Are you wondering how to look vintage chic wearing smart everyday clothes and fashion accessories? Do you want to change your usual dressing style for a sophisticated and classy look?

If you want to dress classy in a vintage-inspired way, even with some of your everyday clothes, you will find some helpful tips on how to achieve the style.

You don’t really need to change your entire wardrobe, neither do you need to have a hefty budget for this. Rather, what you need are some basics in your clothing collections and a good number of accessories.

We all know how accessorising can help dictate a vintage style; shoes, jewellery, hats, bags, etc… and as long as you take care of these finer details, you’ll be able to achieve that lady-like charm that’s so characteristic of vintage fashion.

So, how do you create the style of fashionable women of old with your modern clothing? By adding the most unexpected details to your ordinary looking outfits.

Let us see some of the basics first.

  • Wear items that are made with classic fabrics like cotton, linen, tweed, silk, wool, and linen. Clothing made of any of these fabrics always gives off an elegant flavour of their own.
  • Bold patterns and prints are very vintage and work well for a stylishly sophisticated look.
  • Neutral colours like black, white, cream, navy blue, emerald green, and grey are colours you must think of. You can, if you wish, dress head-to-toe in any of these colours but there is no hard and fast rule about your colour combination. Your combination can also be different shades or tints of the same colour (monochromatic dressing).
  • Your outfits must be tailored and form fitting so they can show off your figure and follow the curve of your waist. This is typical of vintage clothing. If need be, wear body form shapewear to give you the required curves. You can have some of your looser modern clothes altered to fit properly. If you are not a sewing enthusiast, get it done by a local tailor or seamstress.
  • Simple jewellery is the best way to go when aiming for a vintage chic style.
  • Vintage fashion is synonymous with modesty. You can’t wear crop or tank tops if you desire a classic style. Dresses and skirts hemlines should not go more than a couple of inches below the knee for day wear and full-length for formal wear and can be sweeping floor length for evening wear.
  • Don’t underestimate the clothing you already have in your closet. You can integrate and combine owned items in many ways you didn’t think possible.

The following type of clothing will give you that vintage chic look you aim to accomplish. You don’t necessarily require every item listed but the list will give you a good idea of what will work best for your new classic look.

  1. Tailored pants – Ankle, slight bootcut, straight, skinny, or wide-legged.
  2. Informal pants – Pedal pushers, culottes, jumpsuits, and shorts
  3. Skirts – High-waisted pencil skirt, midi, and ballerina style skirt,  full-circle skirt, swing skirt, flared, and wriggle skirt
  4. Dresses – Swing, shift, peplum, coat, and sheath dresses, ball gown, polo dress, shirt-waist dress, drop-waist dress, or flapper style dress.
  5. Tops – Long, short, cap, and sleeveless blouses, shirts with tiny buttons, cardigans, knit tops, puff-sleeve shirts, peasant tops and halter blouses.
  6. Jackets and Coats – Frock coat, blazers, faux-fur collar coats, wool long coats, swing coats, and trench coats, car coat, hooded cape coats, and vintage tweed coats in short jacket or long coat lengths.

Identifying features of vintage clothes include:

  1. Necklines  – square, sweetheart, cowl, and scoop necklines, collared necklines, V-neck, boatneck, or crew necklines.
  2. Collars – Peter Pan collars, embellished detachable collars, classic, portrait and boat-neck collars
  3. Cuffs – Traditional white cuffs, French, square and Mandarin cuffs, double cuffs, high 3 buttons cuffs or long pointed cuffs.

Vintage Chic Style with Classic Accessories

Nothing can throw off your vintage-inspired style than using the wrong fashion accessories. The shoes you wear and costume jewellery you adorn yourself with must round up your entire ensemble.

There are other good-to-haves too. Scarves, sunglasses, hats, purses, perhaps a parasol (if you want to fashionably dramatic), and purses are items that are best had in your vintage-inspired wardrobe because they are the finishing touches for all that’s been spoken about.

