Vintage Compass Fashion Trends
Most people who spend any time thinking about a vintage compass come up with a pretty reliable image – they see the old-fashioned compass so familiar to most of it. You flip the top to see a narrow magnetic needle that shifts as you move about, letting you know the direction towards which you head.
That makes a lot of sense, actually. These days, vintage compasses have become quite popular as GPS units have made them altogether unnecessary. If you’ve got a compass, it’s probably considered an antique!
Still, for all the people who can conjure up the proper image of an old-fashioned compass, how many are aware that those compasses are the center of a genuine fashion trend? It’s true. Vintage compass fashion has literally become a craze. You can find examples in jewelry or clothing or even shoes.
Not many people know this!
One of the more interesting elements of the upswing in vintage compass jewelry and vintage compass clothing is the simple fact that its increased popularity comes as the compass itself is in decline. It is as if the compass’s declining popularity has made it more attractive to consumers. In other words, the up trend is driven in part by the down trend.
However, the issue may not be as simple as what trend is driving what. Rather, we can look at vintage compass fashion as if it is paying respect to what is, in the end, a powerful and important tool.
Think on it for a moment. If we had never developed a compass, then we would never have figured out how to cross the ocean – let alone find our way to the moon or beyond. And that’s not just about staying alive in unfamiliar territory, either. It was really about opening up lines of communication between various cultures.
For many of us, using an old compass to orient ourselves and find our way through an old forest or along an old road is still a vastly more enjoyable experience than simply peering into a GPS unit. That’s not to say technology has no place – of course it does. But vintage compasses are simple and the technology is understandable to lay people. There’s something to be said for that.
No doubt more and more old compasses are going to be sold at auctions or simply lost to time. That’s just going to happen. But as it does, we have vintage compass fashion all around us – the necklaces and bracelets, the sweatshirts and hats – to remind us of how important those old tools once were.
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