5 Reasons Why You Should Love Vintage
Have you walked into an antique or vintage store and were tempted to buy a handbag or piece of clothing?
Well, I'm here to convince you that you should try adding just even one or two vintage pieces into your wardrobe. Isn’t it easier to just to order something new online? Why not buy new?
Here are my top 5 reasons for buying vintage below:
1) Vintage quality is just better
If you look at clothing made today whether it be from a fast fashion store, or whatever store you bought it from it wasn’t made in the same manner as the nineties, eighties, seventies, sixties, and so on. Buying vintage really gives you a better made product and you can see it in different facets of the garment or item.
For example, it could be the stitching or the thread or the hardware. Hardware is a big one. With vintage items, you will see beautiful ornate buttons, nice heavy zippers, snaps, etc. Today, you see a lot of plastic on garments and quite frankly a lot of junk.
2) Vintage garments last longer
I have a sweater that I absolutely love from the 1980s. I won’t completely date myself but I probably was wearing it in high school. Yes, it still fits and I am still wearing it.
I will continue wearing it. How often can you put a 30+ year old garment into the washing machine and it still doesn’t fall apart? Sure, there are lots of cute sweaters out there today but they're not going to last more than two years. That’s the average life expectancy of a fast fashion or modern garment. The lifeline of a vintage item can last a lifetime.
3) Vintage can give you a stylish edge
I love wearing vintage because I think it's a great conversation starter. Let’s say for example if you're going to a party or networking event where you might not know everyone, and you want to have an ice breaker. Wearing a fun and unique vintage item is a really great way to do that. Last week I knew I was headed to a networking event so I decided to pull my vintage 90s blazer out of the depths of my closet. I received so many compliments and it brought up so many memories for others that wore the same blazer in their youth. Even if you aren’t into fashion, you can still appreciate something that's cool and unique.
4) There is nothing like vintage fabric quality
I’ll compare cotton from the 1980s and cotton today. Even if it's a hundred percent and not a blend, it's, it's completely different. There are just so many good old, natural fiber garments out there. I love the good heavyweight linen or a heavyweight cotton.
Silk isn't really one of the easiest fabrics to care for and they do make washable silks these days. You still would definitely want to find a dry cleaner to take care of it.
Think about wool. Living in upstate NY for example, the winters here are freezing cold. I live in wool sweaters for more than 4 months out of the year. Can you find a winter coat as heavy as they produced in the 60’s and ‘70s? Absolutely not. Wool was sourced better than the wool that companies use today.
5) Vintage compliments your current wardrobe.
Many people struggle with vintage because they're scared. They feel like they are going to look like they're wearing a costume, which can happen. There are people who emulate the retro fifties woman with the large cat eye glasses, beehive hairdo, costume jewelry, beaded necklaces, and that's totally fine. But there are other ways to wear vintage with your current wardrobe. You can add a t-shirt to a vintage slip dress. Or wear a vintage handbag with your favorite outfit.
Bonus: Wearing vintage means less waste
Whenever you're buying a piece of vintage, you really don't know where that clothing would end up otherwise.
There are a few different places where unused clothing and accessories could end up, but I like to think of the back of my mind that I'm keeping one more piece of clothing out of a landfill.
