Sue NightingaleA Dandy Guide to Dating Vintage Menswear: WW1 Through the 1960s

I came to Amazon today to see if Sue Nightingale had written any other books. I bought this one a few weeks ago and was so impressed with it, I wanted to see if she had written any others. My bookshelves are filled with various vintage guide books on women's clothing, jewelry, handbags, shoes, and such, and this book tops them all. And it isn't just confined to menswear...her dating tips based on Trademark searches, Union labels, RN numbers, label styles, & wording are also applicable to women's vintage clothing & more.I wasn't planning on writing a review, but then I saw the recent one-star review someone else wrote...where she talked about how much great information is in this book but then gave it only one star for such a silly reason as the author wrote "men's wear" instead of menswear. Good grief! To give the absolute worst rating for something like that when this book has so much hard-to-find information seems super nit-picky to me, so I'm going to counter that with my review. I think the author deserves a much higher rating than that for this wonderful resource guide she's put together for us.I've bought and sold vintage clothing & accessories for almost 20 years now but until recently only dealt in women's clothing. One of my international wholesale customers asked me to look for men's vintage clothing for her shop, so I've been trying to better educate myself on the subject. I had already learned quite a bit from looking through my old magazines, studying men's clothing in old movies, & reading countless message boards over at Fedora Lounge. I only wish I would have found this book sooner because I would have saved myself a lot of time! Dating men's vintage can be a bit tricky because, by and large, men's styles over the decades haven't had as many definitively different looks as women's clothing has; however, there are certain clues such as lapel style, button stance, construction details, and many others that aid in pinpointing the date. This book has a staggering amount of information, but it's all nicely organized and indexed with lots of vintage advertisements and photos that make it really easy to understand. There are numerous charts on such topics as fabrics and when they were invented, various men's clothing brands & the years they were in production, lists of countries and when they began exporting to the US, and so much more. The author doesn't just show us pictures of clothing and tell us when it was from, she teaches us how to date it ourselves. Even something so seemingly simple as the wording on a tag (for example, a label that says "all wool" vs. "100% wool") can be an invaluable identifying factor. I'm completely impressed by how concise and informative this book is, and it's really beautiful too with glossy, colorful pages cram-packed with pictures. Now that I think of it, the one-star reviewer is probably a bit chagrined this book is as good as it is...after all, she owns a men's vintage clothing store and likely thinks this will be bad for business since anyone who reads it should be able to easily scout out their own vintage goods. Some of us though, aren't in it for the money -- we do this for the love of vintage, and I know I'm going to have a lot of fun applying the history lessons I've learned from this.

Ordinarily I wouldn't bother with an Amazon request to review anything. However, this book is so full of valuable information for anyone interested in vintage clothing, that I wanted to share the experience. First saw a review of the book in a free antique magazine and decided to spring for the cost of a new copy, and glad I did.The book is well organized with the first part covering labels and union tags in quite some depth. The author also provides a formula of sorts to determine a date range from RN numbers and series numbers. Sue Nightingale goes on to cover everything, including hats, shoes and zippers. Very complete.If vintage clothing is your hobby or business, this book belongs on your shelf.

Thank you, thank you, Sue! I entered the vintage menswear selling business several years ago and don't know how I ever got along without this wonderful resource! (I probably know a good bit more than your average vintage customer but still consider my knowledge pretty amateur for a vintage dealer.) I learned enough dating tips in the first few pages I browsed to be worth the entire cost of the book! My gratitude is magnified by how few resources there are for menswear in particular.

Finally received my book - ordered Jan 26, supposedly shipped on Jan 27, was supposed to arrive by Feb 15, which is almost 3 weeks shipping time, but it didn't arrive until Feb 21 (nearly a full month after I ordered).The book itself is great - just what I was expecting from the description. If it had arrived on time, I would have given it 5 stars.

Having used the author's helpful Ebay guides to date vintage mens' clothing, I bought the book in advance. With sections such as "Trademarks," "Union Labels," and "WPL & RN Numbers," she provides what is easily the best book on the subject. There are numerous other chapters devoted to types of mens' clothing, including separate chapters on topics such as shoes and robes. There's even a chapter on Fasteners. Where else are you going to find this kind of well-researched information?Highly recommended!

I was thrilled to receive this book for Christmas. I own a vintage menswear shop and have never seen such a comprehensive book on the subject. However, I spent several weeks trying to read it, to no avail. Despite being well-researched, the book is so poorly written it's impossible to wade through. It's filled with incorrectly spelled words ('course' for 'coarse' and the painfully embarrassing 'men's wear' for 'menswear'), but the sentence structure, paragraph structure, and grammar are so bad that it took me several tries just to get through a paragraph. It was just too hard trying to figure out what the author was trying to say. Things are referenced in one paragraph and then explained paragraphs later, there are paragraphs of unrelated (and poorly written) facts, and the organization of the photos in relation to their captions is nonsensical. There is so much information in this book that it's heartbreaking to find that it's practically written in code. Get it if you must (books on menswear are unicorns) but beware that three pages in you will probably be wishing you had used your hard earned $35 on something legible. If the author was going to spend this much time compiling it, and expect her audience to pay an outrageous $50 (thank god it's cheaper on Amazon) I don't know why she decided not to have someone edit it. Or at least read it first. It's obvious that she isn't an author and that's fine, but there is a huge difference between overly factual or in need of a another edit, and just plain illegible.

not as thorough as I would have liked.

This is a super book - I wish I'd found it earlier. Not just styles, but a practical guide to dating through labels and registry numbers.It brings a whole new dimension to this fairly neglected corner of fashion history.

Très intéressant pour dater certains s produits vintage , clarté des textes accompagnant les photos , belle mise en page !

Brilliant product and delivery.

Very informative, good pictures! Gives a good insight in the history of menswear, usefull guide for anyone interested in vintage clothing

Fantastic book! I buy ,and wear vintage clothing and it's great to have a book like this guide you through what's vintage and what's not. This is basically an illustrative guide to shopping for vintage. This is a must for all who are interested in vintage clothing and what to look for when you are searching through a mass of clothing, and finding that treasure! You actually feel like a detective by the time you finish this book and go out shopping! Worth every penny of it!