Vintage clothing - where am I going wrong?

[tectonicplates]

I have quite a lot of clothes from the vintage-style places like Collectif etc, but they're not actual vintage. Every time I go to an actual vintage clothing event or shop, all the clothes seem really rubbish and/or ridiculous, or in really bad condition. I've heard of people who buy loads of vintage clothes, so where am I going wrong?

Vintage doesn't necessarily mean great. I have a lot of my best stuff from the 70s.
The size and fit was different and there was no lycra in any fabric.

Since it became cool to wear vintage it has been harder to buy stuff. You used to be able to go to Camden and buy bin bags of the stuff. Now it’s pretty expensive to buy genuine vintage. A lot of it is small by today’s standards too, and as Hizz mentioned, a lot less stretchy, so hard to find stuff that fits.

It depends how much you mind stuff looking ‘worn’. I have basic sewing skills so have bought stuff in the past and revived it. I’ve probably found more stuff in charity shops than actual vintage shops over the years. Not the posh charity shops, look for the real old lady ones!

Yeah I'm usually fairly successful with charity shops, but that's for relatively modern clothing. It never occurred to me to bother with the little old lady ones.

There are some great vintage shops out there but I think a lot of them are the less polished looking shops IYSWIM.

DD and I stumbled upon one recently that was rammed with stuff, if you had the time to trawl through it I bet there would have been some real gems there.

Which part of the UK are you in, as posters may be able to recommend somewhere?

London.