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Love Vintage, by Nicole Jenkins, with photography by Tira Lewis; Carter’s Publications, 2009, 232 pages, $49.95.

Nicole Jenkins defines vintage clothing as anything designed and made between about the 1920s, that is, after the First World War, and the early 1970s, “when post WWII baby boomers radically changed the way fashion was made and worn”. Antique clothing is seen as more structured and fragile, and may not have survived in wearable condition, and certainly not as fashion, after the First World War. The fashion from the late seventies on is categorised as “retro”, with a keen interest from the teenage daughters of the Baby Boomers.

Nicole Jenkins’s focus is on the desirability and wearability of vintage clothing. While it is easy enough to skim through the clothing racks in op shops, it can be very hard to find quality garments with designer labels which are in good, wearable condition. She makes a distinction between antique clothing, which, because of poor, fragile condition, may perhaps only be suitable for a museum, and the sturdier, simpler styles of between the wars and up to the late sixties. Another important factor she examines is sizing. Antique clothing was made for shorter, slighter women. Not many of us could boast a stature of 1.5 metres with a 48-centimetre waist.

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