Saturday, January 26, 2013

Retro, Vintage, Antique, and Extant AND Ancient!

Alright, let's get this straight. People with Pinterest boards of  "Vintage Fashions" with gowns from 1775 are driving me NUTS. So, here we go.

Retro: of or designating the style of an earlier time. Typically older than 15-20 years and younger than 30. So right now 1984-1999 is considered retro, let that sink in. Anything less than 15 years old is just out of style.

Vintage is the gap between retro and antique. So right now vintage is 1915-1983. I found a definition that said vintage tends to be of higher quality or value, but I'm just going to say it's not mid-century garbage.

Antique is one hundred years old or older, some argue that it starts at 1920. So antique is either older than 1920 or 1914.

Extant means still existing. A dress from 1885 is both antique and extant. It is not however vintage.

Also, a costume is something someone wears when they're not being themselves, even if it means they're dressing how they would have dressed in 1910. Clothes are what people actually wore/wear. In my opinion you don't have extant costumes unless they were worn at a fancy dress party or on stage. Don't make a Pinterest board of "costumes" that is all extant clothing that real people wore as themselves. If it was some duchess' fancy dress costume from 1895 then you can put it in a costume board.

However (and this is where it gets admittedly obnoxious), I will say that costume designers design COSTUMES for actors, and clothes for characters. Get it?

Edited--I'm really going for quantifiable time with these definitions and so thought of the last broad label I could, so...
Ancient: of or relating to the historical period beginning with the earliest known civilizations and extending to the fall of the western Roman Empire in a.d. 476 (link)

So...(yes, I have changed all dates to reflect 2014)
Now--NOW
2000-2013--I don't know, outdated? limbo?
1984-1999--Retro
1915-1983--Vintage
477 AD-1914--Antique
476 AD and before--Ancient

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