It is terribly easy to think of reasons to love vintage clothing, and this is just one of them: The quality.
Yesterday was a fairly typical day for me, photographing clothing from various eras. I photographed a dress from about 1924, and a sweater from the 1950s.
The sweater’s appliqués are organza, and light but sturdy fabric backs the appliqués on the reverse side in order to stabilize them. When’s the last time you bought a new item of clothing that had a feature designed to make it last? Oh, and the rhinestones are prong-set and are solidly in place. The buttons are mother of pearl, the yarn is softest lambswool, angora and nylon.
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| 1950s appliquéd sweater in my Etsy shop |
The 1920s silk dress seems to have been made commercially, because it has a small size tag. The amount of meticulous hand sewing to be seen is astonishing to me. For instance, those rounded tabs featured on the sleeves and skirt of the dress have self-fabric narrow bias binding that is hand sewn in place...and there are yards of this detail!
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| 1920s dress in my Etsy shop |
Also yesterday I photographed a 1950s sweater in teal blue with shell buttons dyed to match the sweater...and this is just an “average” sort of item made for J.C. Penney.
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| This one sold really fast |