What's in the Closet??

<a href=”http://www.devoted2vintage.co.uk/EN/default.html”>Vintage clothing</a> is a phrase commonly used to describe old clothing inspired line. It its fashion sense, vintage refers to the categorical classification of new or second hand garment that was initially the trend in another period or era. They are clothing lines that were predominantly existent during the 1920s – 1960s, but are now inspiring current fashion line or in essence being revived to quench the latest fashion thirst. Vintage style clothing is synonymously coined as retro attires or retro fashion, a term used to describe clothing produced or designed that resembles fashion style from a previous fashion setting.

Vintage is recycled fashion. Retro fashion holds the replication of or revival of clothing trend with slight modification in terms of appearance, design or style, but the impression of a revived fashion sense is clearly manifested. Some may come from old clothing that one may have acquired by pass on or by purchases from vintage clothing stores, while some may be recent releases that clearly imitate the olden fashion mode.

The urge to get retro clothing started in the early 1990′s. Over the passing of each year, bell bottoms were revived, mid riff clothing became a constant closet must haves and so the fashion sense in the early 30′s – 80′s were gradually revived, remodelled and reintegrated in the high street fashion. Purchase of vintage inspired clothing became a trend when celebrities started wearing them on and off camera, the way they played, mix and match apparels inspired fashion conscious individuals. The likes of Chloe Sevigny, Kate Moss and Tatiana Sorrokko, made vintage clothing a part of contemporary fashion. Add to it the campaign to preserve the environment gave birth to the idea of recycling and reusing what still can be put together. The inspiration to reuse and recycle old fashion designs can also be attributed to the fact that most contemporary designers refer to previous fashion lines to adapt or modify a new design or to integrate what can be found from vintage clothing to a new design, hence the adage “old but new”. Retro inspired clothing is often times requested by celebrities from their designers, the idea is to bring to life a classy and timeless design but with a touch of contemporary glamour.

Retro clothing styles can be purchases directly from vintage retail store or from second hand garment shops or even from a warehouse sale showcasing unsold and untouched clothing that were left behind when the new fashion trend kicked in. some vintage clothing can be quite expensive especially for those worn that carries some historical stories to it or sentimental attachment from the original owner or the first owner. The advent of vintage inspired clothing is a manifestation that despite the passing of time, some apparel or clothing items remain timeless and fashionably trendy. Some people can settle with vintage inspired apparels but there are those, coined as vintage collectors who hunt down even the most expensive dress or item just to complete their collectibles. Visit auction houses and find old dresses and suits that have inspired current fashion trends

Men’s Knitwear. Just the mere mention of the phrase can induce an involuntary smirk on a man’s lips. And admittedly, it’s not without at least a foundation in sartorial ill-advisedness. How many dads have spent Christmas Day in the reindeer jumpers they were bought, only to revisit the indignity every time the photo album comes out? And what about the inelegance displayed by golfers, Question of Sport contestants and dodgy TV chat show hosts of yesteryear? And that’s not to mention those now openly mocked knitting pattern covers where clean cut gents point to the middle distance or sit on a stile modelling their amazing creations.

So yes, extolling the virtues of men’s knitwear is an uphill struggle. But at least you know you’ll be properly dressed when you reach the top.

The trick to carrying off the woollen look is to check your fashion history books. You’ll see that the much maligned aspect of knitwear is only a drop in the ocean, and there are plenty of cool looks that involve knitwear.

First off, it’s utterly acceptable these days to follow your inner geek and throw yourself into tasteless knits, whatever your inner style guru (or the opening paragraph above) tells you. Accompanied by a big pair of glasses whether you need them or not, the look has humour and maybe even courage, and will certainly turn heads.

Withdrawing a little from full attention grabbing, the 1950s preppy look is one that never leaves the style undercurrent. Think Dead Poets Society or Happy Days and you’ll get the image: cardigans and tank tops, tastefully inconspicuous and actually quite cool. Plenty of genuine articles are available in vintage clothing stores if you want to throw yourself into the look completely.

The 1970s gave us a true knitwear icon when Paul Michael Glaser, a.k.a. Starsky, with his partner Hutch (played by David Soul), fought California crime by sliding over the hood of their Ford Gran Torino until they got their man. Sliding was facilitated immensely by the long chunky cream and brown patterned cardigan he so adored, its chunkiness saying “man of action” in a way that knitwear can easily fail to do.

Knitwear made a reappearance in the 1990s with the grunge look. This time the knit was chunky and colourful, designed to keep its wearer warm during festivals and enjoying life as a New Age Traveller. Unapologetically informal, this look was accompanied by combat trousers, boots and dreadlocks for a slightly rugged hippy vibe.

