Vintage Turning Point

[lindylady]

The 50s helped start it for me too. I remember my Catholic elementary school putting on sock hops. We young first and second graders sat in the auditorium while the big kids (i.e. 5th and 6th graders) got to wear poodle skirts or dress as greasers and sing "Leader of the Pack", "Let's Go To the Hop", "No Particular Place To Go", etc. I begged my mother to make me a poodle skirt. I already had the saddle shoes and borrowed my grandmother's ascots. My mother made me full skirts, but she left out the poodle motif, thinking that I'd grow out of it. Sorry, Mom...but it's been years since then and I still want a poodle skirt lol

 

[Paisley]

why do 80 year old people ask if I ever went to a certain dance hall that was torn down before I was born, why do i know how to close a ww2 stencil machine case that even the people who really used it during the war in the resistance have trouble closing...

This reminds me of a thread where someone wondered why older folks asked if he bought his car new. His car was older than he was. They just aren't doing the math before they ask, I guess.

 

[Brooksie]

For me it has been more of an evolution than an actuall turning point. I was born in 1968. My mom used to take me to thrift stores to go shopping when I was just a tiny baby, so I got used to seeing used things from a very early age. My first vintage memory's are of listening to Glenn Miller when I was 5 years old at my Grandma's house (to this day I absolutly love big band and swing) also when I was 5 years old I saw the movie Summer of '42, (my parents took me to see it in the theater) funny thing is I remember this movie so well and I have never seen it since then and they played the Moonlight Seranade (which is a Glenn Miller song - I went to the concert the other night and found out that the current band opens and closes each concert with the Moonlight Seranade - it almost brought me to tears when they played it!).

I remember growing up in the 70's when I was in grade school, I only owned 2 dresses and I wanted to wear them all of the time but my mom always wanted me to wear pants and I hated pants! So any chance I had would wear my dresses which had a bit of a frock/smock look to them and I loved them. I was never a tomboy even though I have 3 older brothers, I always wanted to be a glamour girl! Then when I was about 8 the movie American Graffitti came out and in grade school it was my all time favorite movie, it was set in the 50's (my Mom graduated in 1950 and my dad in 1948) it was like the show Happy Day's only racier! And I loved it!!! I loved the clothes and the music and the cars!!! My Brother had a 1947 chevy durring this time and he still has it, and I remember I used to love riding around in it!

I got my first real vintage dress (which looked to be handmade in a 1950's style)when I was about 15 years old, it came from Goodwill and it was black heavy duty taffeta with the water marks on it, it was a pencil skirt with a high waist and a short bolero jacket to match and it is the one thing that I really wished I would have kept because if I did I would wear it a lot more now than I ever did then.

When I was in highschool in the 80's I was into new wave, I had short short hair with a foot long tail and long bangs. This is what I would wear on a typical day to school: my dads big ol' trench coat from the 1950's, with a beret, a long pearl necklace, long satin shirt and stirrup pants and capizio dance shoes. People called me Boy George even strangers and I hated being called Boy George:rage: Even though I did like him as a musician.

In 1988 after I went to Beauty School was when I had my hair bobbed and I read an article about Louise Brooks in a modern day glamour magazine and realized there were some similarity's between her and I and that started a new quest/facination to find out all I could about her and the seed had been just barely planted in my head for a love for the 1920's was only just starting which has grown more and more over the years especialy with being able to find information so readily on the internet.

I will wrap up my story soon but I have one more thing to share, my Mom and I were going through some old pictures yestarday and we came across an old photo album of black and white photos of when my grandma was a young lady(she has long since passed) she was 20 years old in 1925. Her hair was dark and bobbed and she was about 5 foot 1 (and had a figure like Olive Oyl only she was shorter)and she loved clothes! Hmmm sounds familiar - sounds like me! I carefully took all of the photos out of this old photo album because I knew if I left them it would only be a matter of time and they would fade away to nothing. So, it is my plan to someday soon put them in a new acid free scrap book but this is information for yet another thread.....

P.S. I loved reading everybody's stories and thank you for sharing them ladies!

Brooksie

 

[Sunny]

Apparently when I write about myself, I can't write less than a full-length essay.

It has been so interesting to read you ladies' perspectives. I'm really struck by how so many of you talk about being born vintage, or how you were always the one dressing differently when you were younger, even if it wasn't vintage.

I'm not sure about a single turning point, but for me there's been an interesting progression that hasn't stopped yet. So what I'm writing is where I am right now, and will likely be different six months from now.

Like many of you, I've always been different, but in a different way and for different reasons. I'm getting the impression that personality for many of you has driven you to dress vintage. You don't want to be a sheep and do what everyone else does, and you like standing out. (For good reasons, of course!) I was born with the diametrically opposite personality. I was born shy, quiet, and having no desire to stand out at all. I'm very like my mother, and my father recognized that quickly. My mother often gave offense to people, because what was shyness for her other people saw as rudeness or being stuck up. So both he and my mother worked hard to get me to open up more and be more daring. Not in clothes, since that wasn't an issue, but simply in behavior.

