Method
A qualitative analysis of American newspaper and magazine articles published
between 1950 and 1990 was conducted, tracing the emergence of the vintage
trend and how vintage clothing was framed for the American public. The aim of
Culture Unbound
, Volume 7
, 2015
[50]
this study is to specifical
ly account for how the vintage clothing trend emerges as
a subset of the secondhand clothing market and how the American press made
sense of this sartorial practice.
The analysis begins in 1950 (before anachronistic secondhand clothing is ac-
ceptable street wear) and ends in 1989 when vintage style is well established.
Newspaper and magazine articles were sought from a combination of on-
line re-
search databases and
The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
. Before 1980
(the year Proquest Newspapers databas
e has consistent full
-text holdings), I
searched
The New York Times
Archive (on the
New York Times
website), the
Chi-
cago Tribune
and the
Los Angeles Times
using Proquest Historical Newspapers
database. New York City was chosen because it is a global fashio
n center where
many clothing manufacturers were located and corporate fashion headquarters
remain.
The Chicago Tribune
represents the Midwest, and
The
Los Angeles Times
represented the west coast.
The Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature
, an annu-
al inde
x of periodicals, was used to research magazine articles published between
1950 and 1982 (when hard copies of the
Guide
ceased to be published). For arti-
cles published from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 1989, the Proquest News-
paper database was also util
ized. Both Proquest Newspapers and
The Readers’
Guide
included articles from the entire United States. Canadian newspapers from
Proquest Newspapers were eliminated from the final results since comparable
Canadian data before 1980 was not available.
The fol
lowing search phrases were used for all databases: “second hand cloth-
ing” (389 articles); “second hand clothes” (310 articles); “vintage clothing” (888
articles); and “vintage clothes” (254 articles). There was some degree of overlap
between categories wit
hin articles; in other words, those that mention “vintage
clothing” likely also refer to “vintage clothes.” For example, from 1950 –
1980, I
read every article from the
New York
Times
archive that specifically referred to
“vintage clothing” (10 articles) a
nd “vintage clothes” (16 articles), which totaled
24 articles since two articles appeared in both searches. For the
Readers’ Guide to
Periodical Literature
, I searched under the heading “clothing” for articles with
“used” “secondhand” “antique” or “vintage
” as a descriptor. By looking at the
“clothing” category writ large, I also noted changes occurring within the U.S.
clothing industry. Thirty
-seven articles published between 1950 and 1989 that
pertained to secondhand or vintage clothing were included from
the
Readers’
Guide
. In total across all databases and the
Readers’ Guide
, I evaluated over 1,000
news and magazine items about vintage and secondhand clothing.
The articles specifically referenced below represent longer articles where jour-
nalists sought t
o explain the meaning of secondhand and vintage clothing and/or
describe its consumers. News articles not included are those merely quoting indi-
viduals who coincidentally were vintage shop owners (such as when a vintage
shop owner witnessed a crime), or those reporting vintage clothing sold at flea
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, Volume 7
, 2015
[51]
markets, antique shows or worn at vintage
-themed events where the mention of
vintage is quite brief.
In the section that follows, I describe how the meaning of decades
-old
secondhand clothing shifts from being a
ssociated with charity to gaining middle
-
class acceptability as vintage style.