Foreword: Special thanks to Issac from Loop Garms for his contributions to this article on the ‘Bootlegs’ and ‘Reproduction’ segment. Do check out their “How To Vintage” on Loop Garms’s IGTV.
Amongst all the current trends, vintage clothing has to be the biggest one in Singapore. Tagging the keyword “vintage” in listings would definitely bring you the most views due to the sheer amount of people looking for such items daily. With the abundance of “vintage” clothing listings on retail and online marketplaces like Carousell and Instagram, how does one tell if the piece is actually vintage? After buying and selling vintage clothing for 3 years and getting scammed multiple times, I’ll share with you the tips and tricks I’ve picked up along the way.
First off, the word vintage means “of age”. In which it’s most commonly defined by items which were crafted around 20 years ago. So it’s technically not wrong for someone to term a cotton-on t-shirt they bought 2 decades ago as vintage. But when we term vintage clothing, what we’re actually looking out for are quality garments produced decades ago where someone has done all the washing and wearing for you to produce the “faded look”. Poor quality fast fashion products definitely will not be able to withstand the test of time and won’t have that look.
Alongside the keyword “vintage”, sellers also like to add “from the 80s-90s”. But how do you tell if that’s really the case?
Starting off with t-shirts, one way is to look at the copyright tags which are usually printed near to the graphic. The copyright tags will give you a year or period where the graphic was protected by copyright laws and a rough idea of when it was produced. However, some reproduced pieces will have the same copyright year as the original production. Hence, you should also look at the size tag. A physical size tag would have better chances of it being an older item. Screen printed size tags were only popularized in 2002 because of Hanes and their aggressive marketing campaigns with Jacky Chan and Michael Jordan. Popular t-shirt blanks (but not limited to) that were widely used and printed on would be Fruit of the Loom, Screen Stars, Anvil, and Gildan. These brands have different sizing tags for different years, which will provide you further details of the production age. If these 2 boxes are checked, chances are the piece is considered “true vintage”.
Bootlegs, repro (reproduction), and customs: these are some terms sellers use to describe their vintage pieces.
“Bootlegging culture essentially started in the past where people who are less well-off wanting to own a piece of luxury for themselves, so they made self designed items with elements of luxury Brands.” – Issac on bootleg origins.
Bootlegs and customs are almost always used for high-fashion brands like Versace, Gucci, etc. They are cheaply produced vintage pieces sold at marked up prices. The way most of these are produced is by taking a cheap sweater/t-shirt found at the thrift store, and an embroidery of the brand’s logo or a copy of their old designs is slapped on to it. It is quite common for bootlegs to don a Gildan blank as they can be mass-produced and sold. Plus, with the advancement of technology, computerised sewing machines can sew templates of such designs on to any fabric. If the designs were copies of the original or with just minor edits, yes, it breaks many copyright laws and is a blatant copy of the original designers’ work. However, “aside from the obvious fake bootlegs, it really is quite the grey area” – Issac on legality issues of bootlegs. Many vintage shops and thrift stores stock such items, and may even term their counterfeit designs as bootleg. So as to not mix them up, do take some time to do more research if there is a heavy price tag.
Repro items are a bit more tricky. So repro just means a reproduction of the same original graphic/design the company produced for the programme ages ago and are re-printed again; but on different quality and brand of t-shirt blanks. Usually, repro items are graphics belonging to TV Shows, Anime, and Soap Operas that are still showing today since many decades ago and reusing the same popular graphic. Examples of these would be Spongebob, Naruto, and Phantom of the Opera. They may even don the same copyright year of the 1900s even though they were re-produced in 2020. But, you can apply the same tip above to check the size tag to determine the rough year it was produced. The easiest way to spot a repro piece is: to observe the same printed graphic, but one piece has a physical tag with the original logo, but another has a screen printed size tag with the same logo. (As seen in the pictures below). The physical tag ones are older and likely to be of original production and screen printed would be repro. However for newer Animes like ‘Demon Slayer’, they may not feature physical tags despite being the first production.
