Comments You Get When You Dress Vintage

[December]

I love receiving compliments so much that more recently I've been making the effort to pay compliments to other people. This morning, there was a lady in the lift at the university who had the most pristine victory roll. Unused to any sort of vintage hairdo in Sheffield, I immediately got very excited over it, but she didn't seem that flattered. Bah

Maybe she was just a bit taken back? Sometimes I worry that I come off as rude when a stranger compliments me, just because I get caught off guard and don't know how to reply.

 

[SugarKitten]

I love receiving compliments so much that more recently I've been making the effort to pay compliments to other people. This morning, there was a lady in the lift at the university who had the most pristine victory roll. Unused to any sort of vintage hairdo in Sheffield, I immediately got very excited over it, but she didn't seem that flattered. Bah

I agree with December - or she squee'd like a school girl as soon as she got somewhere more private! (Or, you know, posted it on an internet forum, in a full circle kind of karma loop!)

 

[SiennaWu]

Perhaps she was just shy and didn't know how to react? But I think the more you pay compliments to other people, the better able you are at receiving compliments.
I have a very full, grey tartan mid-calf skirt from the 60's that comes in at the waist. A colleague said I looked a bit like a 'tea cup' but nice! Still, it is my favourite skirt and very warm for our southern hemisphere winter.

Sienna

 

[Miss Scarlet]

Public Reaction

Good evening ladies and gentlemen,

I'm new here and have been a part-time vintage dresser for about 2 years now. I'm currently moving into full-time vintage dressing, money and wardrobe permitting.

I was really just wondering how people react to the way you all dress and look as I have found some of the stories quite amusing and didn't realise there was already a thread dedicated to this (now editing moved post).

I've found that men actually really seem to like the way a vintage girl dresses, especially old men. Some old women turn their heads and smile (which is lovely). Some just don't get why you like it, even if you explain, they sort of have a dumbstruck look on their face.

The thing that always makes me smile and giggle a little inside is when people say "You really look like Marylin Monroe" because that's the only 50s character they know. She's blonde, with shortish hair, very curvy. I have red hair longer hair, still curvy, but couldn't look like her if I tried, especially since I mainly wear forties style clothes. Similarly people compare my other half to Errol Flynn and he looks nothing like him either.

Did you find it difficult or maybe embarrassing when first dressing in your style, as it can turn quite a few heads? Have you been compared to anyone who you look nothing like?

Hope you're all having a lovely evening/morning wherever you are

Laura
xxx

 

[SayCici]

A girl in my morning class, with whom I'm becoming fast friends because she's a historical costumer and also watches Buffy, said she looks forward to me coming into class every day because of my outfits.

 

[Miss Tuppence]

I have people saying to me that they come into where I work just to see what I’m wearing too! I’m very flattered by this but I don’t believe them as I know they have come in for the bargains!

In answer to Miss Scarlet (welcome young Miss) I get compared to Vera Lynn a lot and we look nothing alike and then they ask do I sing/sound also like her.. and no I can't sing like her
Also people say I remind me of their mother, gran or sister which is very sweet… mind you they could have been little horrors!

Kate O Potato The girl probably was a little shy-. With me it’s hard to explain why I react the way I do- I like compliments but at the same time I don’t that is why I rarely give them out as I know how I react to them – very silly I don’t take compliments well in public I freeze and all I can manage to say is thank you and manage to produce a goofy grin.
I usually feel awful by not giving much back in the way of conversation but I never know what to say.

sorry for the long post

 

[Fleur De Guerre]

Firstly, welcome Laura, lovely to see another Surrey girl, there are a few of us about! Well assuming it's the same Epsom of course!

Did you find it difficult or maybe embarrassing when first dressing in your style, as it can turn quite a few heads? Have you been compared to anyone who you look nothing like?

My personal answers: No and yes! The first depends if you're experienced in dressing 'differently' from teenage years, makes it much easier! But you notice it less and less as time goes on anyway. Congrats on being 'brave' (since I don'y see it as such but if I had a £ for every person who told me it was... ) and stepping out in head to toe vintage! The second part, well another £ for every Dita reference and I'd be as rich as... Dita! lol it's usually best to smile and say thanks for the compliment on your 'twenties look' etc, only gently correcting people who seem genuinely interested. Well that's what I do at any rate.

 

[Black Dahlia]

Did you find it difficult or maybe embarrassing when first dressing in your style, as it can turn quite a few heads? Have you been compared to anyone who you look nothing like?
Laura
xxx

Welcome Laura.

I have never found it embarrassing to dress in any way I like, whether it’s vintage or not. Though, people around me sometimes do! I sometimes get ‘we’re just going to the market; you look like you’re going to a garden party.’ He he. Why not always look good I say!

I grew up as a teen/young adult wearing some vintage, but more on the dark side. I was into ‘goth’ somewhat, with vintage pieces/accessories. So that got a lot of stares in my small town. But, I was use to it as my mother and both aunts wore a lot of black and vintage anyhow (my mom running a vintage clothing store in our house).

