The Old Times (December 2006)

Going Vintage

By Britt Aamodt

To some, a vintage clothing shop is full of whispered secrets. Each piece of clothing with its telltale signs of wear embodies a personal history. It carries with it the lives of the previous owners in a way that, for example, an antique chest of drawers cannot. Furniture is used, but clothing is worn. It is a part of the wearer, expressing her tastes, her social circumstance, her era.

Claudia Kelly of Medina has been collecting vintage clothing for nine years. Over that time she has amassed dozens of pieces: functional workaday items that blend in with business suits, evening wear, cozy sweaters and dresses so big and gaudy she’d never wear them outside the house. The 50s chartreuse prom dress and the 60s Barbie doll dress are among the latter.

But for Kelly collecting isn’t always about functionality. It’s about appreciating good design and craftsmanship, and about understanding the history of women as revealed through fashion.

“I grew up in the 1970s, which was a time when women were asking themselves what it meant to be a woman,” she explains. “When I started school, girls didn’t wear pants.

They wore dresses every day. But by the time I was in sixth grade we were wearing jeans. That was huge. So, yes, I think clothes do say something about us.”

Rummaging through Kelly’s wardrobe is like stepping back in time. She has 90s T-shirts, 80s new wave pumps, 70s gowns that trail the floor, sheer 60s blouses (her favorites), ruffled bed jackets from the 50s and cinched waist dresses from the 40s. The oldest piece is a 19th-century jacket fashioned out of lace. Her most unusual, or usual, depending on your outlook, is a wedding dress.

“What vintage collection is complete without a wedding gown?” she jokes, laying the tea-length dress on the floor and spreading the skirt. She plumps the waist. “Feel all that fabric. They put a lot of bulk right where women wouldn’t want it now, right around the waist.”

Some of Kelly’s best-loved pieces are the 60s blouses, which she’s collected in several colors and blends with her contemporary wardrobe.

“You wouldn’t even know this blouse is old,” she says, tugging the hem of the off-white shirt she’s wearing. “You can go into Target today and find something just like this. It’s timeless. A lot of what you find in vintage you can find brand new, though new clothes aren’t as durable as they used to be. But styles always come back.”

Kirsten Yocum of Lake Elmo started buying “old” when she was a teen.

“The Clothes Review run by Sister Dorothy Ann,” she recalls. “This gigantic room full of just everything, children’s clothes and shoes. This was back in the 80s when girls were wearing these long white shirts with ties, and Sister Dorothy Ann would have none of that. It was her responsibility to keep us ladylike.”

A working mother of two, Yocum says her current fashion usually involves a diaper bag. “But I love vintage shops,” she says. “Because it’s more of an experience than going into some soulless shopping mall. You know the proprietor has selected each piece and can tell you who wore the clothes and on what occasion.”

For Yocum the perfect outfit would be a late 40s or early 50s party dress, something to wear swing dancing at the Wabasha Caves in St. Paul. She still hasn’t found her party dress. But she prizes her brown and white Sanford Originals house dress from the late 40s.

“It’s this fantasy you create behind the dress that’s interesting. I imagine the previous owner would have worn it when her husband came home from work. She was my height, my size. I can look her right in the eye.”

Journalist

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