The best example and common repro pieces we’ve all seen would be the band tees from ‘Very Happy Tees’ located at Penninsula Plaza basement. But if you’re going to fork out a hefty sum to buy a “true vintage” piece, I strongly recommend you do a lot of research before buying into it and realising its a repro.
T-shirts and sweaters are the most common vintage items. Hence, they are also the most replicated. Besides the custom pieces from computerised sewing machines, many companies have copied the graphics to print on their cheaply made blank tees. Pull & Bear is probably one of the better companies that do this. Their tees are of a decent quality with nice graphics. Most of it are certified collaborations with the animation studios and even have screen printed logos on their size tags.
Taobao and Weidian has also become a really popular marketplace to source for fake Nike sweaters. They also stock a number of Polo Ralph Lauren bucket hats. Having been to a few pop-up “vintage” stores, most of them who stock these items in particular definitely got them from Taobao. Do take a look at my previous article ‘Breaking “Taobao” Stigma’ to learn how to find items on Taobao.
For shirting, jackets and jeans, these would be much harder to tell if they are “true vintage”. A lot of these are only gauged based on the out-look and the quality of fabrics. A current trend for jackets would be varsity jackets and Carhartt work jackets/hoodies. Varsity jackets produced in the past were made with much softer and durable fabrics and leather. Their designs are also much more unique compared to that of fast fashion. There aren’t many quality varsity jackets produced today (unless it’s by Human Made or Stussy) so they shouldn’t be that hard to tell apart. For Carhartt, their vintage pieces have a very distinct look and feel to them. Even if you use special washing methods on new pieces they still don’t come close. Work wear pieces were worn by labourers in the past and have survived the test of time. The rips and sun fades are generally quite unique. Even if you got a custom brand new distressed one, the seller did a really good job creating that “vintage” look.
Jeans are in a whole class of their own. There are many blogs dedicated to categorize jeans from the 70s-90s. Levis, DKNY, Wrangler, Calvin Klein, and Gitano are really popular brands in the past. And if you ask your parents, they’d definitely owned a pair from either of the brands. Vintage jeans are quite similar to jackets; they have their own distinct look and feel that is very hard to replicate. Fast fashion brands like Zara and Uniqlo have tried to create the washed look but they don’t even come close.
But in 2020, many companies and individuals have figured out a way to create that “faded look” without even having to wear and age the piece. Special washing methods allowed them to do so. Many t-shirt blanks Producers have been churning out products and Creators/Artists like Travis Scott have used it for his merchandise. A YouTuber, Magnus Ronning, has his “Everyday Wash” line which closely replicates the vintage quality garments along with the “faded look”. Such methods are slowly being introduced to the public and anyone can do it at home with simple house-hold items. Brand new and repro items can have the look of pieces from decades ago due to such washing methods.
Vintage items have a ton of environmental benefits compared to retail items and have been the biggest trend around for a while. With so many new vintage shops and thrift stores popping up on retail and Instagram, the accessibility may cloud your purchasing decisions. If you’re new to the vintage trend, this article will only serve as a beginners’ guide. As you dive deeper into the trend and hunt for rare pieces, do take some time to research before buying as some price tags are really exorbitant. Even with all these tips, there aren’t really any solid rules to determine the authenticity of a “true vintage” item. Take into account the year of release for products and exercise common sense and you’ll be fine!
Editor’s note:
A lot of people are still confused by the difference between thrift stores and vintage stores. Thrift stores are also known as discount shops, where you’d get a variety of second-hand/used items in decent condition for cheap. Singapore doesn’t have many such stores. But to give examples, we namely have Salvation Army, MINDS, Something Old Something New. The West generally has much better thrift stores like GoodWill. Even most of Japan’s vintage stores are curated from the USA.
Vintages stores basically resell cherry-picked items. Curated thrift stores, so to say. As thrift stores are many times the size of a vintage store, you need to have the patience to dig through racks to find good pieces. Vintage stores do that for you and you are paying for their time and effort. They curate pieces that people are looking for/would wear.
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