Jewellery

If you endeavour to achieve a classy and sophisticated style, ‘glam-up’ your attires for that Va-Va-Voom look by investing in some classic style costume jewellery that fits within your budget.

Vintage inspired costume jewellery doesn’t have to cost you much but you’ll need some pieces because they are the easiest and most affordable items you need to create a vintage-inspired stylish look.

The following items are what you should look out for:

  1. Earrings – Small hoops, cameos, studs (faux pearl or Swarovski), and chandelier earrings.
  2. Bracelets – Cuff bangles, cha-cha bracelets, tennis bracelets, and a wristwatch with metal or leather band, name bracelets, charm bracelets, wrap, and clamper bracelets.
  3. Necklaces – Long gold or silver chains with pendants made of faux pearls, birthstones, cameo, diamond solitaire, or gold cross including choker necklace, lockets, or bib necklaces.
  4. Rings – Delicate or statement rings, thin bands, heirloom rings, art deco rings, and the cocktail ring.
  5. Brooch and Pins – Whimsical and flirty pins, cameo brooches, personalised brooches, and gem-set pins.

 

Shoes

If you love to wear classic style apparel, you will love shopping for affordable vintage style shoes because you know that shoes (and handbags) make the most impressive statement in your dressing. Wear a nice suit with the wrong pair of shoes if a fashion faux pas.

Finding a fabulous pair of vintage-inspired shoes that fit in well with a wardrobe from another era is easy because there are lots of vintage-reproduction shoes that you’ll find to buy, the ones referred to as modern vintage shoes.

Women’s vintage shoe style reproductions to look out for are:

  • Espadrille wedges
  • Sling-backs
  • Lace-up Oxfords
  • T-straps
  • Mary Jane shoes
  • Saddle shoes
  • Peep toe shoes
  • Patent pumps
  • Lace-up boots
  • Ballet flats
  • Kitten heel pumps or boots
  • A pair of red shoes
  • Animal print flats
  • Stiletto heels(for evening or occasion wear)
  • Loafers
  • Moccasins
  • Sandals





Handbags and purses

Either with modern apparel or vintage-inspired clothing, adding a vintage style handbag or purse to an outfit is a unique way to set yourself a fashion signature.

It’s a good thing that vintage style leather and beaded bags, and clutch purses are constantly in style. Classic handbags are popular and never go out of style so it’s possible that many die-hard vintage fashion enthusiasts have a couple in their closets.

Today’s reproduction of vintage handbags now has special pockets for cell phones and other modern devices as you will find in many of the following bags and purses.


Other vintage style fashion accessories that are good to have are:

  1. Vintage Style Sunglasses – 50s cat eye sunglasses and browline sunglasses, 60s over-sized and retro square glasses, 70s tinted lenses, 80s aviator sunglasses, and 90s round wire-framed glasses.
  2. Hats – 20s cloche, 40s hats and berets, 50s pillbox hat, cartwheel, boater, fedora, half hats, fascinator hats, and retro pagoda hats.
  3. Vintage style umbrella – heart, parasols, and pagoda umbrellas (ruffle-edged, plain, stripes, or polka dots).
  4. Scarf – Scarves in solid or monochromatic colours made of cotton, light silk, or wool and patterned with florals, green foliage, stripes, paisleys,  or block colours.

The vintage chic style demands that the clothes and fashion accessories you wear are neat, clean, stylish, but simple. Clothing should be wrinkle-free and colour coordinated and it is important not to over-accessorize for a vintage-inspired look.

Womens vintage clothing is a green option.

Ok, so saving the nature might not be the first thing on your mind when you’re looking for vintage, but hey, you’re wearing something second-hand and original while reducing the pollution the fashion industry is dumping on our earth!

Vintage clothes has unusual fabrics and tailoring.

Unique vintage fashion clothes and details 
    • The pieces have patterns, details and quality that you often can’t find in most affordable stores today. That’s a total wow-factor when it comes to style!

It’s not like the cookie-cutter clothes you see in our stores today. Vintage is unique and available in limited edition, and that prevents your style from becoming mainstream.

