabwe - the fashions imported from Europe and America in the mid-20th Century were limited and often out of a woman's budget if she lived out in the 'colonies' (some of my British friends still joke that I'm living in the colonies ... but then I remind them that we have better weather out here and score a point that way!). You see a lot of handmade garments made from overseas patterns over here. I am particularly attached to the handmade vintage garments I find, especially if they are a perfect fit for me, as it is easy to imagine the woman who put so much love and care into the construction of the dress, and then wore it out with pride. "Oh this old thing? Just something I whipped up." I feel a real connection to that woman when I'm wearing her dress. Some people would think this is weird and creepy, but I just think it's cool.
Zipper
Items that date from before the 1950s will usually not have a zipper fastening. If the zipper is metal, then the garment probably dates from the 50s or early 60s. If the zipper is nylon, it will date from later in the century - if plastic, later still.
Label
One of the best ways! It is generally quite easy to recognise a vintage label, even if you aren't familiar with the brands - it will be in a vintage typeface, and just have 'that look' to it. I wish I could describe it better, but I'm sure you know what I mean. It will probably also be a bit faded. When you get the garment home, look up the manufacturer online - sometimes you can find really interesting information and date the garment very accurately. (Thornton & Hall and Gainsborough are the two vintage labels I come across most often here in New Zealand).
Washing Instructions
Washing care labels were only made compulsory in the 1970s. Some earlier garments will have them, but this is still a pretty good way to date a garment to the 70s or later.
This is a bit of a side-note, but I couldn't write a series of posts on thrifting without mentioning ...
Thrifting karma (also known as thrifting serendipity)
Anyone who thrifts knows about thrifting karma. You think of an item and then find the exact one on the first rail you examine in the first store you visit. You find the perfect dress in the perfect colour, and it fits as if it were made for you. I don't know why thrifting karma is so common ... Perhaps because the whole process is based on chance? Perhaps because old clothes retain a sort of personality and magic, like haunted houses? Whatever it is, there is definitely a sprinkle of fairy dust in each store, no matter how dirty and dingy, and every so often that fairy dust will do something magical for you.
I present for your edification My Favourite Thrifting Story Ever (originally posted here). My husband bought me a beautiful white 50s dress while we were on holiday in Nelson, for our anniversary. I loved it - it is still my favourite dress. A few weeks later, back in Christchurch, I visited my favourite vintage store. The dress LOML bought me is very distinctive - it was made by Juliet's of Christchurch and has a gorgeous fabric-covered button at the neckline. The first thing I saw when I walked into the vintage store was that very same button, calling to me from a rail. I had found the matching jacket! Same label, same fabric, same buttons. Turns out that the owner of the vintage store had bought the jacket in Nelson, too (but at an entirely different place from where LOML found it) several weeks before we went there. What are the odds of my going to Nelson and finding the dress, and then finding the matching jacket in an entirely different city weeks later? THRIFT KARMA. It was meant to be.
Trust in thrift karma. It comes when you least expect it, but it will work its magic for you frequently - I guarantee it.
And please add any points that I've missed in the comments! Tomorrow - cleaning and caring for vintage and thrifted garments (which I meant to get onto today and didn't).
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