The `60s are back, with a vengeance, in retail stores. But in vintage shops, the real thing never left.
While retail shoppers paw through rack after rack of look-alikes, vintage shoppers know the thrill, and frustration, of tracking down genuine
`60s bell-bottoms, `50`s cotton dresses, `40s suits and `30s and `20s gowns. Clothing dated prior to that is called antique.
”Vintage clothing offers a person the opportunity to be creative and expressive in a different way,” said Sandra Clark, head of the fashion merchandising and fashion design departments at William Rainey Harper College in Palatine.
”The other appeal of vintage is that the construction and tailoring can be very different from contemporary clothes,” she said. ”Suit jackets from the `40s and `50s, for instance, were made to last a long time. They`re fully lined and have detailed buttonholes and pockets. We don`t find that except in very, very expensive clothing now.”
Fabrics and dyes change over the years, too, so new garments never truly replicate the extinct. ”Everything in the `60s was polyester,” said Clark.
”Now people want natural fibers. You can`t make a natural fiber fit skin tight the way a polyester knit did. But then who wants to?”
Mostly people who were too young to discard tight sleeves, synthetic fabrics and eye-straining colors the first time around.
Jamie McClellen, who runs Past Forward out of Algonquin House Antiques, reports that `60s styles move best among the high school and college crowd.
Anne Faulkner, owner of The Cat`s Pajama`s in West Dundee, agrees:
”People who wore it themselves won`t touch it.”
The rule holds true for their mothers, who shun `50s styles, and grandmothers, who can`t look at Depression-era dresses.
By the time disco crosses over from has-been to vintage, we`ll all have to stay on guard. ”Remember when everyone wanted to look like John Travolta on the cover of that album?” asked Michelle Oberly, a lecturer in fashion history at Ray College of Design, Schaumburg campus. ”In a few years, someone will say that was the coolest thing that ever was, and that silhouette will creep back in. I have memories of dates showing up in those outfits, but somebody who has no memory (of it) will think it`s cool.”
