"If you're tired of style, you're tired of life"

Do you recognise the quote? If you've seen the second episode of the new series of Downton Abbey, you might remember Carson said these words in response to the family being tired of putting on the 'show' of the formal dinner. The quote really struck me at the time and I kept thinking back to it for a couple of days. Having style and being stylish is something that vintage enthusiasts talk about quite a bit, but what does it mean to have style and why do we often say that people in the past had more style?

An obvious element is of course the fact that in the past people followed much stricter dress codes and there were strong conventions guiding what people wore, and when and where they wore it. These sorts of conventions still exist but have been relaxed quite a bit. There was also a much stronger sense of conformism when it came to styles of dress. Perhaps at the time, with the small (but probably significant at the time) seasonal changes and trends, it would have been clear who was at the cutting edge of fashion and who was wearing a style from three seasons ago. To us, now, these small changes are hard to spot and date (unless you're really trained in fashion history). Looking back it's easy to think it was all just really stylish, that everyone had great style and always looked their best. It's quite rate that I see vintage clothing from the 40s or 50s that I think are 'bad style'. I'm not sure if I ever have actually, which is funny considering that I'm sure women at the time would have had very strong opinions on different cuts, patterns and designs. When it happens it's usually an 80s dress in disguise (sometimes by unknowing eBay sellers! Or knowing ones for that matter, tsk tsk). Perhaps this is because it's hard to be really discerning when a dress in good condition, in your size and for an affordable price doesn't come along every day! Or perhaps my enthusiasm for absolutely any 40s or 50s dress (or at least most!) is more of a characteristic of a hobby and general fascination with a period in history than just a desire to dress well.

What made me think about the question of style though, was what struck me as an interesting dichotomy between the way we view past dress sense and the fact that dressing well at the time was to a larger extent than now about conforming to cultural guidelines and expectations, set by social status, class and position and the social occasion. How much would the ladies of the 40s/50s frown at some of our outfits and love for over-dressing and flair on the most average of days? I'm sure what a lot of us love about vintage is the opportunity to add a bit of flamboyance and dressyness to ordinary life. Not forgetting that dressing vintage is the sign of a subculture today, that dressing in vintage head to toe is a statement about not situating oneself in the mainstream, which makes the way we consume vintage fundamentally different from how people consumed fashion back in the day.

Style for me is daring, having the confidence to be flamboyant and break the mould a little bit. The blog Advanced Style is a great example of this kind of definition of style. Joyful daring and zest for life. Style is a performance, and the best kind of style I think has nothing to do with vanity or trying to conform to normative standards of beauty, it's pure unselfconscious aesthetic enjoyment.
I don't want to suggest that people with no interest in style aren't living properly or don't have a zest for life, perhaps the difference lies in how aesthetically or visually oriented we are. I for one love beautiful things, or things that are quirky and interesting and it makes life more colourful, but I also enjoy things that push boundaries and are subversive.

What is eroding my enjoyment with vintage a little bit lately is how much it is creeping into the mainstream. The promotion of the 'vintage brand' is tiresome and feels like a cheapening of what I enjoy about vintage. Remembering that subcultural style depends on contrast to the mainstream, the popularity of "vintage" - in the form of cup-cakes, excessive pastelly polka dots, vintage styles flooding the highstreet and all the fake ageing of shabby chic paraphernalia - is eroding the subcultural 'power' of real vintage, since it doesn't have a clear distinction from the mainstream 'vintage marketing machine'. Maybe we don't all want to wear vintage to make a conscious statement or feel like we ever belonged to a subculture (I know many, like me, have very few 'real life' friends who are into vintage), but I know that many who are into dressing in vintage have a background in other subcultures (goths, punks etc.), so obviously enjoy the aspect of being different as well as have a genuine interest in vintage and social history from the period.

What do you think: What is special about vintage style to you and do you feel like vintage style is compromised by its filtering into mainstream fashion trends?


all images from google.

Welcome to Lina (the Retrophile) writes!

