Livi’s guide to vintage shopping

After a weekend jaunt spent in London’s wonderful Notting Hill and Portobello Road, I felt inspired to put together a brief guide to buying vintage items, as it can be a complicated, hazardous yet wonderful adventure. When you buy something from the high street you’re aware that it’s mass produced and that you’re bound sooner or later to spot someone else wearing the same item as you. Vintage items have a history, a wonder and individuality about them which I think is fantastic, and with a well trained eye and a little patience you can find some real treasures.

Try on any size

In times of old, people were a lot thinner. (Think 1920 to 40’s clothing, people were on war rationing and didn’t exactly carry a lot of weight) so something labelled in a size nowhere near your own can come up a treat. At the weekend I purchased a pair of dogtooth woollen flared Miu Miu trousers from a Portobello Road Vintage shop for £20, labelled a European size 38 (the equivalent of a U.K 12) I gave them a try expecting them to come up a little big as I normally take an 8/10. The trousers are in fact snug to my waist, lesson learnt both older size ranges and couture labels will come up really rather small so it’s always worth giving something a try on.

Helpfully, a lot of vintage shops have a tailoring and alteration service which they work with, so if  you do come across a beautiful one of a kind item which is a little too short/long/ tight/ big, then you can pay for the item to be altered by a professional tailor. Be aware that not all items can be altered and can also only be altered to a certain extent, but have a chat and see what can be done.

Quality Control

You expect your vintage treasures to be a little, well, worn, naturally. Be careful that an item has been lovingly worn and is still therefore wearable for you, rather than an item which has been exhausted, stretched, marked or damaged. For example, many vintage handbags will show signs of wear on the straps at stress points and on the inside of the bag, particularly if they’re suede. Check carefully for marks on items and try to ascertain whether these can be removed with some loving care or if it is permanent damage which is going to affect your aesthetic appreciation of your new item.

Wool does not age well, mainly because it is a hand wash item only and not everyone looks after their clothes properly, Wool will naturally shrink and change shape over time. If it’s a pair of trousers then they won’t have been washed quite so much or suffer from wear.

Tip: Having worked in several clothes stores, we use baby wipes to remove marks from clothing such as dust lines, ink stains etc. as they’re water based and designed for delicate skin they will also be kind to your items of clothing.  With leather shoes or bags, I find the distressed and worn look is much more attractive but keep your items looking their best with a good quality leather cream which you can rub in with a soft cloth to improve shine and appearance.

 

Washing

An item which has been worn before has been next to a stranger’s skin and worn and loved for many years. This is an incredibly romantic idea but for me it invokes mental flashes of germs, thus, read the care instruction label and follow to the best of your ability. Hand washing is by far and above the best way to insure your clothes stay their best, be it vintage or modern, sometimes only dry cleaning will do but some things can also be thrown into the washing machine.

Washing Instructions:

Items with contrasting colours such as black with fine white polka dots in a synthetic material are best washed at 60 degrees as the high temperature prevents the colour from running.

Generally, most items can be washed at 30 degrees, always use a good washing powder and fabric conditioner. Turn your clothes inside out before putting in the machine, especially trousers and outerwear, to help best preserve colour and quality.

Avoid the tumble dryer, as the high heat can shrink clothing, best placed on a clothes horse, on a radiator or hanging above a radiator.

Never machine wash or tumble dry any kind of wool, be it lambs, merino, or alpaca. You will only make this mistake once, and by that time you will have ruined an item of clothing that you love.

Haggle

Vintage shops don’t have fixed prices or bar code scanners so you can risk being a bit cheeky. Find your item, most shop owners will be a lot more attentive to their customers and ask how you’re getting on. Tell them how much you love it but that you’d only intended to spend ‘x’ amount of money and that this is just a little too much for you to justify. What’s the worst that can happen? You can always cave and pay the original price, they can only say no.

Also, don’t get carried away by labels. Finding a couture label in a vintage shop for a fraction of the price of a contemporary item is always a brilliant find, but remember to stay within your budget!

Shoes from Topshop Vintage, and scarf from Hemmingway Vintage Festival.

Never underestimate a charity shop

Vintage shops can be over glorified second hand shops, essentially the same as a charity shop but minus the warm fuzzy feeling of donating money to a good cause as opposed to a business. Scouring a few well chosen charity shops in nice areas can be a fruitful exercise (I found a Georgio Armani women’s Tuxedo style jacket in an Oxfam shop once, only in Knight’s Bridge.) Applying the same rules as you would to your usual vintage hunting, search through charity shops in affluent areas; I’ve found that you can grab vintage style handbags from a charity shop which is the same model is being sold in vintage shops, but at a fraction of the price. With the added bonus of giving to charity, everybody is a winner in this shopping scenario: The Charity, your purse and the second chance to be loved clothing.

This is my favourite slouchy top, it’s a vintage Levi’s small men’s jumper which I found in an Oxfam shop!