Incorporating vintage pieces into your modern wardrobe

Now that you have found the greatest piece of vintage clothing, so how do you wear it?

You might think of your vintage clothing as the focal-point in your outfit. The rest of the outfit should compliment it, by shape and color. You pretty much follow the rules as modern fashion goes, but throw in some unique elements of vintage to replace some major parts. Vintage dresses are the are the easiest to incorporate but some ways to modernize them are by simply wearing tights, a modern cardigan, shoes(such as ballet flats) or even just by the way you do your hair. It's up to the wearer to decide how "modern" she(or he!) wants to look, so by adding just a few or all of these things can determine if you look like you are even from this decade!

Buying Future Vintage

Buying vintage needs a discerning eye is required to ensure maximum returns. Buy a good designer at their peak if the label says Dior, you want it to be by Christian himself rather than by Marc Bohan, who took over in 1962. If the piece of clothing is by Yves Saint Laurent, it's haute couture that will accrue the most value in years to come, not Rive Gauche (from the Seventies and Eighties), or Variations (from the Nineties) – both are still too recent to hold the same cache. And even if those criteria are fulfilled, avoid anything that has serious staining or alterations, which seriously decrease the value. Store the pieces out of sunlight (fading is a no-no), and start to get paranoid about moths, damp and mildew.

As far as jeweler goes, wisdom is that signature pieces are key: whereas clothing requires a famous label, stylistically strong pieces from the 1920s and 1930s don't have to be Cartier to be of value. "Rather than the value of the stones, it's the dynamism of the design is the key. Remember that jewelry is very much part of high fashion.

If your investment potential doesn't stretch to haute couture, there is still much to be said for starting small. This theory of demand for exclusivity filters down on to the regular department stores, too, if your budget is a little more limited in this economy. So if you pick up some of-the-moment high-demand fashions – such as the collaborations that some named stores do with big-name designers such as Stella McCartney or Vera Wang for instance – you are almost guaranteed a return for your money.

As the outlay is not as great as that in high fashion, it makes sense that the profit margins won't be as high, but it also makes sense to start somewhere, accruing capital that you can then put into more expensive wares. A sharp eye for detail, the knowledge of what name counts on a label, and a great deal of patience are required if you want to start making fashion work for your bank balance. Shopping to make money necessitates something of a mental shift, it's true, but if you can bear to buy fashion that you will never wear, a potential goldmine awaits.

Vogue Fashion Fantasies

Try Vintage for the working women trying to live out their Vogue fashion fantasies on Target budgets, vintage clothing offers may possibilities.

THE NECESSARY ACCESSORIES
Scarves have been the number one accessory to update your look. For spring, wear a lightweight scarf tied in a traditional knot or wrapped casually around your neck. For summer, wrap one around your head like a headband for a retro look. Look on the vintage clothing sites for vintage scarves.
Try a brooch. Wear brooches in clusters with a black dress or cardigan in place of a necklace for an elegant look during the day. Bringing out the rhinestone brooches in the evening up jazz up the office dress for a wonderful evening out. Attach a brooch to a ribbon to create a necklace. A matching set of brooches can serve as shoe clips.
Then there is a statement necklace that can stand on its own. Wear one for daytime with a T-shirt and jacket. For evening, pair it with a little black dress. Create your own statement necklace by layering two or three necklaces for a multi-strand look.


VINTAGE SHOPPING TIPS
•Have fun. Take photos. (Hey, when are you going to be caught in a black pillbox hat with a mini veil again?) Don't be discouraged by the chaos you'll likely encounter – digging for that polyester jumpsuit is half the fun!
•Think before you buy. Some clothing may be difficult to alter. Ask yourself, "Is the price worth the wear?"
•Be flexible on your size. Clothing sizes were different 30 or 40 years ago.
•Be brave and occasionally try on styles that might seem downright odd or take some brainpower to figure out on the hanger. It could be your next favorite outfit.

AnitaColby

Recession aware Fashion Week spotlights the Power '80s or Classic looks

For fall 2009, the 1980’s are back and so is vintage dressing. Women can look forward to wearing shoulder pads, bright colors and grays for the serious minded plus power suits. This runway season have designers bringing us the empowered female silhouette of the 1980s in classic designs to New York Fashion Week.
Hitting the right look at the right price will be important to today’s fashion conscious woman who will be either going with the classic or something really special and unique looks.
Some of this years looks are shorter lengths, bold colors, wide shoulders, practical wool plaid, wrap dresses and draped collars. This season, dressing has abandoned frills in favor of textured surfaces with firm, slim architectural lines, that is focused on the waist. There are like pine green, slate gray and copper. There was also there is a reminder of earlier era of hard times: small jackets, skirts over the knees and even cocktail hats, reminiscent of women in the 1930s Depression years in some designer’s collections.
There are many vintage clothing sites that the cost conscious woman can draw from for the look from the runways without that runway price. Now is the time to let your fingers do the browsing through the vintage clothing folks at VFG and Babylon Mall.
Runway looks from the Ralph Lauren fall 2009 show. (Chris Moore/Karl Prouse)

See my items at the great VBOE Sale!!

Dressing like the 1940's

The glamorous, dynamic 1940s may be gone, but that decade's fashion ethos is around. Stars like Gwen Stefani have added '40s style touches to their wardrobe and Scarlett Johansen named the decade as her favorite fashion era. Vanity Fair glamorized the era with a gorgeous noir photo shoot featuring some of most well known celebrities.
It is just one of the eras that influence fashion designers. The fashion industry goes from one era to the other getting inspiration. Actually they mix all the eras to get ideas.
Platforms, which originated in the 1940s, are coming back into vogue and so are other trends
Late '30s, early '40s clothing has become very popular with many women. Shorter skirts are a characteristic of the 1940s because of fabric rationing during World War II. Shirts became short and straight and jackets got shorter to conserve precious fabric; women made suits for themselves out of their husbands' suits, since they were away at war.
Seamed silk stockings were very popular but soon disappeared with the rationing of silk, which was used to make parachutes; women painted seams on their legs to give the illusion of stockings.
Costume jewelry became bigger, flashier and the hats got wilder. Hats were small with big exotic flowers giving that very feminine touch.
If you want that classic, glamorous 1940s look, you will need to wear
For clothing:
 Non-natural fibers like rayon,
 Shorter skirts than previous decades, but not too high above the knee
 Women's suits
 Padded shoulders in just about everything
 Swing dresses
 Evening gowns

For Makeup:
 Red lipstick
 Well groomed, often, dark eyebrows
For Hair:
 Fingerwaves
 Pincurls
 Trademark rolls around the crown of the head.
For Accessories:
 Platform shoes
 Chunky heels with round toes
 Big costume jewelry