Question about vintage resources for learning

VintageCurious

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Hello, vintage newbie here : VintageCurious!
I googled and got you're site because I was trying to find resources so I could learn more about vintage. I always wanted to wear it but I've never known where to start but I think I'm ready to dive in!!!
The label resource has been really amazing to look through!!! And I've loved reading everyones convo on this message board.

My questions is : can ya'll recommend any books, tiktoks, instagrams, blogs, where I can keep up and start learning more about vintage? I fel like the info is so scattered and I'm a bit overwhelmed trying to get into everything and just find it.

I have found a few resources I wanted to know if anyone has read or used :

1. Vintagedancer.com has a ton of articles that I've read a lot so far! can anyone recommend something similar to them too?
2. I was thinking about picking up the Charlotte Fiell books but they're expensive, are they worth it?
3. I found Sultry Vintage's patron where they scan vintage catalogs and share them, has anyone tried this?
4. Are there good Facebook groups to join?
5. I'm sorry if this is a stupid question, but are there like college courses you can take on learning about vintage clothes? I don't know how to search for them because I don't really know what they'd be called. Clothing history?

I'm sorry I have so many questions, I honestly just didn't know who to start asking and figured this may be the place? tysm!!!
 
Hi and welcome to the forums, @VintageCurious !

Yes, there are many, many resources out there. I guess it also depends a bit on what aspect of vintage you would like to learn more about. You've already found our Label Resource, but our website has many more resources as you may have noticed, like the Fabric Resource, tips on dating and caring for your vintage... if you click on "Articles" on the top of our website, you'll find links to many of these.

We also have our own bookshop on Amazon, where you'll find lots of books on all aspects of vintage fashion, fashion history and so on (please note that we earn a small percentage from sales through the shop).
 
There is a ton of info on VintageFashionGuild and it's all free. I would start here. I am an author and collector and learn from my friends here every day.
I would start with a general vintage reference book unless you know that you really only want to study the 20s.
 
I'm so silly - I didn't even look around because I googled and the first thing that came up was the label resource so I got excited and came right to the forums. I'll go look through this whole site proper now. Thanks so much for answering my questions and for the welcome. I'll fer sure be checking out the bookshop too, thanks again!
 
I’m looking for something similar too!

currently self isolating with covid so I have lots of time of my hands! I’m looking for a go to vintage guide - a sort of beginners guide to vintage clothing, from tell tell designs and materials specific to a decade, a guide to more rare ad unique finds, some strategies to adopt when vintage shopping… that sort of thing! The resources listed above sound like a great start. Will let you know if I find what I’m looking for in case it’s helpful too :)
 
The Fiell books are not really expensive, you can pick them up for between $11 and $20 on Amazon. The books can be quite intense and have more than a generous amount of minute details on fashion from what I would describe as a scholarly outlook. If one is a beginner of collecting vintage fashions, the books can seem a bit overwhelming. Lots of information in them that is not necessarily about the identifying the styles themselves, more on the culture and society's effects on fashion, such as industrialization, morals, world politics, sexual roles, etc. So if you buy them thinking they will help you identify vintage garments at a glance, I do not think they will serve that purpose too well.

I personally cannot recommend any one book, the scope is much too wide for any one book to cover well. You have to buy a lot of books. Some are very good and some are not very good at all. Looking at old catalogs is very very helpful, so I do highly recommend that, but it can be time consuming when covering 100 years of fashion, year by year. Well, learning is always time consuming! Some of our members here have written some excellent books.

Fashion podcasts and blogs can be helpful as you said. But when surfing anywhere on the net, take some info with a grain of salt.....look for sources.....there is a lot of misinformation out there.

Go to museums and historical societies that do fashion exhibits when they re-open! A great way to see up close what these fabrics and fashions look like in "person". Pay attention to old movies.....and all the characters not just the leading lady or man.....the films that take place in or around the time the movie was made (not costume dramas as they are often inaccurate). For example, most, if not all, movies made in the 1950s and 1960s that are set in the 1920s are rife with errors when we see them today. It can be quite jarring!

