1. Vintage Clothing is Sustainable

Everyone’s busy these days and it can be very difficult to take the time to source the best quality, most ethical, most sustainable food, clothes, products, etc. Luckily, if you buy vintage clothing you’re buying clothes in a pretty ethical way! Buying second hand or vintage clothing is a form of recycling. The clothes have already been made, worn and had an exciting life of their own before they come into your hands. It means clothes are being used until they are worn out rather than out of fashion because luckily fashion for us is cyclical and we’re proud to take inspiration from the past or appreciate looks from previous decades so that’s the first pat on the back you can give yourself for buying vintage clothing. There are more pats on the back to come!

2. Vintage Clothing is Ethical

You don’t have to worry that children have been sat in factories making your clothes. Obviously the original source of the clothes may be dubious, but when buying them second hand from a vintage shop you’re at least not supporting an unethical retailer. It’s almost certain that you’re supporting a small trader or business and a chain of employess who love their job and have a passion for all things vintage! Vintage selling can be more of a lifestyle choice or hobby  than being a cold, faceless business purely driven by money. The small size of most vintage businesses means they have tabs on where their clothes are coming from so you can be sure you’re speaking to someone well informed when you ask a vintage seller questions about their stock.

3. Vintage Clothing Supports Charities

Many vintage items are sourced from a vintage wholesaler or charity. The wholesalers tend to buy clothing in bulk from charities, taking great vintage items that are more valuable, but also taking a lot of items that would never sell in with it. The charities can pass all the sorting, steaming, pricing, selling and essentially leg work over to people passionate about clothes, which can save charities time and money! Also, particularly with smaller sellers, they will often source their clothing from charity shops, which means money is going straight to charities again. You must surely be feeling pretty good about yourself by now?

4. Vintage Clothing is Cool

The word ‘cool’ may not be cool, but vintage clothing is. We’re seeing more and more people turning to it. The celebs (another uncool word) are all at it. It’s cool because you can get some pretty extreme or unique pieces that reflect current trends and you can create glamorous looks of years gone by. How could dressing like your favourite stars from the past not be cool? Like Drew Barrymore. It is cool. Huhuhuh cool. Oh wait, I should say ‘awesome’ shouldn’t I!? Wooops.

5. Vintage Clothing is Budget Friendly

It might sometimes seem like vintage clothing is expensive, but when you consider the effort that goes in to sourcing those items, prepping, checking, pricing, photographing, etc you’re often paying for all that work so you can avoid spending hours trawling through heaps of jumble sale rubbish and instead have all the best, most interesting items at your fingertips. You also pay for the customer service, the option for returning items and all that malarky. When you’re buying from a car boot, you won’t get any of that. Also, vintage sellers are able to source items from around the globe with their network of contacts so you really get to choose items from the equivalent of billions of charity shops and who has time to visit a billion charity shops? Me. I do. But no one else. Saying that, you can genuinely get really cheap bargains too. We try to keep our prices as reasonable as possible on most of our items by keeping our running costs as low as possible. We’re also pretty good at haggling a good price too. E.g.

Me: ‘A pound!’Them: ‘No, I said £25 was as low as I could go.’
Me: ‘A pound!’
(2 hours later)
Me: ‘A pound!’
Them: ‘As long as you promise to go away.’

The general consensus is that vintage clothing won’t fit plus size women because everyone was so tiny way back there in the past. This may have been the case years ago when clothes from the 40s and 50s or older were really the only things considered to be vintage, but these days, items from the 1990s are vintage, so there are plenty more decades of clothing to choose from and therefore a stronger chance of finding vintage items for plus size women.

We wouldn’t use the term ‘plus size’, but at least you can find what you’re looking for.

I don’t really want to label people as plus size because it’s not the most flattering terminology is it?! Besides someone tall or more muscular might be a size 16-18 but not be overweight and so on. However, we do label a range as plus size because this is the term women of size 16 or larger might be using to find vintage items that might fit them.

This is how we do plus size.

We measure all our items and then list them as suitable for a range of UK dress sized women. Everyone should always check the measurements of an individual item before buying rather than going off the suggested sizes. When we think an item will fit someone of a size 16, 18, 20, etc, we will list it in the plus size category. You might notice that some of our plus size items also have size 12 or 14 in their description or title. Don’t worry though! Those sizes are included when we think an item will look awesome on people of that dress size too.

