Get Twiggy with it...or, vintage vs. newage

This is a confusing-yet-exciting year for vintage stylaholics like yours truly.

Clearly, the authenticity of real vintage is a big part of what makes it cool. And then there's the quality. Let's face it, when it comes to clothing for the average person, workmanship is often sacrificed for quantity these days. (Read: 'sweatshop-based mass production').

The average dress in 1955 also involved a lot more complicated pleating, beading, cutting, and sewing than a lot of the stuff you'll get at the Gap (as an example). And as a result, the clothes fell better than they do now, and they were just better made--as evidenced by their wearability 50 years later. Oh that you should be so wearable 50 years from now, Old Navy clam-diggers.

...But at the same time, the style of the next few season is so retro that it's hard for a jonesin' vintage junkie to ignore...(major salivation going on over dresses on right).

The up side of this 'newage' ('vintage- looking- but- new') is that the quality of 'big box' clothing is going up slightly, because it has to to accommodate all those pleats and gathers and bits of exotic beading.

The down side is that 'big box' still means 'everyone else owns one'...which is why, on the scales of style, vintage usually wins for me. Because vintage is usually pretty unique. And uniqueness is getting hard to come by.