Waltzing through the fashions of the past with Vintagedancer.com

Debbie Sessions is a woman after my own heart. A problem solver (when she couldn't find the sort of website she was looking for, she created one herself in 2011), entrepreneur, vintage lover, writer and expert on yesteryear fashions, Debbie helms the website Vintage Dancer, which she created to to aid others, who like herself, were on the hunt for vintage fashions and styling advice from a certain era, yet couldn't find them such things in one handy, concise spot.



{Debbie Sessions (pictured here with her husband, Oscar), founder of Vintage Dancer, a vintage fashion agitator site, as well as author of vintage fashion e-books, blogger, mother, and all-around highly knowledgeable woman when it comes to old school style and where to find it.}


Vintage Dancer is not an shop itself, instead - rather innovatively - it is an online aggregator which collects some of the best vintage and vintage reproduction fashions from around the web that are for sale in various locations and presents them grouped by decade and/or garment type.

Pulling from sites such as ModCloth, ChicStar, Unique Vintage, Shabby Apple, and AmeriMark one finds a well curated selection of everything from 1940s dresses to 1920s shoes, retro swimwear to vintage style maternity clothes and a good many things in between (including 1950s kids clothing).

You can quickly and easily search the the site by time period, with the Victorian era kicking things off, followed by the 1900s straight on up to to the 1960s, each listed as separate category at the top of the every page, then further subcategorized by type of garment or accessory.

All of the decades featured include a broad assortment of garments (and/or accessories), as well as categories such as plus size and menswear. Another element that I really like is how, for each decade, Debbie provides a brief paragraph highlighting some of the key sartorial elements of that era for each (for example of the 1930s, she says, "Women’s fashion in the 1930s featured long gowns, modest heeled shoes, and the new two piece suit. Butterfly sleeves, floral prints, and ruffles shaped 1930s dresses into beautiful and feminine silhouettes"). For a vintage newcomers, this kind of information can be extremely useful in forming a working picture of what sort of elements helped to define the look of a certain decade.

In each category, one clicks on an image from amongst several presented on the same page to learn more about it and is then taken to that listing's respective website. Again, Vintage Dancer does not sell the items they list, but instead helps point you towards the kind of vintage fashions you're on the hunt for.



{A screenshot showing a lovely selection of 1940s style shoes selected for display on Vintage Dancer.}


Though aggregator sites are not new in the fashion world as a whole, they're fairly uncommon in the vintage sphere and Debbie offers a service that is sure to be of help to both vintage newbies (or those looking for a period costume for a party, wedding, prom, or other special event) and seasoned veterans alike. On the hunt for something specific that you just can't seem to find anywhere? Shot Debbie a message and she'll even try to personally help you find that elusive vintage or reproduction piece.

In addition to running Vintage Dancer, Debbie is also the author of multiple e-books devoted to vintage fashion. Including the excellent (I've read it and cannot recommend it highly enough to all those with an interest in the forties) 1940s Style Guide, 1920s Fashion for Your Body Type (which Debbie offers up entirely for free), and most recently The Great Gatsby in Fashion.





The latter is a unique and thoroughly enjoyable take on F. Scott Fitzgerald's classic, in which Debbie guides readers through the (full) original text, injecting throughout the story, 33 insights into the exciting fashions (including styles from the summer of 1922 when this classic American novel was set) and captivating culture that made up this illustrious era, coupled with more than sixty illustrations of men's and women's clothing from that decade.

Vintage Dancer is one of Chronically Vintage's new sponsors this month, and I couldn't be happier to have Debbie and her wonderful vintage website and e-books as part of this blog.

A self professed "vintage history nerd", Debbie and I share a lot in common, including a passion for writing about the past, which really shines through in the blog, e-books, and the helpful snippets of informative knowledge she fills Vintage Dancer with.

As well as those spots, Vintage Dancer can also be found online on the following sites:

-Bloglovin'

-Facebook

-Google Plus

-Pinterest

-Twitter


If you haven't had a chance to do so before (or recently), take a moment and waltz on over Vintage Dancer to see more of the fabulously fun world of vintage fashion and history that Debbie has created with her innovative website, delightful blog, and fabulous e-books.