Raincoat purchased at a military surplus store while visiting relatives in Texas, I think around Christmas of '99.
I have a Minnie Mouse nightshirt I bought as a beach cover-up at Disney World in the mid 1980s. It has been washed and worn so much it is almost sheer. I rotate it through my sleepwear wardrobe–super soft and comforting.
I have a crew (rowing) shirt that I won from an opposing team in 1974. I wear it to reunions and when I’m around my old room-mates, but that’s the only reason it’s survived so long.
Probably the lined flannel that my grandfather used to wear hunting. It’s one of my go-tos for “the house is too cold; put on something”.
Not currently, but when I was 9-13 years old I regularly wore clothing that had belonged to my great grandmother for Halloween [I think I might have a picture of me at like 11 in one of the dresses at my parents house in the big desk, I can look =)] And in my late 20s, until I gained weight, I regularly wore my dad’s issue M43 US Army issue field jacket, complete with name tags and unit patches. I still have it =) I also have a couple other uniforms of his - one was his enlisted uniform from before they sent him to college to get a degree so they could commission him.
Otherwise, I have some random tshirts from the 70s and 80s that get occasional wear but not in regular rotation. mrAru has some Ocean Pacific stuff still =) Well, he also can wear his original boot camp issue 1983 dress blues, damn him!!!
40 year old t-shirt.
I know it’s that old because it has a date on it. Still wear it, but not that often.
I have my dad’s Tech Sergeant’s uniform from WWII. He was extremely near-sighted, so he never saw combat. He was in the Middle East – mostly Iran, but also Iraq. All I knew was that he was in the motorpool and once drove Jack Benny when he was over for an entertain-the-troops gig. He brought back a Russian karakul with a large enameled red star with the hammer and sickle (I still have it, too) badge on it. He said he traded it for his hat with a Russian soldier on a train. I didn’t discover until decades later than he was with a joint American-Soviet team during the war. I always wondered if he didn’t mention it because of the Cold War and post-war anti-Russian feelings.
My senior year of high school someone had some “Class of 1998” t-shirts printed up and sold them to their fellow classmates. I bought one because at the time it seemed really important to have some memento from my high school. Then when I got to college I stopped wearing it pretty quickly because I found it embarrassing to “still” be wearing something from high school, which is probably why it didn’t get worn out. At some point I rediscovered that shirt as an adult, and now old enough be over any sort of embarrassment, decided it would be a shame for that shirt to go to waste, so I added it back into my t-shirt rotation.
Round about 1985 or so, my buddy and I were going to take a trip to New Orleans. Only my car died, so I had to put the money towards getting a new one. He went on without me, but he did bring me back a Neville Brothers tee shirt. I still have it, though it’s a bit tight these days.
I have 6 or 7 flannel shirts I wear as overshirts in the winter. Most are solid colors, two in plaid. I’ve had 'em for at least 30 years, and I can’t seem to wear them out. They’re all from the JCPenney Big & Tall catalogs, which hasn’t existed for a while.
I also have a batch of belt buckles I’ve had a long time. They’ve outlasted belts I had.
I used to be a member of ACT-UP, and I still have my SILENCE = DEATH t-shirt from the early '80s.
When were SDMB t-shirts made? I still have mine.
Well I have a ~110-year-old nice woolen coat that I bought at a vintage store 15 years ago, specifically bought for me because I wanted a warm coat.
Green corduroy waistcoat, handed down to me from my grandad, I’ve worn it since 1987. Don’t know when grandad got it - the lining is some synthetic, so not what I’d call vintage (but vintage clothing stores would)
I’ll have to get one when I drive up there.
I’ve been wanting to drive up there since before I joined SDMB 10 years ago. I really need to do it!
I still have the blue blazer I wore when I got married in 1990, and it was already a couple of years old then; it still looks pretty good.
I’m loving these stories!
Close runners-up to my earlier items: A nightgown that I bought in 1994 - I was nursing my newborn son, and had nothing that buttoned up the front, so I went out and bought one. I think I’ve still got a nightshirt that I bought once when travelling on business - I’d forgotten to pack anything to sleep in so I went to a nearby mall and bought something. That would have been 1991 - so it actually predates that Secret Garden t-shirt.
And a t-shirt from an internet parenting newsgroup - that would be early 1995. I’ll post the message here on the off chance that a fellow parent will stumble across it:
YKYAPW
you're
ROTFL
about the
CTTS
on misc.kids
OTOH, YMMV
I used to regularly wear some of my dad’s old clothes - especially a neat mohair cardigan. But wearing them was really wearing them out. So now the sweater hangs in my closet.
My go-to belt was hs. No idea how old. I had to replace the leather part, but I still have the buckle with his - and my - inits. Wearing it right now.
And I have a REALLY nice pair of his oxblood calfskin shoes which are my go-to dress shoes, for weddings and such.
Of my own, I get a chuckle when I see pics of seeing my eldest in the hospital when she was born 33 years ago - because I’m wearing a flashy Guess outfit my wife bought me. Blue plaid shorts, and a blue and gold paisley shirt. Still fits, and I wear it to a couple of summer parties each year, not not too many, as it needs dry cleaning.
My down-lined leather bomber is probably 30 yrs old and just getting better.
I’m currently wearing a belt I bought from Duluth Trading in 1996. I wear it pretty much every day. (Does a belt count as a garment?)
Wait, I thought of a slightly older one. I have a polo shirt that I’m pretty sure I got around my junior year of high school. It’s looking kind of ratty at this point, but I still wear it on the weekend if I’m just going to be wearing it around the house. And I always marvel at the thought that it’s so old I didn’t actually buy it myself; my mom bought it for me.
It’s worth it just to pull over at the Chandalar Shelf and sit on the tundra looking at the scenery. Also, that 12% grade to get over Atigun Pass is entertaining.