Vintage Dealers Dish on this Season's Hottest Styles

Breaking down the key trends to look out for -- all pre-loved, of course!

Today, we’re tapping into the pulse of vintage dealers at the Manhattan Vintage Show! I’m Emily Stochl, a vintage & secondhand fashion reporter 🎤 and this is Pre-Loved, an indie media platform with expert perspectives and trend forecasting with a twist.

Every February it’s the Manhattan Vintage Show — not the Autumn/Winter runways — that tell me what’s going to be cool in the year ahead.

If you don’t know, the Manhattan Vintage Show is New York’s largest and most legendary, featuring 90+ dealers whose vintage clothing, jewelry, and accessories span every era and point-of-view.

And Manhattan Vintage has long been a hotspot for fashion industry professionals to source and find design inspiration through vintage. “I just saw a couple of designer friends who turned their heads so fast to snap someone’s outfit pic!” the show’s owner, Amy Abrams, told me on Friday. And, with vintage clothing being more popular than ever, what’s being celebrated in vintage is as much an indicator of fashion’s trends as any runway.

Last weekend, dozens of dealers told Pre-Loved their perspective on what’s hot and happening in vintage fashion, but many offered one caveat along with it: vintage, like personal style, is forever. It’s not about chasing what’s trending. When you look at the community of dealers, collectors and shoppers that visit Manhattan Vintage, you’ll really see it’s about personal style —from 1920s fashions to Y2K, everyone is thriving in their particular niche.

And that’s the beauty of it: all the new variations on silhouettes, colors, designers, and aesthetics we see each season – truly, it can all be found pre-loved. Let’s dive into it!

Bonnets

I love the little knitted bonnets everyone is wearing to look like a cute winter garden gnome, but how about a shearling twist like this one Raquel found at the Highlands Foundry booth? These vintage dealers hail from the Hudson Valley, and I just think this bonnet would be so fitting worn for a cozy weekend upstate.

60s Dresses

Very Breezy Vintage

Take a page out of Ariana Grande’s 1966 archival Givenchy Golden Globes look — the girls are going out in 60s party dresses! Vintage dealer, Very Breezy, specializes in vintage bridal (the gown in this video is so similar to Ariana’s!) and she says she’s seen many a empire waist mini-dress popular this season.

Below the fold: 8 more vintage fashion inspired trends! PS: Vintage dealers, I’m not a tax expert, but you can probably write off a $50 annual subscription to Pre-Loved as a business expense. 😉