Vintage Fashion Reference Books

I never really cared about history growing up. I know- gasp! Okay, it's not completely true- I cared about music history, but not in the sense that I was connected to it or wanted to recreate it as a lifestyle. It wasn't until I started performing at a local renaissance faire that I started to put two and two together and understand how wonderful (and fun) it is to immerse myself in an historical lifestyle, especially sewing the fashions. After 12 years at Bristol Ren Faire, I moved on to other time periods through friends who did reenacting. I first got into the 40s, which is how I met my husband. I quickly moved into the 50s and rockabilly music, which is part of the reason I started this blog.

I was lucky enough to have some friends who really knew their stuff to help me out when I first got started, but I also began to put together my own reference collection. Having the right books, magazines, music and online links have helped me immensely, so I thought I would start to highlight some of them in case anyone else would like to start their own library. I will be tagging these posts as Vintage Library.

My favorite series of books that are easy to find and fairly inexpensive are the Everyday Fashions series edited by JoAnne Olian. The books usually cover a decade and often pull from catalogs and magazines. By the way, if you ever have the chance to pick up a vintage catalog in decent shape for a good price (I usually cap myself at $20)- DO IT. Don't even think about it. Anyhoo, here are a few of my favs:














Guess what? She's coming out with a new book on twenties fashions and you can pre-order it for 32% off. I already ordered mine!