Hello folks,

If you followed me during my previous blogging venture you will know that it's been a while since I've posted anything on this here intraweb. I simply lost interest in keeping the old blog going, or rather started to feel like it wasn't a good reflection of who I am, or at least who I want to be. I was longing to be a little more serious, I suppose. Reflect a little more, write a little more about socio-cultural and political aspects of retro style, both now and in the past. I am an academic after all. Researching, reading and writing is what I do and I suppose it's difficult to stop and not intellectualise over something that interests you. I think the first blog originated as a way to avoid all that intellectualising, actually. I was in the final year of my PhD when I started, and to be honest, bloody tired of being intellectual. I wanted to enjoy my interest in everything retro and vintage without having to think too deeply about it, analyse it in all its aspects or try to distance myself from this interest and risk seeing it as some sort of sign of the times and feel like another fool who has fallen subject to a more wide-spread reaction to the socio-political conditions of the recession.  But trying to isolate my interest in vintage and retro style and 30s/40s/50s history from any deeper pondering didn't work in the long run! Also, I think it has something to do with feeling so much more secure in my aesthetic choices and reference points, I don't feel like this interest and my retro leanings are threatened by any intellectualising anyone (including myself) could do about them. I don't feel like I have to defend myself, or explain myself either for that matter. And I am also not worried about feminists patting me on the head or accusing me of setting the cause back by 70 years by embracing a traditional femininity. I'm not sure who these feminists were supposed to be, and it's not like I don't also regard myself as a feminist, I do, but admittedly I'm not much of an academic feminist, as in drawing or furthering feminist academic theory in my work, or in fact that gender features very strongly in my work, but there you go, maybe that will change in the future at some point. However, I'm hoping to muse a little about those questions that seem to come back again and again in the vintage blogging community, which include questions about the relationship between vintage and retro style that emphasises a traditional version of femininity and contemporary feminism. Well, at least add my take, or muse about others' takes, I'm not saying I'll have anything definitive to say about anything much at all. In fact, I'm sure this blog will be just as self-indulgent as the last one in its own way! Rather than lots of pictures of myself (there will still be a few to be sure), this one is a little less "look at me" and a little more "listen to me ramble on", I'm not sure which is worse, but you can make up your own mine about that.
Before I go on too long, abut my I've started this new blog, let me ramble just a little about glasses.

Framing my eyes

So, the other day, when I was still bleary eyed (probably quite a bit hungover actually!), my dog got hold of my beloved Ray Ban cat eye frames and chewed them up beyond repair. He even put a fang straight through the lens on one eye. The arms are chewed into a lumpy mess. So, at first I was really upset, my faves were broken! When the sorrow dissipated a little I started seeing it as an excellent opportunity! An excuse to acquire another pair of fabulous frames.
I already have two pairs of vintage cat eye frames, in addition to the now ruined Ray Bans. I'm not exactly in dire need. But just look at the cobra print on these! I didn't say this new writerly blog was going to be less interested in the gaily frivolous (just more long-winded about it).

My Ray Bans that are no more.

Looking at those Ray Bans though, makes me think I need to just bite the bullet and get another pair, because I think they suit me. However, the cobra print, rounded ones are so tempting now that my hair is also no longer that very dark brown anymore. Yes, things have moved on while I've been hiding off-line. I had to come to the uncomfortable decision to stop dyeing my hair, because it was getting thinner and thinner. I did some googling and reading and affirmed what I thought was happening. My hair was falling out and thinning as a reaction to the hair dye. Apparently this is quite common and easily remediable, all you have to do is stop dyeing your hair. Ta-da, it grows back again, just like before. So, my hair is as good as new, I'm no longer worrying about it being really thin and showing scalp if I scrape it back in a ponytail. It's such a relief, but feels very strange, after all I have been dying my hair monthly for about 17 years now. I didn't really know what it was going to look like, but unfortunately it is just as mousy as I feared it would be. It's quite a fair light-brownish/dirty-blondish sort of colour, typically Scandinavian like me. Well, it hasn't been that long, so it's half/half actually. Which is why it's always put up with a barrette, or in a ponytail. It's bob length now so it's a very small ponytail, which sort of makes it better somehow in my opinion. I'm trying to embrace this as much as I can, but it's certainly not the sign-post for vintage style that I find very dark brown or black hair can be. Or, I suppose, platinum blonde.

Where is the pin-up for mousy hair? Who is going to do for mousy hair what Dita has done for black? I might have to wait a very long time for that sort of mousy role model, but in the meantime, do you think these cobra frames would make mousy cool?