Why are we doing this?

[Jay]

I was walking around in my idle time yesterday, contemplating the how's and why's of the world when I came to this thought: Are we dressing 50 and 60 years out of date to amuse ourselves and others and get attentions, or is there a deeper meaning to all of this and we are all just disappointed with current times?

Sorry to get all deep and crazy with you guys, but it's 3 am and I just got finished reading Fight Club, and am left with nothing else to do. I will admit that I dress this way because I feel out of date now and it just seems so natural. It's weird.

 

[Matthew Dalton]

Are you asking us individually why we do it? Or why we do it collectively? I don't think there's any single answer that would be sufficient for the latter.

 

[RetroModelSari]

One reason for me is that I´m a oldfashioned girl. Another one is cause I think that the fashion of our times is to me extremely ugly and obviously not made to fit my figure. Also I can´t relate to our presence. I think I would have loved to be a grown up in the 50s when there were more jobs than people and not in a time where there are more people than jobs. I wouldn´t have liked to go through a war though to get to this point... hmmmm.... [huh] I guess it all has positive and negative aspects and I just pick out the ones that I like.

 

[Senator Jack]

Why do bikers, hip-hoppers, and Hascidics dress the way they do? It's just the way it is, isn't it? Whenever someone asks me why I dress the way I do, I just give them the same answer, 'I like it.'

Over the last two decades I've had all sorts of people telling me I'm looking for attention. I honestly tell them I'm not, and that it's not my fault that the world has gotten lazy in their dress. It's an old cliche, but the naysayers are crabs in a barrel: 'I can't be bothered, so neither should you.'

You have to ask yourself, though, am I comfortable in the garb of today? If you can go out to a party or dinner in a logoed t-shirt and cargo shorts, then perhaps you can fit right in with the rest of the world. I can't. It's just not me.

In the final episode of The Prisoner, the president says says Number 6 has 'gloriously vindcated the right of the individual to be individual,' and I think in our own way we are also doing that. But by the same token, if you're dressing in a certain way just to prove that you're an individual, then the whole argument falls apart. I suppose what I mean to say is, don't even consider yourself as being individual. Just be who you are. And if that means walking around in 50 year old 3-piece suit, so be it.

Regards,

Senator Jack

 

[Naama]

To be honest, I like to get attention! But that's not the reason I dress the way I dress. I like to look pretty, and to me there's nothing prettyer then the style of the 20's and 30's And somehow, I don't know, there's just something so great about those times! Everytime I see an old movie I get such a strange feeling, which is hard to describe, but it makes me feel like I want to go back in time!


Naama

 

[LizzieMaine]

Sometimes I tell people it's because I was so horribly traumatized by growing up in the '70s that I had to do *something* -- and maybe there's some truth to that. But, really, it's a taste or an inclination that's been part of me for as long as I can remember -- and the only explanation that makes sense is that I got imprinted somehow by spending so much time with my grandparents, who in many ways lived in their own little bubble of 1945...

In any event, I dress and live the way I do because it seems normal for me. Simple as that. And I'm always kind of surprised when someone asks me about it.

 

[BonnieJean]

Why I dress vintage

Nostalgia and enjoying those "simpler times" and especially because I've "rediscovered" my femininity. I realize that there were probably some "bad" times back in the Golden Era, but just like Naama, watching the old movies gives me a calming feeling. Its much like when I listen to the music that my grandparents did (the old country music from the 50s) because my happiest times in my childhood was when I spent time on my grandparents' farm. So I think that music triggers a happy memory in me. The old movies remind me when men were men and women were women. Nowadays its kind of hard to distinguish between the two. Dressing vintage is a reflection of my personality and I really don't enjoy getting a lot of attention, but I'm willing to accept it (getting stared at) because it makes me feel connected to those wonderful eras.

 

[Elaina]

Well, I talked to my mother the other day (which is rare, we don't get along) and she asked what I was doing. I replied I was redrafting a boxer pattern from the 40's. She then said "oh you've always liked that sort of thing."

So when I asked it seems that from the time I was 2 or 3 I refused to wear the 1970's junk and wanted pinafores and frilly dresses. Then when I got into the 80's, I wanted to dress like Alice in Wonderland and Strawberry Shortcake (the old version, not the jeans clad new one) and Ramona Quimby, and my mother made them for me. So, I've always been drawn to it. Then in my teenage years I went through a whole goth stage/grunge where I mixed and matched vintage wear (because being a kid and supporting yourself is terribly hard, and goth was easy to pull on a budget of thrift store) and I had an Aunt that loved me enough to buy/make and pass down all the clothes she had from the 1920's-1950's, and the little old lady that lived with her, Viola, loved the 20's and me so much she fed the 20's fad at the time with her mother's clothes, and then both of them got so far into it and reminiscing their own youth from the 30-50's that we would spend entire weekends searching out patterns and clothes. By the mid 90's, my grandfather (who is an old Army Air Corps pilot and a retired zoot suit wearer and not really my granddad, but might as well be) thought it was terribly neat of me to spend so much time at swing clubs with him that he talked HIS mother into letting me have all her clothes....and there you have it. I expressed an interest and the family in my life thought it was so cool of me they did everything they could to feed it, even teaching me to sew and read vintage patterns so I could make my own (because as Viola told me one time "there will come a time you can't find ANYTHING decent to wear, and patterns will always be available.").