Most vintage clothing is of high quality.

Why? Because further back in time, our society wasn’t so industrialized as it is today. Meaning, most of the clothes in the past were made by hand and designers and pattern makers gave each piece love and attention.

Vintage fashion has something for everyone.

You can find something in vintage fashion that suits your personal style. From dramatic Art Deco 20’s-30’s to tailored 40’s-50’s. Flowy hippie 60’s and disco 70’s to rock & urban 80’s – so really, there’s something for everyone!

Vintage clothing never goes out of style.

(Ok, I’m not talking about the really, reaaaally old vintage, like Victorian, frilly pieces). Vintage is hip and charming. It’s timeless. It’s stylish. Vintage fashion adds depth and realness to your style.

It’s not intimidating as wearing high-end from top to toe, or slavish as the latest fashion trends. But only if you wear it right 😉 You’ll have to adapt to our modern society, so you might want to mix vintage with staples to balance the overall look.

I was mega excited to post this one! We all love an interesting fact, so I spent some time doing some research on the history of vintage clothing and fashion! I had loads of fun doing so, check these out!

Clothes produced before the 1920’s are considered to be ‘Antique Clothing’ and anything 10 years or older is considered to be ‘Vintage clothing’.

Clothes back in the day were much smaller because as years go on, us people grow larger and taller – so when you find a jacket in store that says a Large but would fit your baby siblings… That’s why!

Over 70% of the world’s population uses secondhand or vintage clothes (not even including the US!).

The vintage clothing and recycled clothing industry has saved over 1 million tons of clothing and textiles from ending up in our landfills each year.

The average lifetime of a piece of clothing is only around 3 years. That’s where we step in and help to save the day!
dungarees-selfie

Buying vintage clothing has nothing but a positive effect on the environment unlike buying new. Let’s help out our little old planet with some recycling yeah!

The first ever pair of Doc martins were created from old tires. So if you’re ever stuck for cash for a new pair, just make sure you ask to borrow the tires from the family car first, you should be fine…

One of the oldest most recognisable brands we see, would be Woolrich.

The skirt is the second oldest piece of clothing to exist… and up until the 1600 – 1700’s women AND men wore them, who’s gonna be the first to bring it back then boys?

The zipper didn’t appear on garments until the late 30’s. The two original uses of the zipper back in the day were for closing boots and tobacco pouches. It was almost 20 years until the fashion industry introduced it to clothing! In the 1930’s, a campaign began for children’s clothing to feature zippers. This was top help them be able to dress themselves easier.

Generally speaking, clothing which was produced before the 1920s is referred to as antique clothing and clothing from the 1920s to 20 years before the present day is considered vintage.[3] Retro, short for retrospective, or “vintage style,” usually refers to clothing that imitates the style of a previous era. Reproduction, or repro, clothing is a newly made copy of an older garment. Clothing produced more recently is usually called modern or contemporary fashion. Opinions vary for these definitions.

Vintage clothing is a form of ease in a fast moving world. Re-wearing clothes from a personal wardrobe and wearing newly acquired vintage and retro clothing, can be understood as a desire to recreate familiarity, or felicity, in a world that is rapidly changing and increasingly impersonal.[1]

Most vintage clothing has been previously worn, but a small percentage of pieces have not. These are often old warehouse stock, and more valuable than those that have been worn, especially if they have their original tags. Referred to as deadstock or new old stock (NOS), they nevertheless sometimes have flaws. Vintage clothing may be either commercially produced or handmade by individuals.

Popular places to buy vintage clothing include, charity-run second hand clothing shops, consignment shops, garage sales, car boot sales, flea markets, antique markets, estate sales, auctions, vintage clothing shops and vintage fashion, textile or collectables fairs. One of the first regular fairs that was set up specifically to cater for the current demand for vintage clothing is Frock Me!. This event takes place regularly throughout the year in Chelsea, London as well as in Brighton. Vintage clothing is sometimes also obtained from older friends and relatives.

