How We Work: Research, Appraisals and Corrections

AntiqueCostume is a small independent site. This page explains who writes it, where the facts come from, how the photo appraisal works, and what it cannot do.

Who writes the guides

The guides, era hubs and label pages are written by the AntiqueCostume editorial team, with AI tools used for drafting and research. There is no named expert appraiser on staff at the moment, and we do not claim to have handled the garments we describe or picture. When that changes, this page will say so.

How a guide is researched

Every date, law, name and price should trace to a source listed at the bottom of the page. We prefer primary and specialist sources: museum collection records, government regulations (for example FTC rules on care and fiber labels), union and company archives, specialist reference sites such as the Vintage Fashion Guild, and auction houses' published results.
Prices are ranges drawn from sold results we could find, never asking prices, and they are dated. Where sources disagree we say so rather than pick one silently.
Each page shows the date it was last reviewed. Reviewing means re-checking the sources and the prices, not just changing the date.
Photos are openly licensed museum or archive images (CC0, CC BY or similar), credited under each image. Numbered callouts only point at features that are visible in the photo.

How sold prices are collected

The sold prices records are single items with a realized price, taken from the auction and marketplace results cited in our guides. Each row links to its source. A row is marked verified internally only when the figure was seen on the source page. Price bands and medians from larger samples are listed separately, never mixed with single sales. Owner-reported prices from the appraisal tool are shown in their own table and labelled as not independently verified. We never add a price we cannot point to.

How the photo appraisal works

The photo appraisal is automated. No person looks at your photos before you see the result.

Your photos are resized in your browser and sent to a vision model, which describes what it can see: shape, fabric, fastenings, labels and condition.
That description is matched against our own guides, era hubs and label pages, and against past appraisals whose owners told us the real answer.
Several language models then reason from the description and those facts, each producing an era estimate, evidence, red flags and a value range. Their answers are compared: the era most of them agree on is reported, values are combined using the middle figure, and the result page says how many models agreed.

Known limits

Without a clear photo of the label, the era estimate can easily be a decade or more out. Reproductions and later revivals of earlier styles can fool it. Without a label, zipper or other construction clue in the photos, the tool will usually say "undetermined" rather than guess.
The models can misread labels, miss repairs and alterations, and cannot feel fabric weight or do a burn test. Condition from photos is approximate.
Value ranges are estimates from general market data, not a formal appraisal for insurance, tax, probate or sale. For anything that might be worth over $1,000, get a written appraisal from an accredited appraiser or a specialist costume auction house.
The free models we use change and are sometimes unavailable; when they are, an appraisal may take longer or be queued.

Accuracy

We have not run a formal accuracy test, and we do not publish a hit rate: our test set is far too small for one. What we have is informal internal testing from 4 October 2026, which we report in full because the failures shaped how the tool works now.

Test items. One vintage item (an early-1950s Claire McCardell cotton shirtwaist day dress, two photos, no label visible; dated about 1950 to 1955 by comparison with a 1950 McCardell shirtwaist held by the Museum at FIT, not confirmed by an owner or appraiser) and three modern tops photographed from openly licensed Wikimedia Commons images.
First version. On the McCardell dress, about 5 of 14 runs landed in or near 1950 to 1955. The misses ranged from 1925 to 1927 through the late 1930s and 1940s to 1970 to 1975; one model dated it to the late 1930s on every run, apparently fixed on the puffed sleeves. A real user's modern embroidered bustier top was dated "circa 1935 to 1945" with medium confidence, a clear miss.
Second version, after we added "quick dating" sections to the era hubs that the tool reads: 4 of 5 runs on the McCardell dress gave 1950 to 1955; the miss said 1936 to 1940.
Current version. Because modern clothes copy vintage styles, the tool no longer dates a piece from its style alone: it needs at least two concrete age clues, such as a label, zipper, seam finishes or fastenings. On the McCardell photos, which show none of these, it now answers "undetermined" at low confidence and asks for a label photo. The three modern tops came back as modern or "undetermined, likely modern" in all 6 runs.
Limits of this testing. Free models were often rate-limited, so many runs had only one model answering instead of several.

Each result page asks the owner whether the estimate was right, partly right or wrong, and what the item really was. As of 4 October 2026 no owner has rated a result. We will publish those counts here, including the misses, once there are enough to mean something.

Corrections

If you spot a wrong date, a broken source or a price that does not match its source, email hello@antiquecostume.com with the page address and what is wrong. We check the source, fix the page, and update its review date. Significant corrections are noted on the page.

Corrections log

4 October 2026, 1950s hub: two Ceil Chapman dresses were quoted at their hammer prices ($450 and $225) although the page says auction figures include the buyer's premium. Corrected to the realized prices of $562.50 and $281.25 shown in Augusta's past-sales records.
4 October 2026, Victorian hub: the 1860s dress row credited a beetle-trimmed organdy dress with $1,875. Augusta's record shows it realized $2,040 in March 2011, outside the page's 2022 to 2026 window; the row now says so.
4 October 2026, coat and fur values: the Persian lamb "top about $530" figure was a porcelain ewe-and-lamb figure group that appeared in the same search results, not a coat. Removed, and the Persian lamb range recomputed from the 8 genuine coat, jacket and capelet results ($20 to $195, median about $50).
4 October 2026, 1970s hub: the single Ossie Clark auction lot ($437) was a 2008 gown, not a 1970s piece. Removed from the 1970s price table.
4 October 2026, 1910s hub: checked, no change needed. The $1,440 for two wool walking suits dated 1910 and 1914 matches Augusta's record ($1,437.50, September 2023); a source link for that lot was added.

Money

The site is free. Some links to eBay and Amazon are affiliate links, which may earn us a commission at no cost to you (see the affiliate disclosure). Affiliate links never change which sources we cite or what a guide says.