In order to be named vintage an item must belong to another era, and often comes in limited supply.

The term vintage was related to the year a wine or oil was bottled. Then the word passed into general usage, referring the year a particular item was made.

Today vintage describes almost all previously owned second hand clothing of 25 years or more years age.

An unusual example of an era’s fashions which has a certain style and design value is considered a vintage fashion item.

There are three categories when we refer to clothes ages: Antique clothing, produced before the 1920s; Vintage, from the 1920s to 1975, and Retro or Funky, from 1975 until twenty years ago.

Anything, including clothes, within the past 15 years should be excluded from the vintage category.

Vintage is often used for living or dead designer garments. But just because an item is old doesn’t mean that it is a desirable vintage item. The quality is important.

It is clear that in the fashion industry, the vintage moves from the margin to the mainstream. The fashion from today will be made by amateurs who remix vintage tomorrow.