Plus size vintage clothing no longer a rarity.

We actually find we come across a lot of larger vintage items. The 1980s and 1990s are great for plus size vintage items, but we also have a number of coats from the 1960s in this range too. If you haven’t checked out our plus size range yet, click here.

Where to get more plus size inspiration.

We are big fans of plus size models and healthy bodies so have a look at some of these sites that are great resources for information and amazing inspiration:

http://www.12plusuk.com/

http://www.slinkmagazine.com/

http://www.vogue.it/en/vogue-curvy

Also, check out our favourite plus size vintage item in store right now. This amaaaazing, 1960s, sheepskin coat is unbelievable. Click the image to view the listing.

Don’t you hate it when you can’t find what you’re looking for!

Our aim at YLA is to figure out all the things people hate about buying vintage clothing and try to tackle these niggles that put so many people off. One of those things is sourcing exactly the type of thing you’re looking for! You know how it is… you’ve been on Tumblr for the last 12 hours, gone almost blind, but out of the haze spotted a brightly coloured, vintage, beanie hat and think to yourself, ‘I wannnnnt onnnne’. You realise you’ve got hours of trawling ahead of you just to look for a similar hat and though you don’t mind that too much, you get to the end of your search and nowhere has anything even remotely like what you want because it’s just unfortunate timing.

Vintage sellers can’t predict everything that customers want.

Meanwhile, a vintage seller is sitting thinking of what types of things they’re going to try and source next. They’re looking at what’s currently popular and looking ahead to next season’s trends, plotting and scheming about how they’re going to get their hands on awesome, unique, vintage versions of all these things. Hahahahaaaaaaa! Not that this is me. No. The vintage seller, though, with their beady eyes is only armed with their own style sense and their knowledge of trends past and present. If only they knew you were looking for that beanie they’d swoop across clothes piles and spot it a mile off doing all the hard work for you and plop it into their store ready for you to buy. But they don’t know… until now!

Our customers are so cool they might want something we’d never even thought of!

We know our customers have unique style and don’t necessarily follow trends. In fact, they’re often setting the trends or want items that are totally left field that we’d never be able to predict. Part of the fun of vintage clothing is finding new and crazy styles and items or coming across things that are really rare or look like a much more expensive, designer item.

If you let us know what you want using our suggestions box, you might just get it.

We’ve installed our suggestions box so we can keep your ideas in mind when we go off sourcing! Not only does this increase your chances of getting that illusive item, you might also be helping out like minded style geniuses sobbing over their keyboards like you by pointing us in the right direction. What better way for us to stock what you’re looking for than actually asking for your ideas! You can almost think of us as your own, personal, vintage clothing supplier.

Once you send us your suggestion, be assured that it’s on our radar. If we find something you’ll get an email to get first dibs on it before it’s even listed in our store. If we think we’ve actually got something suitable waiting to be listed or already on the site that you might have missed, we’ll let you know! If a lot of people have emailed requesting similar things, it’ll go right up our priority list and we’ll do everything we can to source it.

The Suggestions Box is awesome because:

1. You can let us know what you’re looking for, which is particularly helpful if you’re a trend setter or have a really out-there style.
2. We can try to source what you’re looking for and give you first dibs on these items when they come in!
3. We can point you towards items we have listed that you might have missed.
4. If lots of people want a similar item, it’ll shoot to the top of our priority list.
5. You get what you want without all the faffing, trawling and time spent.

One last thing…

That awesome, bright, knitted beanie you wanted? Ho ho ho… here it is:

What is vintage clothing?

Clothing, shoes and accessories that are 20 years old or more.

The general consensus now is that vintage clothing is any clothing that is 20 years old or more. This is the definition we stick to at You Look Awesome because:

1. It’s the most widely accepted
2. It means customers know that they’re not getting any new clothes that are just imitating older styles. Instead they know that if they’re buying a 60s dress from us, they will actually be getting a dress made in the 1960s, not just a new dress in the style of one from the 60s. The term used for new clothes in the style of older clothes is ‘retro’ so look out for that when buying vintage clothing. Reputable sellers using the term vintage will mean clothes from the decade they are labelled as instead of ‘retro’ which just look like they’re from that decade. Helpful!!

Why isn’t it just called second hand clothing?

The term ‘vintage’ is established and helps customers find the types of clothes they’re looking for, particularly online.

