Vintage Dresses and Vintage Dress Styles

The clothing and fashion industry is ever changing but there are a few things that we can be certain of, firstly that history always repeats itself, secondly that vintage dresses will always be stylish and thirdly that some things never ever go out of fashion.

Okay, so maybe that is not all necessarily true, some items in fashion history should be kept well buried, never to resurface (hopefully), but for anyone with a passion for fashion (sorry!) know that if you lived to be over a hundred, the wardrobe you had when you were in your twenties would fall in and out of style at least twice in your lifetime.

That is the way fashion goes, its sort of like re inventing the wheel, new becomes old really quickly and old becomes new and stylish in time. Personally, I love everything vintage but especially vintage dresses, at 30 years of age I haven't got a vintage wardrobe collection yet, but I am working on it!

Vintage style clothing and vintage dresses are becoming more popular all the time, the word vintage, I suppose, can be quite vague because like "antique" the style you may desire can come from several different periods in time. Vintage dress patterns and styles vary greatly in color and design, but it can be hard to pin down a time period on vintage clothes because as fashion tends to go, the clothes that were so fashionable in the 1950's for example were at least somewhat influenced on designs from an earlier period.

What this means is that there has always been vintage, there was vintage clothes 30 years ago that were based on clothing designs from 60 years ago and so on. Fashion is a never ending cycle and we see styles re emerge over and over, adapted and inspired by earlier periods.

When it comes to choosing a dress you have the choice of choosing a vintage inspired dress or a replica, for a modern but vintage look you want to wear an inspired style, replicas for everyday wear tend to look out of place and are only really suited to timeless pieces and special ocassion wear such as a wedding dresses.

I am going to start off with my absolute favorite style because there are very few women in the world who could turn their nose up to a vintage wedding dress. There is something about the word vintage that just appeals, a wedding dress is an incredibly important purchase to a woman and there is something very special about vintage wedding dresses.  

If you want a vintage wedding dress look for your wedding there are a few different options available to you, the first is to buy an original, antique dress but these are hard to find, wedding dresses are generally not clothing that a woman discards, more often than not they are passed down through generations from mother to daughter.  If you are lucky enough to inherit a vintage wedding dress that fits you will notice that the quality of the dress is really something that you do not find often today. 

The next option is to buy a reproduction dress, if you have found a vintage style you love (and can afford to) you can get a reproduction made for you.  Many stores now offer reproduction or retro style wedding dresses.  Dresses from the 1940's and 1950's are particularly desirable as reproductions.

There are styles that have come and go over the years, if you want to know roughly what era or time period your vintage dress is from you can use this quick women's fashion history guide to what was hot and when.

• 1920's fashion was quite daring and bold for the time and the 1920's was a bit of a clothing revolution, colors were brighter than before, corsets were abandoned and skirts and dresses rose to knee level. Flesh colored stockings became fashionable and the beads or tassled clothing was very much in fashion.
• 1930's fashion - Seeming to want to recover from the shocking 20's, elegance and sophistication was the main concern in fashion during the 1930's. Clothing was mostly quite formal, hats and gloves were a must have and womens dresses and skirts during this time were close fitting and extended to below the knee. Velvet and silk were popular materials at the time for dresses.
• 1940's fashion is one of the most replicated of todays vintage styles, padded shoulders were in, clothing was relatively simple due to shortages during the war, jackets became shorter to show off the womanly waist and while clothing was simplified, hair and lipstick enhanced even the simplest looks, until the war was over of course which is when in 1947 the "new look" started by designer Christian Dior, emerged. With materials available again skirts became longer and fuller.
• 1950's fashion is another fashion era that has inspired much of todays vintage dresses and vintage wear. Picture hourglass figures and high heels and you can imagine the 50's. The pencil skirt and the wide skirt were popular and were a continuation on from the "new look" of the 1940's.
• 1960's fashion was a complete change, diversity became huge and so did the mini skirt! The early sixties saw suits and shift dresses much in the style of Jackie Kennedy but the late 60's saw the hippie movement and brought in many trends from bell bottom jeans to tie dye everything! Accessories were essential to anyone interested in fashion in the 60's.
• 1970's fashion hasn't really disappeared enough to be considered vintage clothing, items such as hobo bags are still with us as are denim jeans and peep toes.
• The outrageous 1980's apparently, trends and more trends, the 80's was an experimental stage of fashion and pretty much anything went, think neon, leg warmers, minis and shoulder pads. Some trends are still with us and some are thankfully long buried, hopefully never to re emerge.
• So there you have a quick look back at fashion over the last few decades, the 40's and 50's are the most sought after vintage looks in recent years and you will see the evidence in vintage dresses and replicas in almost every store.