Vintage Week: How To shop for Vintage clothing

This is a guest post by Jennine at THE COVETED. About Jennine:

Born and raised in California, Jennine’s always had a sense of adventure, spending most of her youth traveling and wearing many hats, art, design, and dressing up. Ok… nothing’s changed. It was only a matter of time before she discovered blogging, a way to connect and share all the beautiful things life has to offer. Jennine graduated from the London College of Communications, an experience which still influences everything about The Coveted, from the design of the blog to the quest for international style. In her spare time, she loves eating candy and running in the forest. Jennine is also the founder of Independent Fashion Bloggers, a resource and community of fashion bloggers.

Aside from not buying anything, buying vintage and used clothing is the greenest option for adding to your wardrobe. Although eco-friendliness is a motivator, and to tell the truth, it does weigh a factor in my head when buying clothing… I did not start out shopping vintage to save the planet.

My love affair with vintage started out in high school, then, it still wasn’t ‘cool’ to shop at Goodwill, but I just couldn’t afford to buy new with my part-time $4.25/hour minimum wage job. My friends and I would hit up Purple Heart Thrift and DAV for these crazy dresses under a dollar. I loved it, but as time passed my taste changed and my reasons for buying vintage changed…

The following questions/tips depict the process I go through when shopping:

1. Does it fit?

Shopping vintage clothing is a lot of fun, but isn’t always the easiest… unlike new clothing, where they have one desgin in several sizes, you pretty much have to match your size and what you like and they don’t always go together. I always like to err on the side of too big, becuase then they can be altered to my size. Vintage pieces are often a much higher quality than what you will find today. Many pieces are hand stitched using beautiful fabrics. But everything deteriorates. Some older pieces will tear easier than their contemporary counterparts. If something doesn’t fit properly (meaning, when you are breathing normally) it may give you problems. Up through the 70’s women wore Foundation Garments under their clothes. They were mostly used to hold up stockings and to give an hourglass shape. That’s how they were able to achieve such a silhouette. Go easy on yourself, besides, there is always Spanx.

When buying online, most vintage is sold measured flat, as sizes change through the years. It’s probably a good idea to measure flat some clothes that fit you well, and keep those measurements as a reference while you shop online.

2. Check zippers, buttons, seams, is everything working? Are there any stains, tears, weird smells?

A broken zipper can be fixed by a tailor, most dry cleaners can do it, or if you are a crafty one, then great. Factor that into the price, the amount of repairs or work that has to be done. As for smells, I’m not good at that, once I bought a cool army jacket, and I didn’t know until I got home that it reaked. Dry cleaning didn’t help, it was like a Seinfeld episode. The jacket had to go.

3. Picking pieces you are going to wear.

Unless you are a collector, buying dresses you’ll never wear is just a waste of money. I know lots of women who wear vintage in a very inconspicuous way. How they do it, is they look for elements that tie in with current trends. Blazers, high waisted trousers, crop tops, floral dresses, sequined anything are all things you’ll find at a thrift store, or a vintage shop quite easily, and for a fraction of what you’ll find them for new. I pretty much wear vintage every day, but it’s mostly integrated with new items so I don’t look too costumey.

4. Think out of the box

The great thing about thrifted and vintage clothing is beause of the lower cost, they make great DIY projects. A boring black tank top can be brought to date by adding a couple of rows of fringe. A long floral dress that looks matronly at mid calf length can be easily hemmed into a mini dress. Some purists don’t like to alter vintage clothing, but I feel that altering is very much the spirit of vintage clothing. My grandmother always altered her clothes to be more up to date, and she got more wears out of them too. You don’t always have to alter either… Last year I came across a pair of tye die, wide legged pedal pushers. These were so big, there would be no way they’d ever fit me. But I loved the tie dye and the weight of the fabric (rayon was very popular i the late 80’s)… so what did I do? I could actually fit in one leg of the dress, and it became a one-sleeve asymetrical dress. I’ve also been known to turn clothes upside down an backwards to see how they change. Play around, it’s amazing how clothes can easily transform.

Most of all, It’s important to find clothes you are happy with. When you’re happy with what you’re wearing, it shows. Developing an eye takes time and practice, have fun, the best part about vintage clothing is finding your hidden treasures.

Some of Jennine’s vintage treasures: