The secret of vintage fabric or 'what make us love it that much in 30 or more years after it went out of fashion?'

'It's this vintage fabric what made me buy this old paisley shirt…'

That's a pretty common excuse. Therefore, one of the main reasons why we go for vintage clothing is the fabric which it is made of. What is so special in those retro fabrics? There are several things, actually:

• Quality
• Material
• Colour or print

Quality of the fabric

Let's start with the quality of the fabric that makes it so valuable. It's obvious that it's pretty good if after 20 &mdash 50 years it still looks good. Not every modern fabric of today's age of high technology production is that good.

Material the fabric's made from

The actual materials retro fabric was produced from is also different from today’s one. It's natural fabric more often than not such as

• cotton;
• linen;
• jute;
• silk.

If it's vintage lingerie we are talking about, the fabric used there is mostly silk and nylon. Nylon vintage stockings are very common as well.

Fabric prints

But what makes it highly recognisable and equally desirable is of course those famous prints:

• coloured striped print on knitted cardigans;
• pasely;
• dolls, bunnies, clouds or other funny prints on the shirts;
• nevi stripes on Channel T-shirts and tops;
• and of course famous polka dots on the 50s dresses.

You might be even after the vintage fabric itself - to design your your own new garment made of a retro fabric, or just an accessorise such as a scarf or vintage hair band. This fabric you can buy online. Usually it's £10&mdash20 for one square meter.

Relevant articles from our friends vintage bloggers, that might interest you:

>Visit an article about Vintage Prints
18 Maxi Dresses for Any Print Personality

Relevant articles on Vintage Fashion Club, that might interest you:

>>> Go to Vintage Polka Dots
Polka dots is an extremely stylish vintage pattern, but stylish in it’s own way...

>>> Go to Vintage Holiday Fabric
There is something really nostalgic in vintage holiday fabric. It reminds the retro cartoons — naive and beautiful...

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