Wednesday, January 30, 2013

Sparking a Love of Vintage

If you ask an antique collector, vintage fashion lover, or the owner of a second-hand store why they enjoy items with a past, you will invariably get many different answers. What sparked your love of vintage items? It could have been an Audrey Hepburn movie, discovering the allure of shabby chic, inheriting a wonderful piece of old furniture, or stumbling across a wedding photo of your mother. Suddenly, you realize that in our prefabricated, mass produced, strip-mall, fast food culture, we may be missing out on some of the richness of past eras.

Vintage items can help us capture a hint of those splendid by-gone points in time, and celebrate what we find most enriching about them. That will of course mean different things for different people; indeed, vintage is a very general term. For example, when it comes to fashion, it’s a general rule that clothing produced before the 1920s is referred to as antique clothing, whereas apparel from the 1920s through the 80s could be considered vintage.

The beauty of items with a past is that there’s really something for everyone. Certain aspects appeal to some of us more than others. You may gravitate towards the elegance of Victorian-era gowns, beaded handbags, antique quilts, or rare vintage books. There are so many eras to explore, and the best part is, you don’t have to be an expert. Simply visit an antique store, upscale flea market, or consignment store and see what starts to capture your attention. You'll be surprised how one thing can lead to another.

My journey began when I needed a new desk and wanted something second-hand to save money. I realized that some of the older, slightly distressed (meaning character enhancing cracks, chips or other minor signs of natural aging) pieces I saw were so interesting that I became intrigued. The desk I got suggested other creative possibilities, and once I started looking up vintage furniture and home décor images and discovered that I could modify the shabby chic concept to suit my own taste, I was off and running. Stay tuned for the next part of this story…

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