Customer Reviews

Vintage Fashion: Collecting and Wearing Designer Classics, 1900-1990

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As an avid vintage clothing collector, I looked forward to receiving this book. Alas, despite the subtitle, this is NOT a book on "collecting and wearing" vintage clothing. It is a very lightweight/insubstantial overview of 20th-century fashion, with four half-filled pages of "shopping guide" in back, which are credited to someone other than the book's author. My theory is that the book's editor decided that there are too many overviews of 20th-century fashion on the market already, and hired someone to throw in these four pages (in terms of content, two pages) so the publisher could call it a book on collecting vintage clothing.

This "shopping guide" contains bulleted lists of the most basic information possible on buying vintage clothing; things every collector with any experience already knows. For example, the guide tells readers that if they buy a garment without either trying it on or getting the measurements from the seller, it may not fit them.

_Vintage Fashion_ contains NO information on wearing vintage clothing. If you're looking for a guide to integrating vintage pieces into your everyday wardrobe, this is definitely not it. This is also not a guide to shopping the vintage market, or a price guide, or a real guide to cleaning and caring for vintage clothing. It is most certainly not a guide to mending or altering vintage clothing.

In short, if you want a lightweight history of 20th-century fashion, which contains a little text and many large, attractive, but not stunning color pictures per decade, buy this book. If you are either a beginning or advanced vintage clothing collector wanting a book specifically on collecting or wearing vintage clothing, find another book.

In researching the designers in the motion pictures for the 1930s, I find that Vintage Fashion has several mistakes. Namely they have left out several designers whose stars won Oscars in the '30s. They have also said Charles James was the "head of costume" for MGM, but another reference in their book correctly shows that during the '30s the head of design for MGM was Gilbert Adrian.

I bought this for my sister for her b-day and she loved it. She is really into fashion and art so this was perfect. I've read through the book too and really enjoyed it. It's a nice coffee table item. The price of this on Amazon is great too.

I found this book to be a wonderful look into the past. The photo's were a pleasure, and I have picked it up again and again. The descriptions were accurate, and the highlights of each decade, concise,
I don't think there is any one "diffinitive" guide for vintage fashion, it is impossible to find in one book. This is an overlook into each decade. I certainly feel that I got my money's worth. The shopping guide could have been expaned, but all you have to do is "google" and there are thousands of resourses at your fingertips!
As to learning "how" to wear vintage fashion, I think as with any fashion or style, it is just an instinct. If you love it, wear it.

Being a novice to vintage fashion, I have found this book to be a great introduction. Easy and interesting reading with great examples.