Where do you think vintage is more popular?

[olive bleu]

Welcome, Honey Bee

 

[John in Covina]

I haven't noticed many likeminded folks around here. We went to the local Harley dealer for a 'supposed' bike show and there were about 10 bikes, the rest were cars, the majority were 50's-60's, there were about 100 younger folks from the 'Rockabilly' culture there-alot of them nicely dressed (better than what I see walking around town!) all done up to the nines...but I have never seen another 'period' dresser in town.

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There is a portion of the vintage crowd that live it as a 24/7 lifestyle, others do so for events only, some oscillate between vintage and modern dress depending on the circumstances and daily whims.

Some people are consumate collectors and wear only vintage items, others haven't the time or resources to do so and make do with reproductions or vintage inspired clothing. Out this way we have a number of the ladies that sew and using vintage patterns create astonishing dresses and such. I suggest that some of the newer members go to the "Steamertrunk section" and see some of the various event fotos. Search for the Queen Mary event or the Cicada Club to see some of the LA based events. You will see a great mix of what I described above. I also would like to add that these get-togethers are such great fun that I'd suggest to start saving now to join us in May 2011 for the QM event!

 

[Deleted member 12480]

i always struggle to find vintage on .co.uk ebay, but .com is always full of things. It also sounds like you have a lot more vintage shops over there, (we have mostly antique shops where elbows must be glued to sides at all times). however, vintage is quite popular with teenagers and young adults over here, but when they say vintage they are mostly referring to 70s 80s, 60s if they're lucky! London is the only place i know of that sells earlier than 60s in britain.

 

[Fletch]

Wherever you are, it's best to be a lady.

 

[Honey Bee]

Wherever you are, it's best to be a lady.

OMG, you are making me cry...my Grandmother would always say this to me!
(she raised me).
That, and remember your lipstick
and is your bra strap showing?
Your slip?
I can hear her now
and I miss her harpin' on me about it all.
After all, she was right and always a lady.

Thanks for the reminder

 

[Chas]

Vintage is far more popular in Europe, I think. With a few regional differences I see an enduring enthusiasm for the era(s) covered by the vintage lifestyle there. Whether it is an affinity for the 20s to '50s or a nostalgia for the 1940's it seems to have much more support there than here.

The Europeans have an appetite for old-time Americana that staggers the imagination.

The larger urban areas here have critical mass, as it were, but not what it is in Europe, imho.

 

[Deleted member 12480]

i know of someone who sells english teacups to the US via ebay, and has apparently gotten very good at it.

This means there is less for me to pick up cheap at charity shops, grr! :rage:

 

[Grant Fan]

I think it is much more popular on the west coast of the US then it is here on the East Coast. I was raised and lived in Maryland until last year and now am in Virginia, I find that it is accepted better down south. But CA has a lot more vintage then the rest of the country. But I agree the UK and also Australia seem to have quite a large amount of stores.

 

[Grant Fan]

I'd have to say Japan dominates the vintage subculture, when you look at the world at large. America has been "anti-fashion" since the late 90's and as a whole has not left that mentality yet. Here laziness and slobbery still rule the day, it's the simplest option.

The subculture is growing stronger though here .

I'm not sure about our friends in Europe or Australia.

I have to agree about the Japan thing. When I visit Japan and dress the way I do people love it and they make no issue about telling you or asking for pictures. Here people may love it but they frequently think you are over dressed or stuck up.

 

[John in Covina]

We are blessed here in LA with a pretty good place for acceptance and some great places to experience vintage with events and such.

I think society on the West Coast likes the idea of history and keeping it alive as a celebration of what makes California and the West unique.

The influence of Hollywood on fashion and vice a versa captures a lot of people and the old classic movies still influences those that watch them..

 

[Tiller]

We are blessed here in LA with a pretty good place for acceptance and some great places to experience vintage with events and such.

I think society on the West Coast likes the idea of history and keeping it alive as a celebration of what makes California and the West unique.

The influence of Hollywood on fashion and vice a versa captures a lot of people and the old classic movies still influences those that watch them..

It surprises me a bit honestly, because if I recall correctly it was places like LA where the "vintage" style started dying out, well the East Cost held onto it longer. History can be ironic in a way though.

 

[John in Covina]

It surprises me a bit honestly, because if I recall correctly it was places like LA where the "vintage" style started dying out, well the East Cost held onto it longer. History can be ironic in a way though.

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Perhaps! If you glance thru the Events section you'll see that many areas are putting together events with greater frequency and in particular LA having a lot of stuff going on. I would hope that the East Coast is having a lot of events, but we don't see as much posting, perhaps there is stuff going on but nobody has a chance to write about it out that way.

 

[repeatclicks]

It is easily more popular here in the UK. I could attend at least one night every single day of the week to go out and either learn dancing, or DO dancing at a club, even on Sundays. There are loads of daytime events throughout the year as well. We have at least 3 or 4 weekenders a year too.

