Average Age

DressUP

DressUP

Registered Guest
Hey Everyone,
I was curious. How old are you and how long have you been into vintage clothing? I was just wondering what the average age of a vintage clothing enthusiast was.
thanx
-S :)
 
Ha yea...
I still have alot of time. I've only been into vintage like 2 years and I'm 13. Most of my friends think its totally weird, but I LOVE it. I just bought my first dress a couple of weeks ago, though.
 
I'm 42. I've been wearing vintage since my Mom let me play dress-up with 1830s children's gingham dresses when I was a kid in the late 60s. In the 70s, I wore my mother's 40s dresses to high school. In the 80s, I was wearing almost exclusively 1950s clothing, both women's and menswear, bowling shirts, fedoras, etc.

Today I'd say about 50% of my wardrobe is vintage and I mix it up with modern things, like a pair of 2nd-hand but still new-ish Gap jeans with a 40s rayon blouse and vintage jewelry and vintage handbag.

I've been selling vintage clothing as my main income producing activity for around 3 years now. :cool:

Jen
 
Thats really cool,
My great grandma sort of started me into vintage and then I really loved it because I got things that no one else had. I like 2nd hand too.
 
Originally posted by DressUP
Ha yea...
I still have alot of time. I've only been into vintage like 2 years and I'm 13. Most of my friends think its totally weird, but I LOVE it. I just bought my first dress a couple of weeks ago, though.
Click to expand...

well done you on buying your first vintage dress :clapping:

i started collecting and wearing vintage clothes and accessories about 20 plus years ago.....my friends used to love them and was allways borrowing my clothes...

then i met my hubby moved ..had kids and all my clothes went up into the attic... just over a year or so ago i went up the attic to get something for the buys and seen the bags of clothes.. so i was up the attic for hours going throgh them.. which brought all my feelings and interest back...

but it is like starting all over again..... so i am allways learning and asking questions.... as there is not much interest in vintage where i am.....

i am 41 tomorrow.....
 
I have a 13 year old sister as well as a 16 year old and I got them BOTH into vintage. They even modeled for me this Spring with some eBay sales I did.

I'm 32 and I've probably been into vintage since like 7th or 8th grade - about your age! I used to love rockin' mens ties and sports jackets with my Doc Martens and jeans. Nowadays I am more into vintage accessories as I can never really find much vintage clothing that I like and that fits me well enough. The sizes changed so much and I'm tall so things are always either too tight or too short or too narrow in the shoulders, etc. I stick mostly to handbags and jewelry for personal use!
 
I'm 36. :D

I hadn't really thought about when I started wearing vintage but not long ago found pictures of me in high school wearing it. I know I had a 50's cheongsam & I wore a 30's black silk velvet dress to prom my junior year.
I got more into it in the late 80's when I was doing Rocky Horror and always looking for unusual stuff to wear there -- back then you could find all SORTS of vintage at thrifts still. Not like today - the few things that actually make it to the floor of the store are picked clean within minutes.

Today I mix vintage with newer stuff as well -- mostly because I can't find much I like that fits me. Separates work best as I'm tall.

My daughter, however, is 9 and already into vintage -- she has some pieces she'll wear out and also some things for dress up- like a pairs of tiny 40's heels that she LOVES to wear around the house!
 
I am turning 44 in a few weeks and first started wearing vintage when I was in my early 20s, in the 1980's. Don't wear much vintage any more...but my 11 year old son has an interest in vintage hats...he has some sweet fedoras and bowlers in his collection.
 
DressUp - You are 13? !! That's wonderful. You are starting so early you will really know your stuff by the time you reach the ripe old age of 21! What do you consider vintage, anyway? I'm an OLD hippy (60) and I started wearing vintage in my late 20's - I loved dresses from the 40's - great style and so flattering... I was typically decked out head to foot in 40's clothing and accessories. I'm pretty much a jeans and t-shirt person now, (my body is about 8 sizes different from those days :no: ) but I still snag any nice vintage I can get my paws on. Kristine's right - it used to be everywhere. I found my favorite dress, which I wore for two New Year's Eves, on the floor under a table at a rummage sale.
 
I started wearing vintage when I was just a little older than you, in about the mid-70s (I'm 46). To my mother's great chagrin, I would wear some of her 40s and 50s jackets and blouses with pants and jeans. I still sooooo fondly remember my first vintage purchase, a green and white seersucker striped 50s dress. Everyone started calling me "The Nurse" at school, and it may have actually been some sort of uniform dress. I loved dressing to please the different way I felt inside (along with saving beaucoup de bucks over buying new)...and I haven't stopped since!

