The Consumer's Guide to Vintage Clothing (Terry McCormick)

Eighties Does Vintage - A Fun and Informative Read
Review by Nicole Chung, Paper Moon Vintage

Terry McCormick’s book, “The Consumer’s Guide to Vintage Clothing” may have been published in 1987, however for the serious collector of vintage clothing (sellers, this means you), it remains a very useful and timeless resource.
Aside from providing a great deal of insight into the art of dating, McCormick offers readers practical advice on caring for vintage clothing, combining vintage and modern pieces, altering, as well as useful tips to consider while appraising condition. Best of all, the author writes with a good dose of humor which makes for a heck of a fun read at that.
To be certain, some of the material in “The Consumer’s Guide to Vintage Clothing” is dated. When McCormick laments the ease with which she almost begrudgingly finds clothing from the thirties and forties, an act which would probably not prove too difficult in the mid-eighties, I want to cry out of envy and build a time machine. She also makes little mention of the sixties—which I can understand given the popular culture disparities between the sixties and eighties. It’s likely that the author couldn’t romanticize the fashions of a decade that had only recently past.
Still, I bought my used copy of the book for only a few dollars and it has fast become one of my favorite vintage clothing guides thus far.