One of the hot clothing trends today is wearing retro or vintage clothes.  The idea is not to look like you just fell out of the 1970s or 1980s, but to take what was hot then, and put your own fashion spin on it.  Doing this makes your vintage apparel look fresh and exciting.  Copying what you see someone wearing in a magazine from 1973 will just make you look like you are wearing a 70s costume.

Serious collectors of vintage fashion generally consider items from around 1920 up until the 70s to be vintage.  Among most people though, clothing from the 1980's will also be considered vintage.  Because fashions can change so much over the span of even a decade, Fashions popular as recently as 1985 will be far removed from anything currently considered in style.

Vintage apparel includes pretty much every conceivable piece of clothing you could ever want to wear. A check of eBay will show you that a very popular collectible is "vintage knickers". I don't know much about those, but apparently some people do!

Popular vintage clothing items include vintage shirts, jeans and jackets. Among shirts, vintage t-shirts are some of the most prized collectibles. The shirts made in the 70s and 80s were often made of thinner material. This along with normal wear from use and being washed, gives them an extra soft texture that people are willing to pay well to wear. Add in a cool decal from a 70s Rolling Stones concert, and you have yourself a real winner of a vintage T.

Just speaking from a little bit of experience, the really old concert t-shirts are great presents for men who might be starting feel their age a bit.  Knowing that the old shirts from the concerts they went to as teens still exist, can give a little boost to morale.  Just don't get a shirt with too many holes in it!

Checking out a vintage jacket can be a good way to get a feel for the look of an era. All I have to say here is "Members Only" and 80s memories come flooding back. Vintage Members Only Jackets were considered the height of "cool" in their time. Certainly people's tastes in jackets are individual and what was and will be seen as a "cool" fashion is very relative to each person. Interestingly, these jackets were popular enough in their time, that they seem to have spawned a faithful following. They are quite popular on eBay and almost always sell very well. A vintage jacket can be a very cool nod to the past.

The vintage jeans seen most often for sale on eBay include flared bell bottoms from the 70s and high waisted, dark blue designer jeans from the 80s.  Anyone who lived through those times probably has special memories associated with a favorite pair of jeans.  The bell bottoms were just right for getting caught in bike chains.  I can testify to that.  The 80s jeans forced some women of fashion to resort to using implements such as pliers to get zippers pulled up.  It was an interesting time.

If you are going to buy vintage, you should take a bit of time to learn about the specific item you are looking to purchase before dropping any serious money.  There are guides available which can tell you who the popular manufacturers were during some particular time in fashion history and how to identify authentic vintage items manufactured by them.  Always ask questions if you aren't sure when you are buying anything used or vintage.  You will often pay a premium for true vintage.  Make sure you are getting what you pay for when you find it.

If you are working on a very tight budget, definitely check out places like thrift stores, but don't forget to check out those old standards, yard sales and garage sales.  Clothes often don't sell well at these, so if you check in toward the end of a sale, you can often pick up older clothing for pennies on the dollar.  It can be a great way to build up a vintage wardrobe in a hurry for very little money.