November 27, 2023 update: I have decided to stop the email newsletter service. It was becoming to costly to maintain. Those already receiving the newsletter will continue to do so until all 38 letters have been sent.
Thank you for your understanding,
Debbie
Love reading about fashion history? You’ve come to the right place. Our passion at VintageDancer is to research and write about vintage fashion history as it was worn by normal, everyday people of all classes, and to teach YOU how to re-create the looks within your budget. We have hundreds of articles on the website spanning the Victorian Era (1840s) on up to the 1980s. You could spend months reading them all, or you can get them delivered to your email inbox and read them at a more leisurely pace, for free!
We have two lists, one for women’s fashion and one for men’s fashion. Join one or both. Here is what to expect for both lists:
Books
My first book was the 1940s Style Guide: The Complete Illustrated Guide to 1940s Fashion for Women and Men (2013). It is still available as an eBook ($9.99) or printed book ($14.00). Since its first publication, I have put most of the chapters online and revised as well as updated them. I leave the book available for sale for those who want to carry a copy with them.
My next book is The Great Gatsby in Fashion – an novel annotation of the The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, looking at all the references to ’20s fashion.
The love affair in one of the greatest American novels ever written has just as much to do with the dazzling fashions of the 1920s as it does with great storytelling. Dapper dresser F. Scott Fitzgerald and his wife Zelda, a notorious flapper, experienced the high life of fashion and culture in the twenties. It was only natural for Fitzgerald to include detailed descriptions of the clothing each character wore. It is in his observations of their dress that he unveils the characters’ motivations and morals that play a critical part in the novel. Fitzgerald’s audience in 1925 would have understood what color a “gas blue” dress was and would have known the sound of “clicking pottery bracelets.” Today’s readers miss the cultural context of those fashions — until now.
You can buy the PDF eBook, printed book, or kindle eBook. eBooks are $2.99 and the printed book is $8.99.
More books will come soon.