Song Zihang's That Vintage in Chengdu. [Photo Provided to China Daily]

Vintage clothes from the 1920s to 1940s are her personal favorite, and she could talk about them for hours on end, she says.

She loves the 1920s as a modern age when modernization was rapid.

"The stock market thrived, many home appliances became available and a lot of women flooded into cities from the country. They worked, they drank and they smoked, and they hung out in the same places as men."

Many people find clothing from the 1920s, like that in the movie The Great Gatsby, highly attractive, she says.

The 1920s gave women a chance to loosen up, she says. They discard-ed their corsets and even became a bit boyish, and the open, relaxed social environment added to the huge sense of fun.

She is also fascinated by what she regards as the refeminization of clothing in the 1930s, when women's figures were highlighted by the likes of a tight waist and a close-fitting umbrella skirt.

She lauds this shift to minimalism and the move to make clothing tighter fitting in the 1940s. Fabric and other materials were scarce during World War II, and silk and satin, popular in the 1930s, were replaced by mundane materials, and design features such as flouncing all but disappeared.

"With more simple designs and fewer materials available, designers paid a lot of attention to cut. Clothing changed to be very slim, and shoulder pads and false two-piece dresses came out. Clothing was in many cases very much influenced by military uniforms, so the vintage stuff from that era comes across as cool, with a touch of the domineering."

Apart from financial considerations playing a secondary role in the way many vintage shop owners seem to approach their business, the owners differ from orthodox retailers who will generally want a big, bold logo that shouts for attention.