I’ve been compared to Marilyn Monroe too, but agree it’s just because she’s a very notable figure of the 50s. I look nothing like the dear woman. I’ve gotten one comparison to Elizabeth Taylor..but honestly, I don’t really look like anyone famous.

Enjoy it here…it’s a blast!
xoxo

 

[SayCici]

Did you find it difficult or maybe embarrassing when first dressing in your style, as it can turn quite a few heads?

I had tattoos before I started dressing vintage in earnest, so I was already getting looks. Honestly it doesn't influence what I wear at all because I figure no matter what I do, someone's going to stare and I shouldn't waste any time or thought on them, unless they're pleasant of course.

 

[Rosie_Beau]

"That is a (possibly the word stunning or similar) dress!"

I blame the gin for the minor memory loss; always blame the gin!
It was a compliment though as I recall and from a man which shocked me.

Later on he said "You'll have to face push me" (He meant facebook).
I said I don't have a facebook.
"You're too cool."
Ah ha! How flattering!
xxx

 

[Miss Scarlet]

Firstly, welcome Laura, lovely to see another Surrey girl, there are a few of us about! Well assuming it's the same Epsom of course!)

Indeed it is the same Epsom! I used to go to school with a few people who lived in Walton on Thames, but they were all millionaires and their houses were amazing! I find people in Surrey seem to really admire vintage dressers, but then again there are a lot of old fashioned types in the area.

On another note, I have been wondering if there are any vintage dressers who were not alternative as a teenager. I was a grunger who then progressed onto the goth/metal side, and then progressed from the age of 18 to my look now at 22. All vintage dressers I've met so far used to be alternative and it seems a common trend. I sometimes consider it might be a more "grown up" way of being different. But I ramble...

xxx

 

[Kate O Potato]

Miss Scarlet, I think you're right. I went through a punk stage at the age of 16 and shaved half of my head, but then as the hair grew out I went with a-symmetrical and progressed into a 60s mod look. Following then I sort of floundered, but I think I've been on the right track for the past two years, and I finally feel like things are starting to come together. For the first time in my life I feel well dressed and different.

 

[Lusti Weather]

Former goth here; after being the only one at my high school and having to hear the usual silly comments ("Halloween was last week!"), it's made me somewhat immune to the weird looks I get wearing vintage.

On the topic of Marilyn comments, I actually got one today. I only look like her in my dreams, but since I'm currently blonde and always have red lipstick on, I guess that's close enough for some people!

 

[December]

There's a whole thread on people who came through the "alternative" scene. I was one of those- hardcore emo at 17!

I've had a couple of nice compliments lately- both when I've been with my 75 year old grandmother who is a very stylish dresser herself.

One, when we were at the local vintage/crafts market, a stallholder told us we were the "grooviest couple I've seen all day".

Then, when we went to London last week, the man at the MAC counter in Harvey Nichols told me he loved my hair

 

[MaryMary]

I find it really interesting to hear what others were like growing up! I actually was the exact opposite - Growing up I was always in fashion and never rebeling in any way. Always very up to date with what was happening.

Having grown up this way, I always felt like something was "missing"...I have always felt like my hobbies and interests never were what others were. When I was 16 I was buying edwardian lavalier necklaces rather than beer! My friends would all tease me to death about it...and still do to this day. I am the "old lady" of the group...lol So I always felt a little lonely even though I have tons of lovely friends. I just felt that I was born in the wrong period and there was this horrible mix-up and now I am stuck here!

So I guess you could say I started dressing in vintage because I feel like it fillls a void...I have a connection to the past this way that I don't feel when I am wearing modern clothes. I don't dress vintage all the time, but I do notice that when I do I definitely get looks, which I am not comfortable with entirely yet~! But I get loads of compliments too, from women on the street and my friends and family so that's nice too!

I guess it is just about being who you want to be and not being a slave to fashion. I think more people could put their personality in what they wear and don't.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

if you want compliments from older gals, just go hang around in Marks and Spencer for 5 minutes!

xxx

 

[December]

if you want compliments from older gals, just go hang around in Marks and Spencer for 5 minutes!

Ha! That made me chuckle!

In the town where I used to live, there is a large chav community. The quickest route to the bus stop is through M&S. It was always like a little haven entering there after enduring the abuse and stares from the town!

 

[Gracie Lee]

Pardon me for being a clueless American, but what's a "chav"?

 

[Jennifer Lynn]

Here's one definition of "chav". I've heard a few, more colorful explanations:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chav

 

[Puzzicato]

Recently I have been getting "Oh, have you been dancing?". The first time I was wearing this Bettie Page dress, and it just so happened that I had just been to a dance class, but for a moment I couldn't figure out how they could tell I'd been bellydancing based on my dress! So now I have a totally unearned reputation for swing dancing.