VintageGent’s Menswear Daily

Why Vintage? Reason #2

August 29th, 2008

A frustrated teen wrote to Dear Abby and speaks about her neighbor that gives her old clothing. Abby educates her about vintage. Imagine that!

Dear Abby: I go to church with a woman who is generous and means well, but she likes to give away her old hand-me-down clothing. Recently she gave me two old dresses that fit me, but I wouldn’t be caught dead in. I’m 15, and she doesn’t understand that.

I didn’t want to hurt her feelings, so when she asked if they fit and if I liked them, I told her they did and they were pretty.

My mom is planning to donate the dresses to charity. But now the woman is saying she wants to give me more of her old dresses. I don’t know how to handle this. — Secondhand Teen

Click here and scroll down to see what Abby advuses for the “Secondhand Teen”!

Maybe the Secondhand Teen would stumble across our prior article: “Why Vintage. Reason #1: Originality”

We attended a party where the attire was semi-formal and three ladies showed up wearing the exact same dress! Luckily they had a good sense of humor about it. There was only really one or two stores to go to for formal dresses and they both evidentally lived near the same one.

And that also brings us to Reason #2: Vintage is Environmentally Friendly.

When you purchase a piece of vintage clothing or are gifted it from a relative, you are doing your part to recycle. It is giving an additional and new life to an item once, twice, three times or more.

Choosing vintage keeps the items out of the landfills. Some vintage is made of more natural or sustainable materials such as cotton and wool. However, over the years many synthetics were invented that have fallen out of favor due to taste, safety in manufacturing, or the invention of something better. Many won’t possibly decompose in the next few hundred years.

Also, by taking a piece of clothing that is languishing in the cellar, you are preventing it from falling prey to mold and creating a biohazard. In that case, it may not be able to be salvaged or can create medical issues.