Modern retro style

Vintage inspired TV brings fashion back

click to enlarge Modern retro style
Photo courtesy Amazon Prime Video
Rachel Brosnahan as Miriam Maisel showcasing a 50s-style dress with an overcoat.

From "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" to "WandVision," the popularity of vintage-inspired television is making retro styles more fashionable than ever before. "'Mad Men' was great for the vintage industry. Everybody wanted to dress like that," says Linda Renehan of Springfield Vintage. "People enjoy seeing the past and being inspired to find a way to dress it up and use it even today."

From slim sheath dresses to pencil skirts to quirky bright patterns, the 50s fashion on display in "The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel" is exciting and diverse. "The older you get the more you know that everything circles back," says Renehan, "and this cycle has been picked up by the television shows." Women's fashion during the 50s was also all about the mid-length skirt. While this look is more modest, with a contemporary twist it can look completely reinvented.

While the full period pieces are great on their own, the fun for vintage enthusiasts is to find ways to combine the retro with modern styles to accent their look. "Take the classic little polyester work dress with a jacket over it. Sometimes the jacket is what makes it look dated," Renehan explains. "So when girls go to buy these dresses I tell them to try and put the jacket with another outfit. It would be fun to wear the jacket over a T-shirt and jeans. It's cute. Plus when you buy vintage, you're getting a little better cut and a better body." –Joseph Copley

Joseph Copley

Joseph Copley is production designer for Illinois Times and co-publisher of Activator, the music and arts magazine.

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