I personally don’t have a problem with the term ‘second hand’ except that the term vintage is very useful for differentiating something you bought in Primark a few weeks ago and are now selling on and an item that now has some historical value, captures the look of previous decades as opposed to the present time, etc. Again, the term vintage is useful from a customers point of view in understanding that the item has some age to it. It is also an established term so when people go looking for older clothes they know to use this word, particularly with online searches to find what they are looking for.

Recent second hand clothing is not as desirable as brand new or much older, vintage clothing.

Many customers now are not so bothered about meticulously replicating the look of a previous era, but more interested in finding unique, interesting items of clothing so in that sense as long as you tell your customers that an item is second hand instead of vintage then many people will still want to buy it if it’s desirable enough. The thing is, as clothes are mass produced, newer items are unlikely to be as unique as many of them will still be being worn and our love of nostalgia and the novelty of clothes from previous decades as opposed to the current one mean that most new clothing is just not as desirable to vintage customers so they’re unlikely to want to see second hand, newer items in stock! People who want to buy new clothing will probably be capturing current styles and want to buy items brand new and hot off the press instead of a few years out of date.

So, there we go, something I could say in one sentence I’ve spread out into all these lovely words. I am BAD at being concise, but hopefully this has a few helpful tips for you. Namely:

1. Vintage clothing is generally anything 20 years or older.
2. When shopping for vintage clothing, the term retro will generally mean it looks old, but is actually new.
3. Vintage clothing is second hand, but because of it’s age and the increasing rarity it tends to be more desirable.

Click on the image below to browse through our selection of 1960s dresses, jackets and coats!

Even if you weren’t off your face on various drugs (probably better not to be) the 60s still had a lot of excitement to offer. You didn’t have to be a hippy get your boobs out at festivals. I can imagine I’d have been crazy about Johnny Cash, Tina Turner and James Brown. That explains why my choice of videos today is distinctly hippy and Beatles free. I know this is controversial, but I just cannot stand The Beatles. To stop you shouting at me, usually things I hate end up, one day, far down the road being something I get more obsessed with than is bearable. To those of you who agree with me about The Beatles, I actually don’t think I will end up liking them. I think I had to be there at the time because actually I’ve just grown up seeing them being old, smug and ugly which doesn’t appeal very much. They were too idealistic and hippyish and just too naive. In fact, I think that’s what used to put me off the 60s. Everyone seemed so naive! They were breaking out of the 50s, full of idealism, out to change the world but actually weren’t particularly smart so just ended up flapping about and shouting about peace. In the end they realised that it’s all a lot more complicated than that. I’m prone to misanthropy and realise how complicated and impossible it would be to create a utopia so their enthusiasm just annoys me sometimes.

And that’s why I steer clear of the hippy side of the 60s. Rant over. Now enjoy some non-hippy, 60s songs or don’t enjoy it if I’ve depressed you too much about how hopeless a mission world peace is:

Jerry Hall was an iconic model in the 1970s probably well known for being married to Mick Jagger. Interesting bits of information about her are that she’s 6ft 10 (it’s so easy to forget just how tall a lot of models actually are), lived with Grace Jones for a while in Paris (mental), she was briefly involved with kabbalah (mental cult) and she also released a Yoga DVD in 1993, which, if you haven’t tried it out, is hysterical. She has her hair down in it, which keeps getting in the way but she somehow incorporates getting it out of the way into the moves. I could not get through this without laughing. Not great when you’re trying to do some relaxing yoga.

You might also have seen her on Strictly Come Dancing if you like to watch that kind of horrible, brain numbing tripe. Nothing wrong with a bit of tripe now and again but that programme really goes a step too far for me. Ha… step. Like ‘dance step’. Take Me Out on the other hand or Housewives of New York City – totally acceptable.

Anyway, Jerry still looks amazing at 56 but today we’re going back to the 1970s when she was most widely recognised and photographed. Even though she was clearly a bit of a party girl, she’s very classically glamorous and has something very old fashioned and graceful about her mannerisms that don’t really give away her penchant for rock ‘n’ roll craziness.

