The Goalpost for Vintage is Always Moving

Earlier this year I spoke with our local Christchurch paper, The Press, about something that, when I first started talking about it on socials a few years ago, caused a bit of outrage in our comments (mostly from my fellow millennials). It all started when I described a pair of 2001 JayJays shorts that had come into the store, as vintage.

And I honestly understand the negative reaction, people felt like I was prematurely aging them, but the truth is, as time passes, so does the goalpost for what we consider vintage!

Not only is clothing from the early 2000s officially classed as vintage, but now the mid 2000s too. We’re even seeing styles from the 2010s creep back into current trends (I'm sure we all remember when Rag & Bone brought jeggings back into the mix).

The traditional definition of vintage is anything 20–99 years old (100+ and it’s considered antique), but with how fast trends move now, I have to wonder if that definition will change and evolve? (I won’t get into that now, that probably needs a whole other blog post!)

When many of us think of vintage, we tend to draw our minds to the 50s, 60s, 70s. Rockabilly styles, tea dresses, boat necklines, bell bottom jeans, liquid satin slips, that kind of thing. But the reality is, clothing from 2006 is now considered vintage (whether we like it or not)!

Which means the mesh dress you bought from Glassons in 2004, low-rise trousers from Pagani in 2002, that Supre tunic you wore once for a school disco and never again, or the Abercrombie & Fitch zip up hoodie from 2006, all of it now sits in the vintage category.

For someone who lived through the 2000s, those clothes feel recent. For the younger half of Gen Z, those same clothes feel old / new / interesting.

In approaching my fourth year of owning a pre-loved clothing store, I have learned that the term “vintage” isn’t about a strict rule, it’s about how people perceive it.

Yes, there’s something a bit humbling, to see clothes that once represented awkward phases or questionable fashion choices come back around as on trend, but our parents probably thought we looked daggy watching us glorify styles from the 80s, 90s, and so on.

To hear “I was born in the wrong generation” about 2016 (like we used to say about the 70s), is a clear marker that time is moving for me. But that’s how fashion has always worked. Trends recycle, styles resurface, and we continue romanticising the past (nostalgia will be the death of us all).

One of the reasons I like talking about this is because the goalpost for vintage is always moving. Clothing is personal, so of course it brings out a bit of an emotional response!

Just as millennials weren’t the first to wear 90s flannel shirts in the 2010s, we’re also not the first generation to feel slightly confronted seeing trends from our past come back around. It’s just the cycle of life, baby!

So when you next clear out your closet, don’t write off clothing from your past fashion lives, you might be holding onto someone's holy grail! And as always, we’d love to see what you bring in.