VFG Member Books

Why did the 19th-century Old West hold such power in post-Second World War United States? Sonya Abrego thoroughly and meticulously addresses the incorporation of this iconic style in Westernwear: Postwar American Fashion and Culture. Abrego’s expert commentary, along with the wealth of images in the book, make the book a compelling resource.

Sonya Abrego is an instructor at Parsons School of Design, The New School, and The Fashion Institute of Technology, New York, USA. She is a design historian specializing in the history of American fashion in the twentieth century. She holds a PhD in decorative arts, design history, and material culture studies from Bard Graduate Center, USA, and takes an interdisciplinary approach to examining the connections between dress, popular culture, and modern art and design.

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Pamela Wiggins’ Warman’s Costume Jewelry is at once informational and dazzling. It is one of the guides that vintage costume jewelry experts and collectors turn to, and trust, the most.

The book contains

• Detailed descriptions and up-to-date pricing information for more than 750 pieces of jewelry
• Valuable background information about jewelry designers and manufacturers
• Tips on dating and identifying costume jewelry

Pamela Wiggins Siegel is a writer, editor, and appraiser specializing in antiques and collectibles with an emphasis on collectible costume jewelry. Pamela co-founded Costume Jewelry Collectors International. You can find her website here.

Buy Pamela Wiggins’s book Warman’s Costume Jewelry on Amazon

In this micro-history by VFG member Wendy Dager, you’ll learn that on April 1, 1944, the American people were subject to a federal excise tax that encompassed a large number of items the US government had deemed luxuries. Among them were handbags, a necessity that cost consumers an additional 20% of their retail value. Twenty years of FET had an enormous impact on much more than the pocketbook. An early form of today’s “pink tax,” it was placed on numerous women-centric items, including jewelry, furs and face creams. This tax affected industries, feminism, politics and journalism, and forever altered the designs of mid-century purses, which remain a fashion staple.

A writer of everything from children’s educational programming to humorous mystery novels, Daeger is curator of the online handbag museum The Vintage Purse Museum. You can find her “Pain in the Purse” blog, with bonus photos and information to go with the book HERE.

Buy Wendy Dager’s book Pain in The Purse: The Tax That Changed Handbag History on Amazon

Roger K. Burton’s Rebel Threads: Clothing of the Bad, Beautiful & Misunderstood features over 1300 examples of rare vintage clothing from the Contemporary Wardrobe Collection, an over 20 thousand-item archive of street style from 1940 to 1980. Rebel Threads traces how street punk styles were assembled and worn by the mostly teenage sub-culture in the swing, counterculture and blank generation eras.

Burton has 50+ years of experience collecting vintage street fashion. A former mod himself, he supplied much of the original mod clothing for the 1978 cult film Quadrophenia, before establishing the Contemporary Wardrobe Collection, to provide street fashion for TV and Film. He has dressed literally hundreds of influential bands, including David Bowie and the Rolling Stones.

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Wear Vintage Now! Choose It, Care for It, Style It Your Way is a book by VFG member Maggie Wilds, aka denisebrain. She wrote the book for everyone who loves women’s vintage fashion, but could use more knowledge—and encouragement—to wear and collect it well.

Buy Wear Vintage Now! by Margaret Wilds on Amazon

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Kerry Taylor is the director and founder of Kerry Taylor Auctions Limited, one of the world’s leading auction houses specializing in vintage and antique fashion, costume, and textiles, located in Bermondsey, London UK.

In 2013, Ms. Taylor was featured in the televised, “Princess Diana’s Dresses: The Auction”, and is the author of Galliano: Spectacular Fashion and Vintage Fashion & Couture: From Poiret to McQueen.

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Charlotte Smith is a fashion anthropologist, speaker and lecturer, and custodian of The Charlotte Smith Fashion Collection, formerly known as The Darnell Collection, which comprises over 9000 dresses and accessories spanning over 300 years of fashion history.

Ms. Smith has been featured in the popular television show, “Strange Inheritance”, and is the author of several books featuring her collection. These include Dreaming of Chanel , Dreaming of Dior , and One Enchanted Evening .

Charlotte Smith recently established the “UK Fashion History Tour” company, and sponsors the “Dress for Success Sidney Gala” every year. She currently makes her home in Sydney, Australia.

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Edward Maeder is a costume and textile historian and has held curatorial positions at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art in California, and Historic Deerfield in Massachusetts. He was also the founding director of the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto.

Mr. Maeder currently serves as curator and conservator of the Roddis Dress Collection, and has authored and co-authored several books, including his latest, American Style and Spirit: Fashions and Lives of the Roddis Family 1850-1995 .

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Dale Hope is the author of The Aloha Shirt – Spirit of the Islands .

Dale has published a new edition to this wonderful book, click here to buy it on Amazon

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Longtime VFG member Jonathan Walford is the curator and founder of the Fashion History Museum located in Cambridge, Ontario, Canada, and has published books with subjects ranging from shoes, to forties fashion, to 60s paper dresses and more. His latest is Fashioning Canada Since 1867 which is available for purchase via the museum website.

Several of his popular titles include Shoes A-Z , The Seductive Shoe , Forties Fashions , 1950s American Fashion , Sixties Fashion , and Ready to Tear: Paper Fashions of the 60s .

Mr. Walford has held curatorial positions with several institutions, including the Bata Shoe Museum in Toronto, Canada, where he was the founding curator. He is currently the curatorial director of the Fashion History Museum in Cambridge, Ontario – an institution he founded with his partner Kenn Norman, in 2004.

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Member Nicole Jenkins is a costume designer, vintage clothing aficionado, and owner of the highly respected vintage clothing store, Circa, in the heart of Melbourne’s vintage district in Gertrude Street, Fitzroy.

Nicole is the author of two books, Love Vintage and Style is Eternal

Buy Style Is Eternal by Nicole Jenkins on Amazon

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Melody Fortier has been collecting and selling vintage clothing since the mid-1990s. Her store, Tangerine Boutique, is located in Gardner, Massachusetts, as well as online.

Buy The Little Guide to Vintage Shopping: Insider Tips, Helpful Hints, Hip Shops on Amazon

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Claire Shaeffer is an independent researcher and internationally respected designer, author, educator, lecturer, and columnist. She frequently contributes articles to sewing magazines and has authored many books, including her latest publication, Couture Tailoring: A Construction Guide for Women’s Jackets.

She is also the author of the highly regarded Couture Sewing Techniques, as well as Couture Sewing: Tailoring Techniques, Sew Any Fabric, and many other titles.

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VFG Member Jane Julianelli is a writer who was an editor at Women’s Wear Daily, has been a contributing writer to The New York Times and has freelanced for publications including The Daily News, Harper’s Bazaar, Mademoiselle, and Ms Magazine.

Buy The Naked Shoe by Jane Julianelli on Amazon

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Susan Langley has lectured widely on historical fashion, curated six exhibits for the Lorenzo State Historic Site in New York, and hosted several live shows on Personal FX: The Collectibles Show. She resides in New York State. Sue has written several books on vintage fashion, including Vintage Hats & Bonnets 1770-1970: Identification & Values and Roaring ’20s Fashions: Deco

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