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I’ve been into “vintage style” for quite some time now.

From back in the days when I liked a prom dress and a pair of lady like shoes and to dream that I could *really* dress like I was in an old movie. To the days when I discovered that there WERE people who always dressed like they were in an old movie. To learning to pin curl my hair and wearing it like that ALL THE TIME, to the days when I discovered you couldn’t wear a helmet for Roller Derby 3 days a week and keep up pretty pin curls. Behind all that has been a love of history, a fascination with the way Women lived their lives and how they chose to dress.

Today “vintage” has evolved in the popular imagination into some kind of bizarre mix of 40s victory rolls, floral 50s prom dresses, contrast seamed stockings, red lipstick, cupcakes and bunting. If I had any skills in that direction at all I would sketch a cool yet amusing picture of your stereotypical vintage gal. Unfortunately I don’t have any skills in that direction, but hey, why let that stop me?

vintage gal

I think that’s actually quite a cute outfit, in fact it looks a little like the outfit I wore out to lunch on Friday, minus the victory rolls. Whilst as a look that has it’s place, it seems to play right into the hands of the Daily Mail “I decorated my house all vintage so I could have my husbands slippers ready when he got home from work” vintage stereotype and sometimes it’s nice to remember that “vintage” can be a little more transgressive, a little less stereotypically feminine and a whole lot more fun.

So today I’ve decided to debunk a few myths about dressing vintage, the “vintage era” lets call it 20s-50s, and the vintage lifestyle.

Vintage Myth 1

Women were real ladies.

Oh the number of times I’ve had this said to me when I’m having a “gloves and a hat” sort of a day. Normally by older gentlemen who probably still aren’t actually old enough to remember the era properly.

Nonsense. Women have always been Women. Strong, weak, happy, sad and angry and there is many a sad story of strong women in history whose “transgressions” led them into mental institutions and misery, there are also many who broke the mould and achieved great things. Whether it’s Luisa Casati being buried in her false eyelashes, or Amelia Earhart who inspired a generation of female aviators, and kept her own name when she married, a quick flick through the history books proves that not all women were sitting at home darning their husbands socks.

Cohen3

From the book Snapshots of Dangerous Women

Vintage Myth 2

People were always immaculately turned out

To modern eyes those photos of street urchins in tweed trousers and collared shirts look adorably smart. To most people at the time they would have looked a mess. They’re not wearing tracksuit bottoms because the fabrics and production techniques required to make them didn’t exist yet.

Those floral house coats you see 1940s women wearing in pictures, everyone knew those were their “house clothes” so it was no different to going to the shops in your pyjamas (ok, maybe it was a bit different)

The aesthetic appeals to me more than tracksuit bottoms, but in reality they’re not much different. During WWII there was a certain pride that people had in remaining well dressed despite the privations the war imposed, but that by no means suggests EVERYONE dressed immaculately.

Vintage Myth 3

Women had curves

If I see one more meme with pictures of voluptuous 50s women cavorting in bikinis contrasted with the skinniest of modern celebrities I will throw down my cupcakes and petticoats and have a fit.

Women came in all shapes and sizes, just like they do now. Those tiny vintage dresses that you love? They’re probably still immaculate because they were rarely worn. Women were overweight, underweight, curvy and straight up and down. Fashionable body shapes change over the years, and with photography not being as widespread as it is now you’ll probably see more celebrities and models of a certain body shape, but that doesn’t mean that’s how everyone looked. There were elaborate diet preparations to help women slim down, and bulking products to help them gain weight, same as you’ll find in any health food shop now and highlighting an advert for one over the other is like picking passages out of the Bible to validate your own intolerances.

real-women-have-curves-meme

Vintage Myth 4

You could leave your door unlocked

I can leave my door unlocked now, if I want to. It’s likely nothing will go missing. In fact once I went on holiday for a whole week and left my back door unlocked because I’m an idiot and nothing went missing.

