❦ dating by diagnostic ❦
Identification & Authentication
One diagnostic clue per page, in depth. The technique, the interpretation, the timeline of availability, and the cases where the conventional wisdom is wrong.
❦ Closure ❦
How to date a vintage zipper
9 minTalon, Conmar, Crown, Lightning, YKK — the zipper is one of the fastest dating clues on any twentieth-century garment. Here is the full breakdown by brand, type, and decade, with the cases dealers get wrong.
Closures — hooks-and-eyes, snaps, lacing, velcro
7 minBefore the zipper became common in the 1930s, every garment closed some other way. Hooks-and-eyes, snaps, drawstrings, lacing — each has a dating window and tells you which era you are looking at.
❦ Material ❦
Dating buttons — bakelite, casein, celluloid, jet
7 minPlastic buttons, glass, mother-of-pearl, jet, bone. Each material has a dating window and a simple identification test.
Dating fabric by dye and print
8 minSynthetic dyes (1856 onward), screen printing (1910s–onward), digital printing (1990s onward). Each technique has a date window and a recognisable surface.
❦ Construction ❦
Reading the seam — construction-dating clothing
9 minHand-stitching, lockstitch, French seams, flat-felled, pinking, overlocking. How a garment was put together pins down the era when the label is gone.
Dating clothing by the hem
7 minHand-rolled, blind-stitched, horsehair-braided, weighted with chain — the hem of a garment is a small craft history. Reading it dates the piece and often identifies the maker.
Dating clothes by silhouette alone
6 minHemline, waistline, shoulder, sleeve — the four-variable silhouette grid narrows most twentieth-century pieces to a single decade without looking at the label.
Paris, London, New York, domestic American — regional construction signatures
8 minThe same year, four very different interiors. Paris couture, London tailoring, New York Seventh Avenue, American home sewing — each leaves a different construction signature inside the garment.