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Taking place five times per year in California, the ninety booths of the Original Vintage Fashion Exposition were brimming with period silhouettes that haven’t seen the light of a designer’s studio in decades. Lost in the clutter of Santa Monica Civic Auditorium were Edwardian hats with floral arrangements that put bouquets to shame, drapey crocheted tops in wacky colors worn by carefree girls of the 70s, and chic 60s cocktail dresses with construction so faultless the piece will last another half-century, and maybe be shown at a similar Expo of the future.

Scott Iseyama, co-owner of Allyn Scura Eyewear, a vintage eyewear seller on Shopflick, was overseeing a small but impressive selection of the company’s stock of over 50,000 unused vintage and antique eyeglasses from the 18th century to the 80s. He was wearing the best-selling “Legend” frame in gray fade from Allyn Scura’s own line of eyewear.

Over the twenty years that the Expo has been in existence, the market for vintage has grown exponentially. It’s hard to resist the notion that interest in the typically better tailored and recognizable fashions of the past is connected to the rising mass production of clothing since, not coincidentally, the Expo was founded. Recently, this upward arc has been augmented by the vintage movement’s natural union with the eco-conscious ethic of reusing and recycling.

The reasons for becoming not just a lover of clothing, but a collector with a heightened degree of appreciation for the evolution of fashion, are varied. It could be an intellectual thirst to undercover the intersection between fashion and history, for example how the previously decadent hats of the 1930s evolved into lightweight but pretty caps during the next decade’s wartime shortage of resources. Or it could be professional curiosity: the customers are often designers themselves. Most commonly, it’s just a unique way to make a personal fashion statement.

The first step towards a lively and rewarding love of vintage is debunking that erroneous belief that old means smelly and washed-up. Good thing that’s easy, because whatever else the Expo does for newcomers, it proves vintage fashion is anything but. Try not to mind the wait: the next one takes place in late March.