Costume vs. natural

[just_me]

I love looking at the pictures in the What are you wearing thread. I don't dress vintage but I love the styles (especially 20s-40s). In a lot of the pictures, the wearer and the clothes look so natural. Not costumey at all, but really sharp.

In some pictures, and I really don't mean to insult anyone, the outfits look more like a costume than an outfit to wear out and about.

What do those of you who dress vintage in your daily lives do to keep it looking real and not a costume?

 

[John in Covina]

I'd like to get a better understanding of how you are defining Costume.

For my perspective it seems that (as time marches on) the further we get from the intended era of dress, the more costume like it can get.

Some of what would be considered lounge suits and a bit later business attire still fits fine with the modern world going back to the 1920's 0r 30's. Some styles of fashion that are outside of the main stream and also not as part of the regional language of dress may also be considered in a more costume nature. I'd say as cool as some zoot suits were they mostly are on the other side of the fence as would be Scots Irish Kilts. Some cowboy and Western wear remains acceptable in many areas of the US but back East tends to be viewed with suspiscion. Victorian era and on back swings furher into the realm of costume for me.

 

[just_me]

I'm thinking less extreme vintage clothing. Men's and women's suits (not the zoot variety lol ), dresses, tuxedos, gowns, loungewear, outerwear, hats (of course) from the 20s on. Articles of clothing that can be day or evening wear.

I agree about regional styles seeming like a costume when in a different environment and certainly women's dresses of the 1890s or earlier will never look like anything but a costume.

Even though more recent in style, a woman going out to a restaurant for dinner wearing a poodle skirt, fuzzy pink sweater (with a pointy bra under it), bobby sox, saddle shoes, and a pony tail would probably look like a costume.

I'm thinking that besides the clothing/accessories, the attitude of the wearer also helps make the outfit look like normal day or evening wear.
I think evening wear is easier to look natural.

The reason I ask is that sometimes when I see the pictures posted here, I think "WOW, that's fabulous" and I know the person will look great whether going to work, out to a restaurant or theatre, or walking down the street. In a few pictures, the outfits are terrific and the wearers look wonderful, but look like they belong at a vintage get together or on a stage.

Some of the old photos of movie stars, models, relatives, etc. look like they could walk down the street today and still look good and like they fit in and are not wearing costumes.

 

[ClaraB]

I think there is a big difference between trying to play a role or to fill a stereotype: poodle skirt and fuzzy pink sweater, and just wearing clothes.

I feel like there is often a need to push clothes over the top, into the realm of costume, because we are chasing that definitive look when often that look isn't right for us. Sometimes all the effort put into an outfit shows and makes that outfit look awkward, forced, unnatural and costume-like-- like the clothes are wearing you instead of the other way around. I don't think this is limited to vintage wear, any outfit can come off as a costume if it isn't worn with the right attitude.

 

[LaMedicine]

like the clothes are wearing you instead of the other way around. I don't think this is limited to vintage wear, any outfit can come off as a costume if it isn't worn with the right attitude.

I agree with this, it's mainly whether you're wearing the clothes, or you're being worn by them. If something's a natural choice, then it will come off natural, but if too much effort is put into something, it will look *costume*ish. On the other hand, with practice and time, and as the wearer gets used to and becomes more confident with what they have on, what looked *costume*ish at first will become natural.
So, if you take a pic of yourself in something and for all the effort you put into it, it looks *costume*ish, just keep on practicing, and it will come to you.

 

[Viola]

The thing is the same woman could wear a different, equally '50s outfit and it wouldn't look like a costume at all. I don't think its the era, its whether you just go down the hallmarks/cliche list or mix it up and are willing to go lowkey with a piece or two in each outfit.

 

["Skeet" McD]

In some pictures, and I really don't mean to insult anyone, the outfits look more like a costume than an outfit to wear out and about.

What do those of you who dress vintage in your daily lives do to keep it looking real and not a costume?

