The moment I see an old vintage metal zipper, my insides do a little dance. "Eureka, I have found it!"
Okay, though it's not quite like finding gold (I would beg to differ, though, as do other vintage sellers) to most vintage hunters, it's close.
The zipper could be on the side of a dress (which implies it's from the 1950s or older), or the back of a dress (1960s or older), or it could be on a pair of women’s pants or trousers (circa 1960s and older). Or a thick vintage wool hunting jacket.
Wherever it is, that metal zipper is a little smile and a wink and when I happen across one, it makes my day better.
Metal zippers were the original zipper. The OG, if you will. Invented in the 1850s, it didn't come to worldwide use until the mid-1910s. But when it did, these metal zippers stayed for decades.
There's a great little website called The Steel Zipper that goes over many of the vintage zipper companies so you can see what the zippers looked like. From Scovill, to Talon, or YKK, there were many vintage zippers comapnies.
But then the invention of nylon arrived and everything changed. It's not necessarily a bad thing to have nylon zippers. Not at all.
But it does mean the article of clothing is newer. And as one selling vintage, if I can find the metal zipper, rather than the nylon zipper, it means I'm getting a rare, more valuable piece of clothing.
Which as a vintage seller - and a vintage seller looking for as old of clothing as possible - is why the metal zipper is like an actual spark of joy in our minds.
It's a hit of dopamine, serotonin, and oxytocin all in one.
A couple weeks ago, I found three items with metal zippers in one day. That doesn't happen often anymore. I'm lucky if I source a metal zipper once a week.
And that's a really great week.
But, if you're out looking for vintage clothing and see that metal zipper, you've got yourself a special piece. That vintage zipper is the icing on the vintage cake.
So let us eat cake!
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