what is vintage..?
It is a question I have been struggling with for a while now - what makes something vintage.
I seem to come across fabric that claims to be vintage but whilst the design maybe 'retro' or 'vintage' the fabric itself is new - surely making it reproduction rather than vintage. Or fabric that is only, at most, 10 years old being called vintage - are the 90s really vintage? Does it mean that fabric I have had in my store for several years now could legitimately be called vintage?
Are 1960's/70's vintage? or retro? A vintage car is a car built between 1919 and 1930 and for an item to be called antique it has to be over 100 years old (or pre-1830 depending on where you search for the definition). Why can't there be a tight definition for fabric, buttons and trimmings? But then if there were how would you date the item correctly - they are not like books that give you publication details.
Or should it be regarded like wine - vintage can be any year, recent or distant past, where the product is of a particularly high quality.
Or should it just adhere to the dictionary's definition " old-fashioned; dated; outmoded"?
I have a lot of questions, certainly no answers - so your homework this week is an essay entitled 'Vintage is in the eye of the beholder. Discuss.'
And of course the really big question - Does it Really Matter?
posted by caroline at 11:58 am
3 Comments:
I am SO glad you asked, because I have been wondering the exact same thing. I couldn't bring myself to join in the vintage button swap recently, because I couldn't vouch for any of my buttons being 'vintage', though they certainly aren't new.
I think that's my personal working definition - *not new*.
Great picture and interesting subject to muse upon. I have been wondering about this myself latel, vintage seems to be the buzz word for everything these days and I would be curious to know the actual "rules".
It doesn't matter to me, because it requires too much *thinking*.
I don't like to do too much of that.
; )
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