Where Has All the Menswear Gone?

As of late, I've been getting quite a few requests to start carrying men's vintage clothing in La Caravane Bohème. I thought I'd start off small, a few scarves, maybe a shirt or two. Easy, right?

I never thought it'd be just a wee bit difficult to stake out vintage menswear. Granted, most of the shops I go to do have a men's section. However, most of those items are usually tattered beyond repair. The lining of a coat would be ripped nearly in half; or a pair of pants would have sorely worn knees. You men are hard on your clothes! There wasn't much that I could salvage.

One day, though, I put my mind to it and told myself I wasn't allowed to leave the shop until I was walking away with a decent amount of menswear. I walked out that store one and a half hour later with just two sweaters. They're really awesome sweaters, I have to say. One's a nice cream cable knit and the other is a really heavy duty grey fisherman's pullover. I won't lie, I was disappointed that I managed to unearth just two items.

I'm not one to give up, though, and I dove in at another store. It had a huge men's section but most were as I described before: worn out, ripped, or not vintage enough. We have enough shops on Etsy hawking 80's and 90's clothes, thank you. (By the way, clothes from the 90's are not considered vintage. It is strictly 80's or older.) I persevered though and told myself it was possible to unearth some quality vintage menswear.

On the long and heavy rack of men's coats and blazers, I plucked a grey herringbone wool coat out. A quick once over, a check of the tags, a glance at the silhouette, revealed itself to be an overcoat from the 50's. Have I hit the jackpot? Indeed! Now, with renewed motivation, I pushed myself to find another coat or blazer. Next, I pulled out a camel double-breasted blazer. By now, I was exhausted and ready to go home and snuggle up with a cup of tea, so I marched to the cashier with purpose and made my way home.

So, I zoomed in on my boyfriend's drummer as my potential model. After some sweet talking (read, begging,) he agreed and helped me out. The sweaters went swimmingly. Then, we got to the coat and blazer. I was nervous because they seemed a little too big for Garrett, our dashing male model. Once he put one on, my hope rose because it seemed to fit him well. Then, my eyes traveled down his sleeves and to my horror, I realized they were short!

"Oh crap."

After adjusting the sleeves and throwing the coat on two other guys and hoping the sleeves magically lengthened, I was forced to face the truth. While I had found these two items in the men's section, they were wholly, undeniably womenswear. Ugh. Note to self: Always measure the sleeves. That's definitely one lesson I'll never forget!

I guess I just have to keep looking. That's the fun part, right? :)

Happy Vintaging!

Beatrice

Aachoo! Why Buy Vintage?

Today I went out to my favorite vintage shop to see if they had anything new. They always have at least a few items perfect for bringing home and putting up on our shop so I'm never disappointed when I leave. As I looked through the rack of dresses, my mind started wandering and I started considering what I was actually doing. Here I was, looking through dusty old garments finding that so-called diamond in the rough. It's messy, tiring work. 

The clothes are usually packed so tightly together that it takes a lot of arm power to pull the hangers apart so I could look at each piece. Then, near the end, I'm fumbling for tissues because these clothes are dusty and make me sneeze a few times... um, a lot (and I'm not allergic!) On top of that, I'm wondering, "Have these clothes even been washed? Have they been sweated in? Ew, what is that spot?" I can seriously become germaphobic in seconds. 

Note: This is why I make a point to wash, dry clean, and/or spot check every garment before putting them up in the shop. Only one person needs to go through that in each garment's vintage life and it shall not be you!

I take over my bathtub for hours at a time, not to the delight of the other inhabitants of the house...

The question I suddenly found myself wondering as I dove into another dusty pile of possibly unwashed clothes was, "Why am I doing this?" Anyone could easily dash to the nearest Target and find an adorable 60's inspired shift in a Liberty-lookalike print all clean and pressed and never been worn. Too bad that you may find that same dress walking towards you the next day on the streets. Perhaps that awesome Urban Outfitters cardigan you shelled out big bucks for looked awesome for exactly two and a half days before all the buttons inexplicably fell off in one fell swoop when you weren't looking. Nothing against Urban Outfitters, they have beautiful clothes but their quality can be contested at some times.

Once I considered the alternate: Target, Urban Outfitters, your local mall, even the sidewalk boutique where the coat you bought actually goes for 50% less online; it all started coming back to me. This labor of love, the time I take to search the shops, the amount of detergent I go through as I clean each piece, waiting for the perfect day to take pictures, finding the perfect name, writing a good description- is all in the name of beautiful, individual, personal style. 

There are so many reasons why vintage clothes are just so awesome:

Some people are blessed with the perfect 50's style body, and it would be near blasphemy if they didn't adorn it with Marilyn Monroe style dresses and taffeta and net ball gowns. Others find themselves a Twiggy lookalike and it's just unthinkable if they didn't don a shift every now and then. Don't appease yourself and your special era-styled body with cheap reproductions of past styles. Go to the source itself. Seek out the real 40's Dior New Look silhouette or the 70's flower child reign if it fits you.

It's eco-friendly. Without sounding too tree-hugger-ish and granola, not that I have anything against that, reviving clothes that is already around is one of the best ways to reduce waste. Imagine the thousands of blank white shirts churned out by the Hanes factories overseas. Imagine them getting lost in the back of some drawer somewhere. Imagine them eventually thrown out. Imagine the thousands of garments gracing the sales rack at the mall. Imagine them sitting there... sitting there... and sitting there... Imagine the resources it took to make them: the lights, the gas power, the fabric, the space the factory takes up, the pollution. Imagine all of those garments that sucked up valuable resources in the landfill. Point made.

You are certainly going to discover vintage clothes have the one thing most clothes nowadays do not. That, my friends, is quality. Sure you can find a great quality pair of boots if you're willing to shell out over $400 for them. This is truly the age of you get what you pay for. Not so with vintage clothes. With a sharp eye, you can discover a beautiful wool coat with mink collar for a mere fifty bucks. What if you saw that same coat (neé a reproduction, but still) in a shop? How much would that go for? It is doubtless that a skirt from the 60's has been crafted with careful care to last as long as it can. Back then, we weren't a throwaway society. We were a "make do, make it last" type of world and the clothes are representative of that.

Once I reminded myself of all that, I dove back into that dusty pile of clothes with renewed vigor. Vintage clothes rule; and I'm so happy that I could help in the process of getting those garments back out into the world. After all, like I said, only one person needs to do all the dirty work in a piece's vintage life. That would be me. You get to enjoy the end result!

Happy Vintaging!

Beatrice