Typically in the United States, vintage clothing shops can be found clustered in college towns and artsy neighborhoods of cities. Sizing is a major factor – in most locations in the United States, the majority of the population would be unable to find vintage clothing that fits. In contrast to thrift stores that sell both vintage and contemporary used clothing, vintage clothing shops are usually for-profit enterprises, with the market mixed between small chains and independent stores. These stores typically range from 200 to 5,000 square feet in size, and will usually have a fitting room. In addition to selling clothing and accessories, many vintage clothing stores also buy clothing from the public in exchange for cash or store credit.

The advent of the internet has been a boon to the vintage clothing industry. It has increased the availability of specific and hard-to-get items and opened up prospective markets for sellers around the world. Popular places to acquire garments include online auctions (e.g. eBay), multi-vendor sites (e.g. Etsy), online vintage clothing shops and specialist forums. Many vintage clothing shops with physical locations now also sell their goods online.

Vintage clothing offers past and present clothing at low prices.  The reduced name brand clothes accomplish uniqueness and originality. Vintage shopping can be viewed as a continuation of discount culture, while simultaneously achieving an individual identity and exclusivity that the brand names have lost.[1]

Since the beginning of World War I the idea of vintage clothing or reusing clothing was a way of living. During World War I, most clothing was repaired, mended, or tailored for other family members or recycled within the home as rags or quilts.[2] The government conservation campaign used slogans such as “Make economy fashionable lest it become obligatory” resulted in an approximate 10% reduction in the production of trash.[2]

In the late 20th century there was as increased demand for high end name brands. During the 1980s, vintage clothing in North America increased because of the demand for reduce high-end name brands.[1] Now fashion is non selective as it used to be, as vintage clothing has moved to subculture to mass culture it is often not limited.[1]

Fashion is fast and at our finger tips. The very definition of fashion fuels the momentum for change, which creates demand for ongoing replacement of products with something that is new and fresh.[4]

This increase in interest is due in part to increased visibility, as vintage clothing was increasingly worn by top models and celebrities, e.g. Julia Roberts, Renée Zellweger, Chloë Sevigny, Tatiana Sorokko, Kate Moss, and Dita Von Teese.[5][6] Popularity of period pieces set in the mid 20th century in television and film have also contributed to vintage’s popularity. There is even an international magazine called * Vintage Life – specifically a Women’s Fashion and Lifestyle Magazine.

There has also been an increasing interest in environmental sustainability in terms of reusing, recycling and repairing rather than throwing things away. Sometimes vintage items are upcycled via changing the hemline or other features for a more contemporary look. Vintage items in poor condition are also salvaged for reuse as part of new garments.

The textile recycling industry is the environmental part of the fashion industry. Throughout the world, used apparel products are salvaged as reclaimed textiles and put to new uses.[4]The textile recycling industry is able to process over ninety percent of the waste without the production of any new hazardous waste or harmful by product.[4]

A resurgence of historically based sub-cultural groups like rockabilly and swing dancing has also played a part in the increased interest in vintage clothes. In Finland the vintage scene has even spawned an officially recognized association or non-profit organization called Fintage out of common interest in the preservation of material culture and the environment.

Fashion design, throughout history has turned to previous eras for inspiration. Vintage clothing retains and increases in value due to the fact that it is genuinely from a past era.[7] In addition, authentic garments are made one at a time, with enough attention to detail to create an item that has long lasting value. Garments closely resembling original vintage (retro or antique) clothing are mass-produced, for the most part, in China. An example of this is the simple slip dresses that emerged in the early 1990s, a style that resembles a 1930s design, but upon examination will show that it only superficially resembles the real thing. These styles are generally referred to as “vintage style”, “vintage inspired” or “vintage reproductions”. They serve as a convenient alternative to those who admire an old style but prefer a modern interpretation. Sellers claim consumer advantage in that, unlike the original garments, they are usually available in a range of sizes and perhaps, colours and/or fabrics, and can be sold much cheaper.