Great question, "just you!"...without knowing what you're looking at, it's hard to give a specific answer. But, like most of the other folks who've risen to your bait, it's much easier to give a personal take on the issue.

To me---as long as there's a real effort to "just" wear the clothes, and not to consciously push things into the extreme for extremity's sake--the answer lies in yourself. If you are wearing WHATEVER because you honestly believe it expresses who you are....no matter what it is, it won't be a costume. And your seriousness of purpose and belief will shine through in such a way that anyone with a brain will perceive it just that way. The rest of 'em: well, you don't really care what they think, do you? They are so busy trying to hide in the herd that anything that ruffles their own insecurity will elicit snide comments. There's nothing you can do about that (except join the herd), so there's no point in even noticing.

Dress to please yourself, not to make a statement, and you'll never have to worry. You'll carry it off.

At least that's one man's opinion (who was wearing three-piece suits, a pocket watch, and a hard straw hat in junior highschool in the later 1960s and spent the mid-80s to the mid-90s dressed in full civil war uniform and/or citizen's clothing from the mid-19C, every day, in Boston) .

 

[LynnLaBlanc]

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD](who was wearing three-piece suits, a pocket watch, and a hard straw hat in junior highschool in the later 1960s and spent the mid-80s to the mid-90s dressed in full civil war uniform and/or citizen's clothing from the mid-19C, every day, in Boston).[/QUOTE]

I admire your bravery:eusa_clap Its really cool that you dressed the way you wanted to dress without worrying about other people's opinions. Especially in highschool.

 

[Slim Portly]

I'm going to humbly assume that I'm one of the ones in the WAYWT?? thread that some may see as costumey. Three-piece tweed suits, double Albert watch chains, bowlers, and spectators are all regularly rotated out of my closet for a day at the office. As I have said many times before, it's all in the attitude. I am complimented often but it is rare that anyone assumes that I am taking a lunch break from a stage production.

Also, tasteful attire from 100 years ago is easier to get away with than fad clothing from any era. That's why my suits and bowlers get a respectful thumbs-up while a leisure suit with wide lapels or a poodle skirt with bobby socks might get you questions about where the costume party is. Just look at anything that metropd wears. On the one hand he could easily have stepped out of a time machine, and yet the combination of attitude and tasteful attire makes him seem perfectly at home in everything that he wears.

 

[chanteuseCarey]

good thread topic here. ...

I think it takes the person really knowing who they are and being comfortable with themselves. It certainly helps and is perhaps best to invest the time and energy to find and choose a particular decade (or two) that really suits oneself (create/develop/become your image) and truly make it your own. That means doing your homework! Learn and study about what you are wearing, make it part of who you are day in and day out. One can't just go out one day and decide to buy a poodle skirt and fuzzy sweater and make it work.

I've met and am getting to know some of the several ladies at a recent Art Deco multi-day event our family attended, each with their own incredible and amazing style. Three gals in particular come to mind; one wore 20s, another 30s, and yet another lives in 40s clothes. They owned the place, it was like they had always worn and projected this look. The effect is not costumey, but glorious.They are happy in their own skin and are dynamic, confident women- but especially each knows what really suits and works for THEM and nobody else. There are gals in this group (yeah its also a way to dress 20s- 40s at special events with like-minded people) AND men that wear this stuff everyday (a lot of them are here on FL ). It all looks FABULOUS, not a costume among them.

Long before I got interested in true vintage clothing for myself I loved the clothes, the hair, jewelry, the music, the films and lifestyle of the Golden Era/Art Deco era- all of it. I've dressed what some would call vintage-inspired for many years. Wearing the real vintage is just a natural extension of how I already looked.

I realized after years of trial and error (I even had a western phase, but that was brief and a mistake for me, quite looong ago, and is thankfully done and buried) for one thing that I'm a dress-up and evening gown kind of gal. I love to overdress, its part of who I am. I have 11 or 13 (I've lost count) full length evening gowns. I'm a social ballroom dancer, as is my DH and the gowns are worn often as I go to many events where they are appropriate. What to do? I became a volunteer and liaison for a Pops Orchestra, I wear a different evening gown for each concert! You wouldn't catch me even dead in logo-ed on the butt sweatpants, a trashy tacky tshirt and extreme fashion modern shoes..