She’s probably the perfect person to be emanating in the run up to Christmas. If you’ve got parties coming up and want to look glamorous then Jerry is the person to turn to. To capture her look you clearly need to spend the next ten years growing your hair before you can even begin to emulate her (damn, damn, damn, damn!!!) but failing that you could start with some classic, red lipstick and get your biggest, goldest, sparkliest jewellery out. She wore a lot of big gold hoops in the 70s and big diamond earrings. You could go all out and add a giant diamond necklace too. Jerry’s look is all about luxury so along with the sumptuous hair, lipstick and jewellery she wore a lot of silk, fur and satin dresses with generous amounts of draped material. Because of her height, material just drapes around her like a ridiculous waterfall of beauty – it makes me sick! My eyes seem quite happy though. If you wanted to get a more every day look, then try an equestrian style. It’s still smart and suggest wealth and luxury but more wearable than a ball gown! Or dress up some jeans with a loose, romantic 70s blouse and a fur coat, but don’t forget the jewels, hair and make-up to glam it up!

Here are the items we currently have in store to help you capture her look:

1. 80, Tweed Box Jacket with gold buttons

2. Leopard print faux fur coat

3. Purple, Aztec box jacket

4. Gold, paisley, peplum dress

5. Floral, boho maxi dress

I think we may have lost that a little bit at the moment. Because music is big business it’s hard for niche bands or someone doing something outside of current genres to actually break through to gain enough of an audience to earn the money the record companies are expecting and it’s all been quite professionalised. A lot of bands are nervously waiting for their turn in the spotlight and therefore become compliant rather than rebellious and I’m not on some sort of class war charge, because it’s not necessarily a good or bad thing, but the arts have become dominated by the middle and upper classes who aren’t exactly famed for their rebelliousness and are instead known for being self-conscious and anxious! I think this feeling has actually spread across all the arts. Maybe rap at the moment is the only genre coming through from a more rebellious standpoint and even then, only a small number of these more rebellious voices are breaking through. A lot of it is, ‘look how great I am, I’m the best, I’ve got a car and a bum and I’m the best. Did I say I’m the best? We’re going to PARTY literally forever even if it means dying of tiredness and boredom.’

I’d like to see a return of the art schools, which were an option for young people who weren’t necessarily academic to go to. A bit like we might back the return of apprenticeships as an alternative for people who don’t want to or can’t go to university. I think we think of the arts as something that requires people to be academic at the moment but I’ve found that to actually be a downside when trying to create things for myself. Academia can make you worried about getting things right and make your work self-conscious and overly thought through. A lot of the best work comes from a point of naivety, emotion and idealism, which is something you can definitely see in music that emerged from the 60s and 70s. Time to shush now and listen to some awesome 70s tracks. I’ve gone with a few different genres for this one:

Grace Jones is this week’s vintage style icon! Her style takes us back to the 80s and shows us what real power dressing is, although, she could probably be wearing a tutu and make it look like power dressing because her huge personality and power would overwhelm any frills or tulle you could wrap her in.

She managed a rare thing… she changed from being a model, to a singer and also did some acting. She was even a Bond girl in, A View to a Kill. Most of the time it’s pretty cringey to watch models transition to singers. I can’t really think of anyone else who has done it successfully. The problem is that most models are sweet and pretty looking so when they start singing it’s like a doll has suddenly started speaking or they’re just so trained to pose that they continue this in their performances and make everything they’re singing seem unnatural, put on and a bit shallow. Soz models! Grace Jones is not ‘pretty’ in a typical sense, but she does have an amazing body and unbelievable bone structure (which is why she doesn’t actually look like she’s aged much. Damn) and physique that doesn’t have to be self-consciously arranged to look, ‘sexy’ or ‘pretty’. Besides, she’s not going for that classical, submissive, doll-faced beauty, she’s much edgier than that so it’s not such a shock to see her stomping about getting sweaty and belting out mad songs. Seeing more classic looking models doing this is somehow a bit awkward and put on. Maybe it’s because we don’t expect to see people that look so pretty have big personalities because they’re not really photographed that way, but then maybe they just don’t have the personality to match and it IS all put on. What do you think?

I can recall some pretty toe curling transitions actors have made to singing as well and it seems to have equal amounts of cringing and falseness put on. I thought actors were meant to be good at lying to us?! Examples that spring to mind are Kate Winslet and Scarlett Johansson. Soz ladies, you made me want to vom.

Anway!!! Grace Jones’ style is typified by androgynous, angular clothes with shoulder pads. She wore a lots of suits, leather and often not whole lot of clothes either. Classic, dark, sunglasses, strong 80s eye make-up, large gold or tribal jewellery, stilettos and outrageous hats or head gear are all staples of her look. Add some black, leather gloves and you’ve just about got it covered.

