Vintage Clothing

Vintage is not the same thing as antique. Since antiques are generally considered to be over 100 years old, the time period for vintage is generally considered to be 30-100 years old. However, in recent years vintage clothing has been used to describe items that are roughly 10+ years old. The paradigm shift reflects the new generations getting into vintage clothing at a younger and younger age. 

Vintage is a more sustainable source of items. You are recycling, so fundamentally you are reducing waste.

While some more loosely categorize clothing as vintage. It is generally accepted by vintage clothing connoisseurs that anything older than 20 years is vintage. For sake of simplicity, let’s call vintage anything produced before the turn of the millennium, the year 2000. 

Clothing made during the 2000s can be considered vintage if we are going by how Etsy defines vintage clothing. Since anything older than 20 years can be called vintage, we can say that anything made during 2000 and 2001 is now considered vintage.

Second hand clothing quite simply is an item that was previously owned by someone else. You may never know if the item was owned by 3, 4, or maybe even 10 people at this point. But second hand is a term that generally refers to recycled clothing that is being resold after it has been worn.

Retro is really just short to Retrospective. In terms of clothing, it is a revival / new perspective on an older style of fashion. Generally retro is also referred to as “new vintage” or “vintage style” because it is clothing that was manufactured relatively recently, but gives off the essence of a previously popular garment.  Retro is an imitation of vintage or antique clothing.

By definition, an antique is something that is at least 100 years old and it must also be collectible. In clothing, it is a piece of garment that represents another era and time period from our society. For sake of flexibility, we can call antique clothing anything that was made prior to 1940. This comes to about 80 years as being the absolute soonest that an antique clothing item could have been made.

Yes, clothes can be considered an antique. As long as it’s clear and obvious how to date the item, and it was made before 1940, then you may describe your possession as an antique piece of clothing. 

The only way to have something that is truly unique is to either make it yourself or buy an item that’s old and rare enough that no one else has it. If you really want to express yourself in a way that sets you apart, vintage clothing is a great option. Apart from its uniqueness, vintage clothing is also environmentally friendly. In a path towards a more sustainable planet, buying vintage clothing saves materials and energy required to make new items.