I avoid costumey (and fad) looks at all costs, in part because I have researched fashion for many years. I know enough about fashion vs. costume to recognize it.

For myself, I want the quiet elegance and classiness of wearing a classic pretty dress or suit with a hat and accessories for everyday wear. That goes for real vintage or vintage inspired. I've been a HAT gal forever, the 40s' ones are my favorites. I do wear my vintage out and about; furs, dresses, stockings, girdle, 40's shoes, purses and gloves are worn to the grocery store, the post office, to church, out ballroom dancing, to orchestra concerts, to dinner, the movies, to take kids to school.

For me its just how I like to dress, not to be "on" one day or not. Looking natural in this stuff is KEY- but you have to be feel natural and confident wearing it or it will wear you and take on the look of a costume. Extremes in period fashion are very much perceived as a costume, as John in C mentioned on his post.

Okay, I talked for forever here, but that shows another part of this that is also very key- are you passionate about how you present yourself to the world, but even more importantly - are you passionate about who you are and how you present yourself to yourself.

I love looking at the pictures in the What are you wearing thread. I don't dress vintage but I love the styles (especially 20s-40s). In a lot of the pictures, the wearer and the clothes look so natural. Not costumey at all, but really sharp.

In some pictures, and I really don't mean to insult anyone, the outfits look more like a costume than an outfit to wear out and about.

What do those of you who dress vintage in your daily lives do to keep it looking real and not a costume?

 

[ClaraB]

I'm going to humbly assume that I'm one of the ones in the WAYWT?? thread that some may see as costumey.

Absolutely not.

 

[miss_elise]

and then there are some people who thrive on the theatricality.

I mean cat eye glasses are dramatic. deal with it.

 

["Skeet" McD]

I admire your bravery:eusa_clap Its really cool that you dressed the way you wanted to dress without worrying about other people's opinions. Especially in highschool.

Dear Lynn, Thanks for the kind words.

Let's face it: Junior HighSchool is a particularly dreadful time for most folks, and being there in that period of self-righteous conforming "nonconformity" we call the 60s only made it worse. I can't really call it bravery, though....self confidence, more like. But by that time, I had already had proven to me (at the cost of a certain amount of pain, surely) that being "weird" very quickly sorted the rest of the world out into the folks it might well be interesting to know, and....the rest. Back in grammar school (although I wasn't dressing oddly....yet ) I was the weird kid who, when asked what you wanted to be? answered not "a fireman" or "a baseball player" but....an operatic singer. That did not go down well in 1962. I was always an oddball, and in this respect at least, Neitzsche was right: that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

The Greeks (as usual, the first on the field) had it right: GNOTHI KAITON: know thyself. The strength that comes from that knowledge--and that also means, of course, being aware of your weaknesses--trumps every other force in the world.

Or so I think and have (so far) found....

Cheers,
"Skeet"

 

[Paisley]

I'm sensitive about looking like I'm wearing a costume, even though I've never gotten a negative comment about wearing vintage or vintage inspired clothes. Probably, the main reasons I don't get negative comments are that I don't wear offbeat things like poodle skirts or hairdos of a thousand bobby pins. My look is conservative. And my expression is closer to what I see in photos of women of the Golden Era than the slouchy, I-don't-give-a-!*#% look I see so many women wear now. For me, that expression is the dead giveaway to many recent photos that are supposed to look vintage.

 

[Rachael]

I tend to dress more vintage-inspired than vintage, with a few original pieces thrown in for good measure. This is partly due to fear of damaging vintage things, and partly due to having a varied interest in eras. Honestly, most clothing today (that doesn't come from Hot Topic) is an amalgam of vintage styles- nothing new under the sun and all that.

