Tag Archives: Emily Whalen

It’s All About the Labels

A Dandy Guide To Dating Vintage Menswear From WWI to 1960

By: Emily Whalen

Sue Nightingale’s process for dating vintage is simple: look at the label. Most of A Dandy Guide To Dating Vintage Menswear WWI to 1960 is devoted to how to properly read and identify them. Only a few pages in, I found myself interested in learning just how to date denim, despite the fact that I haven’t worn jeans in about 12 years.

The book is filled with black and white ads for Sears, J.C. Penny, and other major menswear labels from WWI to 1960. Throughout the book, we see the graphic design of labels become less ornate and more regulated as the decades pass, showing us how subtle visual clues can reveal the exact date of the piece. A Dandy Guide goes into great detail over legislation that affected the look of labels during the time—incredibly helpful and very thorough—making some key notes on this section will help this guide become more functional for the reader. A quick reading of this section will familiarize you with the decades you are dealing with, but the book is a guide and having it handy while actually dating clothing will be when it’s most useful.

The second half of the book is an explanation of the general styles and trends of the time as well as practical care instructions for vintage clothing. Nightingale outlines popular styles on the pages filled with old pictures and advertisements, then gives tips as to what to initially look for when dating vintage. An entire chapter devoted to robes and “smoking jackets” is something we rarely see in contemporary men’s fashion, and is an interesting reminder as to how much the lives of men have changed—and thus their clothing. The same can be said for men’s work clothing. Denim was functional long before it was trendy.

A Dandy Guide to Dating Vintage is a valuable resource to anyone interested in vintage clothing, men’s or women’s, as the tips and tricks are helpful for both. Above all, this book is a guide. It’s not an evening read for the bathtub, but it’s not supposed to be. It’s designed to be lugged to Value Village with you the next time you’re eyeing those velvety smoking robes in the men’s aisle.

photography // Brianne Burnell

Emily Wornette

Our newest intern didn't let a dial-up Internet connection hold her back

By: Emily Whalen

My interest in style and clothing started at a very young age, when my hippie parents allowed me to dress myself. (Thanks, Mom and Dad!) Since then I’ve been slowly collecting all the cast-off figure skating outfits in Eastern Ontario. I’ve written for Plaid Magazine, Exclaim! and my university newspaper, The Queen’s Journal. I’m very excited to be working as an intern on WORN’s editorial and publishing boards. On any given day you can find me riding my bike around Toronto, salvaging unwanted clothing, manically applying lipstick, window shopping, and getting into trouble.

I’m so happy to have found WORN and, at long last, to be a Wornette.

Girls and Guns
This Tumblr curated by photographer Petra Collins is awesome. The photos manage to be both raw and whimsical. Collins finds stills of girls who are diverse, who confront the camera, and who are sexy. These collections of photos have helped me harvest my inner slut and make me want to move to a trailer park and shoot guns in cut-offs.

Another Mag Loves
This blog is where my dreams take shape. Can I afford this new Celine bag, Yves Saint Laurent tuxedo dress, or Dom Pérignon X David Lynch? Hi, no. Absolutely not. Do I enjoy looking at them? Of course, yes. Very much. We’re all in the ditch but some of us are looking at a $5,493.92 Fornasetti balaclava chair. Thanks, Internet.

Facehunter
Facehunter was my first introduction to a fashion blog. Growing up in rural Ontario, street style didn’t exactly exist—probably because there was only one street in my town. With my parents’ dial-up Internet connection I used to wait for what felt like days to see each new photo. When the pictures finally loaded I was reminded that there were other cape-wearing girls on bicycles out there. And here I am, years later, still loving that affirmation.

Thank You, Ok
I love Katie Merchant’s blog because we both live in Toronto but she somehow manages to make this city look pretty. Merchant sees the loveliness in the concrete jungle, when I sometimes just see the sullen faces of the TTC and my chipped manicure. Her blog has inspired me to put on rose-tinted glasses every once and a while and invest in some overpriced Chanel nail lacquer.

Hazlitt
I was so happy when Hazlitt was launched this past summer. Senior Editor Alexandra Molotkow is one of my favourite writers—anyone who manages to earnestly defend Here Comes Honey Boo Boo has my attention. Hazlitt, like WORN, engages in a more personal style of writing than many other sites. It has encouraged me to work on my own writing and to be fearless in my use of the word “I.”

photography // Zoe Vos