During WWII burglars didn’t need to hang around waiting for you to leave your door unlocked. The crime rate apparently increased by 57% from 1939 to 1945 in the UK and looting and robbery were rife after air raids. Sure, times have changed. These days we fill our houses with expensive and easy to steal items like laptops, lightweight flat screen TVs and mobile phones, it’s probably far more lucrative to break into the average family home these days that it was in the 1950s when you’d need about 4 of you to completely fail to unobtrusively remove that expensive and very heavy washing machine from the premises. So, you know, is locking your doors really that much of a chore?

Vintage Myth 5

Red Lipstick, Victory Rolls, Pale Skin

Yeah, that. So you can’t get the hang of victory rolls, or they make you look like Mickey Mouse, don’t wear them! Red Lipstick? I love it, but I also love pink, and in the 20s-50s Women were wearing peaches, corals and pretty much any other shade you can think of. Pale skin? Actually tans were very popular, in the 1920s Coco Chanel popularised sun tans. Think creating the effect that you were hanging around on yachts a lot.

These have all become elements of what we think of as a “vintage style” but they are by no means historically accurate, and the assumption that all women in the 1940s were dressing and doing their make up and hair in identical ways is as silly as assuming that all women today are dressing exactly the same.

vintage sun tan

When I started Retro Chick as a blog (7 years ago tomorrow fact fans!) I didn’t set out to be a “Vintage Blogger” because I didn’t know what that was, and I’m not even sure they existed then. Over the years, despite my confessions that I’m not really very vintage at all, I’ve repeatedly been included in lists as a “Vintage Blogger” and I’ve frequently felt a bit weird about the stereotypes and preconceptions that come with that label.

Sometimes it’s fun to fling on a floral frock and red lipstick and go eat afternoon tea under some bunting, but other times it’s fun to wear the slinkiest frock I can find and drink cocktails, or slob out in tracksuit bottoms and drink beer, or maybe sometimes it’s fun to fling on a floral frock and drink beer.

Variety is the spice of life folks, and just remember, next time you think “That’s not very vintage” that “Vintage” covers a very long time period, a range of modern fashion styles and a whole host of misconceptions.

What vintage myths would you like to see debunked?

 

251 Responses

  1. Paula

    Well, said! Enjoyed reading this and in my eyes…..you nailed it! 🙂

  2. Miss Peelpants

    Preaching to the choir here sista, but always glad to read an intelligent debunking of these ridiculous myths. If you think crime was lower, and people so much nicer, I recommend watching the Scotland Yard series of B Movies (based on true crimes!) from the 1950s.

    My list of myths is too long to go into here, but one personal bugbear is the idea that post-1960 isn’t vintage.

    • Gemma

      Oh yes, because vintage stops at 1969 and will stay there forever even when 1985 is 50 years ago!

      • Rachel

        You’re so right! Vintage is technically anything that is 30 years or older. We just have such a romantic view of the 1920’s to 1960’s.

      • Vittoria

        Um…1985 was thirty years ago….. My bf was born in 86, he’s turning 29 this year..

    • Rachel

      Crime was higher back then! There’s a pretty sound theory that the lead in the gas (or petrol) contributed to it. There was lead in the air and an overexposure to lead has been linked to aggressive behavior.

  3. Mim McDonald (@crinolinerobot)

    I did a very similar post a couple of years back and picked out red-only lippie, pale skin and the ‘vintage figure’ (a term that makes me all ‘Mim SMASH!’) as in need of debunking. I do wonder if the current takeup of more 1960s styles among vintage lovers is to escape the prom-dress-and-victory-rolls stereotype.

    • Gemma

      Mim SMASH makes me laugh!
      Yes, it all got very samey and I think some people are trying out new looks!

  5. Jodie

    Great Post. I always wondered where the photos of women in their husbands shirts and a pair of trousers with holes in the where To match my modern day boyfriend tee and leggings with holes in them. So glad you’ve broken the glass ceiling over people always being immaculate.

    • Rachel

      Masculine wear was so vogue in the 1920’s thru the 1950’s. Women stole their men’s trousers until companies started providing women’s trousers. This is why the 1930’s and 40’s trouser were so wide leg on women. They were wearing men’s trousers! Marlene Dietrich and Katherine Hepburn are great examples of this style!