What is your vintage dress like?
 
well,
Justine-I do like ties ( i bought a skinny one at rue21 for like $1) and i love yard sale accesorries.
Kristine-I actually found an old looking (fake) fur coat at a local thrift store for $8 but other than that i've never found anything. That's really cute about your daughter I'm turning my little cousin into a fashionista already (she's almost 2!)
Bonnie-i have a box of vintage hats that my great grandma gave me, they were my great-great aunt's. I bought one men's hat it's a stetson and i'm not really sure what style you'd call it, but i love it.
Amanda-I like pretty much anything 20's thru late 60's. It's easier(and more affordable) to find later stuff, though.
 
Maggie,
Well this is my 1st wearable vintage dress. I bought one a month or two ago and it ended up being a dress for someone to be buried in (haha). I actually bought a couple things. They are my first vintage clothes, I've gotten nothing but accessories before this. I bought:
-A summery rainbow strawberry skirt---$5
-A big black and cream colored poodle style dancing skirt (twirling around is sooo fun in it) ---$5
-A mink(??) stole
A pretty Albert Nipon party dress. It's silk with a big collar and a full skirt. It's black and the skirt is black, white, and beige striped. It comes to just below my knees.
An Elinor Gay sundress. Very formfitting, brown with big black embroidered flowers all over it. ----$20 (for stole, and 2 dresses)
I was happy with all of this. It all fits and I could find nothing wrong with it except for an easily mended rip in the black skirt.
Everyone at school thinks my style is weird but o well!!!
 
"Everyone at school thinks my style is weird but o well!!!"

I think you're a trend setter!!! And you got yourself some fabulous buys there.

I'm another ol' hippie at 52 and I started wearing vintage in my early 30s - bit of a late bloomer, but my mother would never ever let us wear anything second hand - not even for dress up!



Okay Maggie - what's your secret? I thought you were late 20s early 30s!!!
 
I am 46 and started buying vintage in the late 1970s for my job (I worked as a costumed guide in a restored village museum in Vancouver) I started collecting women's vintage as a hobby in 1977 but continued to wear men's vintage into the early 80s when I was a weekend New Waver. Had lots of skinny ties, sharkskin suits, pointed toe shoes -- sort of early Elvis Costello with a some English neo-romantic blended in... Gradually I wore less and less vintage throughout the 80s although I bought more and more for my collection. The last time I wore any great amount of vintage was in the late 1980s when I was into wide, loud 1970s ties. In fact I am sure I was the inspiration for Nicole MIller to do her crazy tie thing in the early 90s. Once silly ties became common I was done with ties altogether and pretty well stopped wearing them and vintage all at once.


PSST -- Deborah --- I think Maggie has a painting of herself in the attic...
 
Everyone seems to have a really cool story about how they got into vintage clohing. Also really cool ideas about how to wear it!
:D
 
I'm 48 and started picking up vintage items when I was 15. At my high school we had a week once a year called Wally Cleaver Week (a 60s show about a family with two sons, one being Wally). It was a celebration of the 1950s. We would all wear circle skirts, sweaters and saddle shoes. The guys would slick their hair back in DA's and wear jeans, white t-shirts and leather jackets.

One guy that was in my band class came in one day as the year 2050 Elvis with a pompador made of aluminum foil and a jumpsuit. This same guy is now a well known breast cancer research doctor at Harvard!

At this point my vintage is pretty much limited to hats, purses, shoes and jewelry as it's hard to find things in my size. I have two daughters, ages 10 and almost 9. They enjoy wearing vintage and stand apart in school from their friends but they are okay with it. Instead of following fashion you create it and so do they. :hiya:
 
I\'m the Oldster

I'm 55 and will be 56 in October. I started collecting vintage when I was 14 and have been collecting since then. When I was in college, I sold my entire collection to raise money for summer school. It was really full of 30s and 40s stuff that I droll over in rememberance. But it was a worthwhile cause:violins:

Then, after college I began buying again and have been buying every since. I only occasionally sell now because I finally have the room for all my stuff. I generally go out 3 days a week thrifting with my BGF and haunt Goodwill etc. I'm pretty picky about what I buy now simply because I have so much stuff (and I collect lots of other things too).

Vintage has been one of the joys of my life. It's great to see you are getting into it. One thing that I did, when about your age, was to go to the library and start checking out all their fashion books. There are lots out there.

I think it takes a lifetime of thrifting to be an expert and I'm still no expert. But, you eventually get to a point where you can almost smell a good vintage piece in a rack of clothes.

joey:hiya:
 
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