Thursday, March 1, 2012

Determining the Age of Vintage Treasures (Part 3)

And so I have imparted all the knowledge I have of vintage clothing labels to you. (If you've missed my previous posts, you may click here to catch up.) When you are shopping vintage or even browsing your local thrift shop, I encourage you to utilize these methods. It's like playing detective. It makes the experience that much more rewarding! Aside from reading clothing lables to determine a garment's age, there are some other tricks...



1. If the label does not have a RN or distinctive mark, Google the name on the garment's label. Etsy is also a great place to search lable names. You can normally get a good idea of how old something is based on what the consensus is. This label is from a dress of mine from the 1950s.


2. Watch old movies or period movies. Familiarizing yourself with the way a certain era looks allows you to eye a garment and quickly get an idea of how old it is.


3. Study old photographs; it works the same way.



4. Familiarize yourself with previous trends in fashion. But you have to be careful with this one since fashion is so cyclical. For instance, in the 1950s, women wore full skirts that usually fell mid-calf. In the 1980s, women wore similar skirts. It's tricky. The pattern above is from the 1980s.


5. Talk to your relatives! I have learned so much by talking with mine. If I'm not sure on a date for a piece of clothing, I can always consult my mom or chat with my grandma. It makes me feel closer to them, talking about what their favorite outfits were when they were younger.

Looking for more advice?
Well, I hope you aren't opposed to good old-fashioned books. I've learned so much from these:
Dressed for the Occasion by Brandon Marie Miller  
This book is full of gorgeous photos and fashion trends dating as far back as the 1600s.
Fashions of a Decade series (1920s-1990s) 
This one has beautiful color photos as well as written descriptions of fashion trends of each decade.

Happy researching! Be sure to let me know if you make any exciting discoveries :)

11 comments:

  1. this is all really good info. sometimes i just like to make up stories about the clothing i get. when i was young and in high school, i loved finding old kid's tshirts the most- i had the best red dr. suess shirt.

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    1. Not sure if you like to read, but if you enjoy making up stories about the vintage pieces you find, I think you would like the novel called The Secret Lives of Dresses. It's such an adorable novel about a vintage shop :)

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  2. Yet another wonderfully genius post. Excellent ideas! ;~D

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  3. Great advice -- and those are fun things to do in themselves. Is that a still from "The Exorcist"?

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    1. It is from the Exorcist! Yay! I'm glad somebody caught that ^_^

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  4. What great advice. Sometimes I wonder how old some of the things I thrifted are. Thanks for your sweet words on my blog love<3

    xo
    Cecilia

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  5. This is a nice little feature. I think the fabric quality/age is the easiest way for me to gauge the age anymore. It's usually easy to tell older polyesters & wools from newer material. But even still I am really just guessing and it's a skill I never had before I started thrifting.

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    1. That is very true! The type of fabric definitely does differ, depending on the year. Pretty much everything is made 100% cotton lately, so it's hard to find warm pieces to wear here in the midwest unless I go for a vintage wool or polyester.

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  6. this is all such wonderful advice! i can't wait to go to the thrift shop and play detective.

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  7. So many great tips, Rachel Marie! My mom is a sewing wizard and has stacks and stacks of old patterns, I'll have to go through them one day - I bet there is all kinds of great information in those waiting to be uncovered :)

    Tasia

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    1. That's awesome! I bet you could learn so much from them!

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I do my best to respond to all comments, but I'm pretty scatterbrained. So if I skip over you, it's most surely unintentional.
Thank you for your sweet words!
<3