One of the reasons my wife and I stay here is that we are spoilt for choice, and we get vintage cheap from the US because of the exchange rate. Its win win really!

The only thing I miss is 24 hour diners, and a slightly more relaxed feeling about the States than here.

 

[MissHannah]

Vintage dressing has been a part of various subcultures and a subculture in its own right as far back as I can remember in Britain. I grew up in Devon in a city of 100,000 people and there was even a vintage clothes shop there and now there are 3!

London obviously is great for vintage but almost every town in this country has a vintage shop if you look hard enough and even more so with antiques shops. I don't have trouble finding stuff on Ebay.co.uk generally but obviously the US version has more and a wider selection because of their prosperity after WWII and just the sheer population size!

 

[John in Covina]

It is easily more popular here in the UK. I could attend at least one night every single day of the week to go out and either learn dancing, or DO dancing at a club, even on Sundays. There are loads of daytime events throughout the year as well. We have at least 3 or 4 weekenders a year too.

One of the reasons my wife and I stay here is that we are spoilt for choice, and we get vintage cheap from the US because of the exchange rate. Its win win really!

The only thing I miss is 24 hour diners, and a slightly more relaxed feeling about the States than here.

In the LA and Orange County area if we include places for dancing and learning to swing dance we can also hit 7 days a week. I have a feeling that there is more going on than most know about if you include the dance portion of vintage.

 

[Gingerella72]

Don't come to Nebraska looking for a vintage scene....all you'll hear are crickets chirping.

(and cows mooing)

:eusa_doh:

 

[Miss Sis]

London obviously is great for vintage but almost every town in this country has a vintage shop if you look hard enough and even more so with antiques shops. I don't have trouble finding stuff on Ebay.co.uk generally but obviously the US version has more and a wider selection because of their prosperity after WWII and just the sheer population size!

Thank you, Hannah! Exactly what I was going to say - there are lots of places all over England for vintage, you just have to get looking and that of course, America has more vintage kicking round. It is a massive country, was much more prosperous than many other countries, no bombs hit it during WW2 putting factories out of use and also the standard of ready to wear clothes was much higher than that available in Europe at the time.

Actually, I find vintage in London is usually vastly overpriced but sometimes you get lucky and sometimes that shop in the middle of nowheresville charges even more than London, sometimes not.

I think English people in some ways delight in being different, so that's partly why vintage is popular here. You can walk around London in full vintage without anyone batting an eyelid. Other places we've only had interested comments. Perhaps those who disapprove just keep their comments to themselves? Who knows. Who cares. [huh]

 

[John in Covina]

Don't come to Nebraska looking for a vintage scene....all you'll hear are crickets chirping. (and cows mooing) :eusa_doh:

Sounds like an opportunity to get something started. Are there any swing dance instruction place or swing dance venues in the state? Some swing dancers are amicable to emulating the styles of the era especially if it adds to their dance floor prescence.

 

[Tourbillion]

I did a quick survey of Facebook to try to judge numbers in different cities.

Art Deco Society:

California (San Francisco Bay area) 2265 members
Los Angeles 3489
Melbourne 1686
Washington DC 535
Detroit 220
British Art Deco Society 129
New York 104
Puerto Rico 51

Other Vintage/Dance Pages:

London Vintage Events page "likes" 910
Hollywood "Speakeasy" 1099 attending, 1825 maybe attending, 4006 awaiting reply
Maxwell DeMilles Cicada Club (Los Angeles-vintage club with dress code) 543
Dances of Vice (NY-monthly) "likes" 1711
Lindy Groove (Los Angeles-most not very vintage) 826
SoCal Swing Dance 1417
Swingland (London) 471 members
London Swing Dance Society 736
Lindy Hop Greece 1103 (who knew it was that popular there?)
Arizona Lindy Hop 468
Charleston Alley (club in San Francisco) 760
Melbourne Balboa Dancers 106
Silent Movie Theatre (Los Angeles) 7187
Niles Film Museum (Northern California) 397

From these numbers, it seems like the "scene" is bigger in Los Angeles/San Francisco than anywhere else. Of course bigger isn't always better, but the L.A. scene is pretty intense. I didn't include vintage cars in this, and I couldn't find a general vintage scene page for Los Angeles (so I am starting one). I didn't even try to look up rockabilly, which is also huge. Viva Las Vegas has 11,549 fans from all over, not sure if European events are this big. I looked up Vintage at Goodwood and it is 9276, but this may include 60's and later? I haven't been so I am not sure.

 

[John in Covina]

That's some excellent research! :eusa_clap

Although we can't be sure if a Facebook sampling is a good slice of membership because we don't know if the Facebook participation is skewed heavily towards the more computer savy. It does give at least a glimpse of the areas of memberships to vintage based groups with hard numbers.

Tourbillion - when you make that LA page please post it so we can see where to go!