True vintage can be expensive but that shouldn’t mean you can’t enjoy vintage style. Reproduction vintage can be a great option but even that can be expensive. I can’t even tell you all the times I bought something online marketed as vintage inspired only for it to arrive and look nothing like the era! I myself am very against creating unnecessary waste and try and try to make these pieces work, so how do we do it? While they will never be authentic there are ways to make them look more authentic. Today I took my cheesiest reproduction dress and tried to make it more authentic!
The dress
I tried so, so long to pretend to love this dress, I really did. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate it it’s just not vintage in anyway beside’s the silhouette. When I had originally purchased it the picture didn’t show any polka dots and was just a plain black, nothing else and that’s just not what I got. It has a very costume vibe to it, so much so I’ve even considered trying to dye the white to black.
How To Style It
First things first, some dresses can not be 100% saved, it’s just the sad facts of life. Can it be sorta fixed or made to look somewhat better? Sure! So how do we do it? First, we’re going to asses what we don’t like about it. Some problems will be easier to mend then others. For example, you don’t like the silhouette? Add a petticoat or a waist cinching belt if possible.
Take your dress and take a long good look at it, what did she do to you? What is she doing to you? What bone do you have to pick? Is she too plain, to costume? Whatever it is figure it out and have a word with her.
Too Plain
Fixing a dress that’s too plain is probably the easiest. There are a couple different things you can do that you can even mix and match! If your dress is too simple adding a large brooch right above your breast area can help add that little splash of life that it so desperately needs. In order to help it gain more vintage points try and stick with something floral or novelty as a general rule of thumb. If it’s winter you can combine a brooch with a sweater! A cropped button up sweater can help immensely with adding that little sprinkle of vintage pizzazz and then adding a brooch on top that’s like a big ol wah-bam of vintage!
If you don’t much care for cropped/bolero type sweater a “normal” length sweater with a skinny belt around the waist would also work!
If you’re not one for brooches or sweaters or even both, nice jewelry can help! You’re gonna want to go with a more particular style of jewelry if you’re choosing this route but never fret, I have another blog post on vintage jewelry that you can check out for more help on the subject! If you don’t feel like checking out my other post I would pick two out of any of these , chunky beaded necklaces, plain gold or silver necklaces, pearls, simple charm bracelets, chunky bangles.
The last tip are belts! I love belts so, so dearly, so dearly I’ll never ever have enough. A thin, leather/faux leather belt around the waist is a simple, non-distracting fix that can make a world of difference. If you’re looking for a little more pizzazz a belt with a fun decorative clasp could be a great choice! I have one that’s brown with a leaf clasp and it’s probably the best belt purchase I’ve made so far.
Too Costume
Fixing a dress that could be passed off for a Halloween costume is a difficult task. Some, like mine, can never be 100% fixed without actual alteration and sometimes you just have to accept that. There are few steps you can take and many of them are the same as when your dress is too plain. In terms of your whole outfit, your makeup and hair can largely reflect if you’re trying to pass it off as vintage or a costume. Wearing period accurate makeup and hair can have such a drastic impact on the vibe of the dress, unfortunately my hair isn’t to easy to style so I was unable to include that in my vintage fix. The shoes you wear will also play a major role, basically if your dress is cheesy you want to make sure all your accessories and extras are period accurate!
My Fix
While it still doesn’t scream 1950’s the vibe of the outfit has shifted from lazy Halloween costume to “Oh, she’s trying to look vintage!”.
What I did to make my look more vintage was accessorizing. I pinned a brooch to my collar and then as well to my sweater for a colder weather style. I also used two necklaces that weren’t overly modern and styled those according to my brooches. As you can see I also changed my shoes into Mary-Jane heels and grabbed a leather purse(Vintage leather not modern). Had I been able to do a period accurate hair style I think the vibe would have shifted more drastically but for a quick and free fix using only the things I had I feel that It turned out pretty well. I also varied the brooches I used just for example.
I hope this guide helped you in anyway and that you can finally have a stern talking to with that problematic dress of yours and hopefully figure something out! Have a great day and make sure you leave any suggestions or critiques, thanks for reading!
Grandmas Inspiration 