The fashion world is abuzz with it's love of vintage. From major retailers to your favorite indie blogger, like myself ... the excitement over all this "old school" has never been higher. Even my own web fashion house Queen Adwoa's Closet has high quality selection of quality vintage pieces for purchase. But, as the love for vintage pieces grows, and seemingly everything is being attached to the term "vintage," what exactly is it and what qualifies an items to be called vintage? 

The official rule of thumb is 20 years. Clothing items, accessory pieces, shoes, styles, ect originating from a time period of over 20 years can be considered authentically vintage. That skirt with a vintage feel, but manufactured 3 years ago is certainly not vintage. However,  that well crafted 60 year old dress from your grandmother's closet? Definitely vintage. As mentioned previously in my post on Learning to Shop Vintage, identifying quality vintage doesn't have to be difficult. Label tags, fabric texture, year of creation, stitching are all viable ways to identify vintage impostors with mislabeling from the real thing. 

Retro items on the other hand, are throwback pieces which have a bit of age to them, but have not matured enough to be called vintage. To the contrary, retro items are quality pieces that are at least 10 years old ... wardrobe staples from yester - year that had the height of their popularity not long ago, but still too young to achieve iconic vintage status.

This weeks outfit is a mashup of vintage looks from various time periods. Case in point, this Adinkra symboled, scalloped shaped, silk wrap-dress is direct form my personal closet ... And I've worn it since middle school! Yes, you read that right. I've had this dress since middle school (I've been tall since forever lol). I love this dress and the look and style is absolutely timeless. The leather jacket if vintage from the 1980's. Pompadour hair-style is from the 1950's. Again, these fashion points all derive from eras well over 20 years, yet when pulled together they all work effortlessly. 

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