Another thing you could do would be to look at the Vintage Family Photos and Every Day Women of the Golden Era threads. You'll get an idea of what regular people wore on a daily basis back in the day, as opposed to glamorous fashion photos and movie stills.
"Hello. I'm Mr. Hardy, and this is my friend, Mr. Laurel."
Thanks a ton fellas!
Yes, I am a lady, but I like to keep my eye out for vintage suits for my husband.
I believe there are some Union lables that appear in suits and jackets that sometime include the year of manufacture. Also many vintage suits have details that were eliminated in more modern times such as specialty pockets, or elaborate stitching in some areas.
ARM HOLES! Vintages suits had arm holes that were well, smaller much higher up on the armpit. Not sure but perhaps sometime in the 60-70's the arm holes became larger and larger. In the old days a guy could easily drive a car with his suit jacket on and the shoulders did not ride up to become like bat wings. IF it is vintage it should not do that. The arm hole was high up, into the arm pit like an action jacket allowing fredom of movement a modern suit does not have. If you can go to a men's store and try on some suit jackets raise your arms in front like your holding the steering wwheel of your car at the top. Move the arms out to the side like your doing an iron cross on the rings. The shoulder pads will rise up like a draw bridge on a modern suit but not the vintage one. These are features that Matt Deckard and Senator Jack recreate in their modern lines. I believe Indy may do so too.
Blue Skies!
Experience like all have said.
Labels, Weight of Fabric, Feel of fabric, hardware , cut, and overall look of the piece.
Lucky guy.Originally Posted by JoesSweetheart
Thanks a ton fellas!
Yes, I am a lady, but I like to keep my eye out for vintage suits for my husband.
Smell it.
That works too if in doubt.
smeell it or wet it then smell it
material used is a good way to spot some fakes. Most sewing thread used in later times has polyester so it will not snap in the sewing machines. If you can pull a bit of thread out of a hem or the end of a seam try burning it to see if it balls up and smells like burning plastic.
A good black light in a dark room is another way to look for modern materials.
tests like that are quite often used for uniforms because there are real good fakes out there.
This site dates Harris tweed by label design, I bought a super "58" tweed overcoat after reading it, in fact just found the Burberry label, result!!
VM
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