  6. Sara Cluderay

    My grandma always tells me that the films and TV shows of today that are set in the 50s are unrealistic because the clothes are always so beautiful with gorgeous colours and fabrics. In reality, after the war there was still rationing for many years, including on clothes and fabric, so she said everyone had boring colours and horrible scratchy material, and hand me down outfits most of the time! But that wouldn’t look so nice on Trixie in Call the Midwife!

    • Rachel

      Call the Midwife starts after rationing. It begins in 1957 and rationing ended in 1954. These are young working women who could afford the nicer clothing and more beautiful fabrics. The moms they care for are often costumed in what your grandma described. Furthermore, rationing ended with the end of the war in America so you also have to consider what happened where the film or show is set. This showcases the shortcomings of primary sources. They’re great if you want a very specific recounting of a time; however, people usually only pay attention to or remember what happens in their area. I do agree that most people don’t pay attention to historical accuracy very often.

  7. Jessica

    Crime rates are so much lower than they were 50+ years ago! It’s one of those things that drives me so crazy – in general, we’re so much safer now than we were then.
    I can’t think of anything that you didn’t cover, but the “real women” comment always drives me right up a wall. Yes, the consequences of stepping outside the boundaries of propriety were much harsher then than they are now, but women still did it.

  8. Isis

    Hear, hear! A minor pet peeve of mine is vintage=matte lipstick. Regardless the fact that you could get both matte and semi-glossy and that somewhat glossy lipsticks usually sold much better…

    • Rachel

      Matte is very 1940’s. However, the 30’s and 50’s loved a glossy lip. It bugs me when people claim something when they haven’t studied it at all.

  10. Cate

    I find myself gradually moving away from the 50s look towards the 30s and I do think it’s the whole cupcake/petticoat/red lips/victory rolls thing. Yes, I make a damn good cupcake but I’ve never actually worn a 50s style petticoat. I wear red lipstick only when I can be bothered because we don’t get on and I couldn’t get my hair into victory rolls if I spent all day doing it. And I’m sure there were a good deal of women during WWII who couldn’t either!

  11. Helen

    I strongly suspect that the pale skin/red lips/victory rolls looks is from Dita Von Teese, because she was the first vintage person visible to the mainstream.

    I do find the big frock/cupcakes/bunting/victory rolls/red lips thing annoying and limiting. Partly because I actually *liked* it at one point but then it was everywhere and became this irritating, lazy shorthand for “vintage”. I’m fairly sure (not that I was around at the time, but still) that cupcakes, as we now know them, were *not* a thing that people had in Britain in the 50s. But then Nigella Lawson parades about with her cupcakes (I mean that in several senses!) and she’s in a Vivian of Holloway frock and…. well. There you go.

  13. Rachel

    Addressing myth number 3, what was in style as far as the female figure changes each decade. In the 20’s and 30’s a very slim figure was in style. The 50’s was when curves were in vogue. However, the muscular women which many seek has never been in style until now. I think that’s what these memes are not articulating well. Many do find the muscular women unfeminine and I think that’s what they’re lamenting. It’s also contributing to the increase of eating disorders. Orthorexia is a newly recognized eating disorder in which it’s victims become so obsessed with being healthy it interferes with their lives. They cut out entire food groups. It’s a major problem. These memes may be well intentioned; however, they are very harmful as well.

    • Gemma

      To be fair it’s no ones business to lament not having a body shape they personally find attractive though! I know what you mean, but that’s kind of the whole point, that women are pressured into fitting into a “feminine” ideal, whatever fashion/culture decides that should be.

  14. Jessica D

    When people say that Marilyn was a size 14 and what people consider overweight nowadays…that was in vintage sizes…totally different. Pretty much a size 8 nowadays. That is by no means overweight! Curves in all the right places, but slim, even by today’s standards.

  17. Brian

    How about the myth that vintage cars are safer then cars today? I would MUCH rather put a 1961 Cadillac into the ditch at 30 miles an hour then a new Honda Accord. As for a major accident? I’ll take the Honda Accord over the X frame Cadillac. … Old cars are what you want to be in for a minor fender bender. Getting t-boned in a 61 Cadillac at 60 miles an hour would probably kill you while in a modern car, you’d probably live to tell the tale.

