FashBlog.com

By Christina VanGinkel

Shopping at second hand stores can be fun, especially if you know what it is you are looking for. Vintage jackets and scarves are always on my list of those specialty items to keep an eye out for. You can often find these two items in like new condition, and if you are lucky, at prices that beat even new! Vintage jackets were often made for Sunday outings and special occasions, or of a fabric that needed tender loving care. For those reasons, they may not have been worn as often as other styles and types of clothing, so they have outlived their original owners and are awaiting some lucky new owner to take them home and continue to shower them with care and love.

N to long ago, vintage was a word that some people used to nice up the word old, but then many of those same shoppers realized that the word vintage when associated with clothing, actually means much more. Vintage refers to clothing that was made during a time when quality meant something, when care was taken with the choosing of fabric and its cut, when colors were often used for their appeal and not their shock factor. Vintage refers to clothing that lasts and lasts, especially when taken care of in a way that it was meant to be. Clothing today can be quality made, but the average person who buys it is still looking for easy care and toss in the wash items. However, these two things do not always go in hand with vintage clothing, so keep this in mind if you do decide that you just have to find an item of vintage clothing from a specific designer, or that you saw somewhere. You might find it, but if you do not take care of it in the manner it was intended, you might not have it for long. Scarves made of fabrics such as silk, and jackets of wool are two prime examples. These fabrics were made to last, and last they did, but because the fabrics were cared for.

Where to shop for vintage clothing was once limited to places such as local second hand shops and stores such as St. Vincent DePaul and Goodwill stores, and was very much luck of the draw, or should I say luck of whatever someone happened to find when they cleaned out a closet! Thanks to the Internet, shopping for vintage clothes has taken on a new life. You can now often find exactly what it is you want by checking out specialty shops and places such as Ebay. A recent search on Ebay for example for vintage scarves turned up over two thousand matches. While not all of them were actually, what I would consider vintage, many of them were. In one search, I was able to browse through more vintage scarves than I could in two years time at a local second hand shop. I found a men's art deco silk scarf with fringe from the forties, a silk covered hat box filled with an assortment of vintage scarves in a wide variety of fabrics and colors, and a vintage LOU LOU Cacharel Promo scarf from the eighties all on the first page of my search. A bit more in depth browsing also uncovered a little girls' silk scarf from the forties covered in cherubs and a sugar and spice design, and a tassled, paisley, Tootal scarf from the 1960s, along with a single lot of six silk scarves all in different floral designs. They were the long style used to wrap over a woman's head to keep her hair do in place when going out for the day. I fell in love with the lot of them the minute I saw their color picture.

Whenever shopping for a vintage item online, I do recommend not making any hasty decisions, and if you have any questions, be sure to ask the seller before agreeing to purchase or placing a bid. Ask for additional photographs if you are unclear if the item is indeed, what you think it is, and ask for close up photos of any tags or identifying marks.

Shopping for vintage jackets and scarves is a great way to make your wardrobe stand out from the crowd in a sophisticated style often lacking in today's fashions, just be prepared to take care of them in the manner they are accustomed.