Nowadays, of course, the men’s knitted sweater is everywhere, and has shrugged off the old image of suburban husbands reading the Daily Mail in their conservatories. Shows like Friends helped make light knitwear fashionable in an age of layering, pulled off with equal aplomb by fussy Ross, professional Chandler and hunky Joey. Simple and body-shaped, this style remains in vogue and looks set to stick around.

So there’s men’s knitwear and there’s men’s knitwear. Dozens of looks can be achieved, from sensible to rebellious, and without doubt the knitwear a man chooses says an awful lot about his personality and his aspirations. Just don’t mention Alan Partridge.

Author Bio: Nigel Cooper created this article for Voodoo E-Commerce on behalf of Rokit, providers of vintage mens knitwear and other items of mens vintage clothing.

With all the imagery and connotations the word lingerie evokes in people’s minds, it might come as something of a surprise to learn that it comes from the French word for washables. And perhaps even more strangely to English ears, in France it is equally applied to men’s and women’s underwear. So if you’re dining with some French people and one of the men announces that he is wearing lingerie, just carry on as though nothing has happened. But try and escape at the first opportunity.

The common English meaning of the word, as underwear for women, is actually quite non-specific. It can be anything from a simple slip or vest to a full basque with suspenders, or even something as everyday as a bra and knickers. However it cannot be denied that when the word lingerie is used rather than underwear, it does signify something on the sexier side, something designed to make a woman look and feel wonderful. Just look at the names of the well-known lingerie outlets if you’re in any doubt: La Senza, Agent Provocateur, Fig Leaves, Victoria’s Secret and so on. The air of sensuality, mystery and glamour is unmistakeable.

Before the advent of what we now know as lingerie, women’s underwear was bulky and uncomfortable, designed to shape the body, often in an exaggeratedly feminine form with a tiny waist and oversized bust and hips. Just hearing the phrase whalebone corset is enough to bring a tear to the eye, but bone was indeed used to create extremely rigid forms with zero wiggle room. It would not have been uncommon for a second person to be required to lace up the back as it would have been impossible to put on without opening the corset out, and the required tightness could not have been achieved without a little leverage round the back.

This style clearly had to stop. As well as the impracticalities, it could be damaging to women’s bone structure and internal organs, which is never a good selling point in an outfit. So around the 1920s and 1930s, styles inevitably started to change. The outer garments women were wearing would not have required such restrictive corsetry anyway, as the fashions were a lot more loose and free-flowing. But the need to be comfortable produced lingerie of silk, satin and soft cotton, and structural stiffeners were kept to a minimum.

Today, the corset is not completely gone, and the trend for burlesque acts shows that there is still a fascination in such items. But there’s a big difference between such dress on stage and having to wear it from dawn till dusk. The story of modern lingerie still has some of the traditional elements, however. Support and body forming remain important purposes, most notably in bras and girdles, but nowadays the need for comfort and health are unquestioned. Advances in man-made fabrics that have gentle elastic properties have helped towards comfort, and awareness of the importance of being professionally measured for a comfortable fit continues to improve in these days of mass-production.

Author Bio: This information was provided by Robin Kittler for Rokit to highlight the roots of vintage lingerie and other vintage clothing styles for men and women.

Where and when the fabled alien lands on earth will determine whether skirts are an entirely female garment or a unisex item. If we count the kilt as a skirt, it remains an item worn by both males and females in Scotland and amongst the Scottish diaspora, although nowadays it is mainly seen on men during official and formal ceremonies such as weddings, funerals and football away games. The Romans conquered most of Europe with soldiers dressed in skirts, and before them the Greeks saw the item as a manly and noble part of the military outfit, although even in those days, turning up in chiffon was seen as a faux pas. But throughout the modern period, the skirt in the western world has been a strictly female preserve. Despite fashion houses’ perennial attempts to get men to wear skirts and sarongs, it never seems to catch on, for a host of cultural reasons.

If you were to perform a 200-year stop-frame animation of the skirt, you’d witness an item of clothing whose lengths, widths and waistlines are constantly on the move as fashions, tastes, cultural freedoms and availability of materials vary. During wartime, for example, skirts tend to settle around knee length to provide a balance between functionality (women are more likely to perform manual labour when the men are away fighting), availability of materials (which will naturally be stretched during wartime) and, to a certain extent, public modesty and respectability.