  18. Beth Galloway

    I could not do victory rolls if I tried! Though I bump my bangs up using hairspray and flat irons (bad I know, but it only takes two seconds with how thin my hair is) I have red nails most of the time but I prefer purple lipstick over red. I wear boots with my dresses and only have one pair of wedged heels I use for going to places like Atomic Festival. I dress mostly in red, purple or black but in “vintage style” swing and wiggle dresses or my one pair of high waisted jeans with a black top. All in all, I wear what I want. I’ve never been one for stereotypes.

  19. Vix

    Brilliant! I’m sick to death of this mythical era that encompasses 1940s hair, badly-fitting fake 1950s dresses and red lipstick. Don’t even get me started on C**cakes and miss-matched china. At the Vintage awards last year I was treated with absolute contempt for daring to turn up dressed in head to toe 1970s, shunned by the official photographers and looked down at by the repro-wearing crowd.
    Screw the lot of them. I wear vintage to be different (and have done for over 30 years), not to fit in with some gormless stereotype. I’ll still be wearing old clothes when the bandwagon jumpers have moved on to the next big thing.

  20. Nan

    I would add Decade Slushing! At my shop we often end up dressing people that say they have a 20’s party to go to but want a dress that has early 50’s lines, but really looks like 1980’s Grease version of the 50’s!!

  21. Jennifer Duke

    I LOVE that you mentioned the pale skin thing. I am naturally (very) pale (damn ginger genes), but if I’m going to an event and want to vintage-up, I slap on a healthy coat self-tanner. Why? Because it actually suits me and my overall coloring better than my pale skin. I look better and feel more confident. Besides, sunbathing was ALL THE RAGE back in the day.

  22. mari

    How about the one where Marilyn Monroe was a size 16. Anyone who has worn vintage knows what the sizing is like. A size 16 would be a 6 or 8 today.

  23. Rebecca

    I often struggle to read vintage blogs without feeling nauseous so this was a fantastic read! Thank you! !!

  24. pippi hepburn

    i love “when did this, become hotter than this.” Yes, I am working out more and eating healthier to get ready for beach weather, but I totally think women in shape of all sizes look great. So don’t copy the stars. They get paid millions to look that way, and it does not last. //www.pippihepburn.etsy.com

  25. Natalie

    That is so true about the red lips and the pale skin. Yes it looks great, but so does wine, pink, orange… etc. I think the biggest myths i would like to see debunked are that people had long hair and that they never wore anything loose or shapeless. A lot of women had cute bobs or pixie cuts and looked super in them. And there were a lot of loose fitting skirts/coats/dresses and dropwaists in the late fifties. And they were just as cool as any highwaisted/petti-coat clad fashions from that decade.

    Also what about the sixties? I love the 1960s. I suppose it’s more “retro”…

  26. Grey Dove

    Fabulous article, thank You! I have a special feeling for your fifth myth and the points you expand from it to make!

    I would like to mention a point that does slightly qualify your third myth. While I definitely agree that women have always come in all shapes and sizes I do think that something that was Much More Common until the 1960s (or even the 70s) were figure forming under garments. Heavier or slimmer, curvy or flat women did often have smaller wastes because from childhood on they wore garments that gave them that shape. Now I’m thrilled that a corset is no longer part of a regular wardrobe, and I think even a girtle should be a matter of choice (and for me at least that means Special Occasion Only) however, it does seem that a lot of designers have been slow to (or completely missed) this basic change. Or have taken the lack of shaping underwear to the opposite extreme. (I have a small waste compared to my hips and finding jeans that fit properly is a nightmare!) But I think a lot of clothes, and therefore many women have tried to have those kind of figures without the garments that created them, which in turn increases the myth you highlight.

    Thrilled to have discovered your blog and look forward to seeing more of it.

    Sincerely,
    Grey Dove

  27. Daisy Edwins

    I hate vintage stereo types – especially nowadays when people put a lot of things together and call it vintage like the bunting, cupcakes.. etc! Alot of that isn’t even true to what things were like in the past and there’s so much more vintage that people never focus on.