What to think about when you buy vintage dresses

It seems that you can barely walk down the street these days without a lovely lady sweeping past you wearing a stunning vintage or vintage-influenced dress – something that puts you in mind of an age long gone. Indeed, such dresses may make you feel nostalgic for an era that you may be too young to have even experienced.

Original 1950s Vintage Pink Diamond Print Swing Dress

But when you would like to buy vintage dresses that will give your own wardrobe some of the ‘pizzazz’ of the old days, what do you need to consider?

Is that “vintage dress” truly vintage?

There’s such strong demand these days for seemingly anything evoking that ‘olde worlde’ style, that certain items that aren’t truly vintage at all can end up being labelled as such.

Fair enough, so if you’ve never bought vintage dresses before, you might be happy – at least at first – with items that were manufactured relatively recently, but which nonetheless give off that ‘vintage’ sensibility. Many dresses that make no attempt to disguise their modern origins may even incorporate elements of vintage style in homage to the past, so you’ve got a lot of choice.

Vintage 1960s Beaded Evening Gown

However, some of us – particularly those of us looking to assemble an outfit that is authentic to a specific era – may be quite serious about wanting our dresses to be genuinely vintage. After all, if you want your clothing to be reminiscent of the scoop-necked loose dresses of the 1920s or the vibrant colouring of the 1960s, any detailing that does not belong to that decade could look jarring.

So, where is the best place to purchase vintage dresses?

You could, of course, look to eBay, charity shops and second-hand stores – but how can you be sure that the items you buy from any of these sources really are vintage in both origin and style?

That’s just one reason why we set up RETRuly. We are the first dedicated vintage marketplace online, and we are so committed to all things vintage that we even remove goods from our site that are not at least 20 years old.

Original 1970s Designer Vintage Black Biba Oriental Style Dress

New ‘vintage-style’ items aren’t permitted to be sold by any of our sellers here at RETRuly, so you have no reason to fret about the authenticity of the dresses you buy via our platform!

So, when you would like to buy vintage dresses, don’t hesitate – choose RETRuly, in the knowledge that we really are the place to come for great deals on anything and everything vintage on the web.