During the buttoned-up nineteenth century, skirts would drag along the ground and be made of heavy, hard-wearing materials. But as early as 1934, Cole Porter was writing “In olden days a glimpse of stocking was looked on as something shocking, but now Lord knows, anything goes!” so even by then the idea that little of the female form should peer from below the neckline was long-gone. As the song reflects a time of great social upheaval, especially for women, the lyrics are hopefully more of a celebration than a complaint.

The high water mark of skirt-wearing must have been the 1960s, when the mini skirt was introduced by Mary Quant. It is amusing nowadays to watch footage of people’s reactions to seeing the mini skirt out in the wild, a mixture of admiration and shock, but proof that nothing like it had been seen before. The micro-skirt, the even shorter sister of the mini of more recent times, has thankfully never really caught on in popular culture for obvious reasons. It would appear that Quant got it about right.

The mini was a stark reaction to the glamorous but high-maintenance skirts of the 1950s, which required a feat of engineering to keep them perfectly flouncy and bell-shaped. Whilst this fashion was a welcome release after years of wartime austerity and then rationing, they were hardly a practical item of clothing.

Nowadays, Cole Porter’s lyrics can be taken more literally than they were intended, as anything really does go. A walk down any city centre street will reveal skirts of all lengths, shapes and styles. Formal, businesslike skirts mix with the extravagant, the daring, the tight and the free-flowing, and probably more than half the women will be wearing trousers. It’s too early to say whether skirts will go the way of the Romans, but it seems reasonable to guess that the skirt is here to stay.

Author Bio: This history of the skirt was written by Robin Kittler for Rokit to map the change in styles of vintage skirts and vintage clothing styles in general.

I was walking in Notting Hill, West London about four years ago when I was stopped by one of those extraordinarily trendy Japanese women who seem to look good, no matter how ridiculous their outfits. I thought she was going to ask for directions, but, in charmingly Japanese accented English, she asked if I would sell her the denim jacket I was wearing.

I wasn’t offended, or surprised by her request. The jacket is a red tabbed, denim blouson, single breast pocket, with yellow stitching and rear belt. I had stopped a man in Portobello Road two or three years earlier and asked him to sell me the same jacket. I knew it was a desirable Levi vintage of the 40s or 50s and I paid £15.00 ($30.00) for it.

I asked the Japanese lady how much she wanted to pay? She smiled, thought for a minute and replied: £400.00 ($800.00). I was surprised, but I was pretty well off, at the time, I didn’t need the money. I thanked her, very much, we bowed to one another, she giggled and we went off in different directions. I never saw her again.

In the early seventies, having returned from a year in Spain, I arrived penniless on Portobello Road. I crashed with friends and they introduced me to a guy making a good living from recycled denim, bought by the ton, ripped, re-cut and made into coats, jackets and shirts. He and I became friends and eventually partners.

At the time, denim was considered very low-grade by rag merchants, who recycled most of the rags they collected for use as wiping cloths in industry. Denim is not very absorbent, so it was cheap. A ton of washed denim cost us £75.00 ($150.00). In the early seventies it was not the fashion to wear your denim with holes or rips, so the denim we were buying was nearly always in good condition and reusable.

We took it in turns travelling around the UK, visiting rag yards with which we had agreements to sort and save denim. We also bought denim from the USA via a dealer named, Mr Denim. At his warehouse in Croydon, south London, we were allowed to sort through piles of denim pants and denim jackets and, as much of this denim was collected from prisons, large numbers of denim overalls (bib and brace). For each garment we were charged £0.75p regardless of condition. We found many interesting vintage denim garments too and we always had a ready market for those on Portobello Road, where we opened one of the very first stalls selling vintage.

Unfortunately we could never buy enough denim to make into clothing to satisfy our customers. People would queue outside the door of our workshop in Basing Street on the days we received new stock from our machinists and fight over whatever arrived. One of those customers decided to use the name we’d painted on the door in pink paint, but had neglected to register, turning it into a very successful brand name.

One of our very best customers for the denim clothes we were making was an Italian, with a shop in Kensington Market. Years later he became a very successful vintage watch dealer and we have remained friends. A couple of years after the Japanese lady stopped me and asked to by my denim jacket he saw me wearing the jacket and he asked if I would be willing to sell it to him. I told him about the Japanese woman and asked if he would pay more than £400.00? He offered £300.00. He said the jacket was rare, but prices had fallen since the Japanese lady had made her offer. So had the pound sterling against the dollar and £300 then was little more than $450. I thanked him and refused his offer.

I probably would not have sold it for a thousand pounds. Although it is now a little tatty at the edges and faded, I love it. I’m always looking forward to the next offer though.

Author Bio: Visit VintageRagTrader.com!

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