It is not something you can learn just by reading a few books, it takes time and practice and a good memory and mind for details. Since I started collecting almost 50 years ago (yes I am THAT old!), most of what I know (as with many of our members) is self taught or gleaned from hundreds if not thousands of sources over time. Seeing the garments and handling them in person is best, and cannot be replaced by looking at pretty coffee table books. But those books ARE pretty to look at for sure and full of eye candy. I have some myself of course!

Learning about fabrics, various materials used for accessories, and construction techniques is essential, and very helpful in dating clothing. Since there were so many revivals of fashions and fashions influenced by previous decades, you have to know more than just the styles. Take for instance peplum jackets made of wool..and big shoulder pads....popular in the 1940s but in the 1980s too. And on and on..SO much to learn!

While learning, please come here to the Forums to ask questions any time. We love to help and we can sometimes learn from your questions as well. It is a life long passion and there is not a day goes by I do not learn at least 5 things about fashion I did not know the day before.

Best of success in your journey in vintage fashion.

Just my 2 cents.
 
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I am also a curious cat, who is just doing the research for fun, and that often gets me in trouble.

There is tons on nifty info available on the 'net, but you gonna fall deep into the rabbit hole to find historical information on brands, designers and companies.

I use different combinations search engines and browsers and search strings, because they all pull up different results, and some search engines/browsers are more prone to payola...

The various selling platforms, who have some very knowledgeable vendors that will have detailed information in their descriptions, and are also a good source of data, but they require cross-referencing for validation.

The local public library has some pretty decent resources, both digital and physical, that can be checked out.

Antique Pattern Library has sewing literature that will be able to give an idea of the fashion trends at the time it was published.

Arizona State University has some nice PDFs of old fashion magazines: https://www2.cs.arizona.edu/patterns/weaving/index.html

Vintage adverts in magazines is also a good source for general dating of fashions. Check into looking at archived digital copies of magazines like Good Housekeeping, Vogue, and other magazines aimed at the housewife. The ads in those usually have pictures of normal people in the contemporary fashion at the time.

Great places to find physical copies of vintage fashion literature are library book sales, estate sales, charity thrift stores, antique stores (they often sell their old pricing guides cheaply when they upgrade to a new edition), and used bookstores.

RN and WPL numbers on tags can also help. They can be looked up at the Federal Trade Commission website: https://rn.ftc.gov/Account/BasicSearch

A great free resource are people in your community. Coffee, snacks, and a chat about the "fashion in the good old days" can be very rewarding as well as fun.

I am currently digging around on information on ties, and it is a lot of fun. But, it is leading me to dig for more information, like just how many menswear brands did Wembley subcontract for? What is the correct terminology for describing tie types, weaves, designs, etc... The rabbit hole is becoming a bottomless pit.
 
I was just searching for pdfs of Macy's catalogues, and found a 1911 catalogue on archive.org. Whoo-hoo! Another resource to use.
 
This is a weird resource that I stumbled upon during my tie sleuthing missions when I can't find a catalogue that the tie is in:

The United States Patent and Trademark Office
TTABVUE. Trademark Trial and Appeal Board Inquiry System
https://ttabvue.uspto.gov/ttabvue

It seems that there is a lot of acquisitions of brands in the tie industry, so by using the RN or WPL number from a tag, and cross referencing it with a case in the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board for an approximate date range of when that manufacturer produced that tie. But it also seems that there are a few companies (like Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation) spend a boatload of time in acquiring both brands and manufacturers, so it is also necessary to research corporate acquisitions to get a narrower feel on what the date is for a tie.

There are so many ways to research a tie that it boggles my mind. It is also kind of fun that it comes down to litigation and acquisitions, neither of which is particularly fashionable (but lots of those lawyers sure do have some nice ties!).
 
Uh-oh, down the bottomless rabbit hole!!

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