How to shop for vintage-styled clothes

Vintage clothing is considered garments originating from a previous era. That includes clothing items made between 40 and 100 years ago. Today vintage dressing encompasses choosing accessories, mixing old garments with new, as well as creating an ensamble of various styles and periods. It is one of the most famous styles in fashion.

Vintage clothing, also known as retro clothing (newly made copy of older garment), has become one of the most popular among the people of all ages. People like vintage because it is one of the most versetile styles. In other words, it can be worn in many occasions, not just certain ones. It can also be worn combined with many other styles, accessories, jewllery, coats, etc. that are not considered vintage style.

For a piece to qualify for vintage, it must compromise stylistic elements relevant to the trends of that time. Vintage style clothes are considered clothes that imitate the style of a previous era.

 

                 

The most common vintage items

Some of the items that are the most known as vintage are scarfs, baggy jeans, flared jeans, mini skirts, bubble skirts, cowl skirts, tiered skirts, box pleats skirts, pencil skirts, shirts, sweathers, most types of jewlery, hairbands, shift dresses, little black dresses, slip dresses, etc.

Some of the best places to shop for vintage items:

 

1.    * When shoping for vintage style, the easiest place to start could be some stores at a mall.  Some of the stores that might be a good choise are Pull and Bear, Berska, Lacoste, Chanel, Stone Island, Yves Saint Laurent, etc.  When doing that, you should first look into what style of clothing you want to purchase and then look for it at the stores. If you don`t, you might find yourself wondering around and buying things from many different styles that you don`t really want. We`ve all been there 😉

               

 

* Thrift stores are also a good choise while looking for vintage styled clothes. Thrift stores are kind of second hand stores, but there you might find very interesting, valuable and unique pieces. It might even be the best place to start looking for vintage items to spice up your closet, cause there you can really find something made in a ceirtain period of time and see the true colors of an era.

3.     * Online stores. Online stores are kind of the two previous options mixed toghether, because nowdays you can probably find most of those items online and order them from the cosyness of your home. However, if you`re like me, you probably enjoy walking to many different shops and small stores, finding the perfect items. Some of the best online stores to watch for vintage clothes such as Depop, Oxfam, Beyond Retro, Rokit, Trifted, Gold Trift Vintage, etc.

 

4.     In my opinion, cities that are full of some of the most beautifull vintage stores are: Bilbao(a city in Spain), Berlin (capital of Germany), Naples (a city in Italy), Bordeaux (a city in France), Vienna (capital of Austria), Helsinki (capital of Finland), London ( capital of UK). Every one of those cities have unique and special fashion styles and the most versatile vintage clothes. Beside vintage style clothes, there can also easely be found the real vintage clothes. Some of those stores are:  Found and vision, Retrouve, Rokit, SK Vintage  (London),  Dada Vintage, I Love Vintage (Naples),   Polklamolt(Vienna),  Flamingos Vintage Kilo Bilbao, VV Berlin,  Freeps shop, Chamade (Bordeaux)...

    A vintage store in Halsinki

 

 

 

Sources: Vogue, Elle, www.theguardian.com, Livability.com.