’40s inspired floral tea dress

I make no secret of the fact that I have a bit of a thing about floral dresses. I am also developing a real love of vintage clothes and retro styles, unfortunately I cannot always find exactly what I want in my size. There are so many new clothes inspired by vintage and retro styles at the moment, I just love shopping for new clothes.

The great thing about vintage and retro styles is that they have stood the test of time usually because they are flattering styles that look great. The tea dress was popular in the forties and is seeing something of a resurgence in popularity. It’s simple a line skirt and v neck is both feminine and flattering. A great choice of dress for daytime both the office and special occasions. I love this 40s inspired floral tea dress. Yet another item to add to my ever growing wish list.

Every where I look recently including the catwalk and high street, I seem to see vintage influenced fashion. It is not just the fact that the forties, fifties, sixties, seventies and eighties all had their own unique and very different influence on our current day fashions, but many clothes also have a slightly washed out look about them making them feel vintage. It is not really surprising that designers and fashion retailers are getting in on the vintage fashion trend, it has become huge in recent years and well preserved vintage clothes often cost a lot more than new.

So, what is so great about vintage clothes and why is having such a great influence on our current fashions? I think it is partly about looking a bit different. People want to be unique and vintage is a great way to do this, the older a piece of clothing, the less likely, you are to see someone else wearing it.

I always like to think of vintage as a kind of natural selection of the fashion world. Only the best of what each decade had to offer has survived. The less stylish stuff usually falls by the wayside. There are key pieces from each decade that are coveted as vintage clothes including full skirts in the fifties, sixties mod dresses, psychedelic prints from the seventies and masculine tailoring from the eighties.

These vintage style boyfriends jeans are the ultimate in wearable vintage inspired fashion.

Everyone’s wearing vintage style from the girl on the high street to A list celebrities. Even high street shops are now following suit with their own ranges of vintage inspired clothes. But why is vintage clothing so popular and how can you get the vintage look?

I love vintage because of it’s individuality. The range of clothing on the high street almost always follows the seasons trends. You are much less likely to see someone wearing the same or a similar outfit if you wear vintage clothing. I like to use one key piece of vintage clothing or an accessory to make an outfit bought on the high street special.  I also love vintage clothing because of the beautiful , delicate and detailed ladylike styles that can be found . Many vintage clothes lovers have a keen interest in the history of fashion and finding vintage clothing is an interesting hobby. Key looks such as 1940’s Dior New Look frequently inspire designer and high street main stream collections and those who wear vintage clothing have the benefit of wearing the ‘real thing’. The beauty of vintage clothing is often in the quality of the garment.

 The celebs are all wearing vintage but with its huge popularity comes a huge price tag. Really beautifully kept genuine vintage pieces are usually fairly expensive. If you would like to try a bit of vintage style but don’t have the time to rummage or can’t afford the real thing, try some of the great vintage style clothes that are available like this Vintage Posy Linen Skirt.