Collecting vintage clothing is a great hobby. However, it requires a very special talent – that of being able to spot the real thing. Good american vintage clothing is hard to find simply because there are great reproductions out there.
The people who make these reproductions or replicas are not trying to cheat you. In fact, they very clearly state that the product is a replica. However, those who are new to the hobby of collecting vintage clothing fail to notice this most of the time. Therefore they end up buying replicas thinking that they are the same thing and feel cheated later when they learn they have made a mistake.
The best way to avoid this is by shopping for vintage clothing online from reputable stores like vintagetrends.com. Although some vintage clothing websites do sell replicas among their catalog, the items are clearly marked as to which they are. One of the easiest ways to discern the different types is to watch out for the price. This will give you an indication as to whether the item is vintage or replica.
The basic and obvious difference in the two is demonstrated in the following example; the Grateful Dead t-shirt that was actually purchased at Woodstock ’69 is vintage, the new t-shirt which looks exactly like that but is available in large quantities is a replica. Obviously, you can see that the former has far more collectible value and the latter has more of a wearable value.