It’s clear to see her influence on people like Lady Gaga today and apparently Grace even gets a bit annoyed about it! Not sure I’d want to annoy Grace Jones.

We think she might have appreciated these items from our store (see picture above). Click on the links below to view them in store:

1. Black, 80s, wiggle dress/pinafore – SOLD

2. Black, denim, studded, biker dress.

3. Cropped, 80s, Korean, leather jacket.

4. Double-breasted, dog tooth patterned blazer.

So, we’ve got Madonna at her controversial best. In fact, the video for ‘Like a Prayer’ would probably get a horrific backlash hour even if it was released today. Also her dress is AMAZING. I’ve always wanted it. It’s easy to find her a bit cringey now, but this reminds you she was awesome and very cool and if we were teenagers in the 80s we would have absolutely loved all this.

The Bangles are fun as long as I don’t have to look at people doing that ridiculous, non-Egyptian walk. I remember seeing children at primary school doing that and feeling nothing but hatred and disgust for them. They’ve got those 80s hairdos that never quite seem to go away however much the rest of their style moves on. I bet it still looks just a little bit 80s. Still, it’s catchy and I luv it!

A-ha’s, ‘Take on Me’ is something you’ve probably heard quite a lot and screech along happily to the high notes because it’s quite hard not to, but it’s easy, because of screaming over it, to forget what a good song it actually is. Also, A1 may well have taken over with a bizarre, 90s boyband version. Remember them? Haha.

Eurythmics, ‘There Must Be an Angel’ is something I’ve played to DEATH! The video is awesome and lavish and reminds me of a lot of films from the 80s like Amadeus, which, if you haven’t seen it… is amazing. The melody in this song is irresistible. Look out for the flibby flibby flobby blibby harmonica solo too.

Prince. I don’t need to say anything else. In fact, I can’t because I’ll get too excited and it won’t make any sense. Enjoy!

I’m sure most of you will be going out this weekend dressed up in awesome costumes, so if you’re looking for some ideas, here are some from us.

1. Wednesday Addams – From The Addams family. She’s aloof, cool and completely sadistic. She also has great style. For me a black dress with a white collar is something my wardrobe will never be without! NEVER. Not allowed. All you need to do in addition is plait your hair and make your face completely white and you’ll be instantly recognisable.

2. Lydia Deetz – Winona Ryder’s character in Beetlejuice. She’s quiet, introvert and open-minded. Black clothes and pale skin are a similar theme to getting her look. However, you could also go for her red, lace, bridal outfit if you’re feeling daring. We actually had one of these in a while back. A wide brimmed, black hat and a camera round your neck will make it recognisable. You could also go for her awesome school uniform that she wears at the end while floating about, dancing to Harry Belafonte.

3. Regan – From The Exorcist. She’s errrr… mental. Great if you want to get gruesome and actually, aside from the make-up, it’s relatively simple to do. Just get hold of a 70s nightdress, fake blood and make yourself look mental by backcombing your hair and messing up your face. A crucifix may also make the character more recognisable… I’m not recounting why.

4. The Grady Twins – From The Shining. They’re pretty and sweet, but creepy as hell. This is the perfect costume if you’re going to a party with a friend. You could even do this costume with your boyfriend if he’s game. You will need a pretty, frilly, blue dress, white knee socks, black shoes and matching hair slides. To complete the look, hold hands… all evening. After a few hours it will start creeping people out.

5. Morticia Addams – From The Addams Family. She’s Wednesday’s mum and has amazing, gothic glamour. A long-sleeved, body con dress with a long, black, straight wig should form the basis of your outfit. Pale skin, red lipstick, long nails and heels will add the finishing touches.

6. Audrey – From The Little Shop of Horrors. It’s still scary, but also funny so if you’re looking for a bit of light relief, she’s a good choice. She wears fairly trashy, 80s clothes so look for mini skirts, pink or leopard print tops and a blonde wig to get you going. Red lipstick, stilettos and big, Pat Butcher earrings should help too!

Click through to the items in our collage to start getting your costume ready!

1. Black, peplum, long-sleeved dress.

2. Black, floral, long-sleeved dress – SOLD.

3. White, Peter Pan collar, blouse.

4. Long, tartan skirt.

5. 60s, leopard print coat.