FASHION : The Past Wears Well : intage stores specialize in clothes that, for some, never go out of style. Business is booming as the popularity of period dress grows.

At Flaun’s Vintage Clothing in downtown Ventura, not much is new. Customers drift in--some curious and hesitant, others keen on a goal. These last head for the close-packed racks and shelves holding relics from a hundred lives, and wade in.

Terri Gilliard, who has spent her life gathering seasoned treasures, watches from a backdrop of extraordinary hats and magical garments of tulle, gabardine, batiste, satin and fur.

She can tell shoppers which shoes match the era of a gown they choose, the age of anything in the shop within five years--and, should they have time, stories of many of the garments’ original owners.

There are those who don’t understand vintage. Its quaint sentiment, its irresistible pull is lost on them. “These things are all used?” they say delicately from the doorway, and getting a ready affirmation, they duck out.

Vintage people are different. They have a fascination for the past, usually a particular decade, often the one that preceded their birth, Gilliard says. Once they find the look they like, they keep coming back to add to their wardrobe, drawn like lovers to a tryst.

“People who wear vintage don’t ever think, ‘I can’t wear this here’; they just wear it wherever they go,” she said.

Like the nostalgia trend in general, vintage is growing, said John Maxwell, editor of “Vintage!”, the newsletter of Federation of Vintage Fashions published in Alamo, Calif.

“There used to be two to three shows a quarter across the country; now we are having 15,” he said.

Interest, which picked up about seven or eight years ago, is still building, he said, and, “California is hands down the state with our greatest number of members.”

Not all people who buy period clothes have a time-warp mind-set. Some buy just a couple of pieces to mix with contemporary styles.

“They go more for the ‘20s and ‘30s stuff because it looks more like what they’re doing today--the sack things,” said Barbara Bernstein of Rodeo Drive Resale in Thousand Oaks, “But they want to get it for less.”

Finally, there are the very occasional people, who may want to dress for a retro party, or just break their usual pattern on a whim.

At Flaun’s, a young woman who appeared to be about 25 emerged from the dressing room in a gray lace cocktail dress about five years older than herself, and asked Gilliard’s opinion on the fit. She was shopping for a wedding gown, and wanted something--well, different. Told it was just right, she began a concentrated search for hat and gloves.

Young people still go mostly for ‘60s clothes; while those over 25 are starting to lean toward the ‘40s, Gilliard said.

“The most popular look for men is what I call the Ricky Ricardo look--the long (suit) jackets with the rounded pocket, and the Eisenhower jackets.”

The waist-length Eisenhower jackets are especially craved--so much so, that a checked version with a yoke can bring up to $300 in Los Angeles, Gilliard said. Men’s wear is more expensive than women’s because there is less of it around. A man tends to wear his clothes, as she put it, “until they rot off his back.”

Large sizes also cost more, because of their rarity. People have grown considerably larger in the last generation, and bigger sizes in trendy items, such as gabardine shirts and saddle shoes, get snapped up quickly.

Other hot items are old Hawaiian shirts--the sort with the “buttery” rayon that is no longer made--anything Western, especially shirts with piping, the ever-popular poodle skirt, rayon dresses from the ‘40s, and Lucite purses.

“It never really makes any sense what becomes hot or why it becomes hot,” Gilliard said. “If you were to tell people those purses are ugly, they would get real defensive about it.”

One of the purses, looking much like a see-through lunch box, rested on a back counter, marked $120. It would cost $200 in L.A., the shop owner insisted.

For her, this stuff is more than a business. She began collecting used clothes from Ventura’s thrift stores at age 12, and never really stopped.

“I probably have at least 5,000 pieces of clothing,” she said, “This is about one-tenth of it. The fun part is finding it.”

She finds it satisfying to fill customers’ wishes. Not long ago, an older woman became excited over the shop’s small hoard of satin bed jackets such as Gilliard herself used to wear years ago, knotted above blue jeans.

“She told me, ‘I have been to every department store in the tri-counties to find some!’--They virtually don’t make bed jackets any more.”

There was just a touch of awe in the voice. *

Kathleen Williams writes the weekly fashion column for Ventura County Life. Write to her at 5200 Valentine Road, Suite 140, Ventura, 93003, or send faxes to 658-5576.