Let me just slip out of this old vintage denim while I tell ..
Added 2024-10-14 11:00:27 +0000 UTCLet me just slip out of this old vintage denim while I tell you about these two neat books in my lap.
Before I left the corporate world to be my own boss, sling vintage, and take my clothes off for a living (spare me clutching your strings of pearls (heh) - I have an MBA, I run this platform like a well-oiled machine and, gasp, I like doing it 😈), I dressed like the Meghan Markel of Suits but for corporate healthcare with a sprinkling of pinup. Under each pencil skirt and silk blouse was a garter belt holding up my nylons.
I really had no idea what hit me when discovering the world of vintage (and antique) denim and once I got a taste of true vintage, void of rockabilly or pinup or whatever, it's hard to go back to your old fashion sense.
I still like garter belts and nylons and now I have a collection of legit 1940s pinup dresses instead of fast fashion ones, for those keeping track.
However, as I've learned, there is an entire industry (community?) of people who go denim hunting in old mines simply to find antique workwear. Dungarees. Denim. What have you.
They head to old gold and silver mines, and dig for Levi's jeans from the late 1800s, which, if intact, go for about $100,000. Pretty wild to think that two generations ago, denim wasn't a regularly worn fashion unless you wore it as workwear.
There's a great series of books on the history of fashion intended for casual audiences entitled Avant. They published a series that covers vintage/antique workwear, American militaria, French workwear (which is where American workwear originated from) and so on. Definitely a neat read and a cool coffee table book if you need one!