I've always been encouraged to be myself. My mother is still stuck in the Jackie-O era of her youth that she can't really say much to me. I do it because I can, because I want to, and because I refuse to look like a retired crack hooker walking around the street. In essence: I try to look as classy and age appropriate as I can, and vintage is about the only thing that fits the bill.

A vintage lifestyle is something different.

 

[flat-top]

For me, simply it's because I love it. It's ME. What started out as a "hobby" (for lack of a better word) about 15 years ago, has just become my life. It's something I don't think about now, it's just the way it is. The care I put into my appearance does not go unnoticed. I don't do it to GET noticed, but I don't know any other way!
And think about this: as a vintage wearer, the excitement we get from finding THAT thing, on Ebay, at a thift shop or your grandparent's attic, etc. The people who shop at Abercrombie & Fitch will never know that feeling!

 

[Feraud]

I usually reply, "..huh, what?? What year is this!!"

 

[matei]

I agree with other Loungers here... I find much today's fashion unattractive and souless.

For me, fashion, architecture and culture from the golden era evoke a feeling of almost travelling back in time.

I often dress in a vintage or vintage inspired style because I think men looked more serious back then. More "manly", if you will. That is how I see myself, and that is how I wish to be seen. Not as cartoonish, foppish or silly - but rather as a serious person (with a killer hat).

 

[deanglen]

I like it because I think of it as "conservative". I'm putting resources into just hats right now. The full blown attire will have to wait.

dean

 

[flat-top]

That is how I see myself, and that is how I wish to be seen.

Exactly! Style should be an extension of who you are!
Quick funny story: I was at a local bar last week and there was a HUGE brawl, that eventually cleared the whole place out. I found out shortly after that the fight was started by two guys who both showed up wearing the same shirt! Needless to say, this probably won't ever happen to me!

 

[Feraud]

I found out shortly after that the fight was started by two guys who both showed up wearing the same shirt!

Hilarious!! Did either one really think he bought a "one of a kind'?? lol lol

 

[flat-top]

Hilarious!! Did either one really think he bought a "one of a kind'?? lol lol

HA! Doubtful, but before the one guy started to throw down, he actually ripped the dreaded shirt in question off! It was quite the macho display!

 

[Senator Jack]

What were there names? Lucy and Ethel?

 

[Feraud]

What were there names? Lucy and Ethel?

lol lol

I do not mean to get too off topic but have to ask, what kind of shirt was it?
This story fascinates me!

 

[Etienne]

My Reply...

This is a thought-provoking question, Jay, and I can't remember if we've ever had a thread on ways to reply to it when others ask. (If we have, please forgive me!) In this case, you're an "insider" asking us, but "outsiders" ask the same thing. I look forward to reading the answers to this! I guess I would reply, "Because I like it!" or "Because I can!" Or maybe, "You go first--why do YOU dress the way you do?"

Ultimately, the way we dress is perhaps an extension of our thoughts, emotions, self-concept, world-view, longings, body image and a whole lot of other things, I guess. I dress with vintage flair (40's)--including just those aspects which suit the above. I'm so advanced in years (56) that no one has ever questioned why I dress "old-fashioned"! But I cherish the feminine, lady-like, conservative, womanly aspects of that era and they most closely match ME! I have never had a negative comment, but maybe folks don't say it out loud to me!

 

[flat-top]

lol lol

I do not mean to get too off topic but have to ask, what kind of shirt was it?
This story fascinates me!

Ya know, I'm not sure. All I saw was the guy ripping off his his shirt and diving foward! Quite a melee ensued, so it became a blur of ball caps, AE and A&F garb!

 

[lindylady]

I dress vintage or vintage-inspired because I like the grace, class, and femininity of clothing from the 30s-50s. Women's clothes today are utterly devoid of style and modesty. Tell me, why are blouses that are intended for daytime wear so low-cut? Why should I have to wear jeans that expose my rear end and make my legs look like two uncomfortably stuffed sausages? What's so attractive about that?

I prefer vintage-style pieces that are well-made and flatter my body type. It seems that people have forgotten what looks good and what doesn't. Either that, or they just don't care. I happen to care, and if that offends anyone, I won't apologize for being me.

Also, as some of my fellow Loungers have stated, the vintage lifestyle gives a very warm, comforting feeling of nostalgia No matter our ages, we can all attest that the Golden Era speaks to us.