Harriet Love's Guide to Vintage Chic

By Harriet Love

Book Overview

Today antique clothing has become high-style--museums and investors collect it; the world's leading designers copy it; glamorous men and women popularize it. In Harriet Love's Guide to Vintage Chic,... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0030562392
• ISBN13: 9780030562396
• Release Date: January 1982
• Publisher: Henry Holt & Co
• Weight: 1.40 lbs.

Customer Reviews

The first and finest Vintage Fashion book

this was the first book about vintage fashion - written by a pioneer in the vintage fashion world. Harriet Love's shop was legendary - everyone who knew about vintage clothing in the 70s and 80s wanted to go there at least once. The book is not about "values" (as in prices) but about how to wear the clothes and love them. Of course it's dated! As if that style isn't exactly what is now known as "hippie" or "boho" now - so it is actually about as immediate as anything out there. The clothing in this book is from 1950s and earlier, and darned little of it was from the 50s. I was a dedicated collector myself - wrote and edited (and folded and stapled and mailed) The Vintage Clothing Newsletter which went all over the country and the world and wrote the book "The Consumer's Guide to Vintage Clothing" - and we simply didn't consider anything later than mid-50s to be vintage. Of course, we were still able to find 40s jackets, dresses, and hats in thrift stores! Also, 40s fur coats were 20 years newer than they are now, and could still be worn without falling apart, same for shoes, bags, and other finite items. The main thing about this book is that is about the clothes, not about "how much is it worth." It's for people who genuinely love vintage clothing and want to wear it and enjoy it. Here are some great ideas for how to do that. It's also a lot about style and, as Diana Vreeland so aptly put it: "What it comes down to is, we just love clothes!" If you want price guides, go someplace else. If you want to see great clothing being worn in unusual and clever ways - this book will delight you.