DO YOU VINTAGE...?
Hello again, you lovely readers, you!
I hope all well with you and you’ve smashed the first quarter of the year? And if you haven’t, there’s still three more quarters to go - don’t give up :)!
From my scrolling on social media, I’ve become aware that women like us (sassy mid-life and older women who won’t aren’t done yet) are getting more and more into “vintage” clothes. And, they’re looking good in it too!
I’m sure you all know, but vintage is a pseudonym for anything that is pre-worn. That is stuff you buy from charity shops, inherit from a family member or buy online (Vinted, Ebay etc).
It’s interesting to see the switch to vintage become acceptable amongst our age group. It’s long been the domain of the Gen Z’s (born between 1997 and 2012) and to a lesser degree Millenials (1981 to 1996). Certainly my Gen Z younger daughter (who works in the arts) has very rarely bought new clothes, even before it was cool to buy pre-loved/pre-owned.
But now, if you go into a charity shop of any kind, it’s been my experience that it’s women of our age and older trying stuff on and buying. And I said before, they look great!
So, what’s prompted the change? Well, obviously the cost of living crisis hasn’t helped - we’re all looking for savings wherever we can. But women of our age want to help do their bit for the Climate Crisis, and I think I’m right in saying that the fashion industry is one of the biggest contributors to the crisis. So, there’s a couple of reasons for starters.
But there’s nothing to beat the feeling of smugness when you purchase a gorgeous item to wear (sometimes it can be a designer piece that would be 10 times more expensive if bought new) knowing that you look great in it and you’ve saved yourself a packet. And, the smug feeling increases with the knowledge that you’ve likely helped maintain a charity (if bought from a charity shop) and stopped this item from going to land-fill.
How can you not be into vintage with all those positives going for it?
And, if you want a bit of reassurance that you’re tapping into a trend that is all good, take a look at these social media accounts. I’m a big fan of the Instagram account of A Woman Called George and also CharityShopGirl. Both are women with a good eye for nuggets of gold amongst some of the dross you sometimes find in vintage shops, but A Woman called George is a woman of middle years and she’s incredibly honest in her posts. She talks about the ups and downs of life that are typical of women of our age and because of that she has a fabulous following both on TikTok and Instagram. And both are duly deserved. She works hard at her accounts and I enjoy seeing her uplifting posts.
So, that’s another quick issue from me. I love producing this weekly newsletter and sending it out to my free subscribers. It helps to connect me with women who are a similar age to me and think like me. But, it does take time, and more importantly time away from me running my day to day business.
So, if you’d like to support me, then you can buy me a one-off coffee here - it would mean a lot - thank you for supporting and believing in the newsletter :)
So that’ll be a wrap from me.
I’ll see you next week
Una x