Vintage Style Clothing Ideas for Men and Women!

Someone has rightly said, “fashion repeats itself”. In last few years, the trend for vintage style has caught up to a level that if you follow any fashion week from around the world, you will see models, bloggers and artists flaunting the vintage style of the 70s, 80s and 90s. While getting confused at first in this article we will emphasize on how to dress up to want to look vintage.

There are almost 100s of styles that one can carry to look vintage. The best part is that the clothes and accessories are easily available in local thrift markets or in your grandmother’s closet. Once you catch hold of few ensembles, you are ready for retro or modern inspired vintage clothing.

What is Vintage Clothing?

1. To start with there are different eras that you can choose from. There is no specific definition of vintage clothing. Anything before the 80s is eligible for vintage style.
2. Either you can pick up a specific era or you can mix up your wardrobe with the clothing of different periods. Wearing pieces from same decade can make it look like a costume.

• The 1900s gave us corsets, collared tops and lace gowns
• The 1910s introduces lace boots and trench coats
• The 1920s became famous for slip on dresses and flappers
• The 1930s, we saw fur collars and wide brim hats
• The 1940s are famously known for pastel sweaters, cigarette pants and satin halter tops
• The 1950s brought leather jackets, poodle and circle skirts and unitards
• The 1960s marked the presence of bell bottoms, paisley shirts and sign of peace.
• The 1970s fashion had lost of denim and neutral colour tones into limelight alongside leg warmers and pant suits.
• The 1980s became famous for bright neon colours, lacy tops, shoulder pads, frills ad tunics.

With the understand of vintage pieces from specific eras you can mix the modern and vintage. For example, if you are wearing a top that is vintage, put a pair of modern pants or skinny jeans to balance the look.

Similarly, the vintage dresses can be given new look with new hairstyle or accessory. When you start getting comfortable with the vintage clothing, you can add more pieces to your vintage ensemble because by them you would understand how to balance your look.

Vintage Style Clothing Ideas

• To step into the vintage world start off with vintage tops from any era of your choice. Sweaters and shirts are low maintenance and can go with modern pants.
• You can add an old vintage cardigan to your modern outfit without looking like a yesteryear mannequin.
• For girls who are new to wearing vintage, keep away from the tops of 60’s and 70’s because if worn incorrectly can totally look outdated.
• Start with a loose sweater or shirt and wear tight leggings underneath along with a wide leather belt to make it look flattering.

1. Vintage Skirts

Generally, the vintage skirts come in two categories: midi/knee length or maxi/full length.

• Until the 80s and 90s, maxis and midis were preferred till knee length or below. To complete the look with these skirts wear a modern day t-shirt such as crop top or spaghettis above.
• You can also try A-line skirts that come with tulle or circle skirts. They are easy to wear and can be tailored easily for a perfect fitting.

The colours for vintage skirts can vary from neutral tones like brown, black, grey and olive.

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2. Vintage Pants

These days it’s difficult to find vintage pants in the market as the sizing has changed drastically over last decades.

• For this, you can move on to men’s wardrobe. Find pants which fit from the waist size and try them with modern day tees and tops.
• Vintage pants with oversized sweaters, lacy tops or printed tank tops add the bit of new modern flare to your entire dressing sense.

3. Vintage Dresses

Vintage dresses are well fitting and fun to wear because of the reason that there is a huge selection of the variety of dresses on the market.

• Look for dresses that can be accessorised and made modern in their appearance easily.
• The dresses with adornments and embellishments can end up looking too customised for your regular wear. Avoid such dresses unless you are going for a theme party.
• Dresses in mild print, solid colours can be paired with flats, boots, and sandals along with wide hats and cute beanie. A piece of jewellery from the modern day can complete the perfect vintage look.

4. Vintage Accessories

Sometimes more than the clothes, you can pull the vintage dressing with the help of accessories. Adding scarves and vintage hats are good for the beginners.

• Add small vintage pieces like a hat, scarf, brooch, pins from yesteryears to your modern outfits.
• These days turban hats and wide sunny hats are trending.
• Silk scarves around the neck or wrapped around the head as an inspired retro headband.
• Make sure the accessories are in good shape when you buy from the market because it’s quite difficult to later clean or fix such items.
• Keep an eye on awesome jewellery from my grandma’s closet. Vintage jewellery will never go out of style.
• Try the bold statement bangles, necklaces and clip-on earrings along with your outfit. Don’t overdo the jewellery and stick to the single piece and let it make the statement.
• Vintage jewellery is easily available in the market and can be worn with any type of dressing style.

5. Vintage Shoes

When we are talking about the vintage dressing, how can we forget the shoes. Vintage shoes are the most often overlook vintage pieces that can completely transform the outfit.

• The main issue is to find a pair of vintage shoes in good condition which is worth a purchase.
• While shopping for vintage shoes, look for styles like oxford flats, lace-up booties and add them to your modern outfit.
• Stick to colours like olive, brown or more neutral tones and pick a genuine quality leather that will stay in fashion for as long as you want.

Important Tips to Wear Vintage Style Clothing

• Dressing up in vintage style does not mean it has to be big statement pieces. A simple scarf or a small piece of jewellery to your modern outfit can justify your attempt of looking vintage.
• Avoid picking clothing or vintage accessories in bad condition. Understand, just because the piece or the cloth is vintage, it does not mean that it is worth purchasing and wearing. The visible damage, stains or missing parts should be completely avoided until it can be taken care by tailor easily. Else, do not waste your money and time on buying such things.
• Have all the vintage clothes dry cleaned before wearing because they often have wrinkles and smells that are really hard to get rid of.
• Just don’t keep filling your closet with many vintage pieces because after a while it will start to look like a closet full of old and ragged clothes. Research a bit and consider only vintage inspired clothes which are made with modern clothing pieces. They are perfect alternatives to the original vintage and you do not have to think a lot about damaging those clothes. Vintage inspired clothes come in good condition and already guarantee the size fit for you.

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