But really, any fad looks like a costume. Wearing the "in" thing of today (Uggs? really?) already looks like a costume; the same types who wear them would have worn poodle skirts or fringed western shirts. The rest of us try to wear things that are classic and will stand the test of time. When I do wear something that stands out as a vintage ensemble, I expect people will notice. If I wanted to fade into the background, I would (and sometimes do).

 

[chanteuseCarey]

great posts here Skeet,

Thank you for sharing this. I so appreciate everything you are saying here. Our 7th grade son loves to wear his blazers, dress shirts, slacks and ties. He just last weekend got his first vintage fedora (his little 6-3/4 size is really inexpensive- a bonus). We went to the Vintage Fashion Expo out here in SF last weekend. What did he come home with, a vintage beaver opera hat to wear with his white tie and tails. Obviously, he doesn't follow the "herd" either. He told me a few weeks back "I think I need an art deco wardrobe now." I'm thinkin'- "YES!! That's my boy!" His style role model is Fred Astaire. He doesn't care what his peers think of what he is wearing, he feels good about it and he's secure enough to know he is dressed well, and that that is a good thing. I'm going to share your posts with him and my husband. Again, thanks.

[QUOTE="Skeet" McD]Dear Lynn, Thanks for the kind words.

Let's face it: Junior HighSchool is a particularly dreadful time for most folks, and being there in that period of self-righteous conforming "nonconformity" we call the 60s only made it worse. I can't really call it bravery, though....self confidence, more like. But by that time, I had already had proven to me (at the cost of a certain amount of pain, surely) that being "weird" very quickly sorted the rest of the world out into the folks it might well be interesting to know, and....the rest. Back in grammar school (although I wasn't dressing oddly....yet ) I was the weird kid who, when asked what you wanted to be? answered not "a fireman" or "a baseball player" but....an operatic singer. That did not go down well in 1962. I was always an oddball, and in this respect at least, Neitzsche was right: that which does not kill us makes us stronger.

The Greeks (as usual, the first on the field) had it right: GNOTHI KAITON: know thyself. The strength that comes from that knowledge--and that also means, of course, being aware of your weaknesses--trumps every other force in the world.

Or so I think and have (so far) found....

Cheers,
"Skeet"[/QUOTE]

 

[chanteuseCarey]

Not at all SP,

I for one (and there are many of us gals, and men too) think you are one of the BEST dressed men here. AS a newcomer to the group, I am delighted to discover your pictures when you post as what you wear and how you make it yours is amazing. The Gore Vidal quote is perfectly suited for you. You don't look costumey, just confident and self assured, with a very healthy attitude. Keep up the good work!

I'm going to humbly assume that I'm one of the ones in the WAYWT?? thread that some may see as costumey. Three-piece tweed suits, double Albert watch chains, bowlers, and spectators are all regularly rotated out of my closet for a day at the office. As I have said many times before, it's all in the attitude.

 

[Spiffy]

2nd-ed

I second that, and let me say, SlimPortly, you make me want to sport a men's suit, waistcoat, and bowler out and about. Unfortunately, a) I lack the courage to cross-dress so boldly, and b) it would look like a costume on me!

 

[Miss_Bella_Hell]

I think it's easier for women to look costumey than men since the changes in hair and fashion have been so dramatic. With men, a suit's pretty much a suit to the untrained eye. For women, waist nipping and red lipstick plus the lack of skin showing everywhere can be very different from the norm.

My everyday outfits tend to get compliments such as "you look ladylike" rather than "nice costume." I only tend to go all out, roll my hair voluminously and put false lashes and lots of lipstick, at places where I know there will be individuals who are like-minded, and no one thinks anything of it.

I guess I'm saying there's a line between "costume" and "dressed to the nines," and if I cross it, so be it. lol

 

[LizzieMaine]

Context is everything, and so is the type of person you yourself are. Some vintage looks just don't work for some people -- for me, the "bombshell" look would be obviously "costume," because I don't have the personality to go with it. In terms of '40s iconography, I'm more like the stern lady from the rationing board than a Petty Girl, and I know my limits.