I've been quite free to develop my own personal style, since I was homeschooled for all thirteen years. No pressure from classmates to conform, yay! I've always liked skirts, and dresses in particular. And while I'm not a tomboy, not really, I liked being able to play baseball and do stuff with my three brothers. I still get a keen, mischievous pleasure from doing things in skirts that the modern girl, so wedded to her blue jeans, finds inconceivable. Like sitting on the floor, playing basketball, or climbing trees.

My whole family has always loved history; our focuses are the American Civil War (we've reenacted for ten years) and WWII. I definitely like the styles more than what was current, but didn't know enough to do it right. And if I'm not sure I've done it right, I won't have the confidence to wear it properly.

For all that, I still wasn't much into style, not really. I was born in in the early 1980s, and by the time I was truly old enough to really care, fashion was pretty uninspired. There wasn't anything pretty, and what dresses there were were fashioned for straight up-and-down figures and most unkind to me. I really like the New Look of "I Love Lucy," since full skirts are so much fun to wear. More than once I considered trying to find dresses like that, but in the mid 1990s I would've stuck out like a sore thumb. Looking back I'm glad I didn't, since I certainly didn't have the confidence to feel good in it, even though I could've faked the poise. Civil War reenacting had helped with that, too, for I was used to wearing very weird clothes and being frankly stared at. Especially when going out to eat or to the grocery store.

I went to a Very Large college in a small Texas town (hint hint). The college girl uniform there is blue jeans and tee shirts year 'round. I more or less went along with this, but was never very comfortable. Figure issues played a big part, for I'm a natural hourglass but put on weight like a pear. I'm tall enough that I carried an extra 15-20 pounds without really looking overweight, but I wasn't terribly attractive. More especially, it was *very* hard to find jeans that fit. An hourglass always has problems with waist gapping, and for me it was exaggerated. Plus with big hips, anything even slightly low-rise slides waaaaay down in the back. It just wasn't pretty.

Ironically, the first movement toward my own style was made in my last year at school, 2004-2005. By that time I was thoroughly fed up with my weight and clothes problem (I'd been sort of trying to lose weight for over a year, with no success) and found that skirts were far more forgiving than jeans. I had a knee-length denim skirt from Old Navy and a camel-colored 1940s-style (inverted pleats front and back) skirt from Walmart (!) that became staples of my wardrobe. I made my first vintage purchase that fall - a black felt hat with pheasant feathers that I wore when it looked rainy or cold, and a black wool suit. The suit was from the 1980s but had a real late 1940s look, with a very curvy jacket and pencil skirt. I couldn't begin to get the skirt on over my thighs, let alone my hips, but the jacket fit barely and looked as good as anything I owned. With jacket, camel skirt, black riding boots and black hat, I certainly looked equestrian! When I'd wear these outfits to school, somehow I felt better about myself. I got looks, and sometimes The Eye from prissy blonde juniors in their flip flops and sorority tee shirts, but I knew it was what I wanted to wear and didn't care too much. I also discovered that I worked much better - harder, with more care and attention to detail - when I was dressed nicely. In jeans, I felt dull and didn't pay attention and found it easy to let my mind wander or slope off and not do homework.

After I graduated things pretty much went on hold, as I had no job and frankly didn't work hard at finding one. I wore skirts all that summer and fall of 2005; I avowed to my mother because they were cool, but honestly because they didn't seem to display my fatness as much. I got my job at the very end of December and was finally able to buy clothes, but it wasn't until the late spring and early summer when a slight change in my exercise routine caused the extra weight to drop off. I still want to lose 5 or maybe 10, but going from a 12 to an 8 or 6 in trousers is quite fantastic.

In the spring was when I began just browsing ebay, and began making a few long-considered purchases. It was big step for me to wear them, but I started with things that weren't slap-you-in-the-face VINTAGE. See? I don't like being obvious! My confidence grew slowly, and especially as the weight came off. That did make me pause in my buying, since I didn't know when it would stop, and my size kept getting smaller.

I finally found the Fedora Lounge in... August, apparently, from a few comments dropped on LiveJournal. It was honestly a little hard to believe that there were people out there who were really wearing vintage every day! Ever since I had that wild thought years ago, I thought I'd be the only nut job out there wearing these clothes. I don't mind being different, not now, but I don't want to be different in a weird way, or in a way that makes people feel uncomfortable. So I began reading voraciously and learning volumes about specific styles and how-to's that I'd wondered about for years, and now I dress vintage very often indeed.

I must admit it's easier since so many clothes these days are vintage-styled. But I also realize that a good bit of my (still limited) vintage wardrobe is not remotely modern. Like the seafoam green knit set I'm wearing today. lol And now I don't care any more how I stand out. As long as I'm put together right, I'm confident. And it's fun to go to grad school now, passing the mix of undergrads and working grads, and serenely not fitting in anywhere.

