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What do you consider vintage and what do you considered retro (in regards to fashion)? I’m actually not sure and did a search on Wikipedia, here’s what it said:

Vintage clothing which was produced before the 1920s is referred to as antique clothing and clothing from the 1920s to 1980s is considered vintage.

Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc. It generally implies a vintage of at least 15 or 20 years.

Personally I don’t think 70’s fashion as vintage, it just seemed more retro but I really don’t know what made me come to this conclusion. 50’s fashion definitely feels vintage to me but again I just assume it is.

What do you think?

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That sounds like the sort of thing that my Mum & Dad refers to as 'tat', though thinking about it 'tat' tends to be more specifically cheap glass brooches and jewellery particularly from the '60s
I like' tat' - it has a kind of warm and cosy feel ...
I like "tat" too! Perfect!
As a vintage seller, "retro" is the term I use for copies or current styles with a vintage look.  This term is shortened from "retrograde" which means going back or turning back.  Knowing that helps to make the meaning of "retro" a bit more clear.  Any fashion that looks back in style is retro, regardless of its age.    So, to complicate things, something can be retro and vintage, such as the 1940's styles that were popular in the 1970's.  Those could be described as "vintage 1970's retro 40's style".   LOL

That that makes this outfit 'retro' then - right :)

 

wow, gorgeous! It's more like a 'repro', right? (LOL)

My desk diary has a, 'useful fact per page' and one of them reads, 'An item of clothing is 'vintage' if it dates from 1920 to 1960'... well, whaddya know!   It also says, 'Around 40 fashion weeks are held in cities around the world each year' ...
Aha! I love it!

I'd like to clear this up from a fashion history perspective. This is part of the subject for my dissertation!

In most peoples understanding 1980 up until 2000 counts as Retro, 1920 to 1979 vintage and before is antique. But in actuality:

Retro is the term used for something that is influenced and styled by the past. But no particular era. So you could buy something in a store that was new but looked like a 1950s dress and that would be retro.

Most of the other words like vintage and antique are generally superfluous. Vintage is a term used to describe second hand clothing since the 1990s when it became fashionable and designers had to re-brand the term second hand in order to get people to buy distressed or worn before clothing.

 

My dissertation looks at dressmaking throughout the 20th and 21st centuries and the interpretation of these terms within the dressmaking community especially when it comes to using dress patterns and fabrics from the past! 

 

that's cleared that up then Stevie, very clear! Love the sound of your dissertation x

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