1980s: The Establishment and Diffusion of Vintage Style
Critics like Fraser and Hollander aside, the popularity of vintage grew in the
1980s.
In December 1980,
Money Magazine
reports U.S. sales
of secondhand
clothing were up 100 percent. The
New York Times
shifted to mundane reporting
on vintage which suggested that readers already knew what vintage was and mere-
ly needed to know where to find it and which decades’ styles were currently fash-
ionable. Mundane reporting consisted of numerous mentions of vintage clothing
being sold at flea markets, antique shows and shops, publicizing events where it
was worn, and celebrities wearing vintage.
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Simultaneously, other publications first introduce vintage
to 1980s readers. In
1981
Mademoiselle
publishes “How to Buy and Care for Antique Whites,” “How
to Shop the Secondhand Shops,” and in 1985, “The Zing of Things Past.” Other
periodicals publish secondhand shopping guides including the
Boston Globe, Eb-
ony
,
People Magazine
, and
50-
Plus Magazine
.
A 1982
Boston Globe
article, “Fashions for the Classes of ’82; What’s Happen-
ing in College? A Look That’s Vintage
-Chic,” illustrates how popular vintage had
become. Julie Hatfield reports that Saks Fifth Avenue’s Uni
versity Shop in Har-
vard Square –
a store that traditionally sells preppy new clothes to college coeds –
is in trouble due to “worn clothes” becoming “de rigeur for college students.” Hat-
field notes that the local Salvation Army is doing brisk business with
college stu-
dents, who “buy their old tuxedos, oxford shoes, suspenders, and big old winter
coats there.”
That same year
Harriet Love’s Guide to Vintage Chic
is published, and in 1983
Trina Irick
-Nauer publishes
First Price Guide to Vintage and Antique Cl
othes
.
According to Morgado (2003) the publishing of guidebooks is a key way that
outmoded styles are newly marketed as collectable and no longer are “rubbish.”
Journalists Ask: Why Wear Vintage?
As newspapers and periodicals introduced vintage style to r
eaders across the
United States, reporters sought to explain why the trend was occurring.
What is
the basis of people’s attraction to this new trend of wearing old clothes? Journal-
ists uncover a variety of answers, implicitly juxtaposing characteristics of
old
clothing with the new clothing one could purchase in a shopping mall.
Interviewees
– both vintage shop owners and their customers –
often mention
the quality of garments from decades past compared to new clothing. Vintage
clothes are characterized as
hand-
made, with special details like embroidery or
lace. They are better constructed, made from “luxurious fabrics of strict tailoring”
or of natural fibers as opposed to synthetics, and as having the potential for longer
wear than new clothing. For examp
le,
Boston Globe
reporter Julie Hatfield (1985)
concludes in “Clothes that Get Better with Age,”
Customers like these are obviously not looking for the savings they make by shop-
ping for used clothes. They want what, in many cases, mass production has denied
them at any price: fabrics and workmanship that are the best, and the certainty that
you will not meet the very same outfit on scores of other people.
As the above quotation suggests, vintage offers originality and individuality to its
wearers.
Those interviewed said vintage helps them to stand out rather than blend
in, so they can be confident that no one at an event will be wearing the same
dress. Notes one 1987 Minneapolis vintage wearer, “I don’t want to blend into the
woodwork...I don’t consider myself dressing different [
sic
]. It’s really more an
attitude, a way for me to say who I am. I like being recognized for what I wear”
(Younger 1987). Comments about vintage clothing as a marker of individuality
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anticipate what vintage consumers of the 2000s reported in studies of vintage
shoppers (e.g. Delong, Heinemann & Reiley 2005; Cervellon, Carey & Harms
2011; Cassidy & Bennett 2012). The belief that clothing should reflect one’s indi-
viduality rather than a style trend is part of a larger cultural d
iscourse of express-
ing one’s “authentic self” through consumption (Gilmore & Pine 2007).
Another common theme for why 1980s vintage consumers buy vintage is value
in comparison to the price paid. If one cannot afford contemporary designers, then
vintage offers high quality at more affordable prices. One store proprietor points
out that vintage garments are an investment because the wearer can sell them
again.
Some interviewees in the 1980s still see wearing vintage as a type of anti
-
fashion statement critiquing conspicuous consumption and the materialism. Notes
a student in a 1987
New York Times
article, “In Schools, Fashion is Whatever is
Fresh,” “Vintage clothing is hot, but it’s just reverse materialism. If you’re wear-
ing a $50 sweater, it wouldn’t be a
s proper as if you’re wearing a $2 sweater.”
Similarly, the
Christian Science Monitor
, when introducing the trend to its
readers in 1980 sees vintage as a move towards more eco-
consciousness. Betty
Taylor (1980) observes:
There’s something sentimental as
well as ecological about the awakened interest
here in garments made of vintage fabric....The recycling aspect is a satisfaction to
most buyers. Furthermore, buyers realize they couldn’t duplicate the handiwork they
are getting at anywhere near the price th
ey are paying...
Finally, journalists note that some consumers are attracted to the history material-
ly represented in vintage apparel.
For example, Milinaire and Troy (1975: 79)
refer to old clothes providing “a sense of continuity with the past.” Scholars have
characterized nostalgia as a key factor driving vintage purchases, that vintage con-
sumers look fondly on the past (e.g. Lyon & Colquhoun 1999; Delong, Heine-
mann & Reiley 2005 Cervellon, Carey & Harms 2011; Cassidy & Bennett 2012).
In the press accounts
, some vintage clothing aficionados imagined who once wore
their clothes. Marc Silver’s (1987) praise of old overcoats for
The Washington
Post
is exemplary of the nostalgia associated with vintage attire:
There is something reassuring about putting on a co
at of a past era. The coat has
wooed women and witnessed history. It has a mysterious past that can be imagined
but never be known. Did the lapel once boast an “I like Ike” button, or was this an
Adlai Stevenson supporter?
In summary, the vintage clothing
trend emerged in 1960s London and migrated to
New York City, where, over the next two decades it spread across the U.S. In its
wake, vintage boutiques opened in many cities, and anachronistic dressing be-
came an acceptable street style. Vintage style remai
ned popular for over forty
years as a form of “alternative” consumption, with consumers reportedly appreci-
ating its economic value, quality, originality, ecological ethics and historicity.
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What is striking about 1980s explanations for why vintage was becom
ing a
popular alternative to new clothing is that compared to contemporary research on
what vintage consumers seek from old clothing, there has been little change. The
qualities mentioned by 1980s consumers such as high quality at a low price, origi-
nality,
eco
-consciousness and nostalgia are the same qualities mentioned by those
interviewed and/or surveyed by scholars in the 2000s (e.g. DeLong, Heineman &
Reiley 2005; Cervellon, Carey & Harms 2011; Cassidy & Bennett 2012). The
implications of this parallel are discussed below.