What is Vintage?

I have noticed of late that the word "Vintage" is being used alot. I must admit that I myself use the term "vintage inspired" to describe my own clothing label, Miss Happ which has very distinct 50's influences. But the lines seemed to have started to blur.

I see the younger generation referring to garments made in the 80's as vintage which makes my skin crawl! hey! I lived and grew up in the 80's and think of it as nothing but a trashy, neon mess, and hardly vintage at all...which made me stop and think...What exactly is Vintage and why is it being used to flipantley????

First stop....the oxford dictionary: "denoting something from the past of high quality, especially something representing the best of its kind" ok, so that doesn't seem to help much except that we know it's something old.....

Wikipedia says: "..clothing which was produced before the 1920s is referred to as antique clothing and clothing from the 1920s to 1980s is considered vintage.." ok, so this is beginning to make sense...

Although, it is from About.com seems to sum it all up nicely: "The term vintage is used to describe clothing between 20 and 100* years old which is clearly representitive of the era in which it was produced. It is important to understand that the definition of vintage is fluid, so every decade brings forth new items as "vintage". It is also important to understand that all vintage will eventually become antique. 

So, bottom line is that much to my horror, the terrible 80's style that is now being termed as "vintage" is correct, and that the younger generation of fashion designers who are using it as a "major design influence" have allowed the 80's to be cool"? oh how terrible!I I always thought that anything from the 60 and under was vintage, but how wrong was I? Or maybe I am just getting old??!! lol! For me it's scary to suddenly be putting the beautiful clothing of the 50's in the same catagory as the trashy 80's....but it is what it is! terrible, but true!

 

Vs.

 yeah, both vintage! hard to believe!

Till next time!