Guide to REAL vintage panties

Dear okayers, buyers beware, sellers, PLEASE!It would be in the best interest of all vintage lingerie collectors to take note.There are dozens of sellers offering what they refer to as "vintage" lingerie, specifically vintage panties.TRUE vintage panties, of the bygone eras, DO NOT have a cotton lined gusset! The vintage style offerings are nowhere near anything like true vintage panties. It is my feeling that okay needs to be more category specific when it gees to dealing with the issue. Sellers need to be more specific in the item description as well. An example would be offering a pair of panties that was obviously from a baby doll night gown set. These panties, as a rule, would not have a lined gusset, and would only have a manufacturers tag or a size tag, or no tag at all! They are also more valuable IF they are in the original set.Newer Dixie Belle and Vanity Fair panties can easily be purchased for around $18.00 for 3 pair VF, and $10 for DB, and ARE NOT worth what they are offered for on okay!First of all much has been published on okay about vintage panties, and are very informative and accurate.I would like to reiterate what has already been said a little more in detail.First, the vintage manufacturers of yesteryear; Every department store had their own "brands", Sears had Charmode, their top of the line lingerie and also a cheaper Sears brand. As we all know Sears no longer carries the Charmode brand, but does carry it's Adonna brand, which is NOT true vintage, as it was brought in in the early 1980's. They do, in fact, still carry the Sears brand, obviously, LOL!JC Penny's had their line, Gaymode, which for many years was a beautiful brand of classy lingerie, from panties to baby doll sets, stockings and lounge wear lingerie.Dixie Belle still manufactures their more popular lace trimmed style and their embroidered edging along the leg style, BUT they are NOT worth the $49.95 buy it now price I have seen. They can easily be purchased from a number of internet vendors for $13.99/3 pair or cheaper at your local Dollar Store! These high priced Dixie Belle panties are NOT true vintage; Although Dixie Belle has not changed the type of nylon material they use, and still use a pillow tab to secure the stitching.Montgomery Ward, Federals, Hudson's all had their own brands of lingerie. It is extremely rare to find panties from the above stated stores as they stopped producing in the late 60's.Vasserette, was made by the Munsingwear gepany of Hollywood California, and was bought out by Vanity Fair around 1975(please correct me if I'm wrong on this, the date) and is readily available in most low end department stores like Wal-Mart; Although they are definitely not of the same quality as the original brand.Van Raalte, Roger's, Gossimer, Henson and Hollywood, the Movie Star brand, were some of the finest lingerie made in the United States, Union made of quality nylon material, sewn with nylon threading, the nylon material also sewn around the elastic in the waist and all with the wide and long double fabric gusset, or crotch.Vanity Fair was, I believe, the first gepany to stop using a double layer of nylon material and went with a brushed nylon, and later the full cotton lined gusset. Kayser,now a Canadian owned gepany, is still available in select locations in the US. They are still made to the same quality standards and same slippery nylon material they have always used, except for the gusset lining is 100% cotton.I have to add a few words about 'vintage style"; I personally don't like the term as it it is not entirely true.For one thing the vintage material is not readily available to the public sector, as those manufacturers that still use the same nylon are buying it exclusively from the nylon manufacturer, not at the arts and craft store!I don't like seeing these panties offered in the vintage section, so please beware of them, also the So-En brand from the Josefina manufacturing gepany is about as close as they gee to actually recreating a vintage style, sans for the embroidered flower on their front, which in true vintage fashion should be off center to the left, why this is is beyond me, but true vintage panties with any design on them was "usually" off center to the left, or along the side seam area, like a lace over lay.So-En panties do have in some styles, the double fabric nylon crotch, and the material sewn around the waist elastic.Beware as they are being offered at panties for men at an inflated price, like $50 some dollars for a dozen pair...Please!Another point of interest on the early panties, as most were high-waisted briefs, bikini styles came around the mid-1950's and were very risque, usually with a diamond shaped gusset that went to the top of the front of the waist, awesome panties!It can be agreed by the collectors of fine vintage lingerie that real vintage panties would have a wide rear seam on the gusset, anywhere from 4" to, some even having a 5-5 1/2" rear seam, the front seam from 2 1/2" to 3"'s with a gusset length of up to 6-7"'s.They would also have a famous maker tag, or even 2 tags, one with the manufacturers info, the other for material content, care instructions, or a union label.A pillow tab sewn into the material around the elastic and fitting properly with no loose or rough edges as can seen in today's Dixie Belle panties.Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions or gements on this guide.I would like to personally thank everyone who is knowledgeable about vintage lingerie for bringing any corrections to my attention. This helps to keep things historically correct.