I'm certainly not an all-day every-day vintage dresser. Not yet, and I think that'll take a while. Hair is one reason; it's always been long, and while I'm curling it now, it's going to take quite a bit of effort to figure out better, everyday doable vintage styles for it. It's not going to be cut. Another reason is that I still love my shorts. I was finally able to get dark blue denim shorts that FIT and looked GOOD for the first time since... probably junior high. I love them! And no, they're not really vintage, although they're cuffed. And some days I don't really feel like hauling on the girdle and stockings. I've really made a commitment not to turn dressing vintage into a duty or a rule. On that personality test I'm the ISTJ, the "rules 'n' regs" person. In the past I'll turn something into a rule, and end by taking all the fun out of it. So I'm really trying to do it when I feel like it, and not because people expect it or I expect it of myself.

Just in the last six months I've come a long way in how much I dress vintage. I can definitely see it increasing in the future, too. But the point is that I've developed my eye, and my sense of style, so that I feel comfortable in what I wear whether it's modern or vintage. That's something I've never had before, and I'm simply exulting in it and so grateful.

 

[mysterygal]

I grew up watching classics, always thought the men and women looked absolutely incredible, but never really thought it was a 'real life' sort of thing since everyone I knew growing up (and even now) seem to have a wardrobe consisting only of jeans- t-shirts/sweaters and jogging suits.
I met MK a couple of years back and of course he stood out! I was SO impressed by how great he looked. As we got to become friends, I was able to learn more about vintage clothes, but the biggest turning point was the fedora lounge. At first, I was just curious..not really wanting to commit to anything new. But, seeing how gorgeous the ladies in here are, and just seeing for myself the comparison of modern fashion compared to the 30's and 40's sold me.
The women from that era looked so put together. From head to toe they looked impeccable...hardly what I see around today. and with being taught how to use make-up correctly by MK and then tips and clothing ideas from the ladies in here, it's become a bit of a passion for me.

 

[Snookie]

It started for me with the music...

Specifically, one Alvin and the Chipmunks cartoon where the girl chipmunks (what were their names!) dressed up in WWII uniforms and performed an Andrews Sisters song.

That's my first memory of liking the era.

 

[epr25]

That's great. I think it might been a cross between the Waltons and Happy Days for me.

 

[imoldfashioned]

I was a huge geek in early high school (huge, red glasses, a-line plaid skirts). I loved old movies and spent most of the weekends of my adolescence at a revival house. Somewhere around age 14-15 two things happened that made me "go vintage".

First, I learned to sew on an ancient Singer (that sounded like a Buick on it's last legs but worked wonderfully). Anything I couldn't find I attempted to sew.

Second, I discovered a wonderful store. It was in the warehouse district of Minneapolis called Ragstock--it's still there but nothing like it was in the early/mid 80s. They had huge, unsorted bins of clothing that you could buy for something like $2.00 a pound and 1930s -1950s dresses were a dime a dozen. I got marvelous bargains there--for instance, a robe that looked just like William Powell's in The Thin Man which I still have. My favorite dress had bakelite buttons in the same pattern as the dress skirt. I got fabulous a 1950s day dress that I wore to bits and a great Victorian petticoat that I used as a skirt there. I had been through an illness so I was the thinnest I've ever been which helped broaden my selection of clothing then too.

Nowadays I dress with a vintage touch at work leaning to a higher degree of vintage in my private life. I sew most of my outfits now since prices have risen and I'm a larger size.

 

[Kim_B]

The more I think about this, I really can't pin-point when I first started having an interest in anything vintage. I know it definitely started with music; my Grandfather who passed away in October would always listen to WOWO, a radio station that always played "oldies" (Now it's talk radio, I think). He'd sing along and whistle to just about every song they played, and it rubbed off on me. I'd listen to it along with him, and we'd have a grand time singing and whistling. He was the best whistler I knew...he'd trail off and make up his own harmony with the songs...he was the best. Anyway, all through my childhood and into my teens even I'd listen to the local oldies stations on the radio. I watched "The Wizard of Oz" over and over again, because I loved seeing the styles of the time, even though it was set in a fantasy land. I've always liked the clothing of the 40's and 50's - so soft and feminine, classy and stylish. I guess I like those eras the best, too, since that's when most of my relatives were living...I love looking through their old photos and hearing their stories (like how my Grandfather used to do the Stroll down the aisles at the grocery store and embarrass the heck out of my mom and my aunts ).

Anyway...sorry to ramble on. I was just thinking about it some more. At my Grandfather's funeral, we played the "American Graffiti" soundtrack...it seemed a little odd at first - why should we be having fun singing along with the music on such a solemn occasion?! But as the day went on, every one who came to pay their respects mentioned the music and how it was a nice tribute. I saw it as being Grandpa's way of putting the fun back in funeral, so to speak.

 

[epr25]

Not that you could really cheer up a funeral but that sounds like a way to lighten the mood a bit. I really wish that i would have been older and closer to my grandparents. I don't remember them that much. But I guess my mothers parents were quite the dancing duo. I have included a phot of them. I love this one. It was taken shortly after they got married.

[/IMG]

 

[goldwyn girl]

That's a lovely photo, epr25

 

[Adelaidey]

What a great picture to have! Love it!

 

[CanadaDoll]

How sweet are they? That's such a wonderful photo epr25! thanks for posting it