Does your vintage wardrobe have to match your vintage house?

Deleted member 16736 · Jul 15, 2012

I'm starting to look for a house which I hope to buy in the next year, and I'm wondering if my wardrobe and my house should match. If I dress 30's, won't it feel strange living in a mid-century modern house? And vice versa (dressing 50's and living in a 30's home).

V.C. Brunswick · Jul 15, 2012

If I was to have a vintage wardrobe to match my house it would have to be bell bottoms and leisure suits and I ain't going down that road!

Edward · Jul 15, 2012

I guess it might if you are only interested in one very specific period and want to go as total immersion as you can... Wouldn't bother me. I'm evolving towards something of an early Fifties mix and match look with modern touches.... My block was opened in 1953. My regular clothing interests span circa 1930 to circa 1959.

Deleted member 16736 · Jul 15, 2012

I think being consistent with one prior time period is hard enough.

LizzieMaine · Jul 15, 2012

Live in a house you're comfortable living in. Everything else is secondary.

Drappa · Jul 15, 2012

I don't think I even understand the question. A family or couple in the 30s would have acquired a house then, if they were able to, and lived in it for several decades. So the same family would have lived in their 1930s (or earlier) built house in the 1950s, and I'm sure wouldn't have thought twice about it. They'd just re-decorate if required. Unless you plan on moving every ten years, which seems like rather a lot of effort?
My grandfather built the house he lived in in the early 1950s and lived in it until he died two years ago.
Our own house was built in 1860 and has housed many generations of people. Presumably it was being lived in during the 20s, 30s and 60s and I doubt most people cared whether their wardrobe looked odd.

William Stratford · Jul 15, 2012

How you decorate your house and how you decorate yourself (clothes worn) are two sides of the same coin, so it is very much understandable if a modern house feels incongruous to you (can't stand them, myself....modern architecture is hideous and should be classed as a crime against culture). That said, houses are immeasurably more expensive and so harder to be so picky on...although, that said, there are usually plenty of pre-war houses for sale in England.

Deleted member 16736 · Jul 15, 2012

Drappa said:
I don't think I even understand the question. A family or couple in the 30s would have acquired a house then, if they were able to, and lived in it for several decades. So the same family would have lived in their 1930s (or earlier) built house in the 1950s, and I'm sure wouldn't have thought twice about it. They'd just re-decorate if required. Unless you plan on moving every ten years, which seems like rather a lot of effort?
My grandfather built the house he lived in in the early 1950s and lived in it until he died two years ago.
Our own house was built in 1860 and has housed many generations of people. Presumably it was being lived in during the 20s, 30s and 60s and I doubt most people cared whether their wardrobe looked odd.

I considered this. Wearing 50's clothing in a 30's house would not be unusual. I'm sure in the 50's, that's exactly what happened. But why would anyone have worn 30's clothing in a 50's house unless they never wore out their clothes from 20 years earlier? I could go 50's wardrobe with a 30's house, but the other way does seem odd.

Rudie · Jul 15, 2012

I think you should come out of your head a bit and stop worrying. Nobody will even notice except maybe some hardcore 24/7 vintage buffs. And of those probably no one will care. And if they do care and feel like this is a serious faux pas that can't be forgiven, they are very likely to have some other serious problems as well.

LizzieMaine · Jul 15, 2012

My grandparents dressed exactly the same way in 1975 as they had in 1945 -- they weren't trying to recreate a period, they were just completely oblivious to trends and fashions. You probably wouldn't find too much of this sort of thing in a postwar subdivision, but there were plenty of neighborhoods, especially in small towns, where you'd find people who were what used to be called "set in their ways." I can look around my neighborhood right now and see people who look like they just stepped out of 1987, and they don't mean it ironically.

BigFitz · Jul 15, 2012

Rudie said:
I think you should come out of your head a bit and stop worrying. Nobody will even notice except maybe some hardcore 24/7 vintage buffs. And of those probably no one will care. And if they do care and feel like this is a serious faux pas that can't be forgiven, they are very likely to have some other serious problems as well.

+1

Vampyre Master · Jul 15, 2012

Joel Shapiro said:
I'm starting to look for a house which I hope to buy in the next year, and I'm wondering if my wardrobe and my house should match. If I dress 30's, won't it feel strange living in a mid-century modern house? And vice versa (dressing 50's and living in a 30's home).

A picture is worth a thousand words

VM

Drappa · Jul 15, 2012

Joel Shapiro said:
I considered this. Wearing 50's clothing in a 30's house would not be unusual. I'm sure in the 50's, that's exactly what happened. But why would anyone have worn 30's clothing in a 50's house unless they never wore out their clothes from 20 years earlier? I could go 50's wardrobe with a 30's house, but the other way does seem odd.

It's only odd if you yourself place that much importance on it, and if you do, ask yourself why. By that reasoning it would also be odd to dress 30s but post on the internet, use modern phones or modern medicine, etc. A house in many cases is hard enough to find as it is whilst matching your budget, desired area and so on. If there is one important Golden Era value it was making do with what you could get at the time and making the best of it for you. Even if you found a 50s house you liked, chances are that it won't have all it's original features any more anyway, same with a 30s house, so you could just decorate it however you wish. There are only very few people who manage to live exactly period-correct, but I am not sure whether the personal gratification would be worth all that effort and why it needs to be this exact anyway. Who would come to your house to judge your clothes preceding the architecture? And why would you judge it yourself? Seems like a lot ado about nothing to me. If you find a house you love and decorate it in your style it'll stIll reflect you, even if it's not period correct.

ButteMT61 · Jul 15, 2012

Dunno Joel. Seems outta wack to worry about this. I call it taking an interest to an unhealthy level. No offense meant, but...my house is 106 years old. I drive a car, motorcycle and use clothing with zippers lol

Deleted member 16736 · Jul 16, 2012

Boy, I opened myself up for some real criticism. I was just wondering if people tried coordinating their wardrobe and their living arrangements. I'm new to this whole scene and trying to figure things out. Personally, I'd feel awkward dressing from an earlier time period in an older home if I could help it. I understand housing is a lot more important than your clothes and you have to prioritize. Some people don't care and think it's pointless even to think about it. But to my mind, I want the whole thing to work together, kind of like an Apple computer. In the end, I'm actually sorry I posted this thread and in the future, I'll probably just keep my own counsel.

sheeplady · Jul 16, 2012

Joel Shapiro said:
Boy, I opened myself up for some real criticism. I was just wondering if people tried coordinating their wardrobe and their living arrangements. I'm new to this whole scene and trying to figure things out. Personally, I'd feel awkward dressing from an earlier time period in an older home if I could help it. I understand housing is a lot more important than your clothes and you have to prioritize. Some people don't care and think it's pointless even to think about it. But to my mind, I want the whole thing to work together, kind of like an Apple computer. In the end, I'm actually sorry I posted this thread and in the future, I'll probably just keep my own counsel.

If what you want is a home that matches your wardrobe, I say go for it, personally. I've always wanted to live in an Italianate in the hills, so when my husband and I saw one come up, we bought it. My desire was based upon a house that my parents used to drive by when I was little. What I get from your postings is that there is something that is drawing you to the era- the aesthetics, maybe? That would make sense. If you like vintage furniture, a period appropriate house is a beautiful place to showcase them- they were designed to go into that type of home.

Houses that are meant for you will speak to you. Keep an open mind when you start looking and I am sure that something will speak to you. You'll just know when you have the right one. People have all sorts of weird reasons for buying whatever house they have. I wanted a house that looked like my childhood dream home. That's no crazier than wanting a house that matches your wardrobe. While there are a whole bunch of considerations that need to go into buying a home, you should never buy a home that you are unhappy with. You'll put too much sweat and money into something you don't like.

ButteMT61 · Jul 16, 2012

No Joel, not criticizing you but the concept. I think worrying about it or even just doing it would be difficult and odd to a point. A way of life doesn't mean you need to live it 24/7.
We try to live an outdated lifestyle to a point. But not every detail, and not so it gets in the way.
Nothing wrong with posting this IMO.

vitanola · Jul 16, 2012

Oh, please don't take it personally. Everyone seems to have a different level of immersion. Some find the use of old junk to be ludicrous, some just get a toe wet, others climb to the high board and jump into the deep end.

Folks who like leather jackets sometimes don't "get" suits. There are many who love "vintage" accessories who would never dream of putting a
full ensemble together for anything but a costume ball. Other people who love the clothes cannot imagine regularly using a dial telephone, Hudson automobile, or wringer washing machine. Still other folks collect the artifacts but wouldn't be caught dead "dressing funny". Every individual has their own way of ordering their life. Some however seem to suggest that lives which differ too much from theirs are not quite right. Perhaps some may come across as condemnatory, which is a pity, but there is room in the world for every sort, don't you think? Why, I have been told that there are even people over the age of twenty-two who drink Southern Comfort, and others who refuse to wear ties. The first of these I find very difficult to credit, but perhaps...

I understand that Miss Maine has had a great deal of experience with something like the level of immersion to which you aspire. Look over her older posts for an interesting view of the "period" experience. Her postings are always lively, beautifully written, and full of the most suprising information. As for the nay-sayers, remember that they are generally trying to offer good advice, by their lights, and that they seldom really intend to condemn. One who goes against the grain of society to the extent of immersive atavism cannot afford to be too thin-skinned, I fear.

ButteMT61 · Jul 16, 2012

LM*O! I'm the old one that indeed will drink Southern Comfort! Come on Joel, I took a lot of crap for admitting that here lol

LizzieMaine · Jul 16, 2012

The thing with "vintage living" is that it has to come out of who you are, not how you dress. If you want to live in an older house because an old house feels organically right for you, and if the mere thought of hollow-core doors makes you break out in hives, then you're on the right path, and it doesn't matter two cents what anyone else says or thinks about it. But if you just want a house to match your suit, you'll end up getting pretty frustrated about the time the plaster ceiling in your closet collapses in the middle of the night. Which, inevitably, it will do -- because an old house has all sorts of old-house problems, and you'd better be ready to deal with them if you're serious about taking one on.

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