Free People Still Enjoys Swindling You

Based on the style of the chain and the gold tone of the hardware, we doubt that the Free People specimen on the left is from the 1930s (as indicated in the description). Were there an image of the interior or some indication of the maker, we could better date the piece, but, of course, neither of those things is provided. Just take their word for it! (Or purchase a similar piece with confidence from Verseau Vintage.)

Back in September, we highlighted some of the many problems with Free People's new 'vintage' collection in the hope that the retail chain would stop bamboozling its customers and start practicing some of the social responsibility associated with its cannibalized 1960s bohemian aesthetic. A quick check of its 'Vintage Loves' selection today, however, reveals that nothing has changed. The company is still price gouging. The company is still incorrectly dating its wares by more than ten years. The company is still trying to pass off obviously contemporary items as vintage. And the company is still offering items that appear to be in non-wearable vintage condition. Given this complete lack of professional oversight and corporate responsibility vis-a-vis the tiny vintage endeavor, we can only imagine what the company's manufacturing practices and policies must look like (NIKE, cough, cough).

Luckily, Vintage Loves doesn't carry anything you can't find in much better condition and for much cheaper from small business owners who probably won't turn around and donate your money to anti-gay Republican U.S. senators like Rick Santorum. (We're just sayin'.)

Need a pair of filthy vintage leather driving gloves? Free People has you covered! (Or you could buy a clean pair for $50 less from Retro Wear Vintage.)

Cute vest! Too bad it has probably been marked up $125 from the actual purchase price. Pick up an equally cute six-button vest from Mychu Vintage for a savings of more than $100!!!! What a STEAL!!!!!!

Another Reason To Hate Free People: Fake, Obscenely Overpriced Vintage

To be perfectly blunt, we've always thought Free People was a particularly pretentious, particularly over-priced clothing chain trading in particularly horrid sweatshop-made fast fashion of the boho ilk, but now we really loathe this store.

Last month, the company rolled out a specialty 'vintage' collection available exclusively online. In addition to being scandalously over-priced, the compilation is peppered with contemporary pieces being passed off as vintage and actual vintage impressively mis-dated despite labels, content tags and other basic clues to the garments' ages. In perhaps the most egregious example (see above) of faux vintage and daft dating, the curator claims that a reproduction gentleman's shirt currently selling for $65 on the maker's website (and $228 on the Free People site) dates to the 19th century! Ooops! And there are two more such shirts available, coincidentally. Ooops again!

And perhaps we're just cranky, but $212 for what may or may not be a mid-century dress with unhemmed sleeves is bananas. (As is the fact that a customer had to ask about fabric content, label, construction and approximate era on a 60s skirt boldly priced at $212.) We appreciate that vintage dating is not a precise art, and we recognize that Free People's price point is going to be higher than other vintage shops by virtue of its higher operating costs, but this vintage collection seems, to us, to rely and prey on the fact that the average Free People shopper is not particularly educated about vintage or the marketplace within which it circulates. Though it's certainly not FP's job to mentor them, it would be nice--and more consistent with the store's hippie 'fantasy' theme--if